“What were you doing hunting mountain lions?”

“I stuff them and sell them,” he said.

Tara shared a glance with Warren. She had a feeling he was telling the truth.

“Can you tell us what happened when you got in that altercation on the trail?”

“Not this shit again,” he muttered before taking a deep breath. “Just some crazy animal activists. I was hunting and they came up behind me like a bunch of idiots and starting telling me why I was morally wrong.” He rolled his eyes at the thought. “They even handed me a bunch of pamphlets and refused to leave. We got in an argument, one thing led to another, and I socked this chick’s boyfriend and she called the cops.” He shrugged. “I just wanted to be left alone.”

Tara knew Kenny McNamara was clearly violent, but he didn’t sound like someone who would have intent to kill. But she still needed to see if the victims looked familiar to him, so she pulled out their pictures from the envelope and placed them in front of him. He stared wide-eyed at them.

“Where were you last night?” Tara questioned.

He looked down at the pictures and then up at her. “What the hell is all this about exactly?”

“Please answer the question.”

“I was home all day yesterday. Why?”

“Do any of these people look familiar to you?” Tara asked.

He took one look at the pictures and shook his head and his face suddenly morphed into confusion.

“Wait, did you think the blood in my kitchen was a person’s?” He let out a nervous laugh at the absurdity.

“These individuals went missing along the Appalachian Trail. The same area where you often hunt,” Tara replied.

“Whoa, whoa! I may hunt illegally, but I’ve never killed a person before.”

His surprise felt sincere and Tara noticed that the rash on his chest had now begun to subside. He’s telling the truth, she thought to herself. She picked up the pictures and placed them back in the folder and then reached deeper to pull out the one last thing to determine if he really was being truthful. She grabbed hold of the evidence bag and pulled it out of the folder. Inside it was the compass.

“Does this look familiar to you?” She held up the evidence bag so he could clearly see.

He knitted his eyebrows in confusion. “I mean, I’ve seen a compass before. I don’t own one.”

“Have you ever seen this compass before?” she prodded.

He quickly shook his head. “I’ve never seen it before.”

Tara let out a sigh. She knew this wasn’t him. She placed the compass back in the folder and looked toward Warren. “I think we’re done here,” she said.

He nodded, affirming that he knew it too—this wasn’t their guy. They both stood up and made their way to the door.

“Wait, wait! Does this mean I’m off the hook?” McNamara asked from behind them.

Tara reached for the doorknob as she turned her head back toward him.