I called him, since we were waiting, anyway. Manfred sounded sad but collected. I explained the situation to him, and he said that he’d heard from his mother again, that she was making better time now that the roads were clearing up. “We’ll see you later,” I said. “You hang in there, Manfred.”

“I don’t trust anyone here,” he said. “I don’t trust the doctor, I don’t trust the nurses, I don’t think the hospital guy is on the level. Even the minister gives me the creeps. You think I’m being paranoid? You think there’s really something wrong here?”

“That’s hard to answer at this point,” I said.

“Oh, right, the sheriff’s there,” Manfred said dismally. “I just can’t throw the feeling off, Harper. Something’s really wrong here.”

“In Doraville? Or specifically at the hospital?”

“I’m just not sharp enough to say,” he said after a long pause. “I don’t have the gift like my grandmother did.”

“I think you’re wrong. I think all you need is some experience,” I said. “I think you do have it in you.”

“You don’t know how much that means to me,” he said. “Listen, I’ve got to go now. I’ve got an idea.”

That didn’t sound good. That sounded like he was about to do something on his own. Young men on their own in Doraville didn’t fare well. I tried to call him back right away.

He did pick up, finally. “Where are you going?” I asked. Tolliver had come out of the bathroom, finally, clean and dressed. He stood frozen in place by the anxiety in my voice, his dirty clothes in his hands.

“I’m going to look for the boy,” Manfred said.

“No, don’t go without someone with you,” I said. “Tell us where you’re going.”

“You might get in trouble again.”

“Hey, we’ve got the sheriff, remember? Where you going?”

“I’m going to that barn again. That’s where I have to go.”

“No, wait for us, okay? Manfred?”

“I’ll meet you there.”

But it would take us a lot longer to get there, since we were starting from the lake.

I told the sheriff what the situation was, and she went ballistic. “We’ve searched the barn,” she said. “We’ve gone over and over it. That dirt floor is empty, the stalls are empty, there’s no loft. It’s an empty wooden building with walls so thin there couldn’t be a hidden space in there. There aren’t even any more dead animals, I’m almost a hundred percent sure, and you told us yourself there aren’t any bodies there.”