He stared quizzically at his advisor. Had he been part of a different conversation? “I should have told her more, about the police reports, the argument that night, how no one in the sorority will talk to me, about—”

“You told her enough to interest her. The rest she’s going to learn in the first two episodes. She’s going to do it.”

“Really? You think?”

“I’ll bet a bottle of Macallan.”

“I’m broke, so I’ll just take your word for it.” He hoped his professor was right, because he feared—like he’d told Lizzy last night—that no one would call in with clues and he’d never find out what really happened to Candace Swain.

Four

When there is no place to go, you go home.

Regan was grateful that her childhood home in Flagstaff, west of the city limits off Naval Observatory Road, hadn’t changed much over the years: the wide, eastern-facing covered porch where beautiful sunrises could be viewed; the clearing to the south where her dad and older brother had put in a brick barbecue and firepit, where they’d had more family-and-friend gatherings than she could count. It looked unused—remnants of her youth, because her dad lived alone.

The house had been in her family since her grandfather built a two-room A-frame with a loft more than seventy years ago. He’d added on, each room a testament to his attention to detail and carpentry skills he’d inherited from his own father. It was a good house, a mostly happy house. Built largely from pine and stone that had been locally harvested, the house had grown over the years, and shortly after she was born, the second of four kids, her grandfather gave it to her father.

“You have a growing family. You need the roots.”

When her grandfather wasn’t working—he worked near every day until he died—he lived in the small two-room apartment above the barn. He died when Regan was ten, and she still missed his ornery wisdom.

And now, home was a refuge as she tried to figure out what to do with the rest of her life.

Regan had seen every facet of human life and death during her years as a marshal, but one thing surprised her: even when people had an awful childhood—even when their parents were physically or emotionally abusive—they almost always went home when they hit bottom. Four out of five times, they showed up exactly where Regan expected, and she took them into custody. Usually without incident.

Sometimes in a body bag.