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weren’t still in the hotel? They might be outside amongst the long asphalt stream of road or in a big box store or in somebody’s car—
    Her legs began to fold.
    “And the gift shop!”
    Paul’s order saved her. How long had it taken her to think all that, conjure up nightmare scenarios no parent could survive? No time atall. Paul hadn’t even begun his search; he was still issuing instructions. She turned a tear-ravaged face toward her husband. Every moment that passed was a dangerous one; she knew that.
    Paul began to approach the lines of breakfasting guests. He turned one person around with a clap to the shoulder and a question, got a head shake in response, and moved on to the next. Liz took off, following a blur of signs.
    The gift shop, when Liz reached it, was tiny.
    One of the security guards had clearly already had the same idea; he was talking to the perky girl behind the counter. Liz dashed down a row of toys, then over to a corner where goggles and bathing caps were displayed.
    The pool.

CHAPTER SIX
    A memory had her in its grips as she began to run again, seeking pictures of a stick figure stroking through the water, indicating the location of the hotel pool. She felt as if she were moving in slow-motion, that sticky dream state from which you could never get free.
    When Liz had been pregnant with Ally, and Reid was under two, her parents had invited them to their condo, which had the luxury of a pool. Reid had worn one of those floaty vests and the effect had been to make him top-heavy. Liz kept having to tilt the little boy back as she bobbed with him in the water. She hadn’t taken her eyes off him for more than a second, only pausing to wipe some water from her face, when he went over. She’d blinked open her eyes to see Reid floating facedown on the shimmery blue surface of the water. Liz’s father snatched him up by the back of his vest like a kitten. It’d been such a short time that Reid hadn’t even gotten water up his nose. He had no idea how much danger he’d been in. But if her father hadn’t gotten to him, Reid wouldn’t have been able to raise his face, much less flip himself over. The precariousness, Reid’s utterly helpless condition, had stayed with Liz ever since.
    Maybe that was where Reid’s fear of death stemmed from. Maybe some visceral part of him remembered the closely averted tragedy.
    She swerved to see the security guard beside her.
    He had intuited the same scenario. “Do you have both your room keys, ma’am? The pool and spa are accessible only with a keycard.”
    Ice water was filling her as if she had suddenly been thrown into a body of water herself. Her words came out stutter-stitched together. “I—I don’t know.”
    Reid and Ally had loved swiping the keycard last night. If they’d gotten hold of one, they might be trying it in every door. She didn’t think they’d dare to swim alone—the rule that an adult had to be present before you went into the water was impressed at a young age when you lived near ponds and rivers and quarries—but an accidental slip was always possible.
    “Where is it?” Liz asked, words still slurry, hunting another sign.
    They came to the end of the hall.
    She didn’t have her own keycard, she realized, skidding to a stop before the glass door. It didn’t matter, though. She could see into the pool room and the gym beside it, and both were almost empty, devoid of people save for one lone guest, walking fast upon a treadmill. The water was a flat stretch, unbroken by any recent entry, without so much as a shadow beneath.
    “Ma’am?” said the security guard from behind. “The police have been called.”
    The police assembling in the lobby made everything seem as real as a slice to the skin. Terror slicked her. No more could they pretend that Reid might be off harassing some guest. And Ally was a homebody, tending to the earth around her just as Liz did. Even if Reid had been up to his usual, Ally never would’ve