She laughs bitterly. “Do you think that makes it worth it? Look at him. What if that was your girlfriend lying there?”
Henry looks like somebody dragged from a basement after an aerial bombardment. But then I think of the bones Kirk pulled up from the bottom of the Jericho Hole, bones with rusted barbed wire and a bullet embedded in them. “Only Henry can answer that.”
She gazes angrily at the man she loves. “He won’t quit. Not even after this. I know him too well.”
“Maybe he will,” I murmur, but I know it’s a lie. No man who’s come as far as Henry Sexton would stop his quest now. I want to ask him so many things, first and foremost about Brody Royal. But all that will have to wait. “Let’s go, Caitlin. Let’s let them get some rest.”
Caitlin kisses Henry on the forehead. Then she comes over and touches Sherry’s hand, whispers something in her ear, and follows me to the door.
“What did you say to her?” I ask when we’re outside.
“Girl stuff.”
This tells me I will learn no more.
Our cars are parked side by side in the hospital lot. As we walk down the steps at the exit, Caitlin takes my hand and squeezes it, then lets go. I feel her shaking, but it’s only when we reach the car that she turns, and I see tears on her face, and her black mascara running down to make a raccoon mask.
“What is it?” I ask. “Henry?”
She shrugs and wipes her cheeks. “I didn’t think things like that happened anymore. Even in my job, I just—I don’t know. I mean drug murders, sex crimes, sure. But that in there … that’s something else. This is America, isn’t it? He’s a journalist.”
“Henry was a threat to the Double Eagles, so they tried to eliminate him. They want to stay out of jail. They don’t think beyond that.”
Caitlin wipes her face on her sleeve, then looks up at me with an almost accusing expression. “Are you so sure it was the Double Eagles? Why not Brody Royal?”
“Is that what you’re angry about? Something to do with Brody Royal?”
“Penn, you held back so much about him yesterday. I told you last night that Henry was going to work for me. There was so much you could have told me. I’ve lost so much time.”
“Not so much. And we didn’t know—”
She holds up her hand, then stares out at the highway with cold resolve. “I’m going to that bank to get Henry’s files.”
“Yes, and I’m taking you. We’ll pick your car up on the way back. Or maybe send a reporter back over here to get it.”
“No, I want my car. You can follow me if you want.”
“Caitlin, wait. We really need to ride together. You’re right, I have held some things back from you. But the biggest thing of all is that Dad has jumped bail.”
She drops her hand from her face. “What?”
“I found out late last night, but I couldn’t risk telling you on a phone. His life is on the line now. I’ve moved Mom and Annie to a safe house, and—”
“Excuse me,” says an unfamiliar male voice. “Are you Mayor Cage?”
A muscular man wearing a suit and an earpiece has appeared between two cars, and he walks toward us with one hand near the gap in his sport coat.
“Who are you?” I ask warily, wishing I hadn’t left my gun in my car.
“Special Agent Loomis.” He reaches into his coat, then flips open a wallet, revealing blue and white FBI credentials. “Special Agent John Kaiser would like you to meet him at the Jericho Hole.”
Caitlin touches my arm and shakes her head. “I don’t have time for that.”
“What does Agent Kaiser want to talk to me about?” I ask, not relishing the idea of being interrogated by an FBI agent on this particular day. “Can’t he do it by phone?”
Loomis gives me a tight smile and shakes his head. “We’ve ID’d the car at the bottom of that hole, sir. That’s not for publication, by the way,” he adds, with a look at Caitlin.
“Who did it belong to?” she asks.
“Sorry. Agent Kaiser may reveal that when you get to the Jericho Hole, but I can’t.” Agent Loomis looks at Caitlin again. “Are you Caitlin Masters?”
“Yes.”
“Agent Kaiser told me to invite you, too.”
“Why would he do that? Especially after the stories in this morning’s paper.”
Caitlin wasn’t kind to the FBI in her main story this morning. And she looks very reluctant to divert from the straightest path to Henry’s backup files.
“I never know why he does anything, ma’am,” Loomis says, “but he usually has a good reason.”
“How many people did Kaiser bring with him?” I ask.
“Four agents, plus some techs. But three more agents just left New Orleans. Oh, and his wife is with him.”
The effect of this statement on Caitlin is immediate. She looks like a musician after being told Bob Dylan is at a party she just declined an invitation to.
“Jordan Glass is here?” she asks.
“Yes, ma’am. Five minutes from where we stand. She’s taking pictures of everything we uncover.”
Even before Caitlin speaks, I know she’s decided she can afford a stop at the Jericho Hole. “Twenty minutes,” she says. “I don’t like playing catch-up.”
“You go on ahead,” I tell Loomis. “We know the way.”
The FBI agent looks uncertain, but after I wave him off, he heads for a parked Ford. As soon as he’s out of earshot, Caitlin says, “Penn, what the hell is Tom up to?”
“I have no idea. But if a cop spots him, and he resists arrest, they’ll kill him. I’m betting Forrest Knox has already given that order.”
Suspicion clouds her eyes. “Are you going to tell me what you know about Forrest?”
“On the way to the Jericho Hole.” Pulling her to me, I hug her tight, even though she stiffens at my touch. “You’ll have Henry’s files on your desk in under an hour.”
“A lot less than that,” she says into my chest. “I’m going to pick up right where he left off.” Drawing back her head, she reveals the wrath of a Fury behind her startlingly green eyes. “And whoever did that to him is going to suffer for it.”
CHAPTER 64