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involved?” If Ava’s parents did have something to do with her going missing, it certainly was going to change the whole dynamic of any con I was planning.
    Thomas waved away my concern. “Nah. I don’t think so. The mum and dad were gutted when it happened. I can still remember the mum screaming Ava’s name. I don’t think you can fake emotion like that. I think there was some question about some cousin on his side who was kinda shifty. He had a whole pile of gambling debts to all the wrong people.”
    “But if he took Ava for money, then he would have had to make a ransom demand.”
    “Unless he took her to punish his family for not helping him out, or if the mob guys he owed money to took her as a lesson. He didn’t have any kids of his own.” Thomas leaned back and tossed up his hands in defeat. “The whole situation was weird. It was like the kid just disappeared into thin air. No ransom note, no body, no nothing. Everyone kept thinking they would find something, but everything came up empty. There were a whole bunch of theories, and even some wacky psychic who kept claiming she was getting messages from the beyond from Ava, but nothing came of any of it.”
    “What about the nanny? Wasn’t she the one with Ava when it happened?”
    Thomas rubbed his chin. “The police checked her out, butshe had a stellar employment record with the McKennas, and there didn’t seem to be any motivation. She ended up losing her job when Ava went missing.”
    I glanced at Thomas. His mouth was scrunched up, which only happened when something was bothering him. “Anything else about her?”
    “Nah. Nothing really. Can’t say just because you don’t like someone that they’ve done anything wrong.”
    “Why didn’t you like her?” I asked.
    “No reason really. Maybe I was mad she didn’t like me.” He smiled. “She was a looker. I invited her to a staff party that was going on while she was here. I figured she might like a night out. It’s got to be lonely being a nanny in a situation like that. You’re not a part of the family, you’re clearly the hired help, but you spend all your time with them.”
    “I take it she didn’t take you up on your offer?”
    “She looked at me like she had just stepped in something nasty. She made it very clear that she wasn’t interested.” Thomas shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t just that she turned me down for a date; it was like she wasn’t interested in anything to do with any of the staff here. A few of the girls that worked the desk invited her to something and she shot them down too.”
    “Maybe she was just a loner.”
    “Could be. At any rate, the police didn’t look at her too hard.” I started a mental to-do list based on what I’d learned from Thomas. Investigating the psychic would be an interesting angle.If she’d staked her psychic reputation on getting messages from a dead Ava, she wouldn’t want a live one to show up. I also needed to check up on Mr. McKenna’s shifty cousin. If he owed money to loan sharks in the Seattle area, then my dad might know them. There are times when hanging around with the wrong crowd comes in handy.
    I also needed to figure out how to pump my mom for information without her knowing why I wanted it. Lastly, I needed to hunt down Chase from the missing kid foundation and see if he had any other information on the family or the abduction that might help. With every heartbeat, I could feel the clock ticking down to the August first date, when my school money was due. So far, all I had was a plan to make a plan. If Brendan and I couldn’t come up with an angle to the con soon, then all this information on the mysterious missing Ava wasn’t going to do me any good.
    Thomas snapped his fingers and I jumped. “Earth to Sadie,” he said with a chuckle. I must have missed what he was saying.
    “Oh, sorry, I was just thinking.” I drank down the rest of the tea. “I should get going so you can finish up these