Peter Beaumont’s car was, indeed, wiped clean, but Michelle Hixson did not appear to have that information and he wasn’t going to enlighten her further. “I think they are connected cases, Miss Hixson, but I don’t think they’re supernatural. Beyond that, I cannot say more. Anything else that you need?”

“I need a good photo of both Todd Sutton and Peter Beaumont.”

“I can get you those.”

“We’re also having a sketch artist draw an aged composite of Peter Beaumont. Maybe someone has been living next door to him for thirty years.”

“Anything that I can do to help.” Ben nodded.

She stood up and gathered her things. He was pretty sure that she’d already been to see Kim Landau. As she shut the door behind her, Ben stared at the time line on the board. He felt like an idiot. A small-town police chief, he was in over his head with these cases. She knew it and he knew it; he just didn’t want to read about it.

As he always did when he stood in front of this board, he studied the details to see if there was something he’d missed. Todd Sutton had gotten up around eight that morning and then played nine rounds of golf with Chet. After golf, he bought a chicken sandwich at Burger King at eleven forty-one A.M.; the receipt was found on the floor of the car. Although he’d eaten and drunk in the car, no DNA was found there—a near impossibility. Sutton returned to his house around eleven fifty A.M., placing his golf clubs in the garage. Before getting ready for his wedding, he did an odd thing: He told his stepfather, Fred Sutton, that he would be heading to Zippy Wash to clean his beloved Mustang. Lara Barnes had rented a vintage car for the wedding, so the couple wouldn’t be using Sutton’s car for the ceremony, making the trip to Zippy Wash seem like an excuse to get away for some time. Was it nerves? Did Sutton meet with someone? When Fred and Betty Sutton departed for the church around three thirty P.M., Todd’s tuxedo was still draped on the bed. Assuming he was running late, they took it with them to the church. At four thirty P.M., when the ceremony was about to begin and there was no sign of Todd, they began searching for him. His car showed up the following morning at five o’clock on Wickelow Bend.