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“You…you should probably check on it.”
    “Right. Right,” Zac repeated more firmly. He pulled out his phone, thumbing in the number he’d memorized weeks ago. He had to get it together.
    “Hello?” His ring was answered with an eagerness that squeezed Zac’s heart and brought his attention fully back to the case.
    “Mrs. Kennedy. This is Detective Herrera.”
    At the other end, he heard Nelda Kennedy’s voice catch. “Oh. Oh, Detective. Have you found—”
    “I’m working on a lead in your daughter’s disappearance. The painted stone she carried. The one the boys got for her. Do you know where they purchased it?”
    “That gray stone?” Zac could hear the confusion in her voice. “What does it have to do with anything?”
    Zac tried to keep the impatience out of his voice. Nelda Kennedy had been waiting—praying—for news of her daughter. But he didn’t want to raise her hopes. Not until he had something more concrete. “If you could just tell me where the boys got the stone. Do you know where it came from?”
    There was a pause, then Nelda’s voice. “They got it for her at a fair they all went to.”
    “Fair?” There were over a dozen county fairs within an easy drive of Midland during the summer. Every town and village put on some kind of festival or fair to raise money and encourage tourism. If Nelda couldn’t remember any more than that, they weren’t any farther than they’d been before.
    “Yes. One of those things where you go to get your fortune told and they read angel cards.” Nelda Kennedy snorted. “Angel cards. God and his angels don’t have no truck with those kinds of things. I told Beth—” The sound of a choked-back sob came through the receiver. “I—but Bethie, she loved ’em. She…she says someday they’ll tell her her ship’s coming in.”
    “Do you know when she went to this one? The one where they got the stone. Where it was?” Zac’s grip tightened on the phone. They were getting somewhere. He felt it.
    He looked at Mallory. She was on the edge of the chair, her hands clenched tightly together. Her gaze was fixed on his face. She was biting her lower lip.
    “It was at the Plaza Resort.” Nelda’s tone was sure. “It was a big one. They had one of those women who’re supposed to read your minds come over from Grand Rapids.”
    “And the date. Do you remember the date?” Though he had enough to look it up.
    “Umm. June. Sometime in June, I think. It was after the boys were out of school for the summer. Detective Herrera,” she rushed on. “Could you tell me what’s this all about? Did those fortune-tellers have something to do with my girl disappearing?”
    It was hard to resist the plea in the older woman’s voice. He wanted to offer her something. Hope. Reassurance that it would be all right. But he couldn’t. He didn’t know that. He had only Mallory’s impressions and his faith in them to go on.
    “I’m sorry, Mrs. Kennedy. I can’t explain now. I’ll let you know as soon as we know anything for certain.” He ended the call before she could ask any more questions.
    Mallory didn’t ask, but he could see the question in her eyes. “Beth Kennedy attended an event at the Plaza Resort. There were fortune-tellers and mind readers.” He was bringing up Daniel Yeun’s parents’ number when her voice stopped him.
    “A psychic fair. It was a psychic fair.”
    “Psychic.” Zac blinked. He hadn’t made the connection when Nelda Kennedy was talking. “Like what you do.”
    “No. Well, maybe.” Mallory shifted on the chair. Her posture and expression showed her discomfort. “I’m sure some of those people think they have abilities.”
    Zac sat on the edge of his desk. “Have you been to one?”
    She nodded stiffly. “When I was little. My mom took me to one near the base where we were living. She thought—hoped—there’d be someone there who could help us understand what I could do, but…” Mallory sighed and shrugged. “There