She looked down at her open palm. On it lay a single gold earring, which, after the interview, she had removed and placed with its mate in an inside pocket of her Louis Vuitton shoulder bag.

The deputy on guard duty was at the water fountain at the far end of the hall when Trapper came out of Kerra’s room. They’d introduced themselves when Trapper arrived. Now they met at the halfway point of the corridor, and the deputy asked, “She like the flowers?”

“She liked them okay.” Trapper was less sure about Kerra’s opinion of him. They’d touched tongues. Now she recoiled every time he got near her.

“How’s she doing?”

“As well as can be expected, I guess,” Trapper said. “She took quite a tumble.” Kerra was banged up, but the worst of her ailments was fear. At hiding it, she wasn’t as good as she thought.

“She talk to you about what happened to her?”

“No. She’s been instructed not to talk about it.”

“Ongoing investigation.”

“Right. Wouldn’t want to hinder that.” Trapper rolled his shoulders and popped his neck.

“Pardon me saying so, Trapper, but you look beat.”

“I am. But I’m going upstairs and check on The Major one more time before shoving off. I leave you to your duty. Keep a close watch on her.”

“Count on that.”

“I know I can. Have a good night, Jenks.”

Chapter 10

Trapper rolled over and snatched his chirping cell phone off the nightstand. Each time it rang, he feared hearing the worst. After leaving Kerra’s room last night, he’d stayed in the ICU waiting room for hours but was allowed to see The Major only once. His condition was stable and unchanged.

The nurse in charge convinced Trapper there was no reason for him to hang around. She got his cell phone number and assured him that if there was any reason to call him, good or bad, she would.

But it wasn’t she or anyone from the hospital calling now. He answered by saying, “You’re paying me back for those untimely calls.”

“You have a naked woman in bed with you?” Carson asked.

Trapper looked over at the empty space beside him and thought about the promised delights he’d detected under Kerra’s thin hospital gown. “No.”

“Then I’m not quite paying you back. But I’m calling early because one of my contracted associates—”

Trapper chuffed.

“—found something I thought you’d be interested in learning right away.”

Trapper scrubbed his face with his hand to wipe away the dirty thoughts he was entertaining about Kerra’s topography and how he’d like to explore it. “Listening.”

“When you got crosswise with the ATF, weren’t you investigating a guy named Wilcox?”

Trapper went absolutely still.

“Thomas Wilcox?” Carson said.

“It was covert,” Trapper said. “How’d you know about it?”

“You got drunk one night. Mumbled on and on about this big shot over in Big D.”

He didn’t recall venting his spleen to Carson, but he didn’t doubt that he had. The mere mention of Wilcox’s name aroused feral impulses. “What about him?”

“When Kerra Bailey signed on with the Dallas TV station, he was one of her first interviews.”

After a sustained silence, Carson said, “Trapper? You still there, buddy? Did you get that?”

Trapper cleared his throat. “I’m here. I got it.”

“Don’t know if it means anything. But, six degrees of separation. All that.”

“Right. Thanks, Carson. I’ll be in touch.”

“Before you go. About that slick SUV—”

“Did you tell the guy I’ll pay him a daily rate? I couldn’t get it back to him now anyway on account of the weather.”

“But—”

“I gotta go. Somebody’s beeping in, and it could be the hospital.” It wasn’t. The readout said Glenn. Trapper didn’t want to talk to him, he wanted to ponder what Carson has just told him about Thomas Wilcox and Kerra. But Glenn might have news about The Major, so he answered.

“I was about to give up on reaching you,” the sheriff said.

“I had to click over.”

“Want to have breakfast?”

“No.”

“I’ll pick you up in an hour.”

“I’m going to the hospital.”

“After you’ve seen him, call me. I’ll pick you up outside.” The phone went dead.

“Ssssshit,” Trapper hissed as he slung back the covers. The start of the day didn’t bode well for the rest of it.

Trapper and the trauma doctor who’d been overseeing The Major’s care stood across the ICU bed from each other. Between them lay The Major.

The physician said, “We’re a little more optimistic this morning.”

Trapper had to take his word for that. He compared the helpless patient in the bed to his father as he’d last seen him. Even though Kerra and he had shown up at The Major’s house unannounced, he’d looked company-ready, dressed in starched khakis with a knife-edge crease. His flannel shirt was softly worn, but neatly tucked in behind a wide tooled leather belt with a large silver buckle. His boots had their usual shine. His shave was so close his skin was shiny, too. Not a hair out of place. Fit as a fiddle for a man his age. For a man half his age.

He didn’t look like that now. There was an IV port between his shoulder and neck with multiple lines attached. The hospital gown lay loose on his chest. His chin was bristly with white whiskers. A clear hose was emptying his piss into a bag hooked to the bed rail.

The Major was human after all.

“The swelling has gone down considerably from what it was this time yesterday,” the doctor was saying.

“So no hole required?”

“Not unless something changes, but I don’t anticipate it. He’s been moving his hands and feet. Reflexively, but that’s still a positive sign. His vitals remain stable and strong. He’s not out of the woods,” he said with emphasis, “but these incremental improvements are encouraging.”

“Have you reported this to the doctors in Dallas?”

From the outset, the doctor had been consulting with a team of specialists, former colleagues of his. “They share my optimism. Your father is stable enough now to be transported to Dallas or Fort Worth, if you’d rather have him there. I could make the arrangements. But with the weather …” He let that hang and looked at Trapper. “It’s your call.”

“He’s improving on your watch. I say leave him be.”

“Thank you, Mr. Trapper. I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

He detailed a few more aspects of The Major’s condition. Most of the medical jargon went over Trapper’s head, but the underlying message was that the patient was making progress.

Which is what Trapper told Glenn as he settled into the passenger side of the sheriff’s sludge-covered unit and buckled his seat belt. Glenn had driven right up to the hospital exit, emergency lights flashing, allowing Trapper to leave without being hounded by reporters, who’d been restricted to an area behind a barricade. Some stood outside, backs to the frigid wind, stamping their feet in a vain attempt to keep warm. Others sat inside vehicles surrounded by the vapor coughed from their exhaust pipes.

“Lordy, lordy, that’s good news,” Glenn said as he steered the unit onto the street.

“He’s not totally in the clear. The doctor doesn’t want to build hopes up. But his outlook is definitely more upbeat. Where are we going?”

“Since you turned down breakfast, I’ll just circle the block.”

“It’s such a nice day for a drive,” Trapper remarked, looking through the sleet on the windshield.

“We need to talk uninterrupted,” Glenn said. “I brought you some coffee.”

Trapper pulled the sleeved cup from the holder in the console, removed the lid and sipped. It was tepid, but he needed the jolt of caffeine.

They drove past the municipal park where tree branches were becoming glazed with ice.