He waited again. He could almost hear the former military man’s synapses firing off, weighing from virtually every conceivable angle what Knox had just proposed.

Virtually every conceivable angle. Just hopefully not the real one.

“It might be worth checking,” Hayes said finally.

“And just so we’re clear, this will only be a tangential line of inquiry.” Knox wanted to feed the man a comfort bone, however disingenuous. “I’ll be following up other leads at the same time. We can only hope that one of them will pop for us.”

“Put Marsh on the phone so I can give him the necessary authorizations.”

“Thank you, General.” You bastard.

Hayes did his thing with Marshall and twenty minutes later Knox was being led into one of the most secure areas of one of the most clandestine facilities the United States of America had.

Chapter 36

CHAPTER 36

STONE HAD REJOINED Abby when Tyree burst into the emergency room.

“How’s Danny?” he said when he spotted them.

“Doctor just came out and said the x-rays look okay,” Abby said shakily. “And they don’t think there’s internal bleeding.”

Tyree knelt down and held her hand. “Well, thank God for that. Have you talked to him any more?”

“No.”

Tyree looked over at Stone. “You seem to always be in the right place at the right time. First Willie and now Danny.”

“Any leads on the guys who attacked him?”

“I’m hoping to cut to the chase and get Danny to tell me. Any chance of me talking to him?”

Stone pointed at a man in a white coat. “There’s the doctor over there.”

Tyree hurried over to the man while Stone turned to Abby. “Do you want me to drive you home?”

“No. I’m going to stay here. I’d just worry myself sick if I left.”

“Then I’ll stay with you.”

“You’ve done enough. You saved Danny’s life. Again. I really don’t know how to thank you.”

“Abby, I talked to Willie a few minutes ago. He said Danny came to visit him yesterday. He talked about him and Willie heading out of town together. Going west.”

“Did Willie know why anybody would want to hurt Danny?”

“No, but I asked him about Debby Randolph. He said she and Danny dated some in high school, but it wasn’t serious.”

“I’m not sure Danny can get serious with a girl. It’s all fun and games for him.”

“But Willie doesn’t think that Debby committed suicide. You see, he’d asked her to marry him. And she’d said yes. He talked to her around eleven the night before she was found dead. She was in good spirits.”

“I didn’t know he’d proposed.”