“Who said my man had to be the one to bring the whole damn Klan to justice? Huh? He’s done more than anybody else already. Hasn’t he done enough?”

“More than enough,” I assure her.

Sherry shakes her head. “I can’t live like this anymore. I want a life, you know? A normal life. I’m too old to have more kids, but I can sit on the porch and listen to Henry play the guitar. I can work in my garden, and do a lot of other things that don’t make people want to kill you.”

Unsure of how to comfort her, I take her arm and whisper, “I think Henry’s dangerous work is done. A lot of good people are going to take over from here, including the FBI. But without Henry’s work, those Klansmen would almost certainly go free forever.”

She laughs bitterly. “Do you think that makes it worth it? Look at him. What if that was your girlfriend lying there?”

Henry looks like somebody dragged from a basement after an aerial bombardment. But then I think of the bones Kirk pulled up from the bottom of the Jericho Hole, bones with rusted barbed wire and a bullet embedded in them. “Only Henry can answer that.”

She gazes angrily at the man she loves. “He won’t quit. Not even after this. I know him too well.”

“Maybe he will,” I murmur, but I know it’s a lie. No man who’s come as far as Henry Sexton would stop his quest now. I want to ask him so many things, first and foremost about Brody Royal. But all that will have to wait. “Let’s go, Caitlin. Let’s let them get some rest.”

Caitlin kisses Henry on the forehead. Then she comes over and touches Sherry’s hand, whispers something in her ear, and follows me to the door.

“What did you say to her?” I ask when we’re outside.

“Girl stuff.”

This tells me I will learn no more.

Our cars are parked side by side in the hospital lot. As we walk down the steps at the exit, Caitlin takes my hand and squeezes it, then lets go. I feel her shaking, but it’s only when we reach the car that she turns, and I see tears on her face, and her black mascara running down to make a raccoon mask.

“What is it?” I ask. “Henry?”

She shrugs and wipes her cheeks. “I didn’t think things like that happened anymore. Even in my job, I just—I don’t know. I mean drug murders, sex crimes, sure. But that in there … that’s something else. This is America, isn’t it? He’s a journalist.”

“Henry was a threat to the Double Eagles, so they tried to eliminate him. They want to stay out of jail. They don’t think beyond that.”