But instead, a woman spoke.It took Tean a moment to recognize Lucy Young’s voice because it had been a long time since he’d heard it.
“Tean, it’s Ammon.”
And he thought, in the disorienting gap that followed, Somebody shot him.He’s a cop.He’s been shot.
But her voice broke as she said, “They’re saying he—they’re saying he killed someone.”
4
Lucy was standing in the yard.
For a moment, when Tean saw her, he forgot he was driving.He hadn’t seen her, not in person, since everything with Ammon had exploded.In profile, she looked unchanged: long blond hair, a stylishly oversized cardigan, jeans that showed off a trim figure.
And then the mailbox surged up in the corner of his vision, and Tean turned the wheel so he wouldn’t clip it with a side mirror.
But even the surge of adrenaline at the near miss felt sluggish.Three hours of driving.Three hours of worrying as he worked his way south, inching through the congestion around Salt Lake, and then south again.Three hours of telling himself to go home.
It’s none of your business.
But he shifted the truck into park and got out.
South Jordan was a city at the bottom of the Salt Lake Valley, and for most of Tean’s life, it had been a middle-class community.Or what middle-class had meant before Utah began to change.The homes had been, for the most part, small, built in the ’60s and ’70s and ’80s on nice-sized lots.The last fifteen years, though, had brought changes.More people were moving to Utah.People with money.And that meant new homes were being built, widening the sprawl of the I-15 corridor, and even older homes were being bought at outrageous prices.
South Jordan was also home.
Tean’s parents lived ten minutes from where he stood.Ammon’s parents too.
This house was a brick rambler with an old birch growing at one corner and a wrack line of yellow leaves running diagonally across the lawn.A South Jordan police cruiser was parked at the curb, behind an unmarked black SUV.A uniformed officer emerged from the house—White, his hair buzzed, the first hint of the jowls of middle age—spoke into his phone for a moment, and then ducked back inside.
When Tean got out of the truck, Lucy looked over.She started to turn back to the house, then her gaze swung to Tean.Her expression didn’t change, but she adjusted her arms, hugging herself.
“Are you okay?”Tean asked as he crossed the lawn.She didn’t answer, and he heard how hollow the question sounded.“What happened?”
For a moment, she pressed her lips together.Then, in cool, controlled tones, she said, “They showed up at the door with a warrant.The kids weren’t here, thank goodness.They took Ammon.”
“They’re still searching the house?”
This didn’t merit a response either.
“What are they looking for?”Tean asked.
Lucy shook her head and turned her gaze back to the house.
“They must have given you a copy of the search warrant,” Tean said.Too many afternoons watching reruns of cop shows with Jem.
“They gave it to Ammon,” she said.But she produced a sheaf of folded pages from where she held it under her arm, and she handed it over.
The part Tean wanted to see was at the top of the affidavit, where Agent Cady Trevino of the State Bureau of Investigation listed the Young residence as the location to be searched.Below that, she described the “property or evidence” that the warrant authorized them to look for and, if found, take.
Affiant seeks authority to search the residence of Ammon Young, including all rooms, outbuildings, garages, storage areas, and vehicles found on the premises, for the following items which may constitute evidence of the crime of Homicide (Utah Code 76-5-203) in connection with the death of Brennon Lee, discovered in the Uinta Basin on October 15, 2019:
Articles of clothing, footwear, gloves, and outerwear belonging to the suspect, bearing possible blood, soil, plant matter, fibers, or other trace material consistent with the crime scene.
Laundry, linens, rags, or cleaning supplies which may contain biological traces of the victim or evidence of attempts to destroy or conceal evidence.
Rope, cords, belts, straps, tarps, or other items capable of being used to restrain, transport, or conceal the victim.
Any knives, tools, or sharp objects bearing blood, hair, or tissue, or otherwise consistent with use in the commission of a violent crime.
