I sighed. Here it came again. “He does,” I said.

“Who is she?” He’d even gotten out his little notebook.

“Me.” Flemmons looked up, his eyes quizzical.

“Come again?” he said.

“He’s not my brother by blood, you know.” I was very tired of explaining our relationship.

“Right, you don’t share parents,” he said. He’d been doing his research.

“No, we don’t. We’re partners, in every sense of the word.”

“Okeydokey. I got an interesting phone call this morning,” Flemmons said, throwing the line away. I immediately became more alert.

“Yes? From whom?”

“From a detective on the Texarkana police force. Name of Peter Gresham. He’s a friend of mine.”

“What did he tell you?” I said and sighed. I really didn’t want to hear yet another rehashing of my sister’s disappearance. It had already been a “grieved about Cameron” day.

“He said there’d been a phone call about your sister.”

“What kind of phone call?” There are more crackpots in the world than you can shake a stick at.

“Someone spotted her at the Texarkana mall.”

I stopped breathing for a second. Then the air surged into my lungs in a choked gasp. “Cameron? Who saw her? Someone who used to know her?”

“It was an anonymous call. A male, calling from a pay phone.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling as though someone had punched me in the stomach. “But… how can I find out if that’s true? Get that person to come forward? Is there any way?”

“You remember Pete Gresham? He was the primary on your sister’s case.”

I nodded. I did recall him, but not with much clarity. When I looked back on the bad, bad days immediately following Cameron’s vanishing, they seemed like one big blur of anxiety to me. “He was a big guy,” I said. I added, less certainly, “Wears cowboy boots all the time? He was losing his hair. He was young to be balding.”

“Yeah, that’s him. Pete’s bald now. I think he shaves the little he has left in the hair department.”

“So what did he do? About the phone call?”

“He viewed the security tapes.”

“They tape inside the mall?”

“Some, and they tape the parking lot pretty good, Pete said.”

“Was she there?” I thought I would scream if he didn’t tell me.

“There was a woman who fits your sister’s general description. But there’s no clear shot of her face, and there’s no real way to know whether or not it’s Cameron Connelly.”

“Can I see it?”

“I’ll see if that can be arranged. Ordinarily, I guess, you’d want to drive over to Texarkana yourself, but with Mr. Lang here, and liable to stay in the hospital for a couple more days, maybe we can let you see them at our office.”

“That would sure be wonderful if you can swing it,” I said. “The round trip would be a long time to be away from him.” I was trying to force myself to be calm.

Before I could stop myself, I bent over Tolliver and took hold of his hand. It was cold, and I told myself I’d have to ask the nurse for another blanket. “Hey, you,” I said. “Did you hear the detective?”

“A little,” Tolliver said. It was more of a mumble, but I could understand him.

“He’s going to try to get the mall tapes here for me to see,” I said. “Maybe we’ll finally get a lead.” It seemed incredible that Victoria and I had been discussing this very thing not an hour previously.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Tolliver said, in a clearer voice. “This has happened before.”

I didn’t want to consider all the previous false sightings. “I understand,” I said. “But maybe this time will be the charm, huh?”

“She wouldn’t be the same,” Tolliver said, his eyes fully open. “You know that, right? She wouldn’t be the same.”

I calmed down in a hurry. “Yes, I know,” I told him. She would never be the same. Too many years had passed. Too much pain had been felt, too much… everything.

“If you need to go to Texarkana…” Tolliver began.

“I’m not leaving you,” I said immediately.

“If you need to go, you go,” he said.

“I appreciate that,” I said. “But I’m not going while you’re here in the hospital.” I couldn’t believe I said it, even as I listened to my own words. For years I’d been waiting to hear news of my sister. Now there was actually a lead, however odd and unreliable it sounded-and I was telling Tolliver I wasn’t going to chase it down immediately.

I sat down in the chair by the bed. I laid my forehead against the cotton blanket that covered my brother. I’d never felt more committed.

Detective Flemmons had listened to our discussion with a blank face. He seemed to be reserving judgment on us, and I appreciated that, too.

He said, “I’ll give you a call when we’re ready.”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling a little numb.

When the detective was gone, Tolliver said, “It’s only fair.”

“What?”

“You got shot for me. Now I got shot for you, if he’s right. You think the shooter was aiming for you?”

“Huh,” I said. “The difference is, when I got shot, she almost missed me. I mean, it was just a graze. Whoever shot you did a better job.”

“So,” he said, “I get shot by more efficient people.”

“I think that pain medication must be pretty damn good.”

“The best,” he said dreamily.

I smiled. It wasn’t often Tolliver was so relaxed. I didn’t want to think about Cameron anymore, because I didn’t know what I wished for.

His dad knocked on the door of the room and stepped in before we could say yes or no. Our peaceful moment was shot all to hell.

Matthew was looking a little ragged, not too surprising considering how late we’d been up the night before; and he’d told me he’d had the morning shift at McDonald’s. Clearly he’d taken the time to shower after he’d been at work, because he didn’t have the distinctive McDonald’s smell.

“Tolliver, your dad helped me while we called for an ambulance,” I said, because I had to give the devil his due. “And he came to the hospital until they said you were out of danger.”

“You sure he didn’t shoot me, too?”

If I hadn’t lived with Matthew Lang for several years, I would have been shocked through and through.

Matthew himself gave a good impression of a man hurt to the core. “Son, how can you believe that?” he asked, simultaneously wounded and angry. “I know I wasn’t the best dad…”

“Not the best dad? You remember the time you held a gun to Cameron’s head and told me you would blow her brains out if I didn’t tell you where I’d hidden your stash?”

Matthew’s shoulders slumped. I think he’d managed to forget that little incident.

“And then you ask me how I can believe you’d shoot me.” If Tolliver’s voice hadn’t been so weak, it would have been hot with sheer rage; as it was, Tolliver’s words sounded so sad I could have wept for him. “It’s real easy to believe, Dad.”

“But I wouldn’t have done it,” Matthew Lang said. “I loved that girl. I loved all of you. I was just a damn junkie, Tolliver. I was a mess, and I know it. I’m asking for your forgiveness, now that I’m clean and sober. I won’t screw up again, son.”

“It’ll take a lot more than words to persuade us,” I said, looking at Tolliver and seeing how exhausted he was after five minutes in his father’s presence. “As long as we’re bringing up happy memories, I can sure dredge up a few we haven’t reminisced about in a while. You were there last night… okay. That was good. But it wasn’t a drop in the bucket.”

Matthew looked sad. His brown eyes were like a spaniel’s, innocent and liquid with soft feelings.

I didn’t believe he’d reformed for a second. And yet, I have to admit, I wanted to believe him. If Tolliver’s father could really reform, really try to love Tolliver as he deserved to be loved, respect him as he deserved to be respected, it would be a wonderful thing.

The next second, I cursed myself for being pathetic, for being sucked in to even that extent. Since Tolliver was hurt and weak, I had to be extra vigilant. I was watching out for both of us, not just myself.