“I found it very interesting indeed,” Malone said. “And she didn’t ask to see him. Family members almost always ask to see the victim, like they need to see it with their own eyes before they’ll believe it’s true.”

“How about her referring to Hamilton as the man who ‘raised’ Josh, rather than as his father?” Avery asked. “Parents of adopted children are almost always extra particular about those semantics.”

“We need to look more closely at her, and we need to notify the media,” Farnsworth said. “If there’s anyone you should tell within the Bureau before we go public with this, now is the time. I’ve asked my Public Affairs people to get the media to HQ within the hour.”

Hill withdrew his cell phone and tried to reach Dustin, getting his voicemail again, so he contacted his director supervisor, Leslie Monroe, the executive assistant director for the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services branch.

“Agent Hill,” she said when she answered. “What can I do for you?”

“Director Hamilton has been murdered.”

After a gasp, she said, “What?”

“I’ve been trying to reach Dustin, but I keep getting his voicemail.”

“Have you got a team at the scene?”

“It’s not our scene. The murder occurred in the director’s home. The MPD has jurisdiction.”

“Not this time they don’t. He’s ours. We’ll see to it.”

“Leslie, we can’t, and you know it.” He liked and respected her—most of the time. She left him alone to run his division the way he saw fit, and got involved only when he asked her to. But she was dead wrong on this, and he was prepared to dig in if need be.

“How did you hear about it?”

“I was the one who found him.”

“And you didn’t call us first? What the hell, Avery?”

“I followed procedure, and when you take a minute to think it through, you’ll realize that.”

After a long pause in which he wondered if he’d ended his own career by criticizing his boss’s judgment, she said, “What were you doing at the director’s home on a Sunday?”

Avery filled her in on what’d been going on with Josh, the APB that had been issued, the subsequent statement that had come from the director and the reason he had gone to the director’s home. He wanted to ask what rock she’d been living under all day to have missed the events from earlier.

“We had my daughter’s birthday party today,” she said, answering his unspoken question. “I’ve been offline. Was Josh located?”

“Yes, the MPD has him in protective custody until we figure out what’s going on with the kidnapping case.”