Sam ended the call with Malone and saw that Avery was on a tense call of his own. From the sound of it, he was being grilled by someone above him in the Bureau.

“Yes, ma’am. As soon as I have anything, you’ll be the first to know.” He rolled his eyes at Sam and made a moving-right-along gesture with his hand. “Of course. I understand. I’ll be in touch.” He jammed the phone into his pocket. “They’re melting down at headquarters. That was the acting director.”

“Still no sign of Jacoby?”

“Nothing. It’s like he vanished.”

“And he’d know how to do that, wouldn’t he?”

“Yeah, he would,” Avery said tightly. “Just like you and I would if we needed to. They’re also fuming that I called you guys in before I called them when I found Hamilton’s body, but I stick by my decision on that one.”

“You handled it by the book, which is what you should’ve done.”

“Try telling the acting director that. I’m sure there’ll be hell to pay for me when the dust settles.”

The GPS took them to the subdivision the Hamiltons had called home during their time in Knoxville. Avery brought the car to a stop outside a raised ranch that had seen better days. The exterior was right out of the eighties with faux brick siding and rusting metalwork around the windows. Abandoned plastic toys littered the front yard, and a half-built hot rod sat on blocks in the driveway next to a sedan with two flat tires.

“Nice place,” Sam said.

“I bet it was back in the day.”

“Let’s see if anyone remembers them.”

After knocking on a dozen doors and nearly being attacked by a Rottweiler, they hit pay dirt six doors down from the Hamiltons’ old house. Mildred Spires, an eighty-year-old widow and mother to a friendly poodle, spoke in a lovely Southern accent and remembered the Hamilton family well.

“Come in,” she said, after they’d shown their badges and identified themselves.

Sam was thankful that Mrs. Spires didn’t seem to recognize her.

They were shown into a charming home, decorated in country style. A painted heart on the wall declared Home Is Where You Hang Your Heart. She offered tea, which they declined. When they were seated in the room Mildred referred to as her parlor, she lowered herself slowly to her recliner. The dog jumped into her lap and made itself at home. “What do you want to know about the Hamiltons?” she asked. “I saw the news about Troy this morning, and my heart about stopped! He was such a nice young man, so good-looking and hardworking. I told Courtney she’d be a fool to let that one go.”

“So you were close to them?” Avery asked.

“Oh yes! I was like an extra grandma to Mark and Maura when they were little.”