“I don’t want to talk about sleep, okay? I’m fairly certain this is the last day I’ll have a search party at my disposal. They haven’t found a thing—and that includes someone who’s seen or recognized the man in the video I sent you. There might be a few who’d be willing to go out again tomorrow, but it’s the start of a new week, and this is the fourth day they’ve been at it. People have to get back to their own lives at some point.”

“I understand where they’re at, and I understand the desperation you feel.”

“Right,” Amarok mumbled, but he didn’t believe that anyone could truly understand. Not unless they’d been through something similar.

There was an awkward silence, as if Lewis could tell his comment had been deemed meaningless. Then he said, “Look. You have to trust others to help you. You can’t do everything. I get that you don’t know me very well, and you can’t see everything I’m doing here in Minnesota, so you’re afraid to rely on the fact that it’s getting done.”

“That’s not—”

“I’m giving this case top priority, okay? Things don’t happen in an instant just because we need them to. So relax and let me do my job. It’s better to have two people on this than one, regardless of what your opinion is about how hard I’m going after it.”

Lewis had a point, but Amarok was unwilling to concede. He’d convinced himself that the real answers, the ones that might actually net him something, were to be found in Minnesota, since the kidnapping had to have been planned while Bishop was at Beacon Point.

“Were you ever able to reach Terry Lovett’s widow?” he asked Lewis. He didn’t want to waste time with a pep talk, regardless of whether he needed it. “Because I can’t get her to call me back no matter how many times I reach out to her.”

“I got her on the phone just a few minutes ago.”

“And?”

“She claims she’s never heard of Lyman Bishop or Evelyn Talbot and she has no idea who’d want her husband dead.”

“Did she say if Terry had been acting strange lately?”

“She wouldn’t say much of anything, wouldn’t give me more than two minutes of her time, but I’m not all that surprised, to be honest with you. She’s just lost her husband.”

“According to the article I read on Terry careening into that ravine, she wasn’t getting along with him.”

“Doesn’t mean she’d want him dead.”

“Then why won’t she call me back?”

“Who knows?”

“Did you ask her if you could at least text her a photo of our suspect? See if she recognizes him?”

“I already sent it.”

“And?”

“I haven’t heard anything yet, but I sent it only an hour or so ago. I’ll follow up as necessary. I’ll attend the funeral, too, see if anyone suspicious shows up. Maybe I can talk to her a bit more when it’s all over, bring a hard copy of the photo with me in case she doesn’t respond to the text.”