Chapter 4 Summary

Alafair wakes with a stomachache, so Dave keeps her home from school the following day. Dave spends the day working in the yard with Alafair, constantly watching the road for the police vehicles he knows will come. They do come, before noon, and arrest Dave with more force than he believes is necessary. At the station, Dave is informed that he is being accused of killed Dalton Vidrine. Dave realizes then that his pocket knife is missing. It dawns on Dave then that Mapes must have taken the opportunity to kill Vidrine who was going to break and tell someone about the murders, using the pocket knife that must have fallen out of Dave's pocket during the beatings. Dave hires a lawyer and begins applying for loans to cover his fifteen thousand dollar portion of the one hundred and fifty thousand dollar bail...