“Fix it,” he mumbled to himself, though he didn’t know how.

First, find this killer.

He met Andy at the police station. Andy had sandwiches, chips and coffee waiting. “My fiancée, Gracie, thought we might be hungry.”

“Thanks.”

“Abigail spent all day pulling the hard copies of every file from the years in question, then she went the extra mile and organized them by arresting or responding officer. They’re labeled in the conference room. I’ve already started going through them and weeding out those that don’t fit.”

“Great.”

“I’m surprised you came yourself.”

“Jim is forensics, and Michael’s getting two agents who came in from Seattle tonight up to speed. Maddox is home working with the superintendent to get all the files for Marston and identify that employee he fired. The fact that he knows Zachary Hamilton—had a run-in with him—makes me nervous. Catherine thinks Hamilton is too old, but I’d still like to find out what he’s been doing since he got out of jail.”

They sat down and started reading reports. Matt pulled the stack that was labelled Maddox—he wanted to read the report on the foreclosure in particular.

Andy said, “I went to see Kara this morning.”

Matt didn’t want to talk about Kara. But he said, “She forgave you.”

“Not really, but I guess in her own way. Told me to, essentially, grow a pair. To either quit or stop feeling sorry for myself.”

“Sounds like her.”

“Reminded me why I became a cop. I like to help people. To listen. To have a safe community. I wasn’t expecting this violence, but it could happen again. Abigail is researching some training programs for me.”

“You’re not quitting. Good.”

“No. But I recognize now that I have work to do. People do feel safe here and I helped with that. After this, I’m going to have to make them feel safe again. You’re probably not used to that—you’re from a big city. But here, it’s important.”

“It’s important everywhere.”

Matt frowned as he flipped pages. Included in the report was a list of contents that the bank prepared when they took possession of the house, and a note that a relative came over to retrieve personal items for Hamilton’s son.

“Do you know anything about Hamilton’s son?”

“No. Just that Maddox mentioned his son was sent to live with his aunt, I believe.”

Matt made a note. “We should find out what happened to him. I don’t have a name or age, but he would have been a minor.”

“CPS will have records. I’ll work on that first thing in the morning.”

Andy made his own notes.

“The place was a mess, according to the reports. Guy loses his wife, loses his kid to the system, loses his job. I can see him doing something out of anger and hopelessness, but this level of planning? Not seeing it.”

“I have the report from the accident on March 3.” Andy got up and retrieved a box. “I was going to ask Kara to join us, because this is a lot of work, but I think she’s still upset with me.”