The Outsider

July 21-22

Detective Yune Sablo has a report for Ralph about what was found at the barn. Sablo tells him they did find Terry’s fingerprints on the belt buckle, but they were faded like the prints of someone in their 80s or 90s. There’s also a second set that looks even less like Terry’s. Strangest of all, Sablo reports that the pants, undershorts, and socks were soaked with semen—far more than could possibly have come from one person—and the straw under the clothes was black as if covered with some kind of corrosive goo. Ralph admits that his wife suggested the solution to the puzzle might be supernatural. Sablo says his wife said something similar. They agree that this is nonsense.

Pursuing a hunch that Ralph has, they go over the witness statements on Detective Sablo’s computer and find the point where Claude Bolton mentions that Terry scratched the back of Claude’s hand. It probably means nothing, but it’s a coincidence that Terry had received a similar scratch a few weeks before Frankie’s murder.

After meeting with Sablo, Ralph realizes that the only thing missing from the pile of clothes was the yellow shirt Terry was seen wearing. Ralph finally remembers the man with the burned face at the courthouse and realizes why he has been fixated on the color yellow.