The first bombs, mostly in abandoned mailboxes, were practice shots. Random targets. But what if one of the bombers had figured out how to make the bomb explode? Then they’d left the bomb at the hospital because it would attract the most attention. One member of the team had learned how to build a bomb that worked while his partners in crime were still trying. Only others were still leaving their efforts around for others to find.

That might explain why, after the hospital bomb, the next bomb didn’t work. The one left on the professor’s steps had been made by another bomber.

Ketch turned around and began to walk toward home.

Another factor: Why? No one on the squad could think of anyone who hated Clifton Bend enough to destroy it. But a group? Even a gang of three or four could push each other along. That’s why gangs damage property that none of the members would have gone after alone. From lynch mobs to rioters, one brain forms.

The only thing they needed to have in common was that they hated something about the town or the people. Maybe they saw themselves as making a point. Somehow making the world a better place by blowing up something made sense to them.

If there were two or three bombers, they’d have to meet somewhere to plan. Then they’d probably touch base with one another. Make bombs in one place.

Ketch would bet the gang would meet somewhere public to plan, and somewhere very private to work.

A coffee shop. A café. A bar would be a good place to meet.

With spring break, most of the crowds were gone from the coffee shops bordering the campus. Cafés were mostly families, so they wouldn’t go there to talk. That left two places. The town’s only bar and the pizza place.

Ketch took off running. There were only two people that Ketch could think of who hung out at both places and stayed in town during the spring break. Wynn Wills and his brother, Bull. If there were others who might be willing to play with trouble, he’d bet the Wills boys would know them.

The question was, were the Wills brothers the bombers or were they their intelligence source? Both brothers had ways of learning what was happening in town.

Ketch almost tripped at the thought that WW and his brother might be the help he needed to solve the case.

As he stormed the stairs to his loft, he started planning. First, he’d get Tuesday to talk to the other barmaids and the bartenders who worked during spring break. Maybe one of them had seen a small group of men with their heads together planning, and Ketch would guess they’d also been together the night of the hospital bombing, probably celebrating that one bomb finally worked.