Kid shrugged. “That’s the way these things work. Report starts with a missing white female, mother of one, two, three kids. Media kicks in, search teams are organized, neighborhoods are canvassed. And then, approximately one week to three months later, the corpse is recovered from a lake, the woods, the oversized freezer in the garage. Don’t suppose you have any large blue plastic barrels, do you?”

Jason shook his head.

“Chain saws? Barbecue pits?”

“I have a child. Even if I had such items, the presence of a small child would curtail my activities.”

Kid shrugged. “Didn’t seem to stop the others from getting the job done.”

“Get out of my yard.”

“Not yet. I need to know: Did you kill your wife?”

“What makes you think I would tell you?”

Kid shrugged. “Dunno. We’ve never met, but I thought I’d ask. It matters to me.”

Jason stared at the kid for a minute. He found himself saying, “I didn’t kill her.”

“Okay. Neither did I.”

“You know my wife?”

“Blonde hair, big brown eyes, kind of a quirky smile?”

Jason stared at the kid again. “Yes.”

“Nah, I’ve never met her, but I’ve seen her out in your yard.” The kid resumed snapping the green elastic band.

“Why are you here?” Jason asked.

“Because I didn’t kill your wife,” the kid repeated. He glanced at his watch. “But in about one to four hours, the police are gonna assume that I did.”

“Why would they assume that?”

“I got a prior.”

“You killed someone before?”

“Nah, but that won’t matter. I have a prior, and like I said, that’s how these things work. A woman has gone missing. The detectives will start with the people close to her, making you the first ‘person of interest.’ Next, however, they’ll check out all the neighbors. That’s when I’ll pop up, the second ‘person of interest.’ Now, am I more interesting than you? I don’t have the answer to that, so I figured I’d better stop by.”

Jason frowned. “You want to know if I harmed my wife, because then you’re off the hook?”

“It’s a logical question to ask,” the kid said neutrally. “Now, you claim you didn’t kill her. And I know I didn’t kill her, which leads us to the next problem.”

“Which is?”

“No one is gonna believe either of us. And the more we claim our innocence, the more they’re gonna come down on us like a ton of bricks. Wasting valuable time and resources trying to get us to admit guilt, versus finding out exactly what did happen to your wife.”