Norm took a long time to answer. “Honestly? I don’t know. I like to think I’m open-minded, but I have no idea what I would have said. Maybe he sensed that. You know, the last couple of years, Will has been strange with us. Distant. Not sharing with us the way he did when he was a boy. He and I were always so close, but he’s been pulling away from me for a while now. I figured it was just the teenage years. I never dreamed he was struggling with something like this.”

“It couldn’t have been easy for him.”

“No.” Norm looked at me. “Gordon Brink knew, didn’t he? That’s why he was trying to keep Will and Jay apart.”

“Yes. That’s what Will told me. Brink caught them together.”

“I suppose you think this gives Jay another motive to kill his father.”

“I’m sure the sheriff will think that, but according to Will, Jay has an alibi. They were together that Sunday night.”

“That’s not going to satisfy Jerry. We both know that.”

“No, probably not. I doubt Will can prove that they were in your trailer together. The sheriff is going to say Will is simply covering for Jay, and people around here will be inclined to believe it.”

“Because who wants to take the word of a queer, right?”

“I’m not saying it’s fair.”

“Will wouldn’t lie,” Norm snapped. “If he says they were together, they were.”

“I know that. But regardless, I need to find Jay.”

“So you can arrest him?”

“That’s up to Darrell and Jerry. Frankly, being in a cell might be the safest place for him right now. You’ve seen what the kids did to Will. If they catch up with Jay, it’s likely to be even worse. I don’t want to see anything happen to him. Do you know where he is?”

“I’m his lawyer,” Norm said. “I can’t say anything about that. And don’t try to tell me he’d be safe locked up in a cell, Rebecca. I know the men you work with. I wouldn’t trust what they’d do to him. Besides, even if I wanted to negotiate a way for Jay to turn himself in, I can’t leave the hospital. I need to stay here with Will.”

“Norm, he’s in danger on his own.”

“What do you want me to do, Rebecca?”

“Trust me. Tell me where he is.”

Norm rubbed his face with exhaustion and mussed his thinning hair. “Can I talk to the Rebecca Colder I’ve known since she was a little girl? And not to the sheriff’s deputy?”

“Yes. I promise you that.”