“Sure,” Lyle said. “But you want to tell me what the hell’s going on? I feel like a goddamned mushroom up here.”

“Molinar might be the accomplice. We need to see if the two men have a connection.”

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“Niki Vang, my old partner, is helping me out.”

“You trust her?”

It seemed an odd question, and the tone came across as though Lyle had some reason not to.

“She’s helping us,” Max said in a way that put the matter to rest.

“Don’t pay me no mind,” Lyle said. “I didn’t sleep well. Your couch is not very comfortable.”

“You stayed at my place?”

“Thought you might come back here last night. Wanted to figure out our next move.”

“Our next move is to find a nexus between Peter Molinar and Reed Harris.”

“Sure. I got you. I’m still friends with Joanna, the secretary at the sheriff’s office. I’ll give her a call and see what I can come up with.”

Max hung up just as he parked behind Niki’s squad car out in front of the house he recognized from Olivia Molinar’s file.

Max and Niki stood behind Detective Greene as she rang the doorbell. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, the wind picking up from the north, light rain falling at an angle. Max flipped the collar of his jacket up and turned his back to the wind.

Greene rang again and knocked on the glass, peering inside. “I don’t see any movement.” She rang and knocked a third time. “Maybe he’s at his apartment in Falcon Heights.”

Max’s phone buzzed. He took it out to see that Lyle was calling him and slipped it back into his pocket.

“The ping came to this location,” Niki said. She walked to a window next to the door and peeked in.

“Ping?” Detective Greene looked at Niki and then at Max. “What ping?”

The ping had been a Fourth Amendment violation. The fact that it brought them to a house where a woman had been murdered hadn’t changed that. Max stepped in to steer the conversation away from Niki’s slip.

“My confidential source…” Max cleared his throat to stall for a second. “He’s in a position to ping a phone number. The important thing is we have a lead—that Strangers on a Train thing.”

Greene said, “Why do I get the feeling you’re holding out on me?”

Now it was Niki’s turn to redirect. “You said Peter worked for a landscaper. He could be at work.”

Macey was slow to pull her attention from Max, but eventually did, scrolling through her phone for the information about the landscaping company. Niki and Max shared a furtive glance, and Max could see a look of relief on Niki’s face.

Macey placed the call. “Hello? This is Detective Macey Greene with the St. Paul Police Department. I’m trying to reach one of your employees, a Peter Molinar.” There was a pause, and then Macey looked at Niki with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, really? Well, I appreciate your help.”