“Who the hell knows? Been with me about four months. Then he just went moving on. It’s not like I had him locked into no million-dollar long-term contract.” Leroy laughed and shot a glob of spit at the ground.

Knox looked around. “Did he stay in one of those buildings?”

Leroy nodded and pointed at the one closest to the path.

“Mind if I take a look through it?”

“What agency you with again?”

“Federal.”

“I know that. But which one?”

Knox held up his “public” creds close to the man’s face. “That one.”

Leroy took a step back. “Go on ahead then.”

Knox inwardly smiled. That was at least one perk you got doing what he did. There weren’t many others.

The search of the shack turned up only one significant fact. There wasn’t a single fingerprint in the place and Knox had brought equipment with him that would show if there were. That alone told Knox that he was probably on the right track. Most people, including gimp-legged, nearly blind mutes, were not known to be so meticulous about wiping away such identifiers.

He left the shack and found Leroy puttering around.

Knox said, “I’m going to have an artist come up here and he’s going to do a composite drawing based on your description of the guy.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I know you will.”

Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

THE DINNER WAS DELICIOUS, mostly fried and filling. Abby had cooked it herself and Stone had helped her serve it. It was only the two of them. He’d taken a shower in an upstairs bathroom decorated like something out of a design magazine. The coal company must’ve really paid through the nose.

“So you’re a fan of Shakespeare?” Stone said.

“I read his plays in high school. I could never relate to them before.”

“And now you can?”

“Maybe. He’s got all of what life has to offer, especially the negatives, but I’ve lived the real thing too much to be impressed anymore by a fiction of it.”

Danny came in halfway through the meal, took one look at Stone and his mother in the dining room with their linen napkins and fancy plates, and turned back around without a word. Then a door slammed. Loudly.

Stone glanced after him and then turned back to Abby. “I’m sure he keeps you busy.”

“That’s one way of putting it. You have children?”

“I did. She’s not alive anymore.”

“Sorry to hear that. Danny’s used up about seven of his nine lives and I feel like he took mine right along with his.”

“Were you against him going away? You said you cried a lot.”

“What mother wouldn’t with her only child saying good-bye?”

“Then you’re glad he’s back?”