And who was the man in the overalls? Why was he prowling the forests of Blackwater Landing? Had he been the one who’d killed those other residents over the past few years and was trying to blame Garrett for the deaths? Had he scared young Todd Wilkes into killing himself? Was there a drug ring that Billy Stail had been involved in? She knew that drug problems in small towns were as serious as in the city.

Then something else occurred to her: that Garrett could identify Billy Stail’s real murderer—the man in the overalls, who by now might’ve heard about the escape and be out looking for Garrett and for her too. To silence them. Maybe they should—

Suddenly Garrett froze, an alarmed look on his face. He spun around.

“What?” she whispered.

“Car, moving fast.”

“Where?”

“Shhh.”

A flash of light from behind them caught their eyes. You have to listen all the time. Otherwise they can sneak up on you.

“No!” Garrett cried in dismay and pulled her into a stand of sedge.

Two Paquenoke County squad cars were racing along Canal Road. She couldn’t see who was driving the first one but the deputy in the passenger seat—the black deputy who’d set up the chalkboard for Rhyme—was squinting as he scanned the woods. He held a shotgun. Lucy Kerr was driving the second car. Jesse Corn sat beside her.

Garrett and Sachs lay flat, hidden by broom grass.

Moths fold their wings and drop to the ground….

The cars sped past and skidded to a stop where Canal Road met Route 112. They parked perpendicular to the road, blocking both lanes, and the deputies got out, weapons ready.

“Roadblock,” she muttered. “Hell.”

“No, no, no,” Garrett muttered, dumbfounded. “They were supposed to think we were going the other way— east. They had to think that!”

A passenger car passed them, slowing at the end of the road. Lucy flagged down the car and questioned the driver. Then they made him get out of the vehicle and open the trunk, which they searched carefully.

Garrett huddled in the nest of grass. “How the fuck d’they figure out we were coming this way?” he whispered. “How?”

Because they’ve got Lincoln Rhyme, Sachs answered silently.

“They don’t see anything yet, Lincoln,” Jim Bell told him.

“Amelia and Garrett aren’t going to be walking down the middle of Canal Road,” Rhyme said testily. “They’ll be in the bushes. Keeping a low profile.”

“There’s a roadblock set up and they’re searching every car,” Jim Bell said. “Even if they know the drivers.”

Rhyme looked again at the map on the wall. “There’s no other way for them to go west from Tanner’s Corner?”