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Kal watched us approach, his expression stoic. He wasn’t wearing sunglasses, and I could see his handsome brown eyes perfectly clearly. “Just doing my job,” he replied.
“Your job is to follow us around?” I asked.
He didn’t answer that. “According to my information, you two live in Ann Arbor. Yet you’re not going in the direction of Ann Arbor. Can you tell me where you’re going?”
“Midland,” Eddie said. There was no point not telling Kal; he would know soon enough if he followed us.
“Okay. And what is so important in Midland?”
Eddie’s tone was matter-of-fact. “We’re looking for the Lost Girl. We have a lead.”
Kal’s expression went slack with shock. “What are you talking about? That case from ’76? The unidentified girl?”
Unidentified girl. I thought of all the times I’d seen her—in the back of Max Shandler’s truck; screaming for help at our passenger window, pulling my husband across the front seat; in the back seat of Trish’s car. I might not be sure of her name yet, but she didn’t feel unidentified to me.
“We have some information,” Eddie said. “We’re checking it out.”
“You have information, and you didn’t pass it to the police?” Kal looked from Eddie to me and back. “You didn’t pass it to me?” When we didn’t answer, he said, “Where did you come across this so-called information?”
The Snell sisters had gone to lengths to stay secret, so I said, “We’re not going to tell you that.”
Kal’s expression turned grim. “And what is this tip?”
“We’re not going to tell you that, either.” Eddie was firm. “You can follow us and waste your time if you want. Can we get back into our car now?”
Kal looked between us again and shook his head. “I don’t get it. I thought for sure that when I picked you two up this morning, I’d see you go home. That’s what I was doing—making sure you went back to Ann Arbor, so I could tell my superiors that you were gone for good. You could walk away from this mess if you wanted, and we wouldn’t be able to stop you. Both of you know that. So why? Why are you doing this instead of going back to your lives? What are you looking for?”
“We got a visit from Quentin and Beam last night,” Eddie said. “Quentin has spent a lot of time and energy looking into both me and my wife. He’s even had the phone line from Rose’s place monitored somehow. He’s gone to a lot of trouble. Why do you think that is?”
Kal didn’t answer. He looked frustrated.
“I was on leave from Fort Custer the day Katharine O’Connor was killed,” Eddie went on. “From what I remember, I checked into a cheap hotel, ordered room service, watched TV, and slept for three days because I didn’t want to go home to my parents. It’s pathetic, but it’s true. Quentin thinks that makes me a murder suspect. I know I didn’t murder any of those people, and neither did my wife.”
“Because you know who did?” Kal asked. “Or you think you do. You think you’ve solved these cases that have been happening for nineteen years.” He sighed. “Please don’t tell me you think Quentin is a serial killer. We’ve had that tip called in more than once, always anonymous. It sounds like a great theory if you’re an armchair detective, but I can assure you, it’s bullshit.”
“If we thought Quentin was the killer, why would we go to Midland?” I asked.
Kal looked frustrated again. “Goddamn it. You’re not going to tell me anything, are you?”
“No,” Eddie replied.
“And you’re not going to turn around, or change course for Ann Arbor.”
“No,” I said.
Kal pressed his lips together. Then he moved away from our car. “Fine. I guess I’ll see you in Midland.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Kal was as good as his word. As Eddie and I drove through Midland, looking for the address Beatrice Snell had left us, he followed politely in his cruiser. Eddie shook his head as I studied the map in my lap.
“Turn left up here,” I said.
“What should we do with him?” Eddie asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe it isn’t the worst thing in the world to have a little help.”
“He’ll never believe us.”
