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“Dunno.” Jeff eyed the sheriff. “But I got the heck out of there, scared. I know that none of us saw Silas or Bud ever again. Heard they left town that day.”

“You got out of there?” Calloway said.

Jeff nodded. “I ran like a scared little kid.”

“At what point?”

“Right after I saw everything. Wilmot yelled at me to stop, but I didn’t. I ran.”

“When did you all come together to make a vow of secrecy?” I asked.

Jeff shook his head. “We never came together. Thalia just told me about it. I said I wouldn’t say a word. Shoot, I was too scared for anyone to know anyway. I wasn’t gonna tell a soul. We just talked about it as we ran into each other, I guess.”

“So Silas couldn’t be in on keeping it all a secret?” I asked. “He was gone.”

“Thalia told me that Wilmot was taking care of talking to Silas and Johnny.”

“Johnny Clark?” I asked.

“Yep.”

“Why didn’t you talk to Johnny?” I didn’t believe that my father would have asked kids to keep a vow of secrecy. Calloway and I exchanged a glance that told me he thought the same.

“I never saw Johnny again either. But I’d never seen much of him before. He barely went to school. After some time passed, I just kind of forgot about him.”

Calloway looked at Jeff again. “Have you heard from Silas or Johnny over the years?”

“No, sir, but …”

Claire came around the wall. “Jeff … Don’t …”

“It’s okay, baby. They need to know.”

“What?” Calloway asked.

“Claire and I were in Tucson a few years back. We came upon a homeless man who walked up to us and said he was Wilmot Dylan.” Jeff’s eyes darted to me. “He wasn’t, but he looked like Silas might look like as an adult, sort of like his dad, but still Silas. I tried to talk to him, but he ran off, muttering something like ‘sins of the father’ or some such nonsense.”

“It isn’t nonsense,” Claire said. “It’s biblical. Exodus 20:5 and Numbers 14:18. But, later, Ezekiel 18:20 clarifies that the child shall not suffer for the father’s sin. Still, though, lots of people hold on to the earlier testaments regarding children somehow paying for the sins of their father.”

“Whose father?”

Jeff shrugged. “Never got any clarification.”

Calloway nodded at Claire. “Thank you.” He looked at me. He knew what my attacker had said to me. I just frowned.

Jeff said, “I wondered if he was talking about Hazel, but she was here, and I really didn’t think he was Wilmot. I thought maybe, but only maybe, it was Silas and that he wasn’t well. We kind of forgot about it not long afterward. Time goes on, you know. Things keep happening to get your attention.”

“It was disturbing at the time, though,” Claire said.

“I get it.” Calloway bit his bottom lip. “Can you tell us more about the blood?”

Jeff sighed. “Claire, sweetie. You don’t want to hear this part. Okay, hon?”

A range of emotions pulled at Claire’s features, but ultimately she seemed to agree. “I’ll be in the bedroom, praying for all of you.”

“Thank you, baby,” Jeff said.

We watched Claire disappear down the hallway.