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posture, the anxious twisting of the tissue in Judy Martin’s manicured fingers, the look of fear in their matching blue eyes. They’d been the best-looking kids in high school, and twice been crowned prom king and queen, an honor that had yet to be repeated. Judy had gone on to win a host of local beauty pageants—Miss Broward County, Miss Citrus Fruit, second runner-up to Miss Florida—before marrying Howard, and her brown, upswept hair always looked as if it were awaiting its tiara. But even with too much makeup—John tried to remember if he’d ever seen her without it—she was a beautiful woman.
    Howard, tall, trim, and still boyishly handsome, grabbed his wife’s hand and held tight to her trembling fingers. “It’s Liana. She’s missing.”
    “Missing? For how long?”
    “Since yesterday.”
    “Yesterday?”
    “Apparently, she didn’t come home from school.”
    “Apparently?” John repeated, thinking he must have misunderstood. Howard and Judy Martin were involved, concerned parents. If one of their children hadn’t come home from school the previous afternoon, why had they waited until now to pay him a visit?
    “We were in Tampa,” Judy explained softly, as if reading his mind. “Howard had some business there, and Meredith was competing in this junior pageant. We thought we could combine…” Her voice drifted off. She stared out the window behind John’s head.
    “We called home last night,” Howard continued, “but the boys never said a thing about Liana not being there. Apparently they assumed she was with her boyfriend, and they didn’t want to get her in trouble.”
    “We got back around two o’clock this afternoon,” Judy said. “We assumed everyone was in school. But when Liana wasn’t home by five o’clock, I started to get worried. I asked the boys if their sister had told them she’d be late, and that’s when they confessed she hadn’t come home yesterday. I called Peter right away. He said he hadn’t seen her either.”
    “Peter?” John grabbed a pen, began scribbling notes on a pad of white paper. This was starting to sound more serious than he’d first imagined, although he was certain everything would resolve itself favorably in reasonably short order.
    “Peter Arlington. He’s been her boyfriend for about six months now.”
    “They fight all the time,” Howard added with a shake of his head. “They’re always breaking up, getting back together, breaking up again.”
    “You know how it is with young love,” Judy added, the words catching in her throat.
    John nodded, although, in truth, he didn’t know. He’d never really been in love.
    “Peter said the last time he saw Liana was yesterday at school. Apparently they had some kind of disagreement, and they weren’t talking to each other, so he didn’t call her last night. And then he wasn’t feeling well today, so he stayed home from school.”
    John narrowed his eyes, tried to picture Peter Arlington. The name didn’t ring any immediate bells. “You believe him?”
    “What do you mean?”
    John noted enviously that Howard’s hairline was still intact, although he was starting to gray at the temples. He’d grow old gracefully and with dignity, John thought, leaning forward in his seat and feeling the extra pounds around his middle press rudely against the desk. “This Peter kid—do you believe him?”
    “I hadn’t thought about it,” Howard admitted. “I just assumed he was telling the truth.”
    “Why?” Judy asked. “You think he’s lying?”
    “I have no idea.” John fed Peter Arlington’s name into the computer on his desk and was relieved when it came up empty. “He’s not in the system, which is good.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “He’s never been arrested, never been to jail.”
    “Oh, no. Liana would never get involved with anyone like that,” Judy assured John.
    “All right. Let’s back up a minute here,” John said. “After you called Peter, did you phone anyone