As usual, he had a stack of letters from women. He was too worked up to read them right now, figured he’d wait until he could enjoy them—if that time ever came. It was entirely possible he’d never return from the shower.

“Hey!” Roland called, and grinned as he showed Jasper a handmade shiv, which he quickly put behind his back when the inmate pushing the mail cart stopped to look, too.

Jasper wished he had a weapon. He was feeling more and more at a disadvantage when it came to Roland. The most maddening part was that he couldn’t figure out how Roland had managed to gain so much power and popularity in such a short time.

Intending to get to work sharpening his toothbrush—it was the only weapon he might have time to create in the few minutes he had left—he tossed his mail on the bed.

And that was when he saw it. He’d received a letter from Chastity.

Finally! At least now he’d get to learn, in her own words, what she’d found when she went to Beacon Point. Or maybe she’d tell him something Amarok had shared with her about the investigation he hadn’t yet heard. He was and always had been the most interested in Evelyn, and this was as close to Evelyn as he could currently get.

But Chastity’s letter said quite a bit more.

20

Minneapolis, MN—Tuesday, 11:10 a.m. CST

Amarok had the name of the guy who’d popped into the Quick Stop for a pack of cigarettes in that stolen carpet-cleaning van. It was Emmett Virtanen—a white male thirty-two years of age, six foot four inches tall and 240 pounds.

While sitting in a cheap motel room in St. Paul, Amarok studied the mug shot Detective Lewis sent via e-mail. According to Lewis, Virtanen had indeed served time at the Minnesota state prison in Faribault—eight years for second-degree burglary—with Terry Lovett. They’d been cellmates for over a year, and Terry had married Emmett’s sister as soon as he got out, which was only a few months before Emmett was released, at which point Lovett became the stepfather to her two children, a boy of twelve and a ten-year-old girl, the girl being the one who’d inadvertently given her mother away when she identified him.

Amarok had been tempted to head back to Alaska immediately after he’d left Bridget’s place last night, especially when he couldn’t get her to open the door or answer any of his questions despite what he’d learned. He didn’t like being gone when he had information that could lead to Evelyn.

But he wasn’t foolish enough to believe it would happen that fast. Yes, they’d identified Emmett, but now they had to locate him. They’d both gone to his apartment this morning, only to find it dark and closed up. Although Lewis was working on it, they didn’t yet have a search warrant. They couldn’t go in, so Amarok had been busy since then contacting Emmett’s other friends and associates—all of whom claimed they had no idea where he was.