“Well, dern. He usually orders dessert. I’ve got it right here.”

She lowers a saucer with a slice of chocolate pie on it. “You want it instead?”

“No, thank you.”

As she walks away, I go to the restroom to get some privacy. I don’t fancy walking out into the parking lot until I know Regan is gone. Once inside, I sit on the edge of the sink and call John Kaiser’s cell phone. He answers immediately.

“Get ready,” I tell him. “I think the music’s about to start.”

“What did you do?”

“Poked a stick in the rattlesnake’s hole.”

Kaiser is quiet for too long. “You haven’t heard, have you?”

“Heard what?”

“Penn, there’s no good way to tell you this. A few minutes ago the Louisiana State Police sent a flash APB across five states for Thomas Jefferson Cage, M.D., and Walter Roark Garrity, a retired Texas Ranger. They’re wanted in connection with the murder of Trooper Darrell Deke Dunn, who was shot and killed last night near the borrow pits in rural Concordia Parish.”

As I sit dumbstruck on the sink, my head roars as though I’m standing in the middle of a highway. I feel like someone just told me that a friend of mine ran over a child in the street and fled the scene. Life will never be the same.

“The bulletin says both fugitives are known to be proficient with firearms and should be considered armed and dangerous. Penn? Are you there?”

“Yeah,” I manage to grunt. “What else can you tell me?”

“Forrest Knox visited the crime scene in a helicopter a little while ago. He issued the APB himself, and there’s not a chance in hell of getting it recalled. I’m sorry. I know this is tough, on top of everything else.”

“John, what the hell is going on? There’s no way my dad killed a cop.”

“What about Garrity?”

The time it takes me to ponder this possibility tells Kaiser all he needs to know.

“John, it doesn’t matter if they did it or not. When an alert goes out for a cop killer, it’s open season. Every cop within five hundred square miles will be looking to shoot them on sight.”

“I know. The only good news is that your father seems to have dropped off the face of the earth, right along with Captain Garrity. My advice is, put on your thinking cap and try to figure where he’d go to ground with his life on the line. Nobody knows him better than you, right?”

I shake my head, not sure of this at all.

“I’ll let you know if I hear anything else,” Kaiser promises. “And I’ll be monitoring Royal’s and Regan’s communications for you.”