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“You checked this out?”

“No. I…I know I should have. I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights I’ve spent wondering. Beverly said Amber had promised to take the boy to an aunt of theirs who lived near Cedar Cove. This aunt, whom I never met, apparently used to visit once in a while.”

Troy let that information settle before he asked, “Did you ever hear from Amber again?”

“Never.”

Otto said, “She died a year after Beverly in an automobile accident.”

“I didn’t find out about it until several years later,” Louie clarified. “By then, Donna and I were married and we’d moved back to Cedar Cove and started our family.”

“So you believe the body in the cave is Timmy,” Troy said.

Louie stared down at the floor. “I strongly suspect it is. The…skeleton was wearing the baseball cap I gave him. He loved that thing and wore it constantly.”

“We’d need dental records to confirm his identity,” Troy said. He paused. “I assume there are dental records?”

“Yes,” Louie told him. “He’d been to the dentist two or three times. He broke a tooth when he was eight, and I took him to Dr. Hudson myself.”

“Fine. I’ll get the chart from Hudson and send it to the pathologist.”

“It’s Timmy,” Louie insisted. “You can compare dental records if you want, but in my heart of hearts, I know it’s Timmy.”

This brought up something else. “Charlotte Jefferson knew about Timmy. She met the aunt—Amber and Beverly’s aunt—in the park.”

Closing his eyes, Louie nodded.

“So you believe the aunt is responsible for Timmy’s death?” Troy asked.

“I don’t know what to believe,” Louie said, his voice ragged. “If I were to speculate, I’d guess Amber did take the boy to live with her mother’s sister. But you have to remember that Timmy had only been away from Beverly for the briefest periods of time. He couldn’t possibly have understood what had happened and why he had to leave the only home he’d ever known.”

“My assumption is that he ran away,” Otto said. “Somehow he found the cave and hid out there…”

“Wouldn’t his aunt have looked for him or reported him missing? Is she still alive?” Troy asked urgently.

Louie shook his head. “I learned a few years later that she died of a sudden heart attack about two weeks after Beverly. I figured the boy had gone to a group home or something. I…I suppose that’s what I wanted to believe.”

“Timmy died due to a tragic series of events.” Otto stood. “My brother hasn’t done anything culpable.”

“Maybe not, but I should’ve made sure Timmy was okay, that he was settled and happy. The truth is, I was young and selfish and relieved not to be responsible for the boy anymore. I feel wretched now to realize my selfcenteredness might have contributed to his death. The night I was arrested for drunk driving was the night I could no longer deny what I’d suspected from the beginning—it was Timmy in that cave.”

Troy knew that no one would be harder on the mayor than he’d been on himself.

“If you feel you need to press charges, then do so,” Louie said brokenly.

“On what grounds?” Otto demanded.

“Neglect,” Louie whispered. “Amber wasn’t to be trusted and I knew it. I was far too willing to let her take Timmy to this aunt of hers and then, when I discovered the aunt was dead…I didn’t look for him or try to find out where he was.”

“We’d prefer to keep Louie’s name out of the press,” Otto said. “By the time Timmy died, he’d been divorced from Beverly for a number of years.”

“I don’t see how mentioning Louie is relevant to the case. You had no legal obligation toward Timmy.”

“Perhaps not a legal obligation but a moral one. I should never have been so willing to slough him off.”

Troy agreed that morally Louie had been in the wrong even if legally he wasn’t. But in his view, the mayor had suffered enough.

“Once I get confirmation from the pathologist,” he said, “I’ll write up a short press release, merely indicating that the remains have been identified. What was Timmy’s last name?” he asked as the thought suddenly occurred