“I’ll be there,” I said.

Diane hung up.

I sat with the phone in my lap and the notebook beside me.

A dog hair floated up from the seat and drifted against the dashboard.

I caught it between my fingers and put it in my coat pocket.

At six I followed Hale’s car to the State Police barracks on the county line.

The barracks was a low brick building with a flagpole and a parking lot full of cruisers.

Hale carried the hard drive in a padded envelope.