The coffee tasted like acid. “The family was disturbed by your last phone call.”

“I can understand that you’re upset.”

“Upset?” Danny set the cup on the table. “You’re closing Jayne’s case while one of the men who abducted and tried to kill my sister is still at large. Nathan Hall also kidnapped three boys, including her fiancé’s son, and tried to kill them in a ritual human sacrifice. He murdered a college kid and a chief of police. And you’ve stopped looking for him?”

“I never said we were closing the case, and we’ll be looking for Nathan Hall until we find him dead or alive.” Rossi leaned back in his chair and scrutinized Danny. The cop’s determined calm was sandpaper to Danny’s nerves.

He stared back. Anger boiled under the discomfort. He wasn’t a juvenile delinquent anymore. He was a man who’d sacrificed for his country, and then come home to even more violence committed against his family. This damned cop owed him some respect. He straightened. Veterans didn’t slouch. “My sister deserves an end to this bullshit.”

“I agree completely.” Rossi sat up, laced his fingers, and rested his forearms on the edge of the table. “But I’ll be honest with you. It’s been four months since Nathan Hall disappeared. Despite an extensive statewide manhunt, there have been no substantiated sightings of him. None. No activity on any of his financial accounts. No evidence that he’s still alive. Unless he had help from someone, we have no idea how he vanished. As far as we can tell, no one in town knew the truth about his disease. The only loose end in the whole case is the unknown girlfriend.”

“What girlfriend?”

Rossi drank some coffee and made a sour face as he set it aside. “We did find some evidence, like receipts for flowers and condoms, in his office at the diner that suggested there was a woman in his life, but we haven’t been able to identify her. Apparently he kept the affair a secret.”

“Why would he do that? He’s single.”

“But maybe she isn’t,” the cop said. “We can’t find anyone in town who knew about her.”

“That’s a really small town. Seems odd no one knew.”

“No one who’s talking anyway. Only one other lead has come in lately.”

“What is it?”

The cop stood. “Let’s take a walk.”

Rossi led him through the building and out the back door. A chain-link fence encircled the rear lot. Heavy-duty chains secured the extra-wide gates. They passed a few rows of police cruisers, then some civilian vehicles. They went into a large garage. Dampness seeped from the concrete floor through the soles of Danny’s running shoes. Rossi stopped in front of a rust-spotted SUV with four flat tires and broken windows.