Page 154 of Sing with Me

Skye cried herself to sleep for the first time in many years, thinking about thesomethingshe had with Diehl, and the parting that loomed ahead at summer’s end and his kids’ school year beginning.

Chapter Forty-Two

Being woken up in the middle of the night by Malik rapping hard on his bedroom door created all sorts of anxiety in Diehl that he wasn’t able to deal with at three in the morning. Or was it only two o’clock?

“Sir, they found Elisa.” Malik’s voice showed the strain of a father.

Diehl could tell that if it had been one of his three kids, he would have been distraught. The former Army colonel had a lot of tough training behind him, but when it came to kids, whether his own or the Brooks’s children, Malik had a soft spot that he could not hide.

“Where?” Diehl asked, feeling like he needed to sit down. He had jumped out of bed when Malik showed up, freaking him out like the house was on fire.

“Decatur.”

Metro Atlanta. He should have… No. Nobody would have guessed. Still, it was in the Atlanta area. Diehl’s house was across the interstate on another side of Atlanta. “We checked my house, didn’t we?”

“Yes. None of the security cameras showed she had ever been there,” Malik said. “Detective Jeong called a moment ago, saying that the GBI found her. She was with Romina Harrison.”

Diehl’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”

The nanny he had fired six months before. It wasn’t because she failed to do her work, but Diehl let her go because the kids were going to school in Hawaii and living with their maternal grandmother. She wasn’t needed anymore.

“Is my daughter okay?” Diehl felt both a sense of relief and foreboding. “Is she hurt?”

“Jeong didn’t say.”

“How did they find Elisa?”

“Based on what Ethan said he overheard on the phone, and the nickname you said Hans mumbled, Jeong asked Hans to the station. He refused, so Earl Young paid him a visit.”

“Oh?” Diehl was surprised. “Are we liable for that?”

“Nope. Hans cooperated willingly.” Malik paused. “There’s more, sir, but I’ll let Earl fill you in with what he knows. He’s waiting for us at Peachtree DeKalb Airport.”

“Give me a few minutes to brush my teeth and change,” Diehl said.

“I’ve already asked Chris to fuel the jet.”

“Thank you, Malik. Please wake my mother. Tell her to pack for a few days.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Get the Bishops.”

“Ah, about them…”

“What?”

“They left,” Malik said.

“Left to go home?”

“Apparently.”

“When?”

“An hour ago.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

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