He opened the door the rest of the way but made sure to always have his eyes on her when she entered. He simply stared at her for a moment as she stepped through the doorway and into the living room. After an awkward silence, he seemed to realize for the first time that he didnt have a shirt on.

Let me grab a shirt, he said, hurrying off through the living room elsewhere into the house.

Kate used the opportunity to look around the living room, trying to get a better gauge on the sort of man Jack Kramer might be. He had an older model television sitting on an entertainment center that had seen better years. There were a few DVDs scattered around it, mostly action titles. The house had the smell of a place that had not seen a good cleaning in a while but there wasnt too much clutter. From where she stood in the living room, she saw a hallway to the rightwhere Jack had disappeared about thirty seconds agoand the opening to the kitchen to her left.

Jack came back into the room, looking a little embarrassed. Sorry about that, he said. Now, what do you need to know about Nick Sanders?

Well, hes the prime suspect in a case my partner and I are working on. Were finding out some things about him from just about everywhere. And before we have a solid case against him, we need to find out every detail about his time here in Duck Branch.

Well, he came in as a worker for Bill a few years ago from what I heard. I was in between jobs earlier last year and Bill took me on. The job sort of stuck and I ended up staying there for a pretty good amount of time. But the whole time I was there, Nick just got on my damned nerves. Hes just thats kind of guy. Really unlikable, you know?

Anything in particular?

Well, he was a hard worker, Ill give him that. But he also had this holier than thou thing going…which made no sense to me because he was clearly always high or drunk or something. I will say this, though…there was one day where he just randomly opened up to me about his wife dying. A heroin overdose, he said.

Did he ever mention any other family members? Kate asked.