The Gardners lived in an aging apartment complex that covered a couple of blocks. Leif kept to the posted five miles per hour as they wound through the narrow streets curving around dozens of identical gray two-story buildings.
They found the unit they were looking for toward the back of the complex. As soon as Leif knocked, the door swung open. A man and a woman--Stan and Linda Gardner, Nic presumed--stood in the doorway. They were both blond, both a little overweight, and neither of them looked that much older than Nic.
But there was a third person with them, one she hadn't expected. A toddler straddled Linda's hip. After Leif and Nic introduced themselves, Linda said, "And this is Brandon." He gave them a shy grin that showed his small, white teeth like freshwater pearls, then turned and pressed his face against his grandmother's bosom.
The Gardners invited them in, and then settled into a worn, beige plaid couch. Leif took the tan recliner while Nic sat on the matching ottoman, which was the only other piece of furniture in the room.
"Do you know why we're here?" Nic asked.
"I would guess this has something to do with what happened to Jim Fate," Stan said. He regarded them steadily.
Leif opened up the file he had brought and held up a plastic evidence bag. Inside was the newspaper clipping about Brooke Gardner's death--and the threat scrawled on top of it--that Nic had found in Jim's office. The Gardners looked at it without any sign of curiosity or alarm.
Leif said, "We were able to use new technology to get fingerprints off this. And guess what? They match someone in this room. And it's not me, and it's not Special Agent Hedges. Or Brandon, for that matter."
There were no prints on the clipping, so it was a lie, but it was a legal lie, one that often encouraged the guilty to immediately admit the truth. They had successfully used the same technique before. Two months earlier, Leif had told a robbery suspect that he had sent the mask the robber wore into the lab, which had been able to get a "facial print" off the mask. The robber had at once admitted his guilt.
Stan shook his head. "I didn't write that."
Linda said, "I did."
They all, even Stan, turned to look at her.
"It was right after they figured out"--she looked down at her hand stroking her grandson's fine blond hair--"that Brandon was alive. My only child was gone, and it was all Jim Fate's fault, and Brandon's father was threatening not to let as ever see our grandson again." She made a sound of bitter amusement. "Grandparents basically don't have any rights in Oregon. With just a few careless words, Jim Fate destroyed my entire family. He hounded my only child to death solely for the sake of getting more listeners. And he never even apologized. There were times I did want him dead. But I never acted oil what I was feeling, other than to send him that note." She took a shaky breath. "And we've all come to terms with it since then."
"How could you come to terms?" Nic asked. She couldn't buy it.
"I've got a daughter. If someone caused her death, I would never, ever forgive them. I would probably hunt them down and kill them myself."
Leif shot her a sideways look. They were supposed to be playing roles, but she figured he knew the truth when he heard it.
"And maybe one of us would have." Stan raised his empty hands. "Except we probably would have just gunned Jim Fate down in the parking lot and then stood there and waited to be arrested. No sense in running and hiding when you've got nothing to live for. And no sense sending him some package not knowing who else would be in the room when he opened it. Our beef was with Jim Fate, not anyone else. Six months ago, I would have gladly looked into his beady, blue eyes and put a bullet right between them. Linda and I used to talk about it. About how we would do it. The only thing that stopped us was this little guy here." He reached out with one square hand and cradled Brandon's left foot, clad in a tiny blue Nike. "If we killed Jim Fate, we risked never seeing Brandon again."
The boy gave him a smile, which made Stan grin in return.
Linda said, "Look, a couple of months ago, we got four hundred thousand dollars from our settlement with KNWS. Maybe the money is what brought Jason--Brandon's dad--around, I don't know, but now we're back in his good graces. We babysit Brandon every day while Jason is at work. Sure, I know, it's free child care for him, but I get to see my little baby grandson every day. Brandon is just a wonderful, wonderful boy. And he reminds me so much of his mother."
While Linda directed her words to them, she simultaneously played a game with Brandon, poking him under his arm or in his round tummy. Now he let out a delighted giggle. She raised her eyes to their faces. "So, no, we didn't kill Jim Fate. By the grace of God, we didn't do it."
As they were getting back into the car, Leif asked Nic, "What do you think? Do you believe them?"