“Brody Royal gave Pithy that just after World War Two. For her protection, he said. He was hoping to marry her, but she saw him for the gangster he was.”
Caitlin sucks in her breath as she flips the ugly blade from its silver handle. “Jesus.”
“Pithy gave that to me as a reminder of who I was dealing with, if I chose to go up against Brody.”
Caitlin squints at the handle in the dim light. “What does this inscription say?”
“‘A Lady’s Best Friend.’ Can you imagine? Brody gave that to a Natchez belle.”
Caitlin clucks her tongue softly. “After reading Henry’s journals … I believe it.”
Taking back the razor, I carefully fold it closed. “I haven’t forgotten what Brody did to those black boys, or those women who tried to go to the feds about the insurance fraud. I don’t have any illusions, and I won’t confront him or Regan alone.”
Caitlin sighs and lets her head fall on my chest. “Who would you take with you? John Kaiser?”
Wanting to embrace her, I slip the razor into my back pocket. “Kaiser wouldn’t let me try something like this. His goal is to put the Double Eagles in prison, and maybe Forrest Knox. He’s going to go by the book, more or less. He has no choice.”
“Who, then?”
“I think Kirk Boisseau will go with me.”
She blows out a rush of air. “Where would you confront them?”
“The hospital, if that’s where Brody is. If he’s not with his daughter, then some other public place.”
Her right forefinger rises to her philtrum, then runs down the sculpted curve. “Does Kirk understand the risks?”
“I’ll make sure he does.”
Her eyes find mine again. “What if you play Brody Royal that tape, and he decides to unplug his daughter’s ventilator because of it?”
I’ve never considered this. “I don’t think he will. Royal thinks he’s invincible. All his life experience up to now has confirmed that belief. He’ll think he can deal his way out of this, and I’ll confirm that instinct.”
She grunts skeptically. “I think when he’s threatened, he lashes out.”
I take her hand and squeeze it hard. “You may be right. But I know one thing for sure: if we do this by the book, Dad’s never coming home again.”
Her eyes focus somewhere above me. She looks like she’s performing a complicated equation in her head. After a long silence, she says, “We can make a copy of the recording at the paper.”
A flood of relief goes through me. “Thank you.”
“Are you going back up to the selectmen’s meeting?”
“Only to adjourn it. I’ll be back down in two minutes.”
She leans over the console and hugs me, then draws back, her eyes wet. “Do you want me to wait, or should I go on over?”
“Do you still have your gun?”
She reaches down to the floor and pulls up the black .38 Special my father gave her seven years ago. “Only fired once in anger.”
“Take off the second I step out of the car.”
She nods. “I’ll have the copy made by the time you get there.”
CHAPTER 77
WALKING DOWN THE hall toward Henry Sexton’s hospital room, Caitlin saw the deputy guarding the door watching her approach. He was sitting in the same high school desk, his cell phone glowing on the desktop like he’d been playing a game on it. His eyes followed her as surely as any high school boy’s would have, and his mouth hung just as slack. She smiled as she signed her name in his notebook, but her mind was otherwise engaged. She’d gotten her press operator to drive her to Ferriday in his car, hoping to evade anyone watching the Examiner building. Penn would scream to high heaven if he knew she’d left the building, but she meant to get all she could from Henry before tomorrow.
She’d hoped to find him alone, but her luck wasn’t running that way. Sherry Harden was still here, guarding her man with bleary eyes. Henry’s hospital room looked messier than it had during the morning, though with a lot more flowers. Henry’s eyes were half open but dull, and his bruises darker than before. When he saw Caitlin, he moved his hand on the coverlet and gave a guttural moan that resembled speech, but Caitlin couldn’t distinguish the words. As she moved closer to listen, Sherry raised herself higher in her chair like someone startled out of a nap.
“His pain is worse,” she said, recognizing Caitlin. “They’ve got him on Dilaudid. But the swelling in his mouth has gone down some. He can talk a lot better, when he’s not too drugged up.”
Henry tried to speak again, and this time Caitlin translated the sounds as “Learn anything new today?”
She wasn’t about to show Henry what she’d come to ask about with Sherry in the room, so she stalled as best she could. “Not much. Background, mostly. Catching up on your magnum opus.”
“Are you printing a story tomorrow?”
“Probably. Penn thinks that printing the story will reduce the danger to all of us.”
Henry inclined his head a quarter of an inch. “He’s right.”
“I suppose. But he wants me to hold back some of my best information.” Caitlin tried desperately to think of a way to get Henry’s girlfriend out of the room. Almost anything she might say about confidentiality was bound to offend Sherry. “Anyway, that’s why I’m here. I was hoping to verify some things before publication. Do you feel well enough?”
“Feel like … what the cat drug up and the dog wouldn’t eat.”
“You’re speaking more clearly, though.”
Henry grunted. “How do I look? Sherry won’t show me a mirror.”
Caitlin glanced back at Sherry, whose face tensed. Caitlin considered lying, then gently laid her hand on Henry’s arm and said, “You look like crap, dude.”
Henry closed his eyes, but a faint smile touched his swollen lips. “Honest woman.”