“He goes for a walk in the hills every morning,” Vince said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Something could have happened to him on a trail.”

“It’s pouring rain,” Dixon pointed out.

“Every day, no exceptions. He’s an obsessive-compulsive creature of habit,” Vince said, stirring a mega-dose of cream into his drink. “The fact that he isn’t where he’s supposed to be is a major red flag.”

“Do you think he could have Gina Kemmer stashed somewhere?” Dixon asked.

“That seems unlikely to me,” he said, taking a seat across the table from the sheriff. “He had a close connection to Marissa. There’s a possibility he could have snapped and killed her while in a dissociative state. If Gina had been there at the scene, he might have gone after her in a continuation of the same episode, but he wouldn’t have gone after her later. I would make book on that.

“If Zander Zahn is a killer, the murder was spontaneous and situational,” he said, “and there’d be a better than even chance he doesn’t remember the crime at all. He wouldn’t consciously go looking to commit another murder.”

“I’m not sure then what it is we’re supposed to do, Vince.”

“I’m concerned for Zahn’s mental state. He went over the edge yesterday. Now he’s missing. I don’t know that he wouldn’t hurt himself.”

“And you feel responsible for that.”

“Yeah, I do,” he confessed.

Dixon nodded. “If there’s a chance he’s lost in the hills out there, then we send out the Search and Rescue team.”

“Do you still have the chopper up looking for Gina Kemmer’s car?” Mendez asked.

“They’ll go back up when the weather subsides. The radar shows there should be a break around noon.”

“Is that thing equipped with a thermographic camera?” Vince asked.

Mendez had read about thermographic technology. The military already had it. Thermal-imaging cameras could read the infrared radiation emitted by all objects, making warmer objects—such as humans—stand out against cooler backgrounds—like the ground. For law enforcement it would mean being able to locate a human on the ground in circumstances where the person may not be visible to the naked eye—at night for instance.

Dixon barked a laugh. “Are you high? You spent too many years working for the federal government.”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“That would eat a big chunk out of my budget for a year!” Dixon said. “I’m excited we’re getting a fax machine. I’ve got a Search and Rescue team with a German shepherd. That’s the best I can do.”

Vince held up his hands in surrender. “I get it.”

The sheriff took a swig of his coffee. “What’s going on with our littlest witness?”