“Maverick?” Caitlin laughed. “Jane better quit smoking. A job like that will stop a heart, stress alone. What about your best friend?”

“Aren’t you my best friend?”

In the past, she would have given him shit for that one. “I’m talking about the frat-boy kingpin, Kieran Michelson and his bros.”

“Amireau and Frodo have trial dates in six months. The feds are still working on the K-man. You know how that process goes. Could be a year, could be more. My boy Adam gets to stay in the Bahamas. They can’t really prove he did anything sinister.”

Caitlin remembered her stash of weed in the other room—and the description of Angela’s face the night she and her unoffending friends were kicked out of Kilroy’s Sports.

Sixty sheets to the wind, but laughing.

“I’m not sure the others did either,” she said through a sigh.

Mike raised an eyebrow. “Maybe pot will be legal by the time they get to trial. So why are you all dressed up if you don’t have a date?”

Caitlin laughed. Roman didn’t miss much. “Angela Chapman’s in a facility thirty miles from here. I’m gonna go talk to her.”

“For a book?”

She shook her head no. “Thanks for stopping by. Let me know if you go down to Mexico.”

“Are you kidding? I expect an update every day to make sure this state hasn’t killed you.”

“Come here, Roman.” Caitlin reached out for the hug. This time he didn’t resist.

She whispered in the big man’s ear. “What did you really want to tell me?”

Mike spoke softly. “I got a call this morning from a prison guard in Kokomo. Troy Woods died from wounds sustained in a riot.”

Caitlin swallowed. “Do they know who killed him?”

“They’re pretty sure the Aryan Brotherhood thought he helped law enforcement find a missing reporter.”

She let go, looked him in the sunglasses. “Wow. I didn’t expect that.”

“Karma, right?”

He stepped back, waved. “Stay safe, Bergman.”

She waved back.

He walked down the sidewalk, got in his rental.

Watching him go, Caitlin tried to decide how she felt about Woods’s demise.

Sunshine, a cool breeze, grass, trees, flowers, a beautiful college town, new friendships, no deadlines or headlines, nothing but time on her side—she decided not to give a damn one way or another.

Author Biography

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Originally from central Indiana, thriller and mystery author August Norman has called Los Angeles home for two decades, writing for and/or appearing in movies, television, stage productions, web series, and even, commercial advertising. A lover and champion of crime fiction, August is an active member of the Mystery Writers of America and the International Thriller Writers, and regularly attends the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference.