“I think it’s a little strange that I lived in this house for two weeks and never knew he had pets, was never asked to feed them. He made me do everything and never lifted a finger to help. I wondered why he wasn’t making me dust up here. But I didn’t ask about it. I just thought the house was so large he’d closed part of it off. All I felt was relief.”

She looked again at the stacks of things stuffed in here. Glad she hadn’t been set to the task of dusting all of it. “I realize now he was insistent that I leave the third floor alone. He made it sound like he was easing my work, but I’d say, he didn’t want me to see he had pigeons. I heard rustling up here, too. It was spooky, but I thought maybe the house creaked in the wind or he had rats. Why would he keep these birds a secret? And how in the world can pigeons help us keep Kingston in jail?”

“They can help,” John said with cool satisfaction, “because they’re not regular pigeons, they’re homing pigeons. I’d bet anything if I let one of these birds out of that cage and shooed it out the open window, it’d guide us straight to Hawkins’s hideout.”

“You’re assuming he’s got a hideout and these birds would know to fly there.” Wyatt looked skeptical.

“What I’m assuming”—John crouched by the pigeons, studying them—“is that if three brothers lived within a few miles of each other and no one ever realized they were connected, they had to have a place to meet.”

“Sheriff Gatlin said they were seen together in Casper,” Wyatt reminded him.

“Yes, and the fact that no one mentioned them being brothers when they got together over there is all the more proof that they had some other way to communicate.”

“It makes sense, I guess.” Molly tried to fit it all together. “If this madness could ever make sense.”

“Communicating with homing pigeons explains how Kingston knew which trail Rachel would be on,” John said. “I’ll bet the Hunt family talked about it at the house the night before they left. Someone overheard it and let Hawkins know. He sent a message to Kingston.”

“Homing pigeons?” Molly scratched her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“We sometimes called them war pigeons.”

“War pigeons?”

“Yes, they were used in the war,” John said. “The Pinkertons have used them to communicate over long distances when there’s no telegraph available.”

“If we let them out, you say they’ll fly to some hideout, but won’t they fly to Casper instead?” Molly asked.