Cole let out a small breath.
“We had a Secret Journal Club. We wrote down our secrets in journals and put them in a hiding place.” Then she turned to her mother and said urgently, “We didn’t even tell each other what was in them. We were supposed to keep it secret till we died or got married.”
“Cole, where are they? The journals. We need to see Kylie’s,” said Cap.
Cole turned to him with heavy eyes and pointed out the picture window.
They all followed her through the kitchen gleaming with appliances and clean countertops, through the back door, across a small paved patio, and into a backyard with short green grass and a cluster of four trees at the rear of the property, overlooking a thin creek.
Cole started running then, toward the trees, her mother behind her. Cap and Vega stayed on the patio, next to the grill island made of stucco and stainless steel.
“It’s in the tree,” said Vega.
“Huh,” said Cap.
They watched as Cole kneeled, reached into a hollow in the second tree from the left, and pulled two spiral notebooks out. Mrs. Linsom said something to her that Cap couldn’t make out. Cole’s face dropped, and Mrs. Linsom pulled her back to where Cap and Vega stood.
“Go ahead,” said Mrs. Linsom.
“This is Kylie’s,” she said, and she handed Cap the notebook with the baby-blue cover. It had three heart-shaped stickers at the top and frayed edges.
“And what else?” said Mrs. Linsom.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell sooner,” she said, and her lips started to turn down.
Cap squatted a bit so he could look her in the eye.
“Don’t be sorry. You just helped Kylie a lot. Thank you.”
“Do you need mine too?” Cole said, holding out the other notebook, with a pink cover.
“You can keep that one secret, what do you say?”
Cole smiled, held the notebook to her chest, and left, walked toward the house.
“I’m so sorry,” said Mrs. Linsom, looking at both of them. “I had no idea. The police just asked general things—if Kylie had said anything to her about running away, things like that.”
“She didn’t do anything wrong, Mrs. Linsom. She didn’t know we would want to know. And there might not be anything in here, but we have to take a look.”
Mrs. Linsom nodded and then something caught her attention from the front of the house, and her smile dissipated.
“Daddy’s home for lunch!” Cole yelled from inside, more alarmed than happy.
“Oh,” said Mrs. Linsom. “My husband. Excuse me.”
She hurried inside. Cap turned to look at Vega, raised his eyebrows. She gave a small shrug, nodded toward the house. They went.
Cap saw Mrs. Linsom talking in a hushed voice to a tall man in a white shirt and tie, suit jacket over his arm, laptop bag in the other. His face was tense, turning red under blond eyebrows and thinning straw-colored hair.
Mr. Linsom turned and saw Cap, put on a businessman smile, and went to meet him, hand extended.
“Press Linsom,” he said, confident.
“Max Caplan,” said Cap. “This is my partner, Alice Vega.”
They all shook hands, and Press Linsom stood back and put his hands on his hips. Mrs. Linsom stood behind him, shrinking before Cap’s eyes.
“You want to tell me what this is about?” he said.
“We, Ms. Vega and I, we’ve been hired by the Brandt family to find Jamie’s daughters. Cole and Mrs. Linsom just helped us a great deal by helping us find this.”
“Uh-huh,” said Press, skeptical.
I know this guy, Cap thought. Met him a hundred times. These little pissing contests are the highlight of his day.
“So you’re not with the police?”
“No, sir. We’re private investigators.”
“And what makes you think I’ll just let you take an item from my property?” he said, stepping forward.
“Press, Jamie Brandt called me herself. She sent them here,” said Mrs. Linsom quietly.
Linsom turned his head to the side and held his hand up to her. She stepped back. Cap had a feeling she was familiar with that side of his hand.
Cap smiled, scratched his chin, and turned around to Vega. She kept a straight face.
“I’d think you’d want to assist in finding these two girls, being a father yourself and all,” said Cap.
Small parts of Linsom’s face reacted—the corner of the mouth, the tip of the nose twitching as if he were smelling something.
“Max Caplan,” he said. “Why is that name familiar to me?”
Cap glanced away, felt caught and couldn’t help it.
“Have we met before?”
“I don’t believe so,” Cap said. “I used to be with the police.”
Now Linsom smiled, victorious.
“I know who you are. I’ve done business with Kit Samuels. You’re the one who let his boy die.”
Cap shut his eyes for only a second, forced himself to open them, and wished a lot of things: for a beer, to be at his kitchen table with Nell, to go back in time and go to law school, to have supervised Em that goddamn night to make sure he was doing his job, to have checked that junkie kid’s pulse himself.
“Why’d you let them in?” Linsom said, turning to his wife. “The police fired this guy for incompetence.”
“He resigned, actually,” said Vega.
Everyone looked at her.
“Splitting hairs, sweetie,” said Linsom. “I want you both out of my house now, and I want that book. I’m sure the police would be interested in its contents. Qualified professionals.”
“You heard your wife, sir,” said Cap. “Jamie Brandt asked us to come here and talk to Cole. We’re bringing this book to her.”
Linsom tossed his suit jacket on a counter and held his hands out.
“You’re not bringing it anywhere, Caplan. Caplan, right? What kind of name is that anyway, Jewish?”
And a Jew-hater too, thought Cap. This guy is a winner across the board.
“Yes, it is,” said Cap.
Linsom took another step. He had a good six inches on Cap. He could smell the coffee on Linsom’s breath.
“True what they say, about sex through the sheet and everything?” Linsom said, smirking.
“All true,” said Cap. “It’s surprisingly effective.”
They were locked there for a moment, and then Cap could sense, not really hear, but feel Vega stirring behind him. Then she was next to him, both of them facing up to Linsom.
“Look, we don’t want any trouble,” she said.
Her voice was high suddenly, youthful.
“Oh yeah?” said Linsom. “Then you shouldn’t have come here.”
“We’re working with the police. Captain Hollows knows all about it,” she said. Then she looked back and forth to Mrs. Linsom and Cap nervously. “Do you really think Jamie Brandt would trust us otherwise? If we bring this to them…”
She stepped closer to Linsom, gazed up at him. Cap tried not to smile.
“Well, it’ll look really good for us.” She shook her head, humble. “You can, uh, check out my credentials, I have a business card somewhere.”
She patted herself down, fingers going in and out of pockets. She turned around to Cap.
“You don’t have them, do you?”