The Whistler

Wilton arranges a covert meeting between Lacy, her boss, and Lyman Gritt. Gritt tells them he can’t work with them openly because it could threaten his family, but he has evidence they can use. He hands over a flash drive containing video of Clyde and Zeke at the filling station and of Berl Munger stealing the Dodge ram. In addition, he hands them the paper towels with the blood sample. He tells them that with luck, the bleeding man will have a record, and they’ll be able to identify him from DNA.

After the crime lab runs the DNA and identifies it as Zeke Foreman’s, Lacy and her boss locate Zeke at the office of his parole officer and arrest him. They tell him that he has rights for his involvement in a homicide but that they’ll let him go free in witness protection if he tells them everything he knows about the Coast Mafia. Zeke identifies his accomplice as Clyde Westbay, who runs two hotels owned by an offshore company. He offered Zeke $5,000 to cause the wreck on the reservation.

Judge McDover is beginning to panic over the investigation. She wants to get away from DuBose and out of the country before the BJC and the FBI close in. At her regular meeting with Vonn Dubose, Dubose grills her about possible information leaks from her staff. She feels completely secure. Her girlfriend would never betray her. She doesn’t keep secretaries long enough for them to learn anything compromising, and she trusts her court reporter, JoHelen Hooper, with her life. She briefly talks with JoHelen about her plan to retire. She mentions a case she tried that day in which she had to take a child away from an abusive mother for the third time and she says that as the woman left court, she announced that she was pregnant again. It was just too depressing, she says, and she’s tired of her job. She feels that stealing from Native American people is much more fun.

Lacy receives a phone call from Cooley, the middleman between Myers and the mole. Cooley tells Lacy that he’s going on the run; with Myers gone, Cooley is afraid Dubose will find him next.

Clyde Westbay, Zeke’s accomplice (who drove the getaway truck at the collision scene), is working at one of his hotels when Allie Pacheco intercepts him. Pacheco takes him to a room, where three more agents and an assistant US attorney confront him and tell him that he is under arrest for capital murder. Clyde is sick—literally—with fear and despair. The FBI uses the threat of the death penalty and the promise of a much lighter sentence—as little as five years in prison followed by witness protection—if Westbay wears a wire and gets Dubose to admit to his crimes.

Clyde lays out his history with Dubose’s syndicate: He began as a simple hotel/bar manager for one of Dubose’s properties. He was promoted to manager of two hotels held by an offshore company. He became involved in the criminal side when Dubose’s Lieutenant, Hank Skoley, asked him to launder money through the hotels. It seemed like a small thing, so Clyde went along. Gradually, he lost his guilt and fear of being caught by the law and began to feel a sense of pride in being part of such a successful “business.” By the time Hank asked him to handle the collision, Clyde didn’t feel he could refuse.

Vonn Dubose suspects that the informant in the judge’s office is her court reporter, JoHelen Hooper. He sends a hitman named Delgado to search her house while she’s at work. JoHelen receives notification on her phone that her security system has been disarmed. Cameras all over her house are recording the search—including the intruder’s face.

Allie Pacheco is in his element now that the FBI has finally taken the case. His bosses have dropped everything else and are focusing all their power and resources on the Coast Mafia. Pacheco is driving himself 20 hours a day and has no time for Lacy apart from consulting on the case. Lacy respects that.