As Sterne accompanied Kim and Gurney to the front door, he urged her to keep an open mind and invited her to stay in touch with him. Shaking hands with Gurney, smiling politely, he said, “I hope at some time in the future we have an opportunity to talk about your police career. The article by Kim’s mother made it sound quite fascinating.”

It was then that Gurney realized who the man reminded him of.

Mister Rogers.

Mister Rogers with a wife from a sultan’s harem.

Chapter 10

A Dramatically Different Point of View

At the end of Sterne’s driveway, even though there was no traffic, Kim stopped the car before turning out onto the road. “Before you ask,” she announced confessionally, “the answer is yes. When I set up our appointment and told him you’d be coming with me, I gave him the website link to Connie’s article.”

Gurney said nothing.

“Are you annoyed at me for doing that?”

“I feel like I’m in the middle of an archaeological dig.”

“What do you mean?”

“Little bits and pieces of the situation keep emerging. I’m wondering what’s next.”

“There’s nothing ‘next.’ Nothing I can think of. Is that what your job was like?”

“Like what?”

“An archaeological dig.”

“In some ways, yes.”

In fact, it was an image that had occurred to him often: uncovering the puzzle pieces, laying them out, studying the shapes and textures, fitting them together tentatively, searching for patterns. Once in a while, you could take your time. More frequently you had to move swiftly—in an ongoing serial-murder case, for example, when delays in finding and interpreting the pieces could mean more murders, more horror.

Kim took out her cell phone, looked at it, looked at Gurney. “You know, I’m thinking, since it’s not even three o’clock yet … Would you possibly be up for one more meeting before I drive you home?” Before he could answer, she added quickly, “It would be on the way, so it wouldn’t take much extra time.”

“I need to be home by six.” This wasn’t entirely true, but he wanted to create a boundary.

“I don’t think that’s a problem.” She tapped in a number, then held the phone to her ear, waiting. “Roberta? It’s Kim Corazon.”

A minute later, after the briefest of conversations, Kim expressed her thanks, and they were on their way.

“That sounded easy,” said Gurney.

“Roberta’s been hot on the documentary idea ever since I first got in touch with her. She’s not shy about her feelings—or her opinions. With the possible exception of Jimi Brewster, she’s the most aggressive participant.”