“He was with PEI.”

“He was also employed by the Baldwins.”

“Yeah, he was the head guy at the nature camp.”

“Was he involved in the hacking scheme?”

“I dunno. Why don’t you ask him?”

Was she serious? Decker said, “I would except he’s dead, Erin.”

The girl blanched like boiled cauliflower. “Oh!” She stuck the raw fingertip into her mouth. “Oh God! When?”

“We found him about six hours ago. It’s been on the news—”

“Who the hell has been watching the news!” Abruptly, she jumped up and started to pace while nibbling on her thumb. “Man, he’s covering all bases, isn’t he?”

“Let me ask you again. Was Tarpin part of the computer hacking—”

“Are you kidding?” she broke in. “Tarpin was a dweeb. He was paranoid about anything that had to do with the twentieth century!”

She stomped back and forth in front of the picture window. One wrong move and she’d be freefalling several hundred feet.

“Sit down, Erin,” Decker ordered.

The teen didn’t seem to hear him. “Hank was pure PEI—things should go back to the good old days when the white man was the strong, all-powerful but benevolent father.”

Decker got up and grabbed her arm. Instinctively, Erin flailed in his grip. He said, “I’m worried that you’re going to have an accident. You’re awfully close to the window.”

She looked around, realizing she was inches from the glass wall. “Oh…okay.” She sat back down. “It’s tempting, you know. Just take the plunge.”

His mind flashed to his own daughter hurtling over the mountainside. Instantly, his heart was hammering.

She’s fine, he told himself. Doing her thing over at Hollywood and doing it well. As a matter of fact, she’s way more fine than you are. “There are people you can talk to after we clear up this mess.”

“Yeah, shrinks. No thanks!” She let out a bitter laugh. “Look what happened to the Baldwins.”

“And you don’t think Tarpin had anything to do with the hacking scheme?”

“No. The Tarpin I knew had this weird code of honor—like it was okay to hate as long as you were honest about it. Maybe it was something he learned in the Marines.” She looked at Decker. “Hank was in the Marines.”

Decker knew. But Maryam had seen Holt and Tarpin go into Dee Baldwin’s office about six months ago. If Tarpin wasn’t a part of it, what had that meeting been all about?

“Tarpin…” She took in a deep breath and let it out. “He had some kind of argument with Darrell around the time of the vandalism. When was that? About six months ago?”

“About.”

“I just caught the tail end of it.”

“What was it about?”

“Something having to do with the direction of PEI.” She tapped her foot. “You know, it was Tarpin who introduced Darrell to Dee like three, four years ago.”