Lake Concordia was ten miles from the Examiner offices. She could call Royal Insurance on her way to Louisiana, and with any luck verify Randall Regan’s presence at his office. If he wasn’t there, she’d have to find a way to make sure he wasn’t home with his wife. But given what she’d learned about that relationship, Caitlin felt confident that home was the last place Randall Regan would be. With adrenaline pumping through her like fuel, she stuck the Post-it to her Treo, dropped a Sony tape recorder into her purse (next to her pistol), and headed for the front door.

CHAPTER 75

CAITLIN KNEW SHE was risking her life to interview Katy Royal Regan. To minimize that risk, while driving over the bridge to Louisiana, she’d called Royal Insurance and asked for Randall Regan. When the receptionist asked for her name, Caitlin answered that she was Special Agent Glass of the FBI. When Regan came on the line, speaking like he had a bad case of laryngitis, she informed him that an FBI search team would arrive at Royal Insurance in thirty minutes with a warrant, and that he should be prepared to produce all files pertaining to the state insurance fraud case of 2003. If Regan had any trouble remembering which case that was, she said, it was the one in which two female employees who had given evidence to federal agents had disappeared. Before Regan could do anything but curse, she’d hung up.

As for Katy Regan, Caitlin had reluctantly decided on an ambush interview. According to Henry’s notes, the woman hadn’t been upset by his questions about Pooky Wilson during his interview, and she’d been gracious to Henry throughout. But when he’d called back two days ago, she’d angrily rebuffed him. Caitlin wasn’t going to risk spooking her quarry before getting inside her house.

Dusk was falling by the time Caitlin reached Lake Concordia, and the first thing she saw was a line of houses decorated with Christmas lights. None could compete with the Regan home for gaudy splendor. Every surface of the house had been lined with colored bulbs, and the yard boasted at least six inflatable displays, one depicting Santa landing in a helicopter. Caitlin called the house immediately, identified herself, then told Mrs. Regan that the Examiner was doing a lifestyle story on Christmas displays. Could she possibly stop by for ten minutes to discuss Mrs. Regan’s decorative sense? When Katy agreed, Caitlin hung up before the woman could change her mind. Five minutes later, she presented herself at the front door, which had been covered with red foil wrap.