Chapter 4 - The Stairs Beneath the Kitchen
Jo forwarded the message to Kim and did not return to the house. She wanted to go so badly she drove past the neighborhood twice before turning back. She hated admitting to herself that staying away was a choice requiring effort rather than a simple rule.
The search team had already examined the kitchen area under a lawful authorization. Investigators found a boarded access panel leading to a crawlspace where older utility lines converged. The cavity was dusty and difficult to enter. It contained no obvious sign of a person. But near the rear door they recovered a broken radio clip consistent with the type Luis used, and a fragment of reflective tape from a contractor's vest.
Jo's first response was anger that they'd missed it. Her second was relief that the team had found it without her interference. Kim warned her the radio clip could be common equipment and needed comparison to documented issue records. Jo wrote the warning in her notebook so she would be forced to read it later.
Evelyn Price agreed to speak with investigators. She described arranging the plumbing job after receiving an anonymous email about a leak and a city inspection. She said she didn't know Jo was Luis's former partner, despite the fact that someone had used Jo's cell number. Her lawyer supplied billing records showing the service fee came from a company account managed by a junior employee. The arrangement looked suspicious, but Evelyn's precise knowledge remained unproven.
Marco continued insisting he'd never met Luis. He allowed investigators access to records through counsel but declined an informal interview. His property purchase had occurred after Luis disappeared, and he claimed he inherited hidden renovations that nobody had disclosed. Jo wanted to call him a liar. She forced herself to compare dates instead.
The next week, Elena's daughter, Rosa, asked Jo to take her to the science museum. Jo had been avoiding visits because she felt too guilty to pretend that ordinary life could continue. Rosa waited beside the car with a backpack and asked why Jo looked as if she were going to a funeral.
"I have a lot on my mind," Jo said.
"Everybody does. Can we still go?"
At the museum Rosa spent an hour building a bridge from wooden blocks. Jo watched her test one design after another, adding support whenever the structure sagged. When the bridge finally held, Rosa grinned and asked Jo to take a picture for her mother.
On the drive home Rosa said, "I used to think Dad was hiding because he didn't want to come home. Mom says that's not what we believe, but I keep thinking it."
Jo held the wheel. "I don't know why he couldn't come back. I do know he loved you. I saw him with you."
"Love doesn't make someone show up."
"No," Jo said. "Sometimes love isn't enough to change what happens."
Rosa looked out the window. "Then tell me if you find anything real. Not a story you made up because you think I need one."
Jo promised she would. That promise changed how she spoke to herself about the investigation. Every detail she wanted to turn into proof had to survive the question she imagined Rosa asking: is it real, or is it what you need?
A laboratory report later linked the radio clip's damage to a model used by the department at the time Luis went missing. It couldn't uniquely identify Luis's equipment. Investigators sought maintenance and inventory logs, which had been archived. Jo learned that records she used to dismiss as paperwork might decide whether the clip mattered.
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The more significant discovery came from a renovation payroll record. On the night Luis disappeared, a subcontractor hired by Nathan Price paid an unexplained emergency bonus to two workers. One of them was a former police officer dismissed after an internal inquiry. The man's name appeared in Luis's old corruption notes.
Jo read the name and felt the case turn toward someone she'd once trusted to watch her back.
