Kimmy disappeared into the back room. Olivia sat at a table. She did not see or notice the crowd. She did not look in the dancer's face for her daughter. There was a rushing in her head. Sadness, an overwhelming sadness, weighed her down.

Call it off, she thought. Walk away.

She was pregnant. Her husband was in the hospital. That was where her life was now. This was in the past. She should leave it there.

But she didn't do that.

Olivia thought again about how the abused always take the path of self-destruction. They simply could not stop themselves. They take it no matter what the consequences, no matter what the danger. Or maybe, as in her case, they take it for the opposite reason- because no matter how much life has tried to beat them down, they cannot let go of hope.

Wasn't there still a chance that tonight she'd be reunited with the baby she'd put up for adoption all those years ago?

The waitress came over to the table. "Are you Candace Potter?"

There was no hesitation. "Yes, I am."

"I have a message for you."

She handed Olivia a note and left. The message was short and simple:

Go to backroom B now. Wait ten minutes.

It felt like she was walking on stilts. Her head spun. Her stomach churned. She bumped into a man on the way and said, "Excuse me," and he said, "Hey, baby, my pleasure." The men with him yukked it up. Olivia kept walking. She found the back area. She found the door with the letter B on it, the same one she'd been in just a few hours ago.

She opened it and went inside. Her cell phone rang. She picked it up and said hello.

"Don't hang up."

It was Matt.

"Are you at the club?"

"Yes."

"Get out of there. I think I know what's going on-"

"Shh."

"What?"

Olivia was crying now. "I love you, Matt."

"Olivia, whatever you're thinking, please, just-"

"I love you more than anything in the world."

"Listen to me. Get out of-"

She closed the phone and turned the power off. She faced the door. Five minutes passed. She stayed standing, not moving, not swaying, not looking around. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," she said.

And the door opened.

Chapter 60

TRY AS HE MIGHT, Matt couldn't get out of bed.

"Go!" he told Loren.

She radioed the Reno Police Department and ran to her car. Loren was within two miles of the Eager Beaver when her cell phone sounded.

She picked it up and barked, "Muse."

"So are you still in Reno?"

It was Adam Yates. His voice was slurred.

"I am."

"Are they all applauding your genius?"

"I'd say just the opposite."

Yates chuckled. "I was, alas, beloved."

He had definitely been drinking. "Tell me where you are, Adam."

"I meant what I said. You know that, right?"

"Sure, Adam. I know."

"I mean, about them threatening my family. I never said it was physical. But my wife. My kids. My job. That tape was like a big gun. A big gun they were pointing at us all, you know what I mean?"

"I do," Loren said.

"I was working undercover, pretending to be a rich real estate dealer. So Clyde Rangor figured I was the perfect mark. I never knew the girl was underage. You need to believe that."

"Where are you, Adam?"

He ignored her question. "Someone called. Demanded a payoff in exchange for the tape. So Cal and me, we went to see Rangor. We leaned on him hard. Ah, who am I kidding? Cal did the leaning. He was a good man but he had a violent streak. He once beat a suspect to death. I saved his ass then. He saved my ass, I saved his. That's what makes a friend. He's dead now, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"Damn." He started to cry. "Cal hurt Emma Lemay. Punched her hard in the kidney. That was his warning. We walk in and I think we're just going to talk and he starts off by spinning Lemay and pounding her back like a heavy bag. Rangor, it doesn't bother him. He beat that woman silly anyway. Better her than him, you know?"

Loren was nearly in the parking lot now.

"So Rangor pisses in his pants. Literally, I mean. He's so scared he runs to his cabinet to get the tape. Only it's gone. The girl, he says, the one in the video. Cassandra, her name is. He says she must have stolen it. He says he'll get it. Cal and me, we figure we got the fear of God in him now. He'll do what we say. Next thing we know, Rangor and Lemay and that Cassandra girl, they all disappear. Years pass. I still think about it. I think about it every day. And then we get that call from the NCIC. Lemay's body's been found. And it all comes back. Like I always knew it would."

"Adam, it's not too late."

"Yeah, it is."

She pulled into the lot. "You still have friends."

"I know. I called them. That's why I'm calling you."

"What?"

"Grimes is going to bury the tape."

"What are you talking about?"

"If it gets out, it destroys my family. It'll destroy those other guys on the tape too. They were just being johns, you know."

"You can't just bury the tape."

"Nobody needs it anymore. Grimes and his guys will arrange it for me. They just need you to cooperate."

And then she realized what he was about to do. Panic seized her.

"Wait, Adam, listen to me."

"Cal and I will die in the line of fire."

"Adam, don't. You have to listen."

"Grimes will set it up that way."

"Think about your kids-"

"I am. Our families will get full benefits."

"My father, Adam." Loren had tears on her cheeks now. "He killed himself. Please, you don't know what this will do-"

But he wasn't listening. "You just have to keep it to yourself, okay? You're a good investigator. One of the best. Please, for my kids."

"Dammit, Adam, listen to me!"

"Good-bye, Loren."

And then he hung up the phone.

Loren Muse put the car in park. She stepped outside, crying, shrieking at the skies, and in the distance, she was sure that she could hear the rumble of a gun blast.

Chapter 61

THE DOOR TO BACKROOM B OPENED. Olivia waited.

When Kimmy walked into the room, the two women just stared at each other. They both had tears in their eyes. Just like a few hours earlier.

But this was nothing like that.

"You knew," Kimmy said.

Olivia shook her head. "I thought."

"How?"

"You acted like you didn't remember Max Darrow. He was one of your clients in the old days. But the main thing is, everyone figures Darrow put that post online. But he wouldn't have known that it'd draw me out. Only a good friend, my best friend, would know I'd still be checking up on my child."

Kimmy stepped into the room. "You just left me, Candi."

"I know."

"We were supposed to go together. I told you my dreams. You told me yours. We always helped each other out, remember?"

Olivia nodded.

"You promised me."

"I know I did."

Kimmy shook her head. "All these years, I thought you were dead. I buried you, did you know that? I paid for your funeral. I mourned. I cried for months. I did things to Max for free- anything he wanted- just to make sure he tried to find your killer."

"You have to understand. I couldn't tell. Emma and I-"

"You what?" Kimmy shouted. The sound echoed in the stillness. "You made a promise?"

Olivia said nothing.

"I died when you died. Do you know that? The dreams. The hope about getting out of this life. It all died when you did. I lost everything. For all those years."

"How…?"

"… did I find out you were alive?"

Olivia nodded.

"Two days after that girl comes to my door, Max comes over. He said that he sent her- that she wasn't really your daughter. He'd just sent her to test me."