And beside the wallet were two heavy winter jackets, folded, the ones he always threw in the cab in case the temperature dropped out on the open water.

Everything about the truck was ordinary.

Everything about it said that four people had climbed out of it on a bright morning, full of plans, and walked down to the water, and simply not come back.

The boat itself was found several hours later, drifting against the far shore on the opposite side of the lake.

It was empty.

And it was badly damaged along the hull, stove in on one side in a way that the officials would later struggle to fully explain, though they offered theories about rocks and submerged debris and the force of a sudden chop.

The damaged hull had troubled the investigators, I would later understand, more than they let on to me at the time.