"No, it's not that. Thanks, though."

"Sure." I waited a second. "Come on, Goober. Spit it out."

"It's just that, well, meh, meh, me and my cousins from Oelwein… we been the ones doing those break-ins, you know?"

"Just a second, Fred. Are you saying that you've been directly involved with some of them?" A confession? Could I be that lucky?

"Mostly all, I suspect," he answered, in a soft voice. The rocking increased, perceptibly.

Thank you, God. Thank you, thank you. Up to now, we hadn't had a single clue as to who had been doing the burglaries. I took a breath, to slow myself down, and to try to appear matter-of-fact. "I'm going to have to advise you of your rights, Fred."

"Sure, but that ain't what it's about. Not why I was out here… not directly, Mr. Houseman."

I told him to hang on a second, and very quickly recited his Miranda rights to him. To be safe. "There, Fred. Now, do you understand those rights?"

"Yeah. But, Mr. Houseman, you gotta understand. Dirk and Royce, my cousins, they had me driving the car, you know?"

"While they did the burglaries, you mean?"

"I just drive 'em out to the place, you know, and they get out and sneak in, and then I go away for a while, and I come back and pick 'em up."

"You pick 'em up? They go in on foot?"

"Yeah."

He looked up beseechingly. "Am I gonna get charged with manslaughter, or something, if they're dead?"

I must have given him my dumb look.

"If they're dead, are you gonna send me away? I just gotta know."

Fred leaned forward, terribly earnest. "You gotta understand, Mr. Houseman. That's what I been trying to tell you. I dropped ' em off Sunday night. Two nights ago. On the other side of the hill back of the place. I saw 'em go over the hill, to go into the place." He stared at me with wide eyes. "They never came back out."