Stomping a line through the grass, Yarmark started the next section. After another moment of waiting, just to be sure, Somers went back to work as well. He was starting to think he should find a new job. Maybe teaching. Teaching wouldn’t be so bad. He liked kids, and he could do some coaching. If he were a teacher, high school, he definitely wouldn’t have to deal with arrogant, know-it-all, asshole pricks like Yarmark. Maybe, after this case, he’d talk to Hazard. Maybe he’d just say it flat out: I think I need a change; I think I’d be really good at teaching.

Somers was bagging and tagging his one millionth can of Natty Light when Yarmark shouted, “Hey.”

Not bothering to raise his head, Somers glanced at his watch. “Sorry, Yarmark. Looks like you’re earning overtime today.”

“No, uh. Hey! I mean, Detective, uh, Somerset.”

“I don’t care if you need to pee. I don’t care if you forgot your grandma’s birthday. I don’t—”

“Detective Somerset, you’ve got to take a look at this.”

Somers stifled a noise of irritation, stood, and made his way toward Yarmark. The young officer was standing at a boarded-up door that led into the Sexten Motors building, and he was examining the door. As Somers approached, he took a glance at the section of grid Yarmark had been working. The lines marking Yarmark’s movement through the thick growth were clear and orderly, and it looked like he’d done a decent job of working methodically through the section, in spite of all his complaining.

“What?” Somers said as he got closer.

Yarmark held up something in one hand, and Somers walked a little faster until he could make out the object: a nail. When Somers reached Yarmark, he took the nail and turned it over in his hand. It had obviously never been used; the metal was straight, the head perfectly even. There was no sign of corrosion. It looked brand new. It looked like the nails Somers had bought for the loose board in the back fence.

Now that Somers was closer, he could see what had puzzled Yarmark about the door. Weathered boards crisscrossed the door, but although the boards were clearly old, the nail heads were still shiny. Somers touched the edge of a board. It didn’t extend across the jam, and the edge, where he touched it, was raw and freshly cut. That didn’t make any sense. If the board was as old as it looked, nobody would have sawed the edge recently. And the nails shouldn’t have looked new. But what really troubled Somers was that the boards were only across the door proper, because if the boards were only nailed into the door itself and not into the jambs or the frame—

Yarmark gave an experimental push, and the door wobbled open.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

JULY 3

WEDNESDAY

12:56 PM

AFTER DROPPING THE MUSTANG in the hospital’s parking garage, Hazard considered getting an Uber back to the house. In the end, he decided not to. Although the day was hot and humid, he wanted to walk. Walking cleared his head, and it gave him time to think. So he walked.