“No.”
“Phone call?”
Callahan shook his head once. The pause that followed was long enough to make the guards glance at one another.
“I want to see Valor.”
The name rippled across the corridor. Valor was Callahan’s retired German Shepherd K-9 partner, the dog who had worked alongside him for seven years. Valor had been present the night the informant was killed. Prosecutors argued that Callahan used the dog to intimidate the victim before pulling the trigger. The image had burned into the public imagination: a trusted police dog standing silent witness to betrayal.
Warden Gaines studied Callahan’s expression. “You understand the implications.”
“I do,” Callahan replied. “He deserves to see me. And you deserve to see something else.”
The statement hung heavy. Officer Dana Ruiz, assigned to the execution detail, felt a chill trace her spine. Something in the captain’s tone was not desperation. It was certainty.
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