Some say the drive between Reno and Lake Tahoe is among the prettiest in the country. Bald eagles. Gurgling, unspoiled streams. Verdant mountains majesty. All of that nature stuff at every turn of the gently winding, perfectly maintained road. I was too focused and too much in a hurry to play tourist. I needed to get back to Lake Tahoe, find Gordon Priest, and extract the truth from him by whatever means necessary.

Buddhists consider impatience and anger to be poisons that cloud sound judgment. I won’t deny that I was well beyond both. The baser parts of my brain were running the show, the “fight or flee” parts, and I wasn’t about to flee. Should I have contacted Deputy Streeter to tell him what I’d learned in Reno, then backed off and let law enforcement do its job? A prudent man would’ve done exactly that. But prudence was the last thing on my mind. I craved revenge, cold and sweet, and I needed it right then, more than anything I’d ever needed in my life.

What is normally a ninety-minute drive took me less than half that.

I stormed into Summit Aviation Services. Priest’s office was dark, the door closed. Marlene was sitting at her receptionist’s desk, eating a cookie.

“Where is he?”

She turned toward me, a little flustered, breaking off the friendly conversation she was having with two clear-eyed, clean-shaven young men garbed in charter pilot uniforms — black pants, white, short sleeve shirts, with captain and first-officer bars on their epaulettes. I could see their gleaming executive jet parked on the ramp outside.

“I’m sorry?” Marlene said.

“Your boss. Where is he?”

“He’s at a meeting.”

I came around the counter and planted my palms on her desk, invading her personal space.

“Where?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say.”

“Does he own a green van?”

“A green van? Not that I know of. Why are you so upset?”

“What is Patriot Flow Professionals?”

Marlene sat back in her chair, breaking eye contact, looking away, pretending to shuffle papers. “I have no idea.”

“I think you do. I think it’s that business he runs on the side, smuggling airplane parts to Iran. Isn’t it?”

“I don’t like the way you’re behaving, Mr. Logan.”

“Why are you covering for him?”

“I’m not.”

“I want the truth, Marlene, and I want it now.”

One of the pilots, thin-shouldered with long sideburns, walked around the counter and put his hand on my shoulder, trying to look tough.

“You heard the lady,” he said. “You’re scaring her. Why don’t you take a deep breath and try to chill out a little bit?”

I looked over at his hand, then into his eyes. What he saw in my own eyes caused his Adam’s apple to bob up and down as he swallowed fearfully. He backed off without me having to say a word.

I turned and walked out.

Gordon Priest’s dominatrix was wearing a white lab coat with her name stitched in cursive, followed by the initials, “M.D.,” and, below that, “Internal Medicine.”

“Not you again,” she said, pursing her lips, standing inside her front door.

“Is he here?”

“If he was, do you really think I’d be dressed like this?”

“Are you really a doctor?”

She tilted her head and fired a condescending smirk.

“Board certified.”

“If you see him, tell him I’m looking for him. It’s important.”

“Will do. Listen, if you’re ever inclined to expand your horizons…” She reached into the pocket of her lab coat and handed me a business card. “We could have a ton of fun.”

The card featured a bullwhip coiled around an abstract rendition of what I assumed was the male reproductive organ.

“Doubtful,” I said, “but thanks.”

I drove to the Skylark Mobile Home and RV Park, pulled into the thrift shop lot across the street, and walked to Priest’s trailer. His station wagon was gone. Nobody answered the door.

As I returned to my truck, a young Latino couple emerged from the thrift shop. The father holding their daughter in his arms. She was perhaps two years old, bundled against the cold in a one-piece pink snowsuit and matching woolen ski cap with a fringed pom-pom on top, and strings that tied around her chin. I paused to watch as the mother opened the back door of a rust bucket Volvo. The father lovingly strapped the wriggling toddler into her car seat, smothering her with kisses that made her squeal with laughter. I tried not to fantasize about what it must feel like, the intensity of that kind of bond. My chances of ever experiencing it had been denied me, stolen with Savannah’s last breath.

I turned away from the happy little family, got back in my truck, tilted my seat back, and waited for Priest to come home. Was he Crocodile Dundee? My gut told me no. But my gut also told me Priest knew who Dundee was. And I had ways of extracting that kind of information in short order.

Pacifists question the worth of so-called “enhanced” interrogation techniques. They argue that such methods don’t work because people subjected to waterboarding, for example, or made to sit for hours on their knees, will eventually say or do anything to avoid more pain. As such, the critics say, any intelligence derived by using these methods can’t be trusted. They’re right. Because if the person being interrogated knows that his questioners are playing by humanitarian “rules,” then it’s usually nothing more than a big time suck for all parties concerned. The only way it can work is if the guilty detainee fully understands that he may be maimed or even killed if he’s not fully forthcoming.

Now, I’m not saying I ever personally relied on those kinds of tactics, techniques, or procedures. Nor am I saying I saw others use them. I’m not saying that at all. I wouldn’t want to spend the next several years in federal custody. But I’ve heard that much good actionable intelligence can be quickly derived by shooting off a toe, or a finger. You’d be amazed how swiftly that can get somebody’s attention.

Or so I’ve heard.

My phone rang. It was Marlene from the airport.

“Gordon’s here.” Her voice quavered with nerves. “He says he’d like to meet with you.”

“When?”

“As soon as possible.”

“Does he own a gun?”

She lowered her voice. “Not that I know of. Gordon can be a little gruff sometimes, but I don’t think he’s capable of real violence. He’s a real teddy bear inside.”

“I’ll be there in five minutes.”

I called Streeter as I drove to brief him about what I’d learned, but he wasn’t in. His machine picked up. I left a message.

Marlene was standing outside without a coat, eating cookies, one after another. The temperature hovered in the low forties, but the wind chill factor was closer to freezing. Still, I could see sweat rings under the arms of her tan Summit Aviation T-shirt.

“It’s been one heckuva day,” she said. “You want a cookie? I just made some fresh.”

Eating sweets was the last thing on my mind. I strode past her, toward the office door.

“He’s not in there,” Marlene said.

“Where is he?”

“Down the way.” She pointed. “In one of our hangars. We’ve got a big charter coming in. There’ll be a lot of people in the office. He just thought it might be better if the two of you could talk in private.”

I followed her down the flight line. The walk seemed to tire her. She was breathing hard, perspiring even harder.

“Gordon says he’s got nothing to hide,” she said without looking at me.

“We’ll see.”

We passed two rows of prefab metal hangars painted aquamarine. At the third row, Marlene took a right turn. I followed her midway down the line, to the door of a hangar that was partially open. She paused before stepping inside and glanced back at me.

“I just feel so bad,” she said, “what’s happened, all of this.”