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Edgar Ball is waiting for him at the far end of the KBI station’s parking lot.

He asks Danny how his trip was.

Danny tells him about Trooper Calten.

“Unbelievable,” Ball says.

“Are you sure you want to take that dope back?”

“It should be safe enough now, Jalbert took his shot.” Danny hopes he’s right about that, and also hopes he won’t be arrested later by Inspector Davis.

Ball opens the trunk of his car and hands Danny the McDonald’s bag.

Danny puts it in the center console, and this time he locks his truck.

“Let’s go in,” Danny says.

“Watch Jalbert when he sees me.

That’ll be interesting.”

But it’s not.

What they see is the barest flicker of surprise, there and gone.

The room, equipped with audio-visual recording equipment, is crowded.

In addition to Jalbert and Davis, there’s a tubby bald guy named Albert Heller and a suit-wearing beefcake named Vernon Ramsey.

Heller is the Wilder County Attorney.

Ramsey is a detective from Oklahoma City.

With six people crowded in, the feel is downright claustrophobic.

Somewhere in this facility there’s probably a more spacious conference room, but conferencing isn’t what Jalbert and Heller have in mind.

What they have in mind is breaking Danny down.

Now that he’s here.

Introductions are made.

Hands are shaken (Danny and Jalbert forgo this).

The Miranda warning is given, this time by the county attorney.

Heller finishes by announcing for the record that “Mr.

Coughlin has brought his counselor at law.”

Heller takes the lead, covering the same ground that was covered at Danny’s last interview.

They sit facing each other, with Edgar Ball on Danny’s side of the table and Ella Davis on Heller’s.

Ramsey leans against the wall, face impassive.

Jalbert stands in the corner with his arms crossed.

Under questioning, Danny recounts his dream.

He recounts his trip out to the abandoned gas station in Dart County.

He recounts his clumsy attempt to make an anonymous report.

When Heller asks why he called, Danny tells him about the dog.

“It was digging her up.

Chewing on her.

I’m sure you saw the photographs.”

Heller tells him they need to know much more about where Danny was during the first three weeks of June.

Danny says he’ll help all he can, but he doesn’t keep a diary or anything.

When Heller runs out of questions, Vernon Ramsey, the Oklahoma City cop, steps forward.

“Did you kill Yvonne Wicker?”

“No.”

Ramsey steps back.

He has no follow-up questions.

Jalbert whispers something in his ear and Ramsey nods, face impassive.

Heller winds things up by telling Danny not to leave the county.

Danny shakes his head.

“I’m actually planning to leave the county and the state.

My name was printed in a free handout newspaper.

I’m the prime suspect, and somebody wanted to make sure everyone in central Kansas knew it.” Danny’s eyes flick to Jalbert.

Jalbert looks blandly back.

“I can assure you no one involved in the murder investigation gave your name to the press,” Heller says.

“That was unfortunate, but nevertheless it would be a very bad idea for you to leave the town of Manitou, let alone Kansas.

It would have conse—”

“Arrest me,” Danny says.

“If you want to keep me in Kansas, arrest me.”

Heller stares at him.

Ella Davis looks down at her hands, which are folded on the table.

Ramsey appears to be studying the ceiling.

Jalbert is openly glaring.

“You can’t,” Danny says.

“You have no proof that I killed Yvonne Wicker, because I didn’t.

I only reported the body.

So don’t tell me there would be consequences.”

“Actually, there would be,” Ball says, almost apologetically.

“A suit for false arrest.

Filed by me.”

“I strongly advise you to stay where you are,” Heller says.

“Leaving would only make you look more guilty.”

From the corner, in a mild voice, Jalbert says, “He is guilty.”

Danny takes a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and hands it across the table, not to Heller but to Davis.

“It says, ‘Get out you fucking murderer.

Or else.’ It was wrapped around a brick.

The brick was thrown at the side of my trailer in the middle of the night.

That’s a consequence of getting my name in the paper, Mr.

Heller.

The well has been poisoned.” He again flicks his eyes to Jalbert.

“The next brick could be at my head.”

Ramsey says, “Where are you going?”

“I’m thinking Colorado.

I have a brother there and I don’t see him enough.”

“It won’t matter where you go,” Jalbert says.

“Miss Wicker will follow you like a bad stink.

One that won’t wash off.”

Danny knows this is probably true.

He looks at Ramsey.

“Are you pursuing any other suspects? Any at all? Maybe a boyfriend she dropped and wasn’t happy about it? A bad home situation?”

Ramsey says, “The OHP Investigative Division isn’t in the habit of sharing information with suspects.”

Danny didn’t expect any better.

He has an idea that OHP isn’t pursuing any suspects in Oklahoma, and for good reason.

He thinks that there is no connection between Yvonne Wicker and her killer.

She was hitchhiking, got picked up by the wrong person, and it cost her her life.

He stands up.

“I’m leaving.”

No one stops him, but Jalbert says, “You’ll be back.”