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"You-all want some coffee?" she asked as she slid into the swivel chair behind the ugly metal desk

I looked at Tolliver, and we both shook our heads

"Well, then" She put her hands flat on the desk "I heard about you fro, her name is"

I suy named Lacey?"

I nodded

"She seemed like a sensible person She was no flake And her clearance rate and reputation are i to you, you understand?"

"Yes, I understand"

She looked a little e rude, and that’s not my intention But you have to understand, this is not so if you didn’t have a track record I’m not one of these people who listens to that John Edward - not the politician with an s, but the medium - and I’o to séances, or even read a horoscope"

"I fully understand," I said Maybe et that you have reservations," he said

She sratefully "That’s it in a nutshell I have reservations"

"So, you ave me an unfriendly look "Yes," she admitted, since she had to "Yes, we’re desperate"

"I’ to back out," I said baldly "I just want to knohat I’ainst"

She seemed to relax at my frankness "Okay, then, cards on the table," she said She took a deep breath "For the past five years, boys have been goingin this county It’s up to six boys now When I say ’boys,’ I e Now, kids that age are prone to run away, and they’re prone to suicide, and they’re prone to have fatal car accidents And if we’d found them, or heard from the runaways, we’d be okay with that, as okay as you can be"

We nodded

"But these particular boys, it’s just - no one can believe they would run away And in this time, surely some hunter or bird watcher or hiker would have found a body or two if they’d killed themselves or met with so that they’re buried so I’m sure they’re still here, sos," I said Tolliver took out his pad and pencil The sheriff looked surprised, as if the last thing she’d ever expected had been that I would ask her questions

"Okay, shoot," Sandra Rockwell said after a brief pause

"Are there bodies of water in the county?"

"Yes, there’s Grunyan’s Pond and Pine Landing Lake And several streams"

"Have they been searched?"

"Yes A couple of us dive, and we’ve searched as well as we can Nothing’s come to the surface, either Both of those spots are well used, and anything that cas that went doould have been found, if they’d been there to find And I’m sure the pond’s clear Still, it’s possible that there’s so in the deepest part of the lake"

The sheriff clearly believed that wasn’t likely

"What did the e? Not one"

"All white?"

"Oh Yes"

"All go to the sah school, one of theh, one of them to the private academy, Randolph Prep"

"The past five years, you said? Do they vanish at the same time of year?"

She looked at a file on her desk, opened it Flipped over a few pages "No," she said "Two in the fall, three in the spring, one in the summer"

None in the winter, when the conditions would be worst for an outdoor interht The boys were buried somewhere

"You think the sa, but it was a good guess

"Yes," she said "That’s what I think"

It waslike this I’d never tried to find so many people "I don’t know a lot about serial killers," I said, and the two dread words dropped into the room like unwelcome visitors "But from what I’ve read and seen on television, I believe they tend to bury their victiraphic conditions, if not in the exact sa most of his victims in the river"

"That’s true," she said "Some of them prefer the same location Then they can visit it over and over To remember" She’d done her homework

"How do you think I can help?"

"Tell me how you work How do you find bodies?"