Page 144 of The Advocate’s Ultimatum

“No,” Marcus said. “But I believe Hayes isn’t smart enough to hold a secret like that for years without cracking. So, if he took her, someone else ended up with her. Or she got away. Or she didn’t make it.” The man shrugged once. “All bad options.”

“What about Yvonne?”

Marcus looked at him differently now. “Yvonne was stupid. She was always with a loser.”

JP raised an eyebrow.

Marcus smirked. “Yeah, like me. But she went from bad to worse. Hayes was a worthless piece of crap. But Yvonne herself, she wouldn’t have done it. She’s devastated still. I’m sure she blames herself for bringing Hayes into Hannah’s life.” He shook his head. “Yvonne made bad choices, but she didn’t cross lines like that. She wouldn’t take her own kid and disappear. She would’ve stayed and fought, even if she lost.”

That was the cleanest thing Marcus had said so far.

“What about family? Any chance anyone could have tried to save her?”

“You mean Rochelle?”

“Not necessarily, but yeah, her too.”

“She thought she knew better than everyone.”

“Did she?”

Marcus gave another humorless smile. “Sometimes she wasn’t wrong.”

“Could she have taken Hannah?”

“Rochelle was the good half of me,” he said. “She would never do something like that. Hannah should’ve gone to her, but Yvonne was doing all her programs, and they believed her when she said Hayes wasn’t around.”

“So, is there anyone else in the family who would’ve taken her?” JP asked.

“No.”

“That confident?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because the ones who loved the girl would’ve stayed within the law,” Marcus said. “And the ones who didn’t love her enough wouldn’t bother.”

“What did you do after she disappeared?” he asked.

“I drove around the neighborhood,” he said. “I looked, asked around, the same as everyone else who thought they were going to find something.”

“Did you ever see anything?”

Marcus looked away.

There it was. JP waited him out.

Marcus rubbed his jaw.

“Not while I was looking,” he said. “But maybe by accident. A couple of weeks later, I was up in Oceanside. I stopped at a light near the coast, and I see this car pull up next to me on my left. There was a girl in the passenger seat who looked like Hannah.”

“Are you sure?”

“No,” Marcus said. “I hadn’t seen her for a while before all that. She could’ve changed some. Or I could’ve been seeing what I wanted to see.”

“Did she see you?” JP asked.