He felt a little less confident after an hour with Jasper in the interrogation room. The self-identified Vietnam vet prided himself on being a stoic asshole, and he had not dropped that role here. Despite the fact that he’d confessed, Jasper refused to elaborate or go into any detail. Brad wanted to know the how and the why of it—everyone in the department did, everyone in town did—but Jasper said only, “I did it. Charge me and I’ll take my punishment.” After that, he was silent.

Brad left the booking and paperwork to Paul and Vern while he, Hank and three other deputies descended on Jasper’s cabin, looking for evidence. Two hours later, they’d come up with nothing—no evidence of any communication with Jimmy Collins on the primitive and obviously seldom-used computer, no bloody clothes or gloves, no sign of blood anywhere—and Brad gave the order to expand their search to the surrounding property. While there was nothing connecting Jasper to the young teller, they did find in the bedroom a blue tote bag from The First People’s Bank’s grand opening, an item that probably meant nothing but that Brad found troubling nonetheless.

He was scheduled for a five o’clock meeting with Agent Yamato from the Bureau, to talk about the bombing, and Brad left Hank in charge as he drove back to the office. The FBI guys had maintained a strict barrier between their case and everything else, but he thought he might ask for some advice about getting information out of Jasper—as much as it pained him to ask those arrogant agents for anything.

Unfortunately, the barrier still held, the FBI still didn’t give a shit about their local murders, and there was no new information on the bombing, so the meeting lasted mere minutes.

“What about all of the dead bank employees we found in the meadow?” Brad pressed. “Can’t you classify that as an X-file or call in the Fringe division or something?”

Yamato did not even bother to respond.

Angry that he had been called away from his investigation to be told non-information that could have and should have been texted to him, Brad was about to visit Jasper’s cell and take another crack at the old man, when his cellphone rang. It was Jillian, and his heart skipped a beat when he heard her voice. The girls never called him at work. “Hey, honey,” he said. “What is it?”

“It’s getting dark, and Mommy’s not back yet. She said she’d just be gone for a little while, but it’s been too long.” Jillian sounded almost ready to cry. “I tried to call her, but she didn’t answer. She told us not to call you, but it’s getting dark!”

“Where is she? Do you want me to call her?”

“We want you to come home!” Now she was crying.