Vince walked into the interview room, coffee in hand, and took a seat at the table, turning his chair a little sideways so he could comfortably cross his legs in front of him.

Farman glared at him. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“You should be happy to see me, Frank,” Vince said evenly. “I’m fucking Switzerland. I don’t know you. I got no history with you. I got no beef with you. There’s nothing personal going on here. I’ve got some questions. You’ve got the answers. It’s all good.”

Farman said nothing, but Vince could see him settle with the idea somewhat. He was going to have to answer these questions. Better to answer them with no emotion involved.

“So where’s your wife?” Vince asked. “She should be part of the discussion about your son. Let’s just get hold of her and clear this up.”

“She left,” Farman said.

“And went where?”

“I don’t know. We had an argument last night, and she left.”

“See?” Vince said, lifting his hands. “There’s always an explanation. Was that so hard?”

Farman said nothing.

“So, what happened?” Vince asked. “She got pissed off, took off, went to her mother’s, something like that?”

“I don’t know where she went. I admit I had too much to drink at dinner. I was an ass. Later I passed out. When I woke up this morning, she was gone.”

“Does she have a friend, a sister, or someone nearby?”

Farman shook his head, but to himself, as if he was having an internal conversation, considering and discarding answers. “I don’t know her friends.”

“Do you have kids besides Dennis?”

“Sharon’s two girls from her first marriage. They’re staying with friends or something. They’re teenagers. I don’t try to keep track of them.”

“You can see here, Frank, where this gets sticky,” Vince said reasonably. “Nobody knows where Sharon is, and your son is saying she’s dead and you killed her. If you weren’t in a uniform, what do you think would happen about now?”

“If I was smart, I would ask for a lawyer,” he said quietly.

“Is that what you want to do? You know what happens then, Frank. Everything goes totally by the book. You know the book inside and out. The lines of communication shut down. Or you can let your people go to your house, have a look around, see that everything is fine. You dig up the phone numbers of Sharon’s friends and family, and she’s contacted and everything is good.

“You shut it down now, you know where everyone’s head goes. You had too much to drink, you were pissed off about Dixon taking you off the team. You got into it with the missus, she said the wrong thing, you lost your temper. One thing led to another, things got out of hand, you panicked . . .”