“Are you gonna stay up there?”

“Yeah,” Trapper said. “I need to be here. My car’s still not ready, so I had to bring the loaner. If the body shop wants to tack on a few days’ rental, I’ll understand.”

“Okay. I’ll let the guy know. I’m sure he’s cool with you keeping it for a while longer.”

“Thanks.”

“Does anybody know what happened? Any suspects?”

“The Major’s friend is sheriff, remember. His department is investigating, but the Rangers and feds will probably join in.”

“Just as well. You told me this sheriff and The Major are blood brothers. He can’t be objective.”

“What I told him.”

“Especially if The Major doesn’t make it.”

“If he doesn’t, Glenn said he would go caveman on whoever killed him.”

“So would you.”

Trapper didn’t comment on that. “Listen, is the honeymoon over?”

“As of this phone call, yes,” Carson said drily. “She’s had it with you. But both of us are back to work in the morning anyway.”

“It is morning. Almost five thirty. Local TV has already issued bulletins about the shooting, but the story will start getting full coverage on the morning newscasts. Keep an eye out at the office. Anyone comes poking around, you let me know.”

“There’ll be media.”

“Possibly someone will try sniffing me out there. But I’m not talking about media.”

“Then what? Who?”

“Just keep an eye out and tell me if anyone suspicious-looking comes around.”

“Besides my clientele, you mean.”

“And dig deeper on Kerra Bailey.”

“In my spare time?”

“I’ll pay you, Carson. Put some of your former clients on it. The hackers. Identity thieves. Whatever you can get on her, I want. Immediately.”

“It would help if I knew what you were looking for.”

“I don’t know.”

“Still getting a vibe, huh?”

“Yeah. A bad one.”

Terror jolted her awake.

Before Kerra remembered that her body was battered and bruised, she sat bolt upright. Pain shot through her head like a lightning bolt. The fracture in her clavicle made itself known. Her stomach heaved, and she retched into her lap.

Groping for the remote, she rang for a nurse, who took her sweet time responding while Kerra sat shivering in her sweat-soaked gown and clammy sheets.

When the nurse arrived, Kerra apologized for the mess. “I had a nightmare.”

“I guess you did, honey. You’re shaking like a leaf in a gale.”

The nurse called for assistance, and within five minutes, Kerra’s gown and bedding had been replaced. When alone again, she used the remote to switch the nightlight back on.

Although she was clean and dry, she continued to shiver so badly her teeth chattered.

In her nightmare, the aftermath of the bombing had been replaced by her isolation in the powder room. An aspect of that nightmare had catapulted her out of sleep and into awareness of something she’d forgotten: Someone had tried to open the powder room door before she heard the gunshot.

That fact had been tucked away in her subconscious. The nightmare had revealed it to her.

The doctor had explained to Sheriff Addison that any account she gave so soon after coming around would be questionable, the sequence of events possibly incorrect. Now she was glad she hadn’t remembered that detail. Before telling anyone, she needed time to process what significance it had, if any.

But she felt it did.

Someone had tried to open the door before the gunshot. She had addressed The Major through the door and said, “I’ll be right out.” There had been no response. Then the gunshot.

Who had been trying to open that door?

Not The Major. He would have responded when she spoke to him, and, besides, why would he have tried the door, knowing that she was using the restroom? Not the would-be killers, who were in the front of the house.

Could an accomplice have been in the back rooms? Perhaps all along? Had he seen her go into the powder room?

Gooseflesh broke out on her arms as one name sprang to mind, the name of the individual who had returned tonight—without the sheriff—demanding to know whom she had seen “out there.”

Trapper.

Chapter 8

The sun was coming up by the time Trapper went to bed, and he slept with one ear attuned to his phone, fearing and half expecting a call from hospital staff. None came. He woke up a little after ten o’clock, efficiently showered and dressed, and grabbed a sausage biscuit at a drive-through on his way to the hospital.

When he stepped off the elevator on the ICU floor, he nearly collided with Hank Addison, Bible in hand.

“Oh,” Trapper drawled. “You must be the lookout, posted to see if I’m respectable enough to be here.”

Hank gave Trapper a disapproving once-over, frowning down at his scuffed boots. “If this is the best you can do …”

“Like I give a fuck.”

Hank hadn’t inherited much from his father’s gene pool. He had a slighter, more compact build than Glenn. He was fair-haired and brown-eyed like his mother, Linda, and had her mild-mannered smile.

Because of the close friendship between their fathers, the two boys had spent a lot of time together during their developmental years. Trapper was the younger, but he’d been the instigator of the general mayhem they created during the vacations and holidays the families spent together. He devised their shenanigans and cajoled Hank into going along.

One saw traces of the mischief-maker in the pastor only on occasion, as now, when he laughed at Trapper’s vulgarity. They shook hands then man-hugged, slapping each other on the back. “We held a prayer breakfast at the church this morning. We didn’t pray nearly hard enough for you.”

“Lost cause,” Trapper said. “But I appreciate the thought. And I apologize for cutting out the other night before even saying hello.”

“Not exactly your scene.”

“Job still enduring trials and tribulations?”

“Sort of like you,” Hank said, turning serious. “This is … I’m at a loss, Trapper.”

“I know. Me too.” He looked beyond Hank in the direction of the double doors that sealed off the ICU. “Have you seen him?”

“No. Only one person allowed in every couple of hours. I stayed with Dad in the waiting room until they came out to tell him he could go in.”

“How is he this morning?”

“As shaken as I’ve ever seen him. Right now, he’s caught up in the investigation, the hubbub. But if The Major dies, it’s going to hit him hard. All of us. The nation.”

Trapper nodded.

“How are you?” Hank asked.

“Stunned like everybody else. Hasn’t quite soaked in yet.”

“If the worst happens, it’ll hit you hard, too. I’m available if you need someone to talk to.”

“Thanks. I’ll be okay.”

Hank looked unconvinced, but let it drop and summoned the elevator. “I’ve got other church members to visit. The nurse told Dad he could stay for only a few minutes, so he should be out directly.”

“Did he mention how Kerra Bailey is faring?”

“No, sorry. A shame about her, too.”

“Yeah, it is.”

When the elevator came, Hank boarded but stopped the door from closing. “Listen, don’t let on that you know anything about Dad’s rift with The Major. He hadn’t backed down, and Dad was being just as pigheaded. They still weren’t speaking right up till Dad got the news last night, which is one reason he—”

Hank stopped, having realized that he’d let the cat out of the bag. He put his hand to the back of his neck and looked down at the floor. “Oh, hell.”

“The preacher caught cussing.” Trapper tsked, then asked, “What was their rift over?”

“It was nothing. Really.”

“You never could lie for shit, Hank.”

The door was trying to close. “If Dad wants you to know he’ll tell you. See you later.” He lowered his hand and the door slid closed.