"When was that?" Jordan asked.
"About four hours ago. Here, I'll let you talk to him yourself." He pulled his big bulk to one side, and a boy and his father walked into the picture. The boy was red-eyed, as though he had been crying. The father was a tall, stoop-shouldered farmer, dressed like his son in plastic overalls.
The sheriff patted the boy on the back. "Come on, Jimmy. Tell the man what you saw."
"I saw him," the boy said sullenly. "I walked up the highway with him."
Jordan leaned forward toward the screen.
"How did you know who he was?"
"I knew because when he stepped on the ground, he sank into it up to his knee. He tried to say the ground was soft, but it was hard. I know it was hard."
"Why did you wait so long to tell anybody?" Jordan asked softly.
The boy looked at him with defiance and dislike in his eyes and kept his small mouth clamped shut.