He stopped beside the iron dog kennel in the back corner of the garden.

Officer Vance took a pair of thick rubber gloves out of his belt pouch and pulled them on.

He knelt in the mud and lifted the heavy iron padlock.

He studied the clean notch where my bolt cutters had broken the hardened steel shackle in two.

“The cut marks are clean and fresh,” Officer Vance said.

“They match the tool you reported.”

“Jaclyn told me the boy locked himself in from the inside,” I said.