“Yeah,” he said, sighing. “But it’ll take a while. Hang on.” He went inside, brought out the collapsible chair, and set it up, gesturing for me to sit. After I’d settled comfortably, he perched himself on the flattish rock that was the cabin’s front porch.

“Remember a few weeks back?” he asked. “We were talking about dumb things we’ve done?”

I nodded. Since the conversation had been so long ago, I could have added to my own list, but we could talk about that later. Or not. Not would be fine.

“And you remember that my stupid thing was losing my wallet when I was downstate and not realizing it for a while?”

Again I nodded. These days, if you wanted to use fancy phone apps, you hardly needed a wallet at all.

He looked at me, then away. “Well, it turns out that someone found my wallet right after I lost it.”

I was getting a bad feeling about this.

“Well.” His voice went quiet. “I never got around to changing my driver’s license address from my mom’s house to Up North. The cops showed up at my mom’s, looking for me. That’s what Mom was texting me about, that day on the bookmobile. The real robber dropped my driver’s license at the bank.”

Yup. This was bad.

“The guy has been using my credit card, but not enough for the credit card company to flag the purchases as out of line and contact me. He made a trail that puts me right at the time and place of that bank robbery.” Ryan banged his fist to his forehead. “How could I be so stupid?”

It was all making a sad sort of sense. “Now I see why you ran,” I whispered.

“No way will the police believe me. I mean, I barely believe I didn’t notice my wallet was missing for three weeks. And it’s not like I have an alibi. The robbery was on one of my off days; I was ice fishing by myself. And now they’re trying to pin Pug’s murder on me?” His voice cracked. “I’ve been hanging out here, figuring they’ll eventually find the right guy, but what if they don’t? What if they really think I did it?”

I wanted to give him a huge, sisterly hug. I wanted to tell him that the detectives with the Tonedagana County Sheriff’s Office were experienced, skilled, and more than competent. That they wouldn’t rest until they had the right person in custody. But I remembered that Hal’s investigation avenues all seemed to lead to Ryan, and I wasn’t so certain. I was mostly sure, but I couldn’t risk it, not with Ryan’s freedom on the line.