I spend the morning rereading the file I’ve amassed on my John Doe aka Leroy Nolt case. An e-mail from Skid tells me Jeramy Kline’s parents are deceased. Abigail Kline’s parents, Naomi and Reuben Kaufman, sixty-four and sixty-seven years of age respectively, live on a county road outside of Charm. Neither has a record, although Reuben was cited multiple times for failure to display a slow-moving-vehicle sign on his buggy. The last ticket was issued three years ago. Either he’s stopped driving the buggy or he’s decided the slow-moving-vehicle sign isn’t too ornamental after all.

Abigail has two sisters, both of whom are now married and living in Upstate New York. Her brother, Abram, still lives in the area. I make a mental note to pay him a visit, too, to see if he came into contact with Leroy Nolt.

I’ve just shut down my computer, when my phone buzzes. I glance down to see SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT pop up on the display.

“How’re you feeling today, Chief?” Sheriff Rasmussen begins.

“Like the train conductor didn’t see me standing on the tracks.”

He chuckles. “I thought you’d want to know … that brass we found last night is, indeed, .22 caliber. Considering the distance, probably from a rifle. Crime-scene guy dug a slug out of your dash. Unfortunately, it’s fragmented, so we’re not going to be able to do anything with striations.”

“Lots of people have .22 rifles around here.” Including the Amish, a little voice reminds me.

“We may have gotten lucky, Kate. There’s a partial print on the casing. We don’t know if it’s enough, but they’re going to run it through AFIS and see if there’s a match. Tomasetti’s expediting everything for us.”

AFIS is the acronym for the Automated Fingerprint Identification System. I feel a little swell of pride in my chest at the mention of Tomasetti. “Thanks.”

“We stepped up patrols in all of Holmes County as well as Painters Mill proper. I’ve got my guys on mandatory OT.”

“I appreciate that, Mike. Keep me posted, will you?”

“You know it. Take it easy today.”

“I’ll do my best.”

*   *   *