“And you attacked him?”Orsino said, as though clarifying a point.
“He saw me, and he had a weapon,” Jem said.“I was defending myself.”
“That’s why you ran into the house.”
“Sometimes the best defense is a good offense.”
Orsino’s expression was impossible to read.“And then?”
Tean ran him through the rest of the events.When he finished, he said, “Lieutenant, we believe we know who these men are.We gave statements at the house and provided their names.One of them is called Kai.Another is called Zeb.I’m not sure about the third one, but they’re all connected to a campground called Strange Lights in the Uinta Basin.”
“Yes, I spoke to the officers.They told me your theory that this man, Rydel Owens, is some sort of serial killer, and that he also sexually assaulted his stepbrother, Zeb Welker, when they were younger—a kind of a warm-up, in your opinion, to the killings he’d carry out later on.And then, when Zeb found out what his brother was doing, he and his friends decided to kill him.”
“I know it sounds farfetched,” Tean said.“But won’t you at least talk to those men?Go out to the campground.Jem hurt two of them badly.All three of them will have injuries that match our account.They left a knife at the scene, so there will be prints you can check.Surely Daniel’s statement—”
“That boy is deeply traumatized,” Orsino said.“He saw one man who matches the description of Rydel Owens.The others he just calls wolves.That’s all he’ll say.You saved him from wolves.”The lieutenant ran his hand over his head.“They’re gone.”
“Who?”Tean said.
“Those pieces of shit,” Jem said.“They’re gone?Where?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?When the local PD got to the campground to pick them up for questioning, the place was empty.”
“They’re all gone?”Tean asked.“There was a woman, Tess—”
“All of them,” Orsino said.
“But—” Tean stopped, though, because he didn’t know what to say.
Several long seconds of silence passed.The paper on the exam table rustled under Jem as he leaned forward.“So, that’s it.Can we go?”
Orsino eyed him.
“You’re going to keep looking for them, right?”Tean said.
“It’s the twenty-first century,” Orsino said.“Nobody can disappear forever.”
“What about Daniel?”Tean asked.“What about Ammon?What happens now?”
“The young man is with his family.From what I understand, he only suffered minor injuries.Detective Young decided he didn’t want to confess after all, and there’s not enough evidence to hold him.In the meantime, the investigation into Brennon Lee’s death will continue.”In a tired voice, he added, “If you’re right about this, we’re just scratching the surface.”
The broken body in the bathtub.The blood.On the bedroom wall, like the word was floating in the air: GROOMER.
Orsino levered himself to his feet.The leather of his shoes, Tean noticed now, was worn close to cracking.“We’ll be in touch,” he said as he drew a business card from his pocket.He laid it on the counter, next to a plastic rack full of brochures about NARCAN.
Orsino was almost to the door when Tean spoke.
“Who was he?Rydel, I mean.”
Hand on the door, Orsino paused.He answered without looking back.“A delivery driver.Veterinary supplies.”
37
They got Scipio and answered, as best they could, Hannah’s questions.She’d been through something like this before, and she understood better than most, so she let them go quickly.On the drive home, they were quiet except for Scipio’s pleased whines.The Lab was so happy they were back, as a matter of fact, that he kept trying to climb into the front seat to sit on Jem’s lap.
The evening had a misleading rhythm to it.Tean started dinner—he had noodles, and there was some ground beef he was sure was still good, and they definitely had tomato paste and a jar of those little pearl onions.And, at some point, Jem took over, which meant it was Tean’s turn to take Scipio outside to throw the ball.They ate with the TV on, a random episode ofBuffy.Xander and other kids at school were possessed by the spirits of demonic hyenas.The biggest problem, in Tean’s opinion, was the hyena laugh.
“It’s a popular misbelief,” he said as Jem turned the volume up.“It’s only one species: the spotted hyena.And it’s not amusement; it’s frustration, often a cry for help.”