Alan set Emily on the couch. “Daddy’s going to talk to his friends for a few minutes, okay?”

She looked at Logan and the others warily.

“You want some goldfish?” Alan asked.

Emily’s eyes brightened and she nodded. “Goldfissss, yes!”

Alan looked at Logan and the others. “Give me a second.”

He went over to the kitchen area, and returned a few minutes later with a small plastic bowl of orange goldfish crackers.

“Here you go, sweetie.” He handed the bowl to Emily, and she immediately settled back on the couch and popped a cracker into her mouth, her attention now fully on the TV.

Alan watched his daughter for a moment, then said, “Why don’t we go over here?”

He led the group to the dining room table, a long oak affair that looked like it could have once been a door to an old church.

Once they were all seated, Alan said, “Callie tells me you can help find Sara.”

Logan raised a palm. “I think it’s a little too early to know that yet. If I can, I will.”

“I’ll take whatever you can do.”

Alan’s desperation wasn’t limited to his face. It encased him like a parka.

Across the room, Emily laughed at the TV. Her father’s gaze flicked to her, his eyes softening for a moment before worry filled them once more.

“Why don’t we start at the beginning?” Logan said. “How did you and Sara meet?”

“My job keeps me pretty busy,” Alan said. According to Callie, Alan ran a small accounting firm. “To keep it from driving me crazy, I got in the habit a few years ago of attending some of the free talks they give at the university. I’ve always enjoyed history, so anytime they had a lecture like that, I was probably there. It was a great way to not think about numbers. Sara and I met at a discussion about the terracotta warriors. You know, in China?”