Oh my God, Caitlin thought. A rush of adrenaline started her pacing the bedroom. “What can I do to help? Should I come over?”

“If you have time, I think it would calm him down a little.”

“I’m on my way, Sherry. Fifteen minutes, max.”

“Thank you.”

Caitlin pulled on the jeans she’d been wearing last night, grabbed a fresh blouse from her closet, then put on her tennis shoes. Hair and makeup would have to wait until she got to the Examiner. Stuffing Henry’s Moleskine and the photos into her purse, she grabbed her keys and her pepper spray off the night table and ran for the front door. The policeman outside looked startled, but she shouted that everything was okay and sprinted to her car.

CHAPTER 60

A DISTANT BELL is ringing in the fog, but no matter how hard I peer into the veil of white, I can’t locate the source of the sound. Is it a buoy, or another ship? Suddenly panicked, I jerk upright and realize I’m lying in an unfamiliar bed, my cell phone ringing on the floor beside it. After draining two beers and a shot of vodka in quick succession last night, I slept like the dead, despite the shocks I’d endured during the day. God only knows how many times my phone must have rung to bring me out of my alcohol-induced coma.

Leaning off the edge of the bed, I dig my phone out of my pants pocket and look at the LCD. The caller is Sheriff Walker Dennis.

“Tell me you have good news,” I say groggily.

“Not exactly. The judge wouldn’t go for it. I couldn’t get the wiretap warrant on Brody Royal.”

“Goddamn it,” I curse, pressing my fist against my forehead. Without a wiretap, shaking Brody’s tree won’t accomplish a damned thing. “I thought this judge hated Royal.”

“He does. But he also wants to get reelected for another term.”

“Shit.”

“The news isn’t all bad, though. He’s writing up the warrants for me to go after the meth cookers and mules, even though he knows that means going to war with the Knoxes.”

“What about tapping Royal’s lines on your own? Do you have the capability?”

“Come on, Penn. If I try that, I might as well write a formal request to be fired and then sued.”

I sit up on the edge of the bed. “I know. I was out of line to ask you.”

“Look, man, I’m ready to go all-out on these drug busts, if you’re still with me. We can put some serious heat on the Knoxes, maybe enough to rattle Brody.”

“I doubt it. He probably keeps well clear of the drug stuff.”

“Well, what do you want to do? This ain’t something to take on lightly. Ask my cousin’s widow.”