idiot would rule out aliens,” Gerald said, laughing. “Can we please just go get breakfast?”

Gil stood outside the station next to his unmarked dark blue Crown Victoria. While he waited for Joe, he speed-dialed his phone.

A woman answered saying, “Hello?” She sounded almost as if she’d been woken up.

“Hi, Mom. How are you?”

“Hi, hito. I’m fine.”

“Bueno, you sound tired today,” Gil said, automatically lapsing back into the local mishmash of Old Spanish and English. A sort of colonial Spanglish.

“Ah, I didn’t sleep very good last night. The neighbors had a fiesta party.”

“You should have called me.”

“Oh, hito, it was late. I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Mom, I could have taken care of it,” he said. His mom was always like this, never wanting to trouble him with anything until it was a problem. When it wouldn’t have even become a problem if she had just told him about it in the first place. Gil wondered if she had been like this when she was married to his father. Or maybe he just noticed it more now that his father was gone.

It had been more than ten years since his father died. A heart attack when Gil was only twenty-three. Gil dropped out of law school and found himself taking a crash course in property taxes, insurance bills, and mortgages. He was suddenly in charge of it all, but it wasn’t something he and his mom talked about. It was just expected that he would take up the reins. So his younger sister, Elena, stayed in college and got her law degree while Gil did what was required. Now, more than a decade later, he still did.

“When is Aunt Yolanda coming to get you for fiesta Mass?” Gil asked. His mother was a former fiesta queen and was expected to go down to the Plaza to be part of the official ceremonies. His father had played the part of Don Diego de Vargas, the man who three hundred years ago had reconquered Santa Fe. It was how the two of them had met more than thirty-five years ago. When Gil was growing up, he always imagined that he would meet his wife the same way. Instead, he met Susan in college.

“She should be here by ten thirty or so,” she said.

“Okay, well, I’ll call you later, then,” he said, as Joe came out of the station and made his way over to the car. “Don’t forget to check your blood sugar.”

“Okay, hito. Have a good day.”

Gil hung up. “You set?” Joe said and got into the passenger seat, holding a palm-sized spiral notebook and a manila file folder.

“What have you got there?” Gil asked, nodding toward what Joe was carrying.

“Fisher’s original case notes,” Joe said. “I’ve been going over them since this morning. You know, to freshen up.”

“Good thinking,” Gil said as he backed the car out of the station and headed into town. “So what can you tell me about the family?”

“Well, you have Ashley, who is Brianna’s mom. She’s twenty now. She’s been on disability since this happened,” Joe said.

“She doesn’t work?”

“No. Then there’s Rose, Brianna’s grandma. That’s whose house we’re going to.”

“That’s where Brianna went missing?” Gil knew these details. His main goal in going over them was to cement them into his mind and see if there were any inconsistencies along the way.

“Right. Rose and Ashley live in the house with Ashley’s boyfriend.”

“What do you know about him?”

“His name is Alex Stevens, and he owns his own tow truck company.”

“They were all home when Brianna disappeared?”

“Yeah, and there were also two kids hanging out with them that day. One was Justin. He’s a cousin, who’s about fifteen. His house is just like a block away from the Rodriguezes’, so he is pretty much over all the time. Ashley babysits him after school. Then the other kid was Laura. I think she’s thirteen now. She’s Justin’s girlfriend.”

“So we have Ashley, Rose, Alex, Justin, and Laura who were there?”

“Yeah.”

“You keep referring to Alex Stevens as Ashley’s boyfriend and not Brianna’s dad.”

“Nothing gets by you,” Joe said, not sarcastically. “Brianna’s real dad has spent most of his time in jail since Ashley was pregnant. The guy pretty much has never been in the picture.”

“Okay, so five people were at the house the day Brianna went missing, and none of them have died or moved away since then.”

“Right, and as far as I know, Ashley is still dating Alex and Justin is still with Laura.”

“Everybody alibis each other?” Gil asked.

“Yep. They