“I have favors from the FBI I can call in.” Jenna broke the silence that had filled the space between us almost constantly since we’d left her house a couple hours ago.

“I thought there were restrictions about when the FBI can step in.” I didn’t look at Jenna when I spoke. Neither of us were looking at each other, actually. Instead, we were both staring out of our respective windows, hoping that we’d see a hitch-hiking kid.

I’d barely explained my conversation with Elliot when Jenna was grabbing a jacket and rushing me out the door. It didn’t matter that the Johnsons didn’t want her to meet Stacey or that we really didn’t have much in the way of clues about what had happened. Elliot and Roberta would be searching the obvious places – friends’ houses, favorite hangouts, that sort of thing – so the two of us would look at the fringes, beginning with roads in and out of Loveland.

“Technically, you’re right,” she said. “But I’ve given the Denver office some of their biggest arrests over the last couple years. They owe me.”

Her words were as grim as her expression, and I hoped that it wouldn’t come to calling in favors. If the FBI refused to help until they had cause to get involved, I didn’t think Jenna would ever forgive them. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure I would either.

“What are the chances she ran away?” I asked. “I know I thought about it when I was her age.”

“Before your dad’s accident?” Jenna shot me a look. “From what you told me, Stacey has a great home and is a good kid. She was adopted as a baby and never knew anything about it. No shit from Helen or baggage from being in some group home or bouncing from one place to another. Not even any unresolved issues from the adoption itself.”

As much as I hated to admit it, Jenna was right. Stacey had been adopted, but she’d never been told. She had the same racial makeup as the Johnsons’ biological daughter would have, and even looked enough like them feature-wise that she’d have no reason to question that they weren’t her biological parents. And while Elliot and Roberta had been short with me, it’d been clear that they loved their daughter and didn’t want anything to hurt her. They wanted to protect her. Then it struck me. Maybe that had been the problem.

“Do you think that she might think her parents are too strict?” I asked as I glanced over at my friend. “In trying to protect her, they hadn’t let her do a lot?”

Jenna shrugged. “Anything’s possible, I suppose.”

I pulled into the parking lot to Moby Arena and parked off to the side. I turned to face Jenna. “Before we start back toward Loveland again, we need to think about where we’re going. We’ve covered all the main routes between her parents’ house and here, and driven past all the fraternity and sorority houses. If anyone’s having a party, they’re keeping it low-key.”

“That was a long-shot anyway,” Jenna said. “If a kid’s going to sneak away to a party, they’re not going to do it hours before it starts, and they’re definitely not going to make it obvious to their parents that they’re gone.”

That was the part of this story that kept nagging at me. Stacey hadn’t snuck out of her room or told her parents she was going to a friend’s house. There’d been none of the clichéd ‘rebellious teen’ behavior. If she’d voluntarily left, she’d done so in a way that indicated she’d wanted her parents to know that she was gone.

Which meant the two biggest possibilities were that she’d done it with the intent to scare them…or she hadn’t had a choice in the matter.

Either way, we needed to find her before things got even worse, for her and her parents sakes.

“If something happens to her because of me, I’ll never forgive myself,” Jenna said quietly. She glanced at me, then went back to staring out the windshield. “I should have just left it all alone. Let my brothers and sisters live their lives free of anyone or anything connected to our mother.”

I reached over and put my hand on hers. “You’re not responsible for what’s happening. Stacey doesn’t even know about you or Helen.”

“No more,” Jenna said, shaking her head. “I don’t want you to look for anyone else. Once we find Stacey, we’re going to walk away. I refuse to risk anyone else.”

I wanted to argue with her about it, but this wasn’t the time. We needed to focus on finding Stacey. Everything else could wait.

“Let’s take this one step at a time,” I said. “First, we find Stacey.”

Jenna nodded and then sighed. “I think I know why we can’t figure out where she would go.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

“We weren’t normal thirteen-year-olds.”

That was an excellent point.

“We need to touch base with Elliot and Roberta,” I said. “We need to know more about who Stacey is if we’re going to find her.”

“They won’t want me there,” Jenna said.

“They want to find their daughter,” I countered.

“We need to be thinking outside the box,” Jenna said, “not the same things as everyone else.”

“What aren’t we seeing then?” I asked. “We need to stop thinking emotionally. How would we come at this if it was a case?”

She might not have been a private investigator, but she had a logical way of approaching things. She thought things through, looked at issues from different angles. That’s how we both needed to be looking at this problem. Not out of emotion, but from logic.

“If we were looking for a missing kid who we thought ran away, where would we go after we eliminated friends and family?” I asked.

“It would depend on whether or not she wanted to feel safe, or if she wanted to rebel.”

“Let’s go for safe first,” I suggested. “She’d go somewhere familiar, but if that wasn’t available, she’d go with somewhere she knew but off the beaten path.”

“I’m guessing her parents will have already checked the school, places of worship, that sort of thing.”

“Her parents,” I said suddenly.

“What?” She looked at me.

“When I was a kid, before things with my dad went…the way they went, I used to visit him at work. I loved going to the mill, seeing the crew and how they worked together. I loved the smell of the fresh cut lumber.”

I swallowed around the lump in my throat. To this day, that scent brought back childhood memories, something I appreciated in private moments. Right now wasn’t the time though.

“You think she went to where her parents worked?” Jenna asked. “Didn’t you say that her father’s a teacher?”

I nodded. “They would’ve already checked the school.”

“What about her mother?”

I tapped the steering wheel, mentally scanning both parents’ profile. “She’s a real estate agent.”

“Which means she might know where empty houses are,” Jenna said.

“We need to talk to Roberta.”

Fifteen minutes later, Jenna and I walked into Mrs. Johnson’s office. As soon as I called and told Roberta my theory, she asked me to meet her at her office.

“That’s her, isn’t it?” Elliot glared at us as he spoke to me. “Why the hell would you bring her here?”

“Elliot,” Roberta snapped, “I don’t care who she is. We need to find our daughter, and she’s helping.”

“How do we know she isn’t the reason Stacey’s missing?” Elliot asked, deep lines furrowing his forehead.

Jenna stepped forward. “I was disappointed by your decision, but I understand it. I won’t go against what you want. I’ll help you look for her, but I won’t tell her who I am. Not unless you change your mind.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Elliot muttered.

Jenna ignored him and directed her question to Roberta. “Do you keep a list of the houses you’re selling, the ones that are vacant?”