“We could sure use him now,” Lorna said, thinking of her situation with the Callen PD.

“Well, you’ve got me. Granted, compared to my dad, I’m just a rookie, but if there’s anything you think I could do to help you out…”

Lorna stopped for a second, her thumbs hooked into the pockets of her jeans, a slow smile working at the corners of her mouth.

“You know, Regan, there just might be.”

“Chief Walker, I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to see me on such short notice. I know this must be a busy time for you and your men.” Regan smiled into the chief’s eyes.

“Busiest we’ve ever been, with the body count rising every day.” He guided her by the elbow to his office. “But when you called, how could I say no? I’ve been a big fan of your father’s-and you, too, of course-for many years now. He was a great friend to law enforcement, Ms. Landry, and well respected.”

“Thank you, Chief. And it’s Regan.” She sat in the chair he pointed to. “Please call me Regan.”

“Well, Regan, we’re honored to have you here. Now, what’s this about a book in the works?”

“As I told you, it’s really just a gleam in my eye right now, but I thought if I were to give it any real consideration, I should go right to the source, and what better time than now, while events are still unfolding?”

“I’ll help you where I can, but there’s still a lot we don’t know, you understand.”

“Oh, I’m sure. And I hesitated to call, but you know, the more I heard about your case through the media, the more I thought it sounded familiar. Like something I read in one of my dad’s files. And I thought, hey, if it turns out that these cases are related, and there was something I could share with you-well, I just had to call. It’s a long shot, of course…”

“Long shots have been known to pull through sometimes.”

“True enough.” She nodded as she took a notebook from her shoulder bag. “I thought we could compare notes.”

“You know the basics. What more did you want to know?”

“Frst of all, have you determined if there’s a connection between the little girl who disappeared all those years ago-”

“Melinda Eagan.”

“Right. Melinda Eagan.” She paused, then asked, as if the thought had just occurred to her, “Was any trace of her ever found?”

“Nope. Nothing.”

“Not a shoe, not a-”

He cut her off. “Nothing.”

“Do you think her disappearance is somehow connected to the victims you’ve found this week?”

“Don’t know. The ME says the remains we’ve uncovered are all males. Adolescent males. ‘Course, so far, we haven’t been able to identify anyone but Jason Eagan, her brother. We’re still working on that.”

“Similar cause of death?”

“Yes, ma’am, fractured skulls, every one of them.”

She pretended to make notes in her file while she asked, “Have there been reports of boys of that age going missing over the past years?”

“Only Jason.”

“So these boys would have come from someplace else.”

“Most likely. Unless those remains are better’n fifty years old or so, I’d say they’d have to have been brought in from elsewhere. I’ve lived here all my sixty-five years, and I’d have heard if anyone else had disappeared.”

“The FBI files might be able to help you there,” she said. Then, noticing the way his eyes narrowed, she added, “But of course I’m sure you have contacts with other local police departments. Those boys could have lived in some of the nearby towns.”

“Most of the towns out here are little bigger than this one. And some of them have no police force. Much of the area falls to the state police. Here in Callen, we’ve always had our own department. Some of the other towns never have.”

“Well, that’s quite remarkable, don’t you think, that your career has spanned all those years successfully, here in your hometown?”

He nodded. “Only job I ever had, after I left the army. I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to serve my community.”

“I was wondering, will you be reopening Melinda’s missing-persons case? It seems like it all started with her.”

“In a sense, maybe it did.” He tapped his fingers on the desktop.

“Is her mother still under arrest for Jason’s murder?”

His eyes narrowed again.

“I was just wondering,” she shrugged nonchalantly, “since the mother has been arrested for killing her son, and he died of a fractured skull… if all these other boys were killed in the same manner, is it likely that she killed them all?”

“I still believe she’s guilty of the death of her son, yes. I haven’t seen anything that would rule that out.”

And not much to rule it in, either, Regan thought.

“Far as these other boys are concerned, how does that match up to the case you were looking into?” he asked. “That case of your father’s that you mentioned.”

“Actually, it doesn’t match up at all, now that I have the facts straight from you.” She folded her notebook. “The cases I was interested in were all gunshot victims. Had I mentioned that?”

“No, you did not.”

“I thought I had.” She tucked the notebook back into her bag and stood up. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your time, Chief.”

“That’s all you wanted? You sure?” He stood, but remained behind his desk.

“I’m sure.” Regan turned on the charm. “I’m disappointed to learn that our cases aren’t as similar as I first thought they might be. I would’ve enjoyed working with you.”

“Well, perhaps some other time. And who knows, maybe the next victim we dig up might have some bullet holes in him.”

“You think there are more victims out there?” she asked as he escorted her to the door.

“Yeah, there are more. We’re working to keep it quiet, because we want to keep the press out, keep the publicity down. The county boys are excavating as cautiously as they can, but it’s tedious work. They’re trying not to lose any evidence. We’re not sure just how carefully those first couple boys were dug up, between you and me.”

He opened the door and held it for her.

“Thanks again for your time.”

“Been a pleasure.”

Chief Walker stood in the doorway of his station and watched Regan drive off. She gave a little wave when she passed him, and he waved back.

Now, what was that about? he wondered as he watched her drive away. He shook his head and went back inside, walking right past Mrs. Rusk as if he didn’t see her and straight on to his office. He closed the door and sat in his old brown leather chair. He lit a cigarette-opening the window to let the smoke out, since Callen’s municipal building was supposed to be smoke-free-and leaned back in the chair. The interview had left him unsettled.

He had been a great fan of Josh Landry’s, that was certainly true enough. His gaze searched the nearby bookcase for some of Landry’s titles. He’d meant to point them out to the daughter, but they hadn’t gotten far into the conversation before something seemed off-kilter. Of course, he’d never been interviewed by a writer of her stature before, so maybe he simply wasn’t aware of how it was done. He’d expected more questions about the remains they’d just found, and fewer about the Eagan kids. And he hadn’t expected any questions about Billie.

Thinking about the Eagan kids always made him uneasy.

He’d always believed Billie had killed her son. There’d been no doubt in his mind about that. He could see how it happened, how she’d killed him in anger, smacked him in the head with something hard, something they’d never found. But the girl… he’d never had a feel for what had happened to the little girl.

He blew out a long breath, and recalled the night when the call had come in from Billie Eagan that her daughter was missing. His first year on the job, and he’d been so eager to make a good impression on the chief. He was one of the first ones on the scene, and helped lead the search party through the fields, calling for her.