Amy buzzed her window down and leaned back in her seat. The sun was warm, the air smelled sweet, and she couldn’t hear a thing except for birds, insects, and the distant rustling of leaves. But the pleasant surroundings did little to help her relax. Not only was she still trying to come to terms with the events of last night, but she was also beginning to worry about what the reaction was going to be back home, particularly that of her best friend. Having already been worried about Amy’s wellbeing, there was every chance Sam would flip out when she heard what had happened, especially if Amy took too long before telling her. And Amy had to admit, if the situation were reversed, she would want to know as soon as possible too. Revealing the news wasn’t going to be easy, but it had to happen—and sooner rather than later.

Amy took a deep breath, pulled out her phone, and began typing her message. Three screens were used in the telling, and she didn’t leave anything out. And while putting it down in words did make her feel a little ashamed—after all, she had never thought of herself as the kind of person who would overdose on pills—she admitted to feeling a sense of catharsis when she reached the end. Now all that was left to do was hold her phone in the air, find a signal, and wait for the message to swoosh its way north to Portland.

•••

“So, where does this leave my son?” Roger asked.

Kevin put one hand on top of the case file, which was sitting out in front of him. “Officially, Ryan is a missing person. His details will be transferred to the FBI and entered into their database.”

Roger sat motionless for a moment, his eyes wet with tears. It took him a long time to gather the strength to speak. “I know what you think, Detective. I know what everyone thinks: that he ran off because of the money and the problems here at home, but that isn’t what happened. My son was a good man—the best—he’d never do such a thing.”

“You have my sympathy, Roger. I can only imagine what an awful ordeal this must be.”

“Can you? Really? Because sometimes it feels like I’m the only person who sees reason in all this madness. Everyone wants to give up and accept some ridiculous answer that simply isn’t true. My son isn’t missing. He didn’t run off. Something happened—an accident of some kind. For Pete’s sake, they found two horses in the forest. One of them was his. Why does everyone seem to forget that?”

“We haven’t, but that particular lead went nowhere. For the record, I agree with you—the circumstances are strange—but the forest has already been searched and nothing was found.”