“There’s enough pathology between those two to keep the serial-killer writers busy for years,” Klavin said. “As long as they’re behind bars while they’re being studied, that’s fine with me.”

“The writers are welcome to ’em,” said Stuart. He smoothed his already smooth hair. “Those two are talking, and that’s how we’re filling in the cracks.”

Tolliver took my hand.

I sighed.

They began asking me exactly what had happened the afternoon before, and I wasn’t really ready to talk about it. But I’d had to do a lot of things I didn’t want to do during my stay in Doraville, and this was simply another one of them.

“Did you suspect he was the one?” Stuart asked.

“Yes,” I said, and they all seemed surprised…especially Tolliver. “Because when I was sitting there in the car, I was thinking about the hole under the barn, and I was thinking how strange it was that Barney Simpson knew there was a hole there. He said something about it when I was visiting Manfred here at the hospital. I might not even have thought about it, but when Doak Garland asked me a question about it, it was clear that Doak had no idea there was a pit under the stall. So it was not common knowledge. Yet Barney had known about it. And then I thought about the way so many of the boys had had a trip to the hospital. That would have been a good place for Barney to spot them and mark them for future attention. And he said something to me about that.”

That was what they were anxious to hear, so I tried to remember the way Barney had talked about their methods, and explain about the pit and why it had been built, when the old house out of town was really more isolated.

“They would take turns,” Stuart said. “Because it was hard to park two cars behind the old house. But sometimes, on weekends, they’d go together. Like double dating.”

I felt sick, and put the coffee down on the rolling table. Tolliver patted me.

“Sometimes the boys would last four or five days, if they gave them food and water,” Klavin said.

“Okay, enough,” Tolliver said, and it was clear he was angry. “We know as much about this as we want to know.”

“So, we’re charging him with attempted homicide on you and Ted Hamilton,” Klavin said, when he’d absorbed the rebuke. “But with the murders, we got enough to put him away forever. We’ll just throw in other charges if there’s any way at all he might get off. I mean, you can only give him life so many times.”

“Some of the forensic evidence will tie both of them in, I hope. So it’s not just their confessions.”