“Indeed.” I heard what sounded like a ballpoint pen being clicked repeatedly. “I understand you talked to J. D. Danner.”

“Nice hair.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I could handle the groceries myself.”

A beat. Then, “I have been authorized to reveal certain sensitive information. Dr. Larabee already has it. He asked me to share it with you.”

I waited.

“In 1996 the Patriot Posse came to the attention of the FBI. The group was small and strictly local, but intel was that certain members were becoming radicalized, perhaps plotting acts of violence.”

“Which members?”

“That’s not relevant.”

“Danner?”

The pen. Click. Click. Click.

“Lovette?”

“No.”

“What was their alleged target?”

“This information is strictly confidential.”

“Oh. Wait. I’ll cancel my tweet.”

“According to our source, the posse was planning to contaminate the water supply of a nearby town.”

“Why?”

“Two gripes. The presence of a women’s clinic that provided abortions. The election of a black woman as mayor.”

A mélange of anger and disgust soured my stomach. I reached for the Diet Coke.

“At the time Cindi Gamble and Cale Lovette vanished, the posse was under surveillance,” Williams went on.

“You had someone inside?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Was it Lovette? Gamble?”

Williams ignored my questions. “Our intel also suggested that members of the group may have had ties to Eric Rudolph.”

“Did they?”

“We were unable to establish that fact with certainty.”

Click. Click. Click.

“The posse disbanded in 2002, but the bureau has continued to track some of its members.”

“J. D. Danner?”

“Danner now heads a much bigger organization called the Loyalist Movement. The group has several thousand followers throughout the Southeast.”

“Who are they?”

“Extremists who believe that the federal government deliberately murdered people at Ruby Ridge and Waco, and that door-to-door gun confiscation could begin any day. Their ideology is less white-supremacist than in the nineties, though many have now turned their venom toward followers of Islam. What holds the group together is anger at the government.”

I pictured the Tommy Bahamas, the sapphire ring, the RX-8. “Danner looked pretty flush.”

“The Loyalist Movement is well funded, and Danner skims a big chunk off the top. But make no mistake. Though he lives well, Danner is committed. The guy’s cunning as a fox and dangerous as typhoid.”

“Why are you sharing all of this now?”

“To keep you in the loop.”

“You want nothing in return.”

“Normal professional consideration.”

“Uh. Huh.”

With that, we disconnected.

Right, I thought. Who’s the fox?

After chugging the dregs of my Diet Coke, I got MCME 239-11 from the cooler.