AFTER ABBY FINISHED with the rental car company, she stopped to get a cup of coffee. Luke and his reaction to her staying were on her mind. Maybe he and Faye were just friends. It made her doubt the wisdom of her decision to stay and work with Gunther. She’d worked with many different partners while on the PD —some good partners, some not so good. Luke was an outstanding partner all the way around. Was it wrong to take this step without him? She tried to ignore the voice telling her that she should wait; there was no rush.

She paid for the coffee, then got back in the rental car and checked the tip line phone for messages. There were two. One from another man saying that aliens kidnapped Ciara. “The truth is out there,” he assured her. The second was from a woman who said two words —“Oh, my” —and then hung up, leaving Abby to hope it was the same woman Woody talked to and that she would call back.

She’d no sooner put the tip line phone away than her personal phone rang. It was Gunther telling her he’d scheduled two interviews and that he’d be on the northbound Amtrak train with an arrival time at SLO around 3 p.m.

It was time to compartmentalize her life. Luke and questions about her future with him needed to be locked away for a time. Ciara was also on hold, unless someone with real information called. Abby made the shift back to Alyssa and her past. Since she had time before the train arrived, she traveled to Templeton and drove around to get a feel for the town but recognized it had changed quite a bit since Alyssa had lived there forty years ago.

Templeton was between San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles, which were both bigger towns. A lot of the area was still agricultural, and there were many wineries, the hills dotted with vineyards. There were also olive trees and a couple of places that made olive oil. Downtown was quaint. Obviously the wine production business was big, as was the catering to tourists and wine tasting.

After she believed she had a good handle on the area, she made her way back to San Luis Obispo and the train station. Hopefully Gunther’s arranged meetings were with people who knew Alyssa well enough to generate leads, leads that would help them dig up what it was that Alyssa wanted kept hidden.

Abby refused to entertain the possibility that there was nothing here and Alyssa was above suspicion.

The vintage train station, with its Spanish-style white stucco and red tile roof, reminded Abby of time past. She had probably seen something like it in an old movie. She was a few minutes early, so she parked the car and strolled into the waiting room. She saw a sign on a wall that said something about Lowell Rollins, but she quickly looked away, trying to ignore it. Her insides churned at the thought of him being a senator.

Inside the station, she realized security was not the same here as at an airport. She could continue straight through and wait on the platform. Abby had never ridden a train. She remembered Ethan telling her about the trains he rode in Europe and how much he enjoyed it. Now, out on the platform, seeing travelers waiting and a conductor standing close by, she wondered if Gunther enjoyed the ride and if it were something she’d like to do in the future.

The train station also brought to her mind the story Harkin had told, about him stopping by on his way home the night Ciara disappeared. She looked around the platform and realized she could picture that; she could see him over at the edge of the building, his bike leaning against him while he lit a cigarette and waited for a train to roll through. She liked to think she could read people, something that had been hugely advantageous in her career in homicide. She just didn’t read killer in Jasper Harkin.

After a few minutes she heard the warning whistle and an announcement that the train would be arriving shortly. It was a bit thrilling to see the big engine approach the station, then continue on through slowly before coming to a stop. It was a long train and Abby knew from listening to the announcements over the PA that there were sleeping cars and coach cars. She also noted the train would continue on from here with an ultimate destination in Washington State.

Gunther was the last person to step off the train. He had with him a small duffel bag in his hand and a sour expression on his face.

“Good afternoon, Gunther. Didn’t you have a nice trip?”

“The trip was fine. Old age just kicked in with some stiffness. Even though my reporting days are over, this little excursion is energizing and I hope we find something.”

“Me too. We can get straight to the interviews, right?”

He nodded. “Yep, and these are two people I didn’t talk to on the last trip. I only talked to people in her graduating class when I was up here before. This time I contacted a former teacher who is in an assisted-living home but still very sharp mentally, and a woman who graduated the year after Alyssa but knew her.”

“Sounds like a plan. What about her high school boyfriend?”

“Might not have any luck with him. I couldn’t find information on him. One of the women said that he’s a transient, appears from time to time. No telling when the next time will be. Apparently there’s a large population of homeless people who live in this part of central California. I couldn’t help but notice that there were a lot of homeless camps along the railroad tracks all the way up from LA. Finding him will be a needle in a haystack.”

Abby thought about that. This whole case —the twenty-seven-year-old murders of her parents and Luke’s uncle —could be called the same thing: the search for a needle in a haystack. But she would never give up trying to learn the whole truth.

“All we can do is try.”