The thought of calling her again crossed my mind, but did I really want to know the answers to all of these questions? What if what I learned was worse than anything I could have imagined?

Had I told her everything about my past only to have her keep something huge from me?

“I’ve taken up enough of your time, Ryan,” Rountree said. “And we certainly have some information to use going forward. I suggest you stay here, close to home, in case Amanda comes back. And if she does, you need to notify us right away. We do need to talk to her.”

“Sure. Of course.”

Rountree stood up, but she made no move for the front door. She held her phone in one hand, and she leaned down, studying my face. “Are you okay, Ryan? Would you like me to call someone for you? A friend? Another family member? Maybe your in-laws?”

“No.” My voice was distant and small. My mind raced through the events of the past couple of days, trying very hard to piece things together. And one piece of the puzzle stood out and refused to fit. “Detective? I told you that when I saw the data on Jennifer’s phone, there were Facebook messages that sounded threatening. I pointed those out to you when I turned everything over.”

“I remember. Are you going to ask me who we think those messages came from?”

“Do I want to know any of this?”

Rountree straightened up and glanced at her phone. Whatever she saw there failed to interest her. “We don’t know who they came from. Those have been hard to trace.”

“Can’t you find the IP address or whatever?” I asked.

She shook her head. “It’s not that easy when someone uses a personal computer. A computer in your home may not even have a fixed IP address. What we do know is that someone threatened Jennifer Bates via Facebook message on the day she died. We know that person said they were going over to her house to see her. And Amanda’s movements at the time of Jennifer’s death are unaccounted for.”

“She was . . . ,” I said. I almost said, She was home. Then I remembered.

“You told me she was out,” Rountree said. “You told me last night she called your mother-in-law to come and babysit Henry while she ran an errand. One we can’t trace.”

“She went to the store.”

“Did she? Will the bank records show she purchased something? What did she need to buy so urgently that she suddenly was calling her mother to come over and watch Henry?”

“I don’t know.”

“And we don’t know where she went.”

“This is completely absurd. What you’re saying is completely absurd.”