“True. But that’s not quite the same thing, and more to the point, you’re really a one-man shop over there when it comes to these cold cases.”

Henry takes his time parsing her words and tone. “What are you saying, exactly?”

“She wants to know everything you know about the Double Eagles,” I tell him. “She wants to take over your story.”

“Not true,” Caitlin snaps. “That’s not what I’m asking for at all.” She walks over to the reporter and lightly touches his arm, taking back his attention. “I have a proposal for you, Henry.”

Last night Henry’s worst fear was having his story stolen. But Caitlin isn’t going to steal it from him; she’s going to convince him he has a journalistic duty to give it to her. “A proposal?” he asks.

“Yes. I’d like you to start working for me.”

He draws back in puzzlement. “For you?”

“For the Examiner. I’m the publisher, you know, not a reporter or even the editor. I don’t have any business trying to write this story myself. But unless I have you working for me, I’m going to have to take it on, the way I did the Del Payton story.”

This statement is disingenuous. We all know she won a Pulitzer for her Del Payton coverage.

“I’d much prefer to have you covering this story for us,” she continues. “With our media group’s considerable resources backing you up. We’d publish under your byline, naturally.”

To my surprise, Henry’s face goes red, then darkens with anger. Even Caitlin takes a step back when she sees the frustration in his eyes. After all his painstaking work, I can only imagine the personal affront he must feel her overture to be.

“You can tell her to go to hell, Henry,” I say. “I mean that.”

Caitlin gives me a sharp glare, but then she takes two steps closer to him. “I realize what I’m asking. And I admit that I’m partly motivated by self-interest. But you can’t deny that I can bring considerable firepower to what until now has been a solo quest—albeit an impressively successful one.”

Henry looks up at her at last, then turns to me like a man seeking sanctuary, as if he’s only able to stand the intensity of Caitlin’s expectant gaze for a few seconds. I know the feeling well.

“This is complicated,” he says. “Because Dr. Cage’s case is one part of the story, and the cold cases are another. And I’ve been covering those just fine in the Beacon.”

“I believe all those stories are about to become one,” Caitlin says with unerring instinct. “One explosive story. The kind of story that comes along only once in a career.”