He shut the heavy latches on the black case and picked it up by its thick rubber handle.

“I’m taking the truck,” Richard said.

“You can’t just drive onto the Caldwell property like this,” William said, wiping his palms on his jeans again.

“Tell me what you heard on that call before you go.”

Richard reached for the wooden peg next to the back door.

He pulled his worn field jacket snugly over his shoulders.

He went down the porch steps two at a time and crossed the wet grass to the truck.

The satellite phone case sat on the passenger seat, closed and gray, just as it had sat in the old wooden cabinet drawer for three years.