Something has happened to the jurisdiction in the Vandersteel case. That would explain why Benton is here. If the FBI has taken over the investigation it would make sense that he’s been prowling around the scene inside the tent, watching where he steps, scanning trees, the grass, the path, and the damaged lamp and exploded glass. When he’s not looking at me, he’s looking at everything else, and it’s beyond his usual curiosity.

I can tell when he’s making assessments. I know when he’s in his profiler mode. I also know that the FBI shouldn’t have been invited to assist in the Vandersteel case—not at this early stage. But Benton’s demeanor, his heavy energy and quiet gravitas, are telling me he doesn’t need an invitation.

What that suggests is a fait accompli, and it’s a thought I find disturbing and unsettling. We don’t know if she’s a homicide, and since when is the FBI interested in electrocutions or lightning strikes?

I have no doubt Barclay divulged all sorts of things as he escorted Benton through the park. But by that point most of the damage had been done. A decision had been made or my husband wouldn’t have shown up here to begin with, and Benton can’t just walk in uninvited and help himself to a case. There’s a process, and I wonder when Marino’s going to catch on that Benton isn’t treating him like an investigative colleague anymore.

I watch him pack up his coffin-size scene case, obsessively fussing with it the way he does with one of his monster tackle boxes or tool chests.

“… A heart attack is my vote.” He’s like a moth batting against a window screen, determined he’s going to extract more from Benton about Briggs, about anything.

But what I’m really witnessing is the agonal stages of Marino’s lead role—or any role—in the Vandersteel investigation. He won’t be involved with what’s happening in Maryland either. But then, technically he never was.

“… That’s why I’m wondering if Ruthie said anything about him not feeling good,” Marino says as Benton ignores him.

Marino hasn’t been informed outright that his case has been co-opted by the Feds, and since they aren’t collaborative that’s the same as being fired. Something like that wouldn’t come from Benton. That’s not how it’s done when a local investigator is removed from a case—or more accurately stated, when a case is removed from a local investigator. Benton won’t be the one to say it and he doesn’t have to for the ugly truth to be all around us like the stench and the heat.