"Tell me about Sophie," she said.
Evan thought of the girl asleep on the couch without him, a book open against her knees. "She's good at science. She tells me when my jokes aren't funny, which is most of the time. She painted the little red toolbox behind you because she said everything in this garage was a boring color."
Mia turned to look. The toolbox was bright red with tiny uneven stars painted around the handle. "It's pretty."
"She'll be glad you think so."
"Does she have a mommy?"
The question landed gently, but it still hurt. "She did. Her mom died a few years ago."
Mia went very still. "I'm sorry."
"Thank you." He let the silence last. "That's one reason I know how important it is for somebody to keep trying to find yours."
Mia drew her knees beneath the blanket. "I keep thinking she called me. I think I heard her."
"You don't have to figure it out tonight," Evan said. "The police will ask when you're warmer and you've had time to rest."
At 11:36, a pair of headlights swung from the highway into the gravel lot. Evan had been watching the office clock. Now he stopped watching it. The beam moved over the closed bay door and held steady, illuminating the rain falling from the broken gutter.
He told Kelly a vehicle had arrived. Then he asked Mia to move into the office, where the steel desk stood between the stool and the outside wall. She obeyed without argument, and that frightened him nearly as much as her earlier questions. He walked to the narrow side window, staying far enough back that the driver would not immediately see him.
A dark pickup idled outside. Its headlights sat higher than an ordinary sedan's, and mud covered much of the front bumper. The driver wore a cap pulled low. No emergency lights flashed, and no one stepped out.
Mia appeared silently behind Evan. He heard her inhale and saw her face change.
"That's the truck," she whispered. "It was behind our car."
He guided her back toward the office without putting a hand on her shoulder. "Behind the desk, sweetheart. Stay where you can hear me."
The pickup rolled forward until its nose came close to the bay door. Its headlights flashed twice. Evan's phone began ringing from Claire's number.
"The same number is calling," he told Kelly. The dispatcher stayed connected through the other phone in the office. Evan answered the incoming call without offering Mia's location again.
"I'm here for the girl," a man's voice said.
"Who are you?"
"Her uncle. Open the door."
"Give me your name."
"You know her name. She told you about me."
"The police need to verify the adult who collects her. They're on the way."
The caller's voice hardened. "This is a family matter. You don't want trouble over a family matter."