If Tarpin was innocent and to be believed, he hadn’t heard anything. Which meant it had happened in the deepest part of the sleep cycle—usually two hours before wake-up. If Tarpin said he woke around five, the murders probably took place sometime around or after three.

From three to five…

Where was Dee Baldwin?

He closed the flap and gave himself a moment to catch his breath while scanning for details. In the last few minutes, Webster, Martinez, and Bontemps had surfaced. Martinez was writing in his notepad but stopped when he saw Decker. The trio walked over, Webster saying, “How bad is it?”

“It’s awful.” Decker turned to Bontemps.

Before he could talk, Webster broke in. “I called Wanda down because she was involved with Golding in the vandalism case. I thought if this was another hate crime, a bigger hate crime, she should be here.”

“It’s a hate crime, but not a ‘hate’ crime,” Decker said. “But it’s good that Wanda’s here. We could use someone in Juvenile since the majority of our suspects are under eighteen.”

They all regarded the stunned teenagers.

Decker said, “Let’s divide the kids into two groups according to their ages. The ones over eighteen can be questioned. As far as the minors, we can’t do much without parental consent. Get their names and phone numbers and start contacting the parents. You can also ask them very casually if they heard or saw anything and judge their reaction.

“But remember that we’re working with a different population here. They’re all going to look like they’re trying to hide something, because that’s their normal behavior. They’re fuckups. They’ve got years of experience masking guilt or shifting the blame. We’re looking for something out of the ordinary.”

Webster said, “Y’all really think one of them did it and stuck around to be questioned?”

Martinez said, “Maybe we have a real psycho in our midst.”

Bontemps looked at the motley crew. “That very well could be.”

“I’m going to see if I can get Tarpin’s permission to open up the kids’ knapsacks,” Decker said. “When the parents placed their kids in the program, they explicitly gave Tarpin and Baldwin permission to do random checks of their personal possessions for drugs and contraband.”

“This is sounding familiar,” Webster said.

“I realize that,” Decker answered.

“Who’s Tarpin?” Martinez asked.

“The dude in the camouflage,” Decker said.

“He looks like he could do some damage. What’s his role in the camp?” Martinez asked. “Boot kicker?”

“Chief Nature Master,” Decker said. “The activity coordinator. I think he does everything except the actual talking therapy.”

“Why does the name Tarpin ring a bell?” Webster said.

“You’re right,” Martinez stated. “But I can’t place it. What’s his gimmick? Is he a survival expert or something?”

“Probably.”