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the front door.
    “Not really,” Marla said with a
weak wave of her hand. “Unless you’d like to sit and have a cup of tea.”
    Sam truly felt more like going
home and putting her feet up, but something about Marla’s demeanor made her
pause.
    “Tea would be nice.” Sam
remembered seeing a kettle somewhere in the kitchen, and she went back to fill
and heat it.
    “I’m sorry to be so lazy, making
you do everything,” Marla said. “I just don’t seem to have a bit of energy
right now.”
    “It’s been a big day,” Sam said.
She glanced toward the short hall that led to the bedrooms. “Does Jolie need
anything?”
    “She went home with Sarah to
spend the night. That’s Diane’s daughter. Even though it’s a school night I
don’t mind. They’ll walk to the bus together in the morning.”
    Marla pulled a crocheted afghan
over her legs and picked at the edge of it.
    “Sam? Could I ask you something?”
    The kettle sent out a long,
screeching whistle. “In a second, you sure can.” Sam hustled to the kitchen and
spent a minute organizing two cups of tea.
    “Here we go. This will relax
you.” She set the delicate china cups on the coffee table and pulled an
armchair in close for herself.
    “Sam, you know the sheriff pretty
well, don’t you? I mean, I’ve heard that you—”
    Sam smiled. “We’re getting
married, actually.”
    Marla brightened. “That’s nice.
I’m happy for you.”
    “But I have a feeling that isn’t
the real question you wanted to ask me, is it?”
    Marla sipped from her cup, buying
time. “No, it isn’t. I need to find Tito, and I need to do it now.”
    “Ah. Someone at the party said
that you’d filed a missing persons report when he first disappeared.”
    “I did. And nothing came of it. I
called the sheriff’s department here in Taos, but since Tito and Tricia lived
in Albuquerque at the time, I think they pushed the case off to the Albuquerque
police. But he was here in Taos when it happened, and I thought they should
have done more.”
    “And this happened ten years
ago?”
    “Yes. Late August. Tito, Tricia
and Jolie were here for a family weekend. Tito went to the store for some beer
and he never came back.”
    “What did the sheriff’s people
say?”
    “It got ugly. They said he
probably went off with some woman from his work. Tricia was devastated. She
couldn’t believe it and neither could I. I still don’t. Tito wasn’t like that.
He served in the Navy, became an electrician, he had a good job and provided a
good life for his family. He loved the outdoors, hiking, fishing—things like
that. He wasn’t a cheat. And he would have never left little Jolie. He loves
that baby.”
    “What do you think happened?”
    “I have no idea, Sam. If he’d
gone hiking he would have told us. He always said where he was going and what
time he would be home. We would have known where to look. But this—this is too
weird.”
    “You said you don’t believe he’s
dead, though.”
    “Jolie and Tricia always get
birthday cards. They’re never signed and they come postmarked from all kinds of
places. But I know he sends them. He sent them for awhile even after Tricia
died.”
    “Do you get mail from him too?”
    “Sometimes. I got some cards too.
Once there was a package with a beautiful scarf, my favorite color. But nothing
signed. Nothing in writing at all.”
    Sam set her empty teacup down.
“You said you need to find Tito now. What has changed?”
    Marla stared at the leaves in the
bottom of her cup for a full minute. When she looked back at Sam her eyes were
filled with pain.
    “I’m dying, Sam. It’s cancer and
the doctors don’t have any hope for me.” She answered Sam’s unasked question.
“Yes, I’ve done the whole, horrible round of chemo—two years ago when I was
diagnosed. It didn’t work and the cancer is too widespread now. I won’t do it
again. What I need now is for Tito to come home and get Jolie. Once I’m gone,
she’ll have no one at