“I know, sir. I’m sorry. This is important. I thought you might want to know. It’s the senator. He’s about to do a press conference.”

“What?”

“Senator Murray. Public Affairs just gave me a call, wondered who was behind green-lighting it.”

DeYoung clicked on the television. “What channel?”

“CBN.”

He flipped to Cable Broadcast News.

“Is this about his son?” I asked Annalise.

“That’s what the anchors are saying.”

“You need to call him, sir,” I told DeYoung. “Stop him.”

He already had his phone out and was speed-dialing the senator.

“I should speak to him,” I said. “I was there at his house the other night. I’m the closest to all of this.”

Annalise left us alone, and while DeYoung put the call through, I thought about the possible fallout if the senator gave too much away about the investigation.

Once it became public knowledge that there was someone else present at his son’s suicide, things with the media could easily spin out of control—especially if we ended up with a person of interest. The court of public opinion convicts all too many people long before the actual courts ever try them—if it even comes to that. Innocent people get mired in and permanently affected by issues like this all the time.

Cable news shows aren’t so much reporters of the news as they are vendors of it. They package up and sell what they believe their viewers want to consume—even if it doesn’t contain any truth at all.

DeYoung reached the senator.

I could only hear the assistant director’s side of the conversation. “I know, Senator . . . He just needs to speak with you for a moment . . . Of course . . .” DeYoung glanced at me, but said to the senator, “Yes. I promise. He’ll be quick.”

He handed me the phone.

“Hello, Senator,” I said. “You’re holding a press conference?”

“Yes. There was someone else there when my son died. We can’t keep it from the media any longer.”

“Keeping that to ourselves right now is the best call.”

“Where has that gotten you? Are you any closer to finding this person who was at the house when Jon died than you were on Friday?”

“We’re looking for related cases that might contain—”

“This is my son we’re talking about. My dead son. I’m not going to sit by and do nothing when I can get the public out there on our side, get them searching for whoever was there. I’m guessing that somebody knows something, and I’m going to offer a twenty-thousand-dollar reward as an incentive to help jog people’s memories. Finding that person is the only way to get answers regarding what happened to Jon.”

“Senator, this is not the appropriate time to—”

“Do you have any children, Agent Bowers?”

“I have a stepdaughter.”