One side of his mouth quirked up. Khan was still wriggling around his legs. Travis reached down to pat his head. “You must’ve read my mind.”
“Yeah, that’s me, the psychic.” She led him into the kitchen, plucking mismatched mugs from a cupboard as Khan, glad for company, bounded ahead to survey his empty food dish. She picked up the glass carafe and poured the first cup. “I don’t think I have any cream or sugar. At least that’s what I ‘sense.’”
He chuckled as he set his shaded glasses on the counter. She found herself staring into eyes as blue as a June sky.
“Black’s fine.”
“Good.” Noticing that her hands had begun to sweat, she managed to pour a second cup without spilling and hand him the larger of the mugs. “So have you heard anything new?”
“About Dani?” His smile fell away. The lines of worry that had been momentarily erased returned as deep grooves near his mouth and eyes. “Not a word.” He tested his coffee before taking a long swallow and meeting the questions in her eyes. “Well, that’s not exactly true. I’ve talked to the Feds and the locals down here as well as the authorities in Oregon.” Frowning into his cup, he shook his head. “But as for anything concrete or new in the case? No. Nothing.”
Her heart sank. Even though she’d expected his answer, a small part of her had wished to hear something, any little sliver of hope that might convince her that Dani was alive. Instead she witnessed a deepening sense of despair in Travis’s features. Beneath his facade of rugged determination lay both devastation and guilt.
“You’ll find her,” she said, though she wasn’t sure she believed her own words. She just felt that if anyone could locate his daughter, it would be this hard-driven, no-nonsense man with the blade-thin lips, hard jaw and coiled tension evident in the cords of his neck and the way his right hand fisted nervously.
“More ESP?” he asked, raising an eyebrow as he took a long drink and settled both hips against the lower cupboards.
“More like faith.”
He snorted. “I could use a tankful of that right about now.” Then, as if he’d heard the defeat in his voice, added, “But you’re right. I’ll find her.” He hesitated, looked her straight in the eyes and added with conviction, “Or I’ll die trying.”
She believed him. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Amen.”
“Have you talked to the police about Mary Beth?”
“Well, since I’ve been in California, it’s more like they talk to me, but, yeah, I had a conversation with a couple of arson dicks this morning.”
“Janowitz and Rossi,” she guessed. “They interviewed me at the hospital.”
“So you haven’t met Paterno yet?”
She shook her head.
“You will. I had the pleasure this morning. Paterno’s a homicide detective. Since your sister-in-law was killed, this is his baby now and he believes that everything, including the fires and Dani’s abduction, is linked.”
Her stomach clenched. “Do they know how?”
He lifted one shoulder. “My guess is they’ll start looking at you. You’re the obvious connection.”
She’d been lifting the mug to her lips again, but her hand stopped its upward movement in midair. “I don’t know what happened to her.”
“Then we’ll have to figure it out, won’t we?” His gaze lost its hard edge and for the first time since meeting him, she felt that they had a chance of being on the same side.
“Yeah,” she said, “we’ll have to try real hard.”
“Then let’s get to it. We’ll start with your dogs.” He finished the rest of his coffee in one swallow and she left the remains of hers on the counter.
Outside the day was already sweltering, the barest of breezes rustling through the dry leaves still clinging to the branches, shafts of sunlight dappling the ground. What was left of the shed scarred the landscape, the blackened rubble having dried out with the heat of the last few days, one end of the yellow crime scene tape catching in the breeze to wave tiredly.
Travis surveyed the grounds. “You know, whoever set that fire could have done it just as easily in the kennels, or the stable or your house.”
“I know. I’ve thought of that. The animals would have put up some kind of noise, though.”
“My guess is that he would have found a way around that. He managed to skulk around here without much trouble.”
“Like you.”