that was a good thing. He clicked off the phone as they were just a block from the hospital.

“I guess the good news,” Joe said, “is that now we have only a few suspects.”

Gil nodded. “We just have to narrow it down.”

“Is it sexist of me to say that I can’t see a woman doing this?”

“I think it’s naive,” Gil said.

“It makes it easy, though. It leaves us with Justin, who we honestly don’t know much about,” Joe said.

“You must have profiled the family members back during the original investigation.”

“Yeah, but Justin was only fourteen when Brianna disappeared,” Joe said. “He still needed Ashley to babysit him. We never looked at him because of his age.” That was another mistake, Gil thought.

They pulled up to the hospital and went inside, up to the maternity ward. They were about to pass by the waiting room when they saw Mrs. Rodriguez sitting next to another woman, deep in conversation.

She stood up as she saw them, saying, “Where’s Alex? Ashley finally delivered the baby.”

Gil and Joe awkwardly murmured congratulations to the new grandmother before Gil said, “Alex needs to stay at the station a little longer, but we wanted to come see how Ashley was doing.”

“She had a really rough time,” Mrs. Rodriguez said. “There was some problem with the cord, and she had to have an emergency C-section. It was bad.”

“Is she all right?” Joe asked.

“She’s doing better now. They got the baby out, and he’s fine. He’s so cute, and he has a full head of hair,” she said, beaming.

“Is Ashley able to talk to us?” Gil asked. Dr. Santiago had said they could interview her once she was out of the woods.

Before she could answer, the woman Mrs. Rodriguez had been talking to stood up and said, “Hi. I’m Carla.” She shook both of their hands.

Joe looked at her curiously, as if he should know who she was. “Are you a friend of the family?” he asked her.

“In a way,” Carla said smiling.

“She’s my AA sponsor,” Mrs. Rodriguez said, slightly nervously. “She came here to make sure I was doing okay. The past few days have been pretty stressful.”

Joe nodded. “I noticed your three-month pin. Congratulations.” Gil hadn’t even noticed that on Mrs. Rodriguez’s white blouse there was a gold pin. It was a triangle with the letter G inside the top and then the sun between two capital A’s.

“What step are you on?” he asked.

“I just started Step Eight,” she said, smiling and looking toward her sponsor for approval.

“Oh, so that means you’re making the list of people you have harmed,” Joe said. “That can be a hard one.” Gil wondered where Joe’s information about alcoholism came from.

“I’m getting there,” Mrs. Rodriguez said.

“Have you thought about Step Nine at all?” Joe asked. “About making amends?”

Mrs. Rodriguez looked down at the ground, her eyes suddenly overwhelmed by tears. “Just breathe,” her sponsor said, putting her hand on Mrs. Rodriguez’s shoulder. “In this moment you are fine. You are among people who care.” Mrs. Rodriguez nodded and tried to smile, but failed.

“It seems like that might be a hard step for you,” Joe said, more sympathetic than Gil had ever heard him.

Mrs. Rodriguez looked up at Joe, then over at her sponsor, who said, “It’s okay. We only move forward when we want to. This is a process, and it takes time.” Gil felt himself waiting, almost holding his breath, while Joe seemed relaxed and accepting. Gil wondered at the change.

Mrs. Rodriguez kept nodding, as if she were building up courage through the affirmative action. She looked back up at Joe, let out a deep breath, and said, “I wrote a letter to Brianna last week.” Those seemed to be the only words she could manage as tears flowed down her face. Her sponsor gave Mrs. Rodriguez a tissue.

Joe said, “Of course. Just because she’s no longer with us doesn’t mean you can’t make amends. I’m sure your sponsor helped you with the letter. They can be hard.”

Mrs. Rodriguez said, “I told Brianna that I was sorry, and I asked for her forgiveness.”

“What were you sorry for?” Joe asked tenderly.

“I was never there for her, because of the drinking. Even on the day she needed me the most . . .” Mrs. Rodriguez paused, and Carla put a hand on her shoulder. Mrs. Rodriguez stood straighter in resolve and continued. “The day . . . the day she went missing, I was passed out drunk in my room. Ashley had to