“More than that. Stunned. Think about it, Doctor. Eight years of extreme structure— his entire adolescence spent behind bars— and now he’s released to a strange new world. We fed him dinner, showed him his room, and he went straight to bed. All we had was a converted service porch, but I tell you, that boy looked grateful to be in a small space again. The next morning, I was up at six-thirty as usual, went to check on him. His bed was empty, made up neat as a pin. I found him outside, sitting on the front steps. He looked worse than the previous night. Dark circles under his eyes. Really jumpy. I asked him what was wrong and he just stared at our front gate, which was wide open. I told him everything would be okay, he needed to give himself time. That only made him more agitated— he started shaking his head, really fast. Then he covered his face with his hands.”

Daney demonstrated. “It was as if he was hiding from something. Playing ostrich. I pried his fingers loose and asked him what was wrong. He didn’t answer and I told him it was important for him to let his feelings out. Finally, he told me someone was watching him. That caught me off-guard but I tried not to show it. I asked him who. He said he didn’t know but he’d heard sounds at night— someone moving around outside his window. The property’s small and neither my wife nor I had heard anything. I asked him what time. He said during the night, he didn’t have a watch. Then he said he heard it again early morning— right after sunrise— got up and found the gate open and saw a truck driving away fast. We always close the gate, but it’s just a pull-latch and sometimes if it’s not shut tight, the wind blows it open. So I didn’t consider that any big deal.”

“What kind of truck?” said Milo.

“He said a dark pickup. I didn’t push him because I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. It just didn’t seem that important.”

Milo said, “You doubted his credibility.”

“It’s not a matter of credibility,” said Daney. “Dr. Delaware, you tested Rand. Have you told the detective how severely learning disabled he was?”

I nodded.

“Now, combine that with the challenge of reentry.”

I said, “Had you known him to fantasize about things that didn’t exist?”

“Like a hallucination?” said Daney. “No. That’s not what happened Friday. It was more . . . exaggerating normal events. I figured he’d heard a bird or a squirrel.”

“Now you’re not sure,” said Milo.

“In view of what happened,” said Daney, “I’d be foolish not to wonder.”

“Anything happen between Friday and Saturday night?”