The homes were beautiful and picturesque and had all the warmth of a chain motel.

There were several news trucks on the street, though not as many as you might think. The gate was open, so Myron pulled into the Baldwins’, yep, limestone driveway. It was eight thirty, half an hour until the meeting with the Moores. Myron stepped out of the car. The grass was so green he almost bent down to see if it’d been freshly painted.

A chocolate Labrador sprinted toward him. Her tail was wagging so excitedly that her butt could barely keep up. She half slid the last few yards to him. Myron got down on one knee and gave the dog a good scratch behind the ears.

A young man—Myron guesstimated his age at twenty—came up behind her. He had the dog’s lead in his hand. His hair was long and wavy, the kind of long and wavy where you keep throwing back your head to keep it out of your eyes. He wore a black Lycra jogging ensemble with navy blue sleeves that exactly matched the navy blue in his sneakers. Myron thought that maybe he could see a little of both parents in his features.

“What’s your dog’s name?” Myron asked.

“Chloe.”

Myron stood. “You must be Clark.”

“And you must be Myron Bolitar.” He took a step and extended his hand. Myron shook it. “Nice to meet you.”

“Same,” Myron said.

Myron did the math quickly in his head. Clark was Rhys’s older brother. He’d been eleven when the kidnapping occurred, making him twenty-one now.

For a moment they both just stood there awkwardly. Clark looked to his right, then his left, then forced up a smile.

“You in school?” Myron asked, just to ask something.

“Yeah, I’m a junior.”

“Where do you go?”

“Columbia.”

“Great school,” Myron said, just to say something. “Do you know your major, or is that an annoying question only adults ask?”

“Political science.”

“Ah,” Myron said. “That was my major.”

“Great.”

More awkwardness.

“Any idea what you want to do when you graduate?” Myron asked because he couldn’t think of something more hackneyed and inane to ask a twenty-one-year-old.

“None whatsoever,” Clark said.

“No rush.”

“Thanks.”

Was that sarcasm? Either way, more awkwardness ensued.

“I should probably go inside,” Myron said, pointing toward the front door, in case Clark didn’t know what he meant by “inside.”

Clark nodded. Then he said, “You’re the one who saved Patrick.”

“I had help.” Which again was a stupid thing to say. The kid wasn’t looking for humility right now. Then: “Yeah, I was there.”

“Mom says you almost saved Rhys.”

Myron had no idea how to reply to that, so he started to glance around, and then it dawned on him.

This was the crime scene.

The path he was now standing on had been the one Nancy Moore took when she first rang the bell to retrieve Patrick from his playdate. It was the one Brooke would take a little while later when they couldn’t reach Vada Linna, the au pair.