Hendricks chewed that over. “So Lombard gets wind that we’ve been in contact with WR8TH and calls in his old hitter to tie up loose ends. He’s been on us from day one. Follows us to Pennsylvania, waiting to see if we find WR8TH before making his move.”

“But he jumps the gun and kills Kirby Tate in the storage locker instead,” Jenn said.

“Right.”

“And sends in that tac team to mop us up at the lake house,” Hendricks added.

“Yeah, because like a fucking idiot I gave Mike Rilling our twenty.”

“You think Rilling gave us up?” Hendricks asked.

Jenn shrugged. “How long after we talked did they show up?”

“Son of a goddamn bitch.”

“Who were they?” Gibson asked.

“Don’t know. Lombard has ties to an outfit called Cold Harbor. I wouldn’t bet against it being them.”

“Then why would he send in his hitter?” Hendricks asked.

“Get him out of the way too? No reason to leave him breathing, now that it’s all over.”

“Lombard isn’t screwing around,” Hendricks said.

“Would you?” Jenn asked. “With what’s at stake in Atlanta? Lombard is the chosen one at this point. If Gibson is right, and he was molesting his own daughter, got her pregnant . . . Good God, there are powerful interests with a lot riding on him winning in November. How far would you go to keep it a secret?”

“As far as Suzanne?” Gibson said.

“You think he killed his own daughter?”

“I don’t know. Billy said something like that, and I thought he was crazy. But is he? Where is Suzanne? Her baby? If she’s alive, and if Lombard’s guy got to Musgrove ten years ago, then that means he got to Suzanne as well. Tell me I’m wrong. Where is Suzanne?”

Jenn put her face in her hands. Hendricks looked like he’d unlearned the art of breathing. As Gibson saw it, they only had one play left to make, and it needed to be made soon. If they weren’t in Lombard’s crosshairs at this very moment, they soon would be. But even if they somehow survived until the convention was over, the nomination secured, Lombard would never call off his dogs. The three of them represented too great a threat. He would hunt them. He would find them. He would kill them. It was inevitable. They simply lacked the resources to stay hidden from a man destined for the White House.

“Well, this is a hell of a ghost story, but can we prove any of it?” Hendricks asked.

“We can prove she was pregnant.”

“But we can’t connect it to Lombard?”

Gibson shook his head.

“So what’s our move?” Jenn asked.

“We go to Atlanta.”

“To the convention?” Hendricks said. “How long did you lose oxygen to your brain?”