•   •   •

Judy stops. For a moment, the room is quiet, until someone asks the question she knows will be next.

“What did the man look like?” someone asks, finally, and all the heads in the room swivel in the direction of Goldman, the oldest investigator, who has called out from the back.

“Most of the description Sluiter gave was generic,” says Judy. “Tall, brown hair, middle-aged.”

She pauses. Considers her next words carefully. “But he did say that the man looked like a local, as opposed to someone in the family.”

Someone in the back speaks up. “What’d he mean by that? Something the man was wearing?”

“He didn’t explain,” says Judy.

Another hand goes up. “Why didn’t Sluiter tell anyone? After he was apprehended the first time?”

“He thought no one would believe him,” says Judy. “That he wasn’t the one who killed the boy in the first place. Later, when he heard about Bear’s disappearance in the news, he put two and two together, figured out who the boy was. But he had no incentive to talk.”

A pause.

“Well, do we?” asks Hayes. “Believe him?”

Judy does. But she won’t say it aloud—not yet.

“Why did he tell us now?” someone asks.

Hayes turns his gaze to Judy. “Investigator Luptack,” he says. “Any thoughts?”

Judy clears her throat. Is she actually expected to answer?

“Go ahead,” says Hayes.

“Well,” says Judy. “He said he trusted me.”

Someone in the room snorts. Someone coughs.

“All right, all right,” Hayes says. “The whole story sounds implausible. Correct. But there’s one thing to acknowledge: the boy would be an outlier for Jacob Sluiter. He’s different from any of Sluiter’s other known victims. He’s a sex predator, but his targets are women. Grown women. Young boys have never been his interest, that we know of. So let’s work this theory for a little bit. Say Sluiter didn’t kill Bear Van Laar. Say he’s telling the truth. Then who did? How did his body end up buried where it’s buried?”

LaRochelle, in the back, says: “Why not Carl Stoddard? He was a local. If what Sluiter’s saying is true, he’d fit the profile.”

Hayes pauses, diplomatic. “Maybe. Yes,” he says. “But I think it’s worth looking into other ideas, at this point, sir.”

“Such as?” says LaRochelle. Testy.

For a moment, everyone is silent.

Then Hayes says: “Has the family been notified, sir? Of Bear’s discovery?”

LaRochelle looks away. “They have.”

“May I ask how they reacted?”

LaRochelle frowns. “I spoke only to Bear’s father. He received the news—stoically, I would say. He’s gone back to Albany for the present, to relay the information to his wife in person.”

He looks distracted. Then abruptly, he straightens.

“Excuse me,” he says, and walks out of the cabin, tapping a pack of cigarettes into his palm as he goes.

Hayes catches Judy’s eye.

The case will be reopened. Everyone knows it, including LaRochelle.

•   •   •

After LaRochelle’s departure, Hayes turns to face the investigators left in the room.

“Here’s what I don’t understand,” he says. “Why didn’t any of the searchers see it? A new patch of disturbed earth, just across the lake? Marked with a cairn, no less. Huge crew of people on-site for weeks. You’d think they would have searched the periphery of the lake first thing.”

“Maybe they were misdirected,” says Judy.

Hayes looks at her. “By?”

“The family, I guess,” says Judy. Then she turns to Investigator Goldman. “Was that the sense you got? When you were working the case?”

Goldman hesitates. Looks down.

“I did always have the strange sense that they didn’t want to find him. Yes.”

“You think someone in the family killed him?” Hayes asks.

But this, apparently, isn’t a claim Goldman is prepared to make. He goes silent.

“What if it was an accident?” Judy says.

“Then why let Carl Stoddard take the fall? More than that—why actively indict him?” Hayes says.

Judy looks around, pausing to see if anyone else will chime in. But for a moment, there is silence.

“How did Carl Stoddard die?” someone asks.

“Heart attack,” Goldman says. “He had a heart attack and died while in police custody, awaiting questioning.”

Judy is forming a theory.

“What if it was convenience?” says Judy. “What if it was just easier for the family to let everyone think it was Stoddard who did it? He was dead, after all,” she said. “They probably thought they weren’t hurting anyone.”

“All right,” says Hayes. “Maybe. But that would still mean they had something to cover up.”

Silence.