The long and the short of Terrance Musgrove’s life was that he was a good man. His wife was the author of two children’s books and was heavily involved in local charities. His daughter went to private schools and was a competitive swimmer who had first swum at the Junior Nationals when she was eleven years old. The family took an annual ski vacation to Wyoming and had a summer place a couple hours away on Lake Erie.

Jenn put down the stack of papers and picked at her salad.

“Jesus, this is rough,” Hendricks said.

“What you got?”

“So, the daughter, April. Fourteen years old. She and the mom were up at their summer place. Just the two of them.”

“On Lake Erie.”

“Yeah. So the kid and the mom are sitting on their dock, and the kid decides to go for a swim. So the police speculate that the kid swam straight out.”

“And?”

“And got clipped by a motorboat. Bashed her head pretty good.”

“Enough to kill her?”

“Enough to knock her out. She drowned. But it gets worse. Mom panics, jumps in, and swims out to save her kid but isn’t the swimmer her daughter is. Drowns trying to save her.”

“Musgrove have an alibi?”

“Says something about us that that was my first question too. Yeah, the doctor was in the office the entire day. About a hundred witnesses. Police sniffed around but never had any reason to pursue him as a suspect.”

“And his suicide? How soon after did he do it?”

“Not for another two years. But people close to him said he struggled with depression and drinking in the aftermath. Said he got pretty bad by the end. Mood swings, personality change, his business suffered.”

Jenn sat back and mulled it over in her mind.

“This is a sad story, but I still think we’re on a wild goose chase here. What does a dead vet have to do with us?”

“Look at the date,” Jenn said, tapping the autopsy report.

Hendricks glanced at it and shook his head. “What? That he killed himself a couple months after Suzanne disappeared? That’s kind of a stretch, don’t you think?”

“It would be if someone hadn’t led us to his old house and typed his name into a computer.”

“So what’s your theory? That Musgrove becomes despondent? Loses his mind and starts talking to Suzanne on the Internet in some delusional attempt to replace his daughter; meets, seduces, and kidnaps Suzanne; and God knows what else? Realizes what he’s done after it’s too late and kills himself out of guilt?”

“Actually that’s better than what I had.”

Hendricks rolled his eyes. “Come on.”

“Both girls were fourteen. Why not?”

“Well, for one, if Terrance Musgrove took Suzanne, and Terrance Musgrove is dead, then who is Kirby Tate in all this? And for two, who broke into the McKeoghs’ house today?”