“I dream about him. He’s always smiling and telling me to not worry about him.”

Ava nodded. “I’d focus on that. Let us investigate the details. Nothing changes, right?”

“No. He’s still gone,” Sharon whispered.

“Do you have someone to talk to?” Ava asked.

“The agency lined someone up for me.”

Zander wondered if it was the same therapist Ava saw. If that therapist had been able to help Ava emotionally heal from her life-threatening injuries and Jayne’s suicide attempt, she could help Sharon.

“I know Vance told you he’d tried suicide in the past,” Ava said gently. “Were there other reasons you believed he took his own life?”

Sharon took a deep breath. “He’d struggled with depression for the last five years. He insisted we keep it quiet. He didn’t want anyone at his job to know.”

“So he was seeing a therapist?” Ava asked.

“No. His regular doctor prescribed something. At first Vance would be pleased with the results, but it seemed like after a few months the pills would stop working, so he’d go back and get his dose adjusted or try something else.”

Ava nodded her head in understanding. “Some medications take consistent monitoring and adjusting.”

If anyone had witnessed the ups and down of medications, Zander knew Ava had with her twin.

“Did he talk about hurting himself?” Zander asked.

Sharon shook her head emphatically. “Never.”

“Did he discuss his domestic terrorism cases with you? Was he concerned about his safety?” Ava questioned.

“He’s not supposed to talk much about his cases, but he did,” Sharon said simply. “I guess he can’t get into trouble for that now, so I don’t see the point in protecting him, right?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Zander. Could Sharon be in danger because of something Vance told her about a case?

He glanced at Ava, but she was focused on Sharon.

“If he was worried about his safety, he never told me,” Sharon stated. “His latest case involved some of those sovereign citizens who live in Central Oregon. He didn’t think they were dangerous. He thought they might do some stupid things, trying to protect their way of life, but he didn’t believe this group would do more than their usual paper battle against the government. They just wanted to be left alone.”

Zander knew the bare bones of the case. Vance had had a domestic terrorism watch list of Oregonians and part of his job had been to monitor their activity. Zander would need an update from Special Agent Kilpatrick to know if someone on the list could be a suspect.

“Did Vance know Denny Schefte? He’s a detective with the Oregon State Police.”

“He’s the one that was murdered yesterday, right? The case you said had a mask?” Sharon asked. “I saw his picture on the local news, but his name and face weren’t familiar to me. They didn’t say anything on the news about a mask. I assume you’re keeping that part quiet to eliminate the nutjobs that try to take the credit for the murder?”

“That’s correct. We’ll keep quiet about the same fact about Vance’s death, too,” said Ava. “Did you get a chance to see if there were any masks missing from Vance’s collection?”

“I looked,” Sharon said, shaking her head. “I can’t tell you if anything is missing or not. I never paid much attention to his movie paraphernalia collection. You’d asked if he’d ever had a Pinhead mask, and I honestly don’t know. There isn’t one now, but he might have owned one.”

Zander had already searched for cases Vance and Denny might both have worked on. He hadn’t found any, but the men could have known each other outside of work. “Did Vance hunt or fish?”

“No. Outside of work he would play basketball at the gym with friends. He’d coach a few kids’ club basketball teams each year. Those were his main interests.”

Mason had told Zander that Denny was an outdoorsman and had no interest in sports.

“Did you know of any arguments he’d had? Any skirmishes with neighbors or even a stranger?” Zander asked. He was getting to the bottom of his list. After asking Sharon for possible connections between the men, he had to fish outside the pond and hope he’d catch a trout with a lucky question. Ava’s shoulders slumped a tiny bit; she recognized his question as a Hail Mary pass.

“I’ve thought a lot about that,” said Sharon slowly, shaking her head. “If something happened, he didn’t tell me about it. Vance was one of the good guys. People liked him. It was his smile. He had a way of looking right at you and giving a smile that made you feel you were the most important person in the room at the moment. His personality was infectious. Everyone liked him.”

It was similar to what Zander had heard from Vance’s coworkers. No one liked to say bad things about the dead, but he had the impression that Vance had actually been the type of guy everyone had described.

“Bear with me a moment, Sharon,” Ava started. “But I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring this up.”

Zander held his breath, thankful Ava had neatly taken over the next aspect of the interview. She’d developed an understanding with Sharon, and he hoped the woman wouldn’t be offended by what she was about to ask.

“A lot of women love FBI agents and infectious personalities. It makes men prime targets for some females who are turned on by the badge,” Ava said.