The Bone Tree (Penn Cage #5) - Greg Iles Page 0,117

Forrest said with icy calm. “Because it’s your only option. Do anything else and you look guilty. Kill the mayor or the Masters girl or, God forbid, John Kaiser, and we’ll have an army of federal agents in here for a year. They’ll be like that posse in the Butch Cassidy movie. They’ll hound us until we’re dead. So you and your old buddies are going to walk into the CPSO like you have nothing to hide.”

“No goddamn way,” Snake muttered. “That’s suicide.”

When Forrest laughed again, Snake looked apoplectic. “I tell you what,” Forrest said. “I was going to keep this a surprise, but to ease your mind, Uncle, I’ll give you a little heads-up. Ten minutes after you walk into the sheriff’s office tomorrow, Walker Dennis won’t be the sheriff anymore.”

Snake’s mouth fell open. “What do you mean? Is the Black Team gonna kill him?”

“That’s none of your concern. All you need to know is that by the time you walk in there tomorrow, Walker Dennis will have ceased to be a factor in our situation.”

“Who’ll be the sheriff, then?”

Forrest grinned. “A friendly face.”

Billy drank off his whiskey, leaned forward, and waited for his cousin to lay out the plan. He expected a classic Forrest Knox gambit: ballsy as hell, yet as intricately choreographed as a ballet. But Forrest said nothing. He had no intention of telling them anything. Billy expected his father to raise hell, but after staring at Forrest’s face for nearly a minute, Snake settled back in his chair with a malevolent smile. It was as though Forrest had cast a spell over him.

“So,” Forrest concluded. “We’re all clear? Tomorrow you walk in there for questioning?”

Snake laughed. “I reckon so, nephew. I reckon so.”

“Good. Now, I want to discuss a couple of things with Billy. We’re going to take a walk down to check the food plots.”

Billy started to get up, but Snake said, “Hold up one minute. I heard you’ve changed your orders on Tom Cage. No more shoot to kill, they say.”

In an instant the beast that lived behind Forrest’s imperturbable mask revealed itself. “Who told you that?” he asked in a barely audible voice.

But Snake was not intimidated. “Never you mind, nephew. Is it true?”

“It’s true.”

Snake looked at Sonny as if to say, You see? Then he said, “And why would that be?”

“Tom Cage is one of the moving parts in the deal I’m making to save your ass.”

Snake slowly went red again. “You mean to save your real-estate deals down in New Orleans, don’t you? This ain’t about saving us up here at all.”

Forrest looked at the floor as though by so doing he could bleed his fury into the wood. After half a minute he composed himself and looked up again, focusing on each man in turn once more.

“The crystal meth business is for suckers,” he said. “You found out why this morning. Every man they brought in is facing a mandatory minimum sentence. You may be right that none of them will turn on you—this time. But sooner or later, somebody will give you up. If we stay in that business, we’re going to end up in Angola one day. You guys may be willing to take that chance, but I’m not. The deals Brody has got me into will make the money we’ve earned in the past look like a joke. I’d be better off paying you to stay out of business than to risk you staying in. You understand? And I’m willing to do that, for a reasonable amount of time. What I won’t do is stand by while you go rogue and try some crazy shit like Brody did, and bring more heat down on our heads. Because the day you become a liability to me . . .”

Forrest didn’t finish this sentence. He didn’t need to.

Snake was shaking his head, but when he finally spoke, he only seemed to have one thing on his mind. “I want Tom Cage dead,” he growled. “The rest of it I can live with, but not that. I think the doc knows enough to put us all in Angola, and he’ll do it, too.”

“Why?” Forrest asked, sounding genuinely interested. “Why would he do that?”

“Because of what we done to that nurse of his back in ’68.” Snake looked hard at Forrest. “You know what I’m talking about. You were there.”

Forrest acknowledged this with a nod.

Billy was pretty sure they were talking about a gang rape, but he had no desire