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"It's part of the job," I said as I locked the equipment closet.
"They get worse? I'll take care of them. Got lots of woods. Never find the bodies."
When I pulled into the liquor store parking lot, Jack mumbled something about grabbing a newspaper and hanging out in the diner. I could find him there when I was done.
Tess was unloading stock. At seventeen, she was too young to work at the liquor store, but, since she wasn't at the till, potentially selling to her underage friends, no one complained.
The moment she saw me, she disappeared out the back door. I bought a token bottle of wine and followed her.
Tess hovered at the building corner, waiting. She waved me behind the building.
"What have you found out?" she asked.
"Nothing yet."
Those two words snuffed out the light in her eyes. "Oh, I thought maybe..." She shrugged and let the sentence drift off.
"I'm still looking. I'm thinking maybe she did go visit that photographer in Toronto."
Tess's chin jerked up, eyes glowing again. Guilt shot through me. It was wrong to let her think her friend was still alive, but I didn't have a choice.
"Did she know this photographer's name?" I asked. "Or the name of the company he worked for?"
"No, but she said he worked in Toronto and..." Tess paused. "Maybe you should take notes."
"Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry." I patted my pockets. In my business, you learn not to write anything down. I gave a wry smile. "Guess I'm not too prepared. Do you have -?"
Before I could finish, Tess darted through the rear door. A moment later she emerged, pencil and paper in hand.
"Okay. So he was from Toronto. He worked for a modeling agency that specializes in kids. For advertisements, she said. TV and magazines. She said he looked like a photographer. Like the guys in the AV club at school."
"A geek"
"Right. She didn't say anything specific, though. Oh, except that he didn't wear glasses. Like a grown-up AV guy, but without glasses. All the guys in our AV club wear glasses."
With each new bit of information, Tess grew more animated, excited to finally be able to help. As another pang of guilt shot through me, I told myself I was helping Sammi. Just not in the way Tess expected.
"She said he took a bunch of pictures of Destiny, plus two shots of Sammi holding her." Tess looked up at me. "Do you think that's important?"
"It might be. Everything you can tell me might be."
"He said Destiny was a beautiful baby. Just like her mom. I remember that because I asked Sammi if she thought he was hitting on her. She said no way, he was - oh, right, I forgot this. It might help. She said he was at least thirty. Old." Tess glanced at me and colored. "Uh, you know, old for her. Not, like, old in general."
"Trust me, some days, over thirty feels very old."
"That might help, right? An age? She said he didn't seem interested in her at all. I thought that was weird. Guys are always checking Sammi out. Even the old - older ones."
"So he didn't check her out? Or Sammi just didn't notice?"
"Oh, Sammi always noticed. But this guy was only interested in Destiny and he was all business, not even sneaking a look down Sammi's top when she leaned over. I guess that was good, huh? Not some pervert with a camera."
"Probably not."
Tess nibbled at a hangnail, then shook her head. "That's it. That's all she said. Just that one short conver sation."
"It gives me a place to start," I said. "You have a good memory."
"Yeah? Well, if it helps..." She went quiet, the momentary excitement draining away. "You think she's okay?"
