The moment Elissa finished speaking, she saw a brutal edge sh across Frank’s face. His eyes narrowed, every line of his jaw taut with


    suppressed violence.


    He stared her down, voice low and hard. “You’re certain–you’re not mistaken?”


    Elissa had never seen him look at her like that. Instinctively, she shrank back until her shoulders pressed against the car door.


    “I’m sure. Absolutely.”


    The hand Frank nted on the door tightened, knuckles whitening as the veins stood out.


    He fought to keep his temper in check. “Then… do you and this friend of yours still keep in touch?”


    He didn’t really expect much. After three years of marriage–and knowing Elissa even longer–he’d practically never seen her with any friends her own age besides Tanya Foster.


    But Tanya was a Vistapeak City native.


    Elissa couldn’t figure out what he was getting at, so she just said, “No, we’ve lost contact.”


    She tugged on the car door. “I have things to do. Let me out, please.”


    “…Fine.”


    Frank slowly released his grip. He waited until her car disappeared down the street before his face darkened. Pulling out his phone, he dialed a number.


    “Bernard, get me the records from Pine Hill Orphanage for that year.”


    “All of them?” Bernard sounded surprised.


    Frank’s gaze sharpened. “Just the children who were about a year older or


    10.44 808


    younger than Marcia.”


    “Sir, I’m already working on that,” Bernard replied. “I’vebed through the orphanage records from back then; there weren’t many kids close to Ms. Carson’s age. Even fewer who fit the criteria you gave me. But there was one little girl who matches–local to Cresthaven, five years old. Before the police brought her to the orphanage, she lived near Mooke Park…”


    Frank cut him off. “Mooke Park?”


    “Yes, that’s right.” Bernard hesitated, then continued, “But her situation was unusual. I found out through some contacts that she was the orphaned child of narcotics officers–both parents killed in the line of duty. When she was brought to the orphanage, the police changed her namepletely to protect her from possible retaliation by criminal gangs. There’s no trace of her original name anywhere.”


    Frank felt a vein throb at his temple. “Where is she now?”


    “No idea yet,” Bernard admitted. “She was adopted just two months after arriving. I tried to follow the trail based on the adoptive family’s info, but I’ve hit a dead end.”


    Frank’s frustration boiled over. He mmed his fist into the side of the car, leaving a dent.


    Bernard’s voice was stilling through the phone, but Frank’s mind had drifted far from the conversation.


    Twenty years ago, he’d been ten, visiting his grandfather’s house in Cresthaven with his parents for New Year’s.


    But snow had made the roads slick, and just outside Mooke Park, a


    truck skidded across the center line, crushing the driver’s side of their


    car.


    His father died instantly. His mother was left unconscious. Frank, banged up in the back seat, was terrified and helpless–until a little girl tugged a policeman by the hand and ran over.


    10:44


    “Daddy, Daddy, please help this boy…”


    The officer pulled Frank out first, then called for backup.


    Frank sat on the curb, numb, watching as they hauled his father’s body from the wreckage. The same small hands that had tugged the officer over now gently covered his eyes.


    “It’s okay,” she whispered. “Don’t be scared.”


    Later, while his mother recovered in the hospital, the girl and her father visited them several times. Thest time Frank saw her was the day his mother was transferred back to Vistapeak City.


    The little girl cried her heart out, chubby hands wiping at her tears as she tried to act brave. “You have toe find Little Nine and y with me, okay? Promise!”


    How could he forget?


    Frank mmed his fist onto the car again, eyes burning.


    If Marcia isn’t her…


    He couldn’t bear to finish the thought, couldn’t imagine what he might do.


    His fist clenched so tightly his knuckles cracked, and just then, the sharp click of heels echoed behind him.


    Marcia, mind still reeling from what Elissa had told her, forced a calm she didn’t feel as she walked up quietly. She poked Frank’s back and gave a half–hearted little huff. “Well, look at that. Haven’t picked me up from work in ages. You’re really pulling out all the stops today.”