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evidence,” Dane said, feeling the need to be fair despite it all. “They found cigarette butts with his DNA outside, but he always snuck out there to smoke. His fingerprints were on the den window, but that’s how he always snuck out.”
    “All true.”
    “But he ran,” Dane said, coming down to the final, damning fact.
    “Never a good sign.” Quinn sounded completely neutral, like a man who truly hadn’t made up his mind. “If it wasn’t Chad, who do you think it could have been?”
    He had spent literally years batting that one around in his mind. “The only one who ever seemed likely to me was Rod. He tried to hang with Chad, but Troy was too straight-arrow to like him, so that got in the way. For that matter, I always wondered why Troy hung with Chad—they were so different.”
    “Why did Rod seem likely?”
    “He scared Kayla once when she tried to stop him from some kind of twisted experiment with setting butterflies on fire. He...touched her.”
    Quinn was silent for a moment. “And did he ever again?”
    “No. He did not even go near her. Ever.”
    “I see,” Quinn said with what sounded like amusement and understanding. “So, is this Rod still around?”
    “Yeah. And he’s been in trouble a few times. Breaking into houses and stealing cash.”
    “Sounds promising. Did the police look at him?”
    “They did,” he admitted. “But he gave them an alibi they believed.”
    Quinn didn’t miss the inference. “But you didn’t?”
    “The alibi was that he was with another kid. One he used to harass. Unmercifully. Really harsh stuff. But the kid swore Rod was with him. The cops bought it, figured the kid had no reason not to but every reason to finger Rod if he could.”
    “But?”
    “After that, the harassment stopped.”
    “So you think he made a deal with the kid?”
    Dane shrugged. “Couldn’t prove it, but it seemed...coincidental, to say the least.”
    “We’ll check him out,” Quinn said.
    “What the hell can you do that the cops can’t?”
    “We have resources. And sources. Time. The manpower. And we have an open mind about Chad’s guilt.”
    “What if you come to believe he’s guilty?”
    “Then we’ll tell Kayla just that. Gently but honestly. Hayley’s good at that.”
    A memory of the couple as they’d stood together this morning in the park shot through his mind. Quinn had constantly been touching Hayley, and vice versa. Little brushes, a touch on the arm, brushing back an errant strand of hair. Even when they were clearly focused on something else, they were still touching, even if it was as simple as standing so close their arms touched. Not quite joined at the hip, but close.
    Dane recognized it because he and Kayla were the same way.
    Pain jabbed through him, knotting his gut. He and Kayla had been the same way.
    “Can you really do this? Can you put an end to this one way or another?”
    He didn’t care that he sounded angry. And he knew quite well he wasn’t asking the real question. Asking that would sound more pitiful than he was willing to sound before a man like Quinn Foxworth.
    “We can. And we have people who will help Kayla deal with whatever we find.”
    His confidence was bracing. Dane had spent so long being unable to do anything, about Kayla or her obsession, that he’d slid into unfamiliar territory—hopelessness.
    If what he’d learned today was true, these people were the best and brightest at what they did. If they couldn’t find Chad, maybe Kayla would finally admit it was over, maybe she would finally move on.
    Maybe he’d moved his things a bit too soon. He tried not to let hope rise too far. But it was one last shot, the last chance for them, and he couldn’t say no.

Chapter 5
    K ayla tried to tamp down her excitement as she hurriedly made her bank deposit. She wouldn’t have stopped at all if her mortgage payment wasn’t set to go out in three days. But Hayley was gracious about the errand, waiting in her car, and as soon as