THE BEDSIDE CLOCK reads 8:13 when my phone pings and Jamie Lochner's ID pops up on the screen.

"Jamie?" I say past a sleep-furred tongue. "What did Tony—”

"He's dead!" she shrieks. "I...when I came...he was...I went into the store and I didn’t see him so I called the number you gave me and it rang from behind the counter and I looked over and he was down there...the phone was ringing in the pocket of his shorts and he was...somebody shot him. Barney killed him!"

"What? He—where are you?"

"I'm parked in front of that place where Tony works...where...oh, God, what do I do now...Dana?”

"Are you sure he's dead?"

"I think...yes, I'm sure...he...he...he's lying behind the counter and his head...his head..."

"He was shot in the head?"

Jamie gets out a muffled "Yes," then breaks down in sobs.

When she stops I ask, "In the head?"

"Yes," she says, "and...and...there was a lot of blood on his chest, on his, his shirt. I think he was shot there, too, and he wasn't moving and there was...there was..."

"There was what?”

"A fly. It landed in his eye, then it crawled up his nose. Oh, Dana."

I wait out another bout of sobs.

"Did you call 911?"

"No, I, I'm scared...I can't...Barney did this and he'll...he'll..."

"How do you know your husband did it? It could have been robbery. Or maybe some kind of biker thing with that Harley you gave him."

"No, it was Barney," she says. "It was him, I know it was. And I'm going back to Texas. I have to get out of this place."

"Don't do that. Whatever you do, don't run."

"Then what do I do?”

"All right, listen, can you drive?"

"Yeah," she says. "I think so. I don't know."

"Well, calm down and come back up here to Palm Springs and meet me at Ike's office. He’s your lawyer and he will, we will, we’ll figure something out together, the three of us."

"I'll try, I'll..."

More sobs and another wait.

"You can do this, okay? Call me on the way if you need to, okay? I'll call Ike now and we'll start figuring this out, okay? Jamie?"

"I will," she says. "Should I hang up now?"

"Yes, you should hang up now and concentrate on driving back up here. Call me if you need me."

"I don't want to hang up. Can you stay on the line while I drive up there?"

"No, I need to call—"

"Oh, lord," she shrieks. "Somebody just pulled up to the pumps and this woman is going in, she's going in, she's gonna...I have to get out of here."

"Jamie?"

I hear the crunch of tires on gravel, then silence as the line goes dead.

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