“Oh, God.” Caitlin’s green eyes fix me with laserlike intensity. “You’ve got to kill this thing in the cradle, Penn. I’m dead serious. Your father won’t survive this kind of stress.”

“I’m working on it. But I don’t think there’s any way to prevent an arrest tomorrow.”

She raises her eyebrows like a schoolteacher silently reprimanding a student.

“You’re thinking about the photo. The nuclear option.”

“I’m thinking about survival,” she says.

“Let’s wait and see what Dad says tonight. An arrest isn’t the end of the world. The charge is more important. I already let Shad know the stakes, and I think he got the message.”

Caitlin makes it clear that this answer doesn’t satisfy her. Suddenly the heat is too much for me. “I need to get out.”

“Me, too,” she says, almost in surrender.

She waits for me to stand and then pull her to her feet, which is our habit. Afterward, we hug for a few moments, but soon the chill is too much. Lifting towels off a nearby chair, we dry off in front of the gas heater.

“Stop staring at my butt,” she says, whipping her towel behind her to block my view. “As soon as you get back from your parents’, I’m going back to work. And I’m going to search all my databases while you’re gone. Isn’t there something you can give me to work on that might help Tom? You know what I can do, Penn. Exploit me, for God’s sake.”

As I close my eyes in forbearance, a little voice says, You’d better use every resource you have on this. Even if I give Caitlin nothing, she’ll be an expert on the Double Eagle group within two hours. Taking hold of her shoulders, I look hard into her eyes.

“I’m going to give you two names. Don’t ask me any questions. Not whether they have any relation to each other, or even to these cases. But if you can find out everything there is to know about them—without them knowing you’re digging—it will be a big help.”

She smiles with her eyes. “Deal.”

“The first is Brody Royal. The second is Forrest Knox.”

She’s already committed the names to memory. “That’s it?”

I nod. “Go do your thing. And stay below the radar. This case is more dangerous than you know.”

“Have these guys really threatened your family?”

“I don’t know for sure. I do know that one is a ruthless killer. The other may be a corrupt cop.”