He frowned at the screen as if blaming it for his being too low on the food chain. “I’ve got one flight here that leaves in twenty minutes. It doesn’t get you all the way, just to Dallas, and it’s already overbooked. I can’t bump someone without calling attention to the airlines.” He rocked his head back and forth a second while I waited without encouragement.

“There’s one seat that would be available to you. It’s scheduled for a sky marshal.” He examined me over the top of his horn-rimmed glasses and nearly indulged a condescending smile. “How do you do with airplane rage?”

“I’m good with it,” I said, and there was something in my voice that made the smile disappear. “I have to get to Tucson,” I said.

“I’ll phone ahead. I’m not sure what will happen in Dallas, but someone will meet you at the gate.”

“Give me a badge,” I said.

He handed me an official-looking tag which I attached to the collar of my jacket.

“I won’t give you a weapon,” he said, as if that would be my next demand.

“I don’t need a weapon,” I said, heading out the door and trotting to the gate while pondering my next move.

Someone once said, when someone tells you who they are, believe them. I took Beaufort at his word and assumed he was desperate enough to kill Carlo. That he might not be thinking clearly. Also, that there was a chance the well-abused Gloria might have become his accomplice. This was an added concern because she was an unknown, possibly dangerous, and doubled the odds of getting either Carlo or me killed.

Even if Beaufort could be proven (and so far this document was all the evidence there was) to have been at the scene of the Clutter family murder, he was twelve years old at the time. And there was no other evidence beyond this that he had actually pulled a trigger.

How bad did it have to be to risk killing Meadows? And what else would he do to prevent being found out? Answer: Meadows was closer than he knew to solving the mystery behind In Cold Blood, the solution no one had dreamed of in nearly sixty years. And if Beaufort would take the risk of killing Meadows, he was liable to do anything.

When I arrived at the gate they were boarding and I was in the last group. That gave me time to catch my breath and call Gemma-Kate. She answered with “Sorry, I have to take this.” I started to tell her what was going on, but it was a few moments before she responded with “I was in organic chem lab.”

“You were right about Hickock and Smith,” I said, not troubling to apologize for interrupting.

“About what?”

“Almost everything.”

“I missed something?”