The red light on the phone was flashing when I got back to my room and I knew it was probably Greg, but I decided to call the agent first. It was five o'clock in New York and I didn't know what hours he kept. He answered after two rings. I introduced myself and quickly went into my pitch.

"I wanted to see if I could talk to you about representing me in regard to a, uh, I guess it would be called a true crime book. Do you do true crime?"

"Yes," he said. "But rather than discuss this on the phone I would really prefer that you send me a query letter telling me about yourself and the project. Then I can respond."

"I would but I don't think there is time. I've got publishers and movie people calling me and I have to make some decisions quickly."

That set the hook. I knew it would.

"Why are they calling you? What's it about?"

"Have you read or seen anything on TV about this killer out in L.A., the Poet?"

"Yes, of course."

"I'm the one who, uh, shot him. I'm a writer-a reporter. My brother-"

"You're the one?"

"I'm the one."

Though he was interrupted often by other calls, we talked for twenty minutes about the possible book project and the interest I'd already gotten from the movie production people. He said he worked with an agent in Los Angeles who could handle the interest from that industry. In the meantime, he wanted to know how quickly I could send him a two-page proposal. I told him I'd get it to him within the hour and he gave me the number of his computer's fax modem. He said that if the story was as good as he had seen on TV, he thought that he could have the book sold by the end of the week. I told him the story was better.

"One last thing," he said. "How did you get my name?"

"It was in A Morning for Flamingos."

The red light on the phone continued to wink at me but I ignored it after hanging up and went to work on my laptop writing the proposal, trying to consolidate the last two weeks into two pages. It was a difficult process, not helped by having only one usable hand, and I went long, finishing with four pages.

By the time I was done, my hand was beginning to throb even though I had tried not to use it. I took another one of the pills the hospital had given me and had gone back to the computer, proofreading my proposal, when the phone rang.

It was Greg and he was livid.

"Jack!" he cried out. "I've been waiting on your call! What the fuck are you doing?"

"I did call! I left a message. I've been sitting here an hour waiting for you to call back."

"I did, goddamnit! You didn't get my message?"

"No. You must've called when I went down the hall for a Coke. But I didn't get any-"

"Never mind, never mind. Look, what do we have for tomorrow? I've got Jackson on it here and Sheedy took a plane out this morning. She's going to a press conference at the bureau. But what can you give us that's new? Every paper in the country is following our ass and we need to stay in front of them. What's new? What do you have that they don't have?"

"I don't know," I lied. "Not a lot's going on. The bureau people are still tying up the details, I guess… I'm still off the story?"

"Look, Jack, I don't see how you can write this. We went over this yesterday. You're too involved. You can't expect me to let-"

"Okay, okay, I was just asking. Um… uh, there's a couple things. First, they traced this guy Gladden back to an apartment last night and they found a body there. Another victim. You can start with that. But that might be what the press conference is about. Then, also, tell Jackson to call the field office out here and ask about the computer they found."

"The computer?"

"Yeah, Gladden had a laptop in his car. They had their computer geeks going over it all night and this morning. I don't know, it might be worth a call. I don't know what they found."

"Well, what have you been doing?"

"I had to go down there and give a statement. Took all morning. They have to go to the district attorney and ask for a justifiable homicide ruling or something. I came back here when I was done."

"They're not telling you what's going on?"

"No, I only overheard a couple of agents talking about the body and the thing about the computer, that's all."

"Okay, well that's a start."

I was smiling and trying to keep it out of my voice. I didn't care about revealing the discovery of the Poet's last victim. That was probably going to come out anyway. But someone like Jackson calling cold wouldn't be able to even get confirmation that there was a computer, let alone what was in it. The bureau wouldn't put that out until it was good and ready to.

"Sorry that's all I've got, Greg," I said. "Tell Jackson I'm sorry. So what's Sheedy going to do besides the press conference?"

Sheedy was an up-and-comer. She had recently been appointed to the go team-reporters who have packed suitcases in their car trunks and are ready to hit the road within minutes of any calamity, disaster or other breaking news story outside of Denver. I had been a go team reporter once. But after covering my third airline crash and talking to people whose loved ones had been reduced to crispy critters or found in small parts, the job got old and I went back to the cop beat.

"I don't know," Glenn said. "She'll hunt around. When are you coming back?"

"They want me to stay around in case the district attorney's office wants to interview me. I think by tomorrow I'll be done."

"Okay, well, if you hear anything let me know right away. And give them shit down at the front desk for not giving you my message. I'll pass this computer thing on to Jackson. I'll see ya, Jack."

"Okay. Oh, and Greg? My hand's okay."

"What?"

"I knew you were concerned. But it's feeling a lot better. It will probably be fine."

"Jack, I'm sorry. It's been one of those days."

"Yeah. I know. I'll see you."

47

The pain pill I had taken was beginning to kick in. The discomfort in my hand was subsiding and a calm current of relaxation was overtaking me. After I hung up with Glenn I connected the phone line back into my computer, engaged the fax program and transmitted the book proposal to the number the literary agent had given me. As I listened to the braying sound of the computers coupling, a thought hit me like a bolt. The calls I had made on the flight out to L.A.

I had been so concerned about proving and exposing Thorson as the leak to Warren, I had paid only passing attention to the other calls on his hotel bill, the calls I had repeated myself on the plane to L.A. One of them had been answered by the high-pitched tone of a computer in Florida, possibly at UCI in Raiford.

I grabbed my computer satchel off the bed, pulled out my notebooks and flipped through both of them but found no notes on the calls I had made on the plane. I remembered then that I had not written notes or the phone numbers down because I had not expected someone to steal the hotel bills from my room.

Clearing my mind of everything else, I tried to review the exact course of events on the plane. The main concern I'd had at the time was the record of the call to Warren that was on Thorson's bill. That had confirmed for me that Thorson was Warren's source. The other calls made from his room-though made within minutes of each other-had held little interest to me at the time.

I had not seen the number that Clearmountain had said was called the most often from Gladden's computer. I thought about calling him and asking for the number but I doubted that he would hand it over to a reporter without seeking approval from Rachel or Backus. And that would tip my hand, something that an instinct told me not to do yet.

I slid my Visa card out of my wallet and turned it over. After reconnecting the phone I dialed the 800 number on the credit card and told the operator I had a billing inquiry. After three minutes of Muzak, another operator came on the line and I asked if it was possible to check on charges added to my credit account as recently as three days earlier. After verifying my identity through my social security number and other details, she said she could check my records on the computer to see if the charges had been posted and I told her what I was looking for.