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badge.”
    “That makes it easier. Let Ruth finish.”
    “He might have been pushed here,” Ruth said. “I think he just fell, though.”
    “Anything else?” Rhodes asked.
    “That’s all. How did things work out with the person you were after?”
    Rhodes thought about the broken windshield. “Could’ve been better.”
    He looked at Jennifer. He might as well let her hear a little about what had happened. She’d find out sooner or later anyway, so he explained that the driver of the car was Ike Terrell.
    “Isn’t his family the one that lives in the compound?” Jennifer asked. “Waiting for the world to end?”
    “That’s the family,” Rhodes said, “but I’m not sure what they’re waiting for.”
    “They’re supposed to have all kinds of weapons there.”
    “Just a rumor,” Rhodes said.
    “They never associate with people here in town.”
    “Ike claims he takes classes here,” Rhodes said.
    Benton raised his hand. Rhodes looked at him.
    “May I speak?” Benton asked. “Strictly as a citizen, and not as a deputy, of course.”
    “Go ahead,” Rhodes said.
    “Ike Terrell does go to school here,” Benton said. “He’s in my calculus class.”
    “Calculus?”
    “Right. You know what calculus is, don’t you?”
    “Barely,” Rhodes said. “We need to talk later. You can go on to your office now.”
    Benton didn’t object. He told Ruth good-bye and left. When Benton was inside the building, Rhodes asked her what she’d found at the Beauty Shack.
    “Wait,” Jennifer said, holding up her camera. “What’s this about the Beauty Shack?”
    “Put down the camera, and I’ll tell you,” Rhodes said. “You can go talk to Lonnie about it later and get some pictures.”
    Jennifer lowered the camera, and Rhodes filled her in on the burglary. When he’d finished, he asked Ruth again what she’d found there.
    “Less than I found here,” Ruth said, which was what Rhodes had expected. “Not even an old green penny. We’ll never catch the person who did it.”
    “Oh, I think we will,” Rhodes said.
    Jennifer turned the camera on him.
    Ruth seemed skeptical. “How?”
    “A combination of instinct, experience, investigative prowess, and our many coply skills.”
    “Is that all?”
    “Well,” Rhodes said, “a little bit of luck wouldn’t hurt.”
    “We don’t have that much luck.”
    Rhodes smiled at the camera. Maybe he liked being on the Internet better than he thought.
    “Sure we do,” he said. “I already have a suspect in custody.”

 
    Chapter 4
     
    Jennifer Loam told Rhodes that she’d put the news about his superb police work in solving the Beauty Shack burglary on her Web site, and Rhodes reminded her that Ike Terrell was merely a suspect.
    “I’ll be sure to mention that,” Jennifer said. “Several times. I’ll remember to use the word ‘alleged,’ too. Frequently. Nobody’s going to pay much attention to your superb police work anyway. They’ll all be talking about what happened here at the college.”
    “We don’t know what happened here,” Ruth reminded her.
    “No, but we know that the result was a dead man. People can draw their own conclusions.”
    “You report,” Rhodes said. “They decide.”
    “Hey,” Jennifer said, “that’s pretty catchy.”
    “It just came to me,” Rhodes said. “Feel free to use it. Right now, though, I need to get inside and talk to some people.”
    “Can I come along?”
    “Not a good idea. You don’t want to interfere with a police investigation.”
    “No, I don’t want to do that,” Jennifer said. “I’ll just go visit Lonnie and work on the Beauty Shack story. That nobody will be interested in.”
    “I’d better get back on patrol,” Ruth said. “Crime never rests.”
    Rhodes knew she was half joking, but only half. If there were just a burglary or a murder to work on, life would be simple enough, but there was always something else going on. Small things, usually, but plenty of them, and they all