something really dark behind that paper mill deal. Really dirty.”
“Dirtier than the corruption we already suspect?”
She nods. “Drop all lesser questions about the mill deal and ask the big one: Why did Azure Dragon come here? If I’d been on their site selection committee, I’d have picked six other cities before Bienville. Maybe ten.”
“The city and the state sweetened the hell out of their offer.”
“Not enough to top Arkansas and Alabama.”
She has a point. “They’re routing I-14 through here, pretty much solely for Azure Dragon. That’s big, Jet.”
“The public schools are still crap.”
“Not your charter school.”
“Which only handles a fraction of the city’s students.” She shakes her head, and I sense her mind churning. “I’m telling you, there’s something rotten at the core of this. Not just garden-variety graft, or even mega-graft. Something so big they couldn’t risk Buck causing delays or bringing in state authorities. And I’m going to find out what it is.” She clicks her tongue three times fast, then looks out over the backyard. “Let’s get those new phones. I need to go.”
I catch hold of her arm before she can start walking. “Hang on. Say you do that. Say we go out there tonight and find Indian bones, or even evidence that Buck was murdered for threatening the mill. But to use it, we have to blow up the paper mill deal. Do we do that?”
She looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Isn’t that what we’ve been trying to do all along? Get the bastards who rule this town by breaking whatever laws it suits them to break?”
“Of course. But if the town loses the mill, the dominoes will start to fall. The new interstate, the bridge. A lot of people who’ve done nothing wrong will be hurt badly. Some we know, others we don’t.”
“Is this you talking, or Nadine?”
“She did pose the question this morning.”
Jet gives me a penetrating look before answering. “You’re right about the cost. But we won’t be living here, so it’s not our problem. And if they murdered Buck, then I say, ‘Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.’”
This woman was born to be a prosecutor. “You know, we usually talk about the Poker Club like a monolithic entity. I want you to break them down for me. Tell me who’s the most dangerous.”
“How do you mean? Arthur Pine’s dangerous, but only in a courtroom, not a dark alley.”
“I’m talking about violence. Like killing Buck. Which members might go that far, or have the connections to have someone else do it for them?”
Jet looks at her watch again. “Let’s talk while we walk. Prepping for that party might make Paul leave practice early.”
She starts across the grass, and I have to hurry to catch up.
“Only nine of the Poker Club’s twelve members are really active,” she explains. “Of those, I’d say Tommy Russo is the most violent. He’s from a Jersey mob family, and I’ve heard some sick stories about him.”
“Such as?”
“His brother fed two guys into a wood chipper in Voorhees State Park. While they were alive. Tommy was supposedly there.”
“That sounds like an urban legend.”
Jet bends and hooks her panties off the grass with one finger. “Tommy’s brother fled the country before the FBI could arrest him for it. Tommy also told Max that he’d pushed an informant out of a Beechcraft once.”
“Jesus. Max told you that?”
Jet shakes her head. “He told Paul. Paul told me one night when he was drunk.”
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that a casino owner has murder in his past. Still, when I think of Tommy walking along the Port Road in his expensive suit, it’s hard to picture him shoving a guy out of an airplane. “Who else?”
Jet stops and picks her pants up off the grass. “Wyatt Cash.”
“Wyatt? Really?”
She steps into her panties and pulls them up, then does the same with her slacks, wriggling them over her hips, then zipping them tight. “Wyatt’s not just a hunter, he’s a military groupie. He uses former Special Forces soldiers as paid endorsers for his hunting gear.”
“Great. Who else?”
She looks into my eyes. “Max, of course.”
“No shit. I would have put Max at the top of the list. He did some bad stuff in Vietnam.”
“I forgot. He used to brag to his players, didn’t he? I don’t even want to think about it. Oh, and there’s Paul, of course.”
“Paul’s not a member of the club.”
“He’s the heir apparent to Max’s seat. And he’s tied inextricably into a lot of