Page 121 of The Advocate’s Ultimatum

“Why not?”

“Because the case was already coalescing around Hayes. By then, every hour I spent chasing Rochelle was an hour Sabre couldn’t bill and the court wouldn’t understand.”

Sabre cut in. “What else do you remember?”

Rourke glanced at her, then gave her a quick smile. “There was a lead I never liked losing.”

Sabre leaned forward. “What kind of lead?”

“Shortly after Hannah disappeared, a woman in Oceanside called me and said she’d seen a little girl at an apartment pool who reminded her of Hannah.”

Sabre frowned. “Why did she call you?”

“I’d put my number on her missing-child flyers.”

JP nodded. “What made her think it was Hannah?”

“Her age. Hair. Mannerisms. She said the girl kept rubbing her left wrist when she got nervous.”

Sabre felt a chill. “I don’t remember that being in the reports.”

“It wasn’t. That’s why I was so interested. But by the time I got there, the family was gone.”

“Did you speak to anyone at the complex?” JP asked.

“The manager. He rented month-to-month. Cash only. He said there was a man in his late thirties or early forties who had two girls. One was older than the one who looked like Hannah.”

Sabre’s gut clenched. “Two girls and a boy?”

Rourke nodded. “That’s what the manager said.”

“Did you tell law enforcement?” A slight edge in JP’s voice.

“I passed the info to a detective, but he treated it like another crank sighting.” Rourke gave a small shrug. “I don’t know if it ever made paper.”

“Did you get a name?” JP asked.

“Danny Price, likely fake.”

Rourke reached into his coat pocket and produced a folded sheet of paper. “I drove by the complex after meeting JP. The ownership had changed, and the old management company had been dissolved.”

He slid the paper toward the middle containing the manager’s name and address, as well as the woman who reported it. “Here’s the info you’ll need. Maybe you’ll have better luck.”

JP looked the document over before handing it to Sabre.

Rourke continued. “The woman who called said the younger girl never spoke. The older one answered for both.”

Sabre looked up sharply. “How much older?”

“A year, maybe.”

Bay and Hannah would have been close in age, Sabre thought.

“If the sighting was real, Hannah wasn’t alone,” Rourke said.

“And if she wasn’t alone,” JP said quietly, “then someone had already started collecting children.”

A moment of quiet as they processed the implications.