PROFESSOR Branden stopped at home on the college heights at the east edge of town and spoke briefly with his wife and Evelyn Carson, confirming that Martha was sleeping and, for the present, safe. At the courthouse, he found the long Favor limousine parked along the east sidewalk, blocking the spots at the hitching rail reserved for buggies. A county worker in tan Carhartt coveralls was tucking a note under the wiper blades on the driver’s-side windshield. Branden drove around behind the red brick jail, parked beside the bank building in an alley that had been plowed, and went up the short stack of concrete steps into the back of the jail, passing a man shoveling off the last patches of ice. The back door put Branden inside a long hallway. To his immediate left was the squad room, with lockers for the deputies and desks for the family court detectives. On his right were the doors to Interview A and B. He poked his head into B and found the Favor children, with lawyer DiSalvo, seated around a rectangular gray metal table, their winter coats hung over the backs of their chairs.
