The guy was in his early twenties. Square-jawed and good-looking, African-American with a tight haircut, he was placed in the cell opposite Milo’s by the same cop who had come in to remove Daggett’s body. The cop was big, with a few extra pounds that threatened the integrity of his uniform, but looked strong. Healthy.

The girl was a striking redhead with sharp cheekbones and tattoos on her bare arms. She looked nineteen or twenty, and she was slim, her chest small, but those arms were toned, like she spent a good portion of her spare time lifting weights or punching bags. From the way she carried herself, Amber figured it was probably the latter. She looked like a fighter, albeit a relaxed, friendly one, as she walked into the cell opposite. The cop who locked the door was a woman in her thirties, her blonde hair pulled back into a severe bun.

Amber glanced at Milo, but he was already returning to his bunk.

“Do we get a phone call?” the guy asked.

“It’s late,” the female cop replied. “Everyone’s asleep. The Chief’ll talk to you in the morning.”

The cops walked out, and the guy sat down, but the redhead stayed standing. She smiled at Amber.

“Howdy,” she said.

“Hi,” Amber responded.

“Nice town.”

“It isn’t ours. What are, um, what are you in for?”

The redhead laughed. “Aw, man, I wanted to say that. How many times in your life do you get the chance to say something like that?”

“Judging by how unlucky we’ve been with the law lately,” said her friend, “you’ll probably get another chance to say it before too long.”

The redhead moved to the bars, put her hands through, resting her elbows on the horizontal slat. “We’re here because we were involved in an activity that could have been misconstrued as destruction of public property,” she explained. “What about you?”

“I’m not really sure,” said Amber. “I think we just annoyed the wrong people.”

The redhead glanced at Milo, then back to Amber. “You two together?”

“He’s my uncle,” Amber said, a little too quickly.

“Hey,” said the redhead, “I’m not judging. My name’s Kelly. My friend here is Ronnie.”

“I’m Amber. This is Milo.”

“Very pleased to meet you both,” said Kelly. She had a beautiful smile. “How long you been in town?”

“A few days,” Amber replied. “Just passing through.”

“Yeah?” said Kelly. “You just stumbled across the place? That’s funny. We actually intended to come here, and we had the maps and we had the GPS, but we must have driven around this part of the state for two, three hours before we found the road that led us here. It’s almost as if the town doesn’t want to be found. But you two just stumbled across it, huh?”

Amber hesitated. “Yep.”