I hadn’t noticed that the music wasn’t playing. Foghat’s paean to city life over the country had stopped, and the DJ, who normally screamed into the microphone in a rich baritone voice, was quickly telling everyone listening that they were switching over to their sister station for a breaking news update.

The man’s words registered with Amanda. She sat forward, her eyes wide and her lips pressed tight, and turned the volume up.

I leaned forward as well, waiting to hear what they had to report.

We heard the breathless voice of a reporter who told us she was standing at police headquarters downtown, where breaking news in the Jennifer Bates murder case was coming in. The reporter’s voice went quiet for a moment. Muffled voices sounded in the background. A siren squealed. It all seemed so old-fashioned, like a blast from the past, waiting for a reporter to deliver news live on the radio instead of gathering it from Twitter.

Then the reporter came back on. She spoke quickly and urgently.

“I’ve been able to confirm with a source inside the police department that a suspect, actually a person of interest in the murder of Jennifer Bates—she’s the local woman who was found dead in her home late last night, the victim of an apparent homicide—that police have located that person of interest, and that individual, who was wanted for questioning, has been killed by police as he resisted their attempts to speak to him.”

The car drifted to the right into the next lane. A car over there honked.

“Ryan. Watch it.”

I jerked back, trying to keep my hands steady on the wheel. I remembered Henry strapped into his car seat, Amanda next to me. No more accidents, I said in my head. No more.

But I felt hollow inside. Shaky and empty.

A man had been killed. A person of interest. I kept my eyes on the road, stayed in my lane. But I knew Amanda thought what I thought.

Blake?

“Police are not releasing the man’s name at this time, but he has been a target of their investigation ever since Jennifer Bates’s body was found in her home late last night. Details about how this shooting came about are sketchy right now, but apparently the man was located by the police not far from downtown. In fact, not far from the police station. And when they tried to apprehend him, he resisted. It’s not clear if the man had a weapon and that led to police firing on him and using deadly force in this way. We’re trying to get word from someone inside. . . . We’re expecting a press conference any moment. . . .”

A horrible thought occurred to me. I said it out loud.

“Sam.”

“What?”

“Sam’s already down there. At the police station. That’s where Rountree took her, to talk to her.”