“Not my concern?” Peter’s voice was loud in the small room. June put her hand on his thigh but Peter kept talking. “Roy Wiley killed four police and almost strangled a pregnant woman right in front of me. And obviously you don’t have shit. Was he even on your radar before this happened?”

Buckley gave Peter the hard eye, radiating anger. “We’re asking the questions, Mr. Ash.” But his foot began to twitch faster.

Peter’s eye flagged the movement. He leaned forward. “Wait. You knew about him?”

Now Buckley’s foot flapped like a bird’s wing. Campbell looked at him, then at Peter. He stood up and tucked his black book under his arm. “Folks, give us a minute. Buck?”

Buckley followed the senior investigator into the kitchen.

Peter heard a low murmur, then Campbell’s voice cut through the partition. “When in the hell were you planning on telling me this?”

Two minutes later, Buckley left the kitchen, opened the back door, and walked out of the house without a word. Peter heard a car start. Taillights disappeared down the driveway.

When Campbell returned to the living room, the old-fashioned country cop was gone. “Agent Buckley joined the DCI ten months ago. Before that he was a Sioux Falls police investigator, and part of a monthly poker game, along with local cops and state troopers and even a few DCI guys.” He gave Peter a bitter smile. “Roy Wiley was a regular player. Buckley said he was well liked, even admired. Folks would do little things for him, like run license plates or find somebody’s address. And he always asked what cases people were working. Because he missed being on the job.”

June squeezed Peter’s hand, telling him to restrain himself. Lewis just looked at the ceiling.

Campbell picked up the chairs and carried them back to the dining nook. He switched off the digital recorder and tucked it into his pocket.

“You were right to say we don’t have anything, but we’ve only had his name for a couple of hours. Half my office is already working this case. By noon we’ll know everything there is to know about Roy Wiley. I can tell you already that he has no criminal record. So no, Wiley was not on our radar or anyone else’s. But we will find him, I promise you.”

“Unless someone in your office lets him know where you’re looking,” Peter said.

Campbell’s jaw worked. “You can bet I’ll be talking with my people about that, too.”

“One last thing,” Peter said. “Tell the media that a seventh man died in that car in the river. Just don’t release my name. I don’t want my folks to freak out.”

Campbell gave Peter a steady look. “Now why on earth would you want me to do a thing like that?”

Peter angled his head at June. “I don’t want Roy coming back to finish what he started.”

“No harm in that,” Campbell said. “For a day or two, anyway.”