My hot wave of anger had turned into a chill. I was pretty sure I’d just been threatened, and with more than just a lawsuit.

“I’m just going to go out on a limb here,” I said, “and ask you how much Mrs. Gorkin pays you to look the other way. It’s probably a lot quicker, and cheaper, to pay off an inspector than bring an establishment up to standard, am I right?”

Sandler’s response was slow and measured. “I’d be very careful about throwing around those sorts of allegations, Mr. Walker. I think the smartest thing you could do would be to let this go. There’s nothing there. Am I making myself clear?”

“Oh yeah,” I said. “It’s becoming very clear.”

“Thanks very much, Mr. Walker, for bringing this to the health department’s attention,” he said formally. “And watch your back.”

He hung up.

I replaced the receiver feeling numb. I dialed in for my messages, and both had been from Sandler, asking me to call him. The son of a bitch had threatened me. And he’d more or less passed on a threat from Mrs. Gorkin and her daughters as well.

What else could possibly go wrong today—

“Zack?” I turned around in my chair. It was Frieda. She gave me a pained smile. “Mr. Magnuson’s secretary just called. He’d like to see you in his office.”

I could feel everyone’s eyes on me as I walked through the newsroom. Word spreads fast. The city desk would have already been tipped to a murder in Oakwood, and chances were that if Dick Colby had been on the phone to Detective Flint, he might already know of my involvement. All I needed, as I took my last steps toward Magnuson’s door, was someone to announce, “Dead man walking!”

Sarah was already there. Her eyes were red, and there was a wadded tissue in her fist.

“Mr. Walker,” Magnuson greeted me from behind his desk. “I was trying to recall the last time one of my reporters found himself handcuffed in a hooker’s basement next to a man who’d had his throat slit. And you know something? Nothing comes to mind.”

“Yes, sir, I don’t suppose it does.”

“I’m suspending you, effective immediately, with pay, which is mighty generous of me if I do say so myself, while the police and the courts and the CIA and the Masons and the Shriners for all I know sort this fucking mess out. I’m also putting Colby on it, see what he can learn. Call the guild, file a grievance, I don’t much care. But when you walk out of this office, keep on walking until you hit the street.”

I thought, considering everything, that I had gotten off easy. I was expecting to be fired outright. Or, possibly, shot.