Drunks, like gamblers, rarely keep winning.

Yet every day with Lena and Jonas had been a miracle.

I’d been lucky to have over ten years of miracles with her—and eight with him. And somehow since then, I had been even more fortunate to stay alive amid the pain of recovery.

When I got to Mason Falls, I exited 906 and headed to Marvin’s place.

I sat on his porch with Purvis, and my bulldog stared at me. “Nothing to say about what I did?” I asked.

But Purvis was silent. After all, he was a dog. What was I expecting?

I heard a noise. Marvin had picked up the puppy from Animal Services.

“Beau-Beau,” I said as he came out.

“Let’s take a walk, guys.”

I grabbed their leashes and told Marvin I’d be back in twenty minutes. As I strolled through Marvin’s neighborhood, I called up Remy. Asking her what she was doing.

“There’s a get-together in an hour or so,” she said. “People that Gattling and I know. We do extreme mud runs and that sorta thing with them. You wanna join us?”

“Are they millennial types?” I asked. “They wear hipster winter beanies in summer? Ironic T-shirts?”

“Don’t forget the craft beer drinking,” she said. “Small-batch stuff. We sit around discussing the type of hops. Very few intense detective types, P.T. You’d probably hate it.”

“Wow. You make that a pretty tempting invitation,” I said.

Remy laughed.

Then her voice changed. “P.T.,” she said. “I’m not sure if you heard. Or got any calls in the last hour from anyone downtown?”

“No,” I said. “About what?”

“Hartley hung himself in his cell.”

“What?” I said, incredulous.

“Two hours ago,” she said. “I asked if he had any visitors. They said you were there.”

“Yeah, we talked,” I said. Now, trying to replay our short conversation in my head.

“I guess, after you left, some lawyer named Granton came by,” Remy added. “Apparently he and Hartley talked for five minutes. Then Hartley went back to his cell. No one noticed ’til he was dead.”

I was stunned and silent.

“The DA said your phone just went to voicemail for the last couple hours.”

“I went to see Monroe,” I said. “Not sure if you caught the news. He retired from office.”

“Just like that?” Remy asked.

“We might’ve talked first,” I said. “What did the DA want?”

“I dunno,” Remy said. “She was mystified. Apparently she and Hartley had talked last night. He said he had something to trade. In exchange, he wanted five years in minimum security. She wanted to know what you two talked about. If her conversation with him came up.”

“No,” I said. “It hadn’t.” But I understood now why Hartley had helped me. He was about to make a deal.

That is, until someone influential heard about it. Perhaps threatened something that Hartley cared about. His family. Their fortune.

We went silent for a moment, and I turned with the dogs back toward Marvin’s house.