By now, the FBI had brought in a specialist who worked with victims’ families. They had to prepare James for this terrible likelihood: His daughter was gone. They wouldn’t know for sure until the FBI searched the bottom of the lake. His thinnest thread of hope, translucent and breakable as spider’s silk, was that this confession could possibly be a hoax. It sounds real to us, they told him. We have reason to believe it. Brace yourself as best you can.
