“Was it black?” I asked. “Looked like a hard plastic material? Like a carbon finish?”

“That’s the one,” Therese said.

“So you sat him where he wanted,” I said. “What happened next?”

“He drank his coffee,” she said. “Black, two sugars. No cream.”

“Where?” I asked.

Therese motioned at the far side of the restaurant. A corner booth that looked out the window onto a side parking lot.

I pulled my phone out and showed her the sketch of the old guy. “You’re a hundred percent sure it was this guy?”

“Oh yeah,” she said. “The other cops already asked me twice.”

Remy and I had seen the old guy in person, but it was in the dark inside Tandy’s. And dark again in the forest behind the bar. I wanted to know if anything had changed.

“He still have a beard like in our picture?”

“Uh-huh.” She nodded.

“Seventy-ish?”

“Yup.”

“He look distinguished?” I asked. “Look like somebody’s uncle?”

“He looked like somebody’s grandpa,” she said. “If Grandpa was in shape.”

“Okay.” I nodded. He was fit.

I hadn’t heard the old guy speak more than five words in the forest. “You hear an accent in his voice, Therese?”

“Not anything specific,” she said. “Not like us. Not like up North. Somewhere neutral.”

“What happened next?”

“Nothing for a good half hour,” she continued. “I brung him two refills. Then some guy joined him. I didn’t even see the second fella come in. He was just there. I came toward the table, to see if he wanted a drink, you know? Or maybe they both were gonna order food now that the second fella was there. But the old guy waved me off.” She held her palm out at me, as if to demonstrate.

“So you didn’t get to the table, but you saw something.”

“Not much,” she said. “But the guy who joined him was white. Black hair. Younger than you.”

“Okay . . .”

“This new fella brought out a paper bag,” she continued. “Grandpa looked in it and then went to the restroom. When I looked up, Grandpa was heading back and the young guy was gone.”

“Back from the bathroom?”

“Uh-huh.” Therese nodded. “No paper bag anymore. Just that black case he came in with.”

Somewhere in the distance, someone was laying on a car horn. Over and over again.

“He took the black case to the bathroom with him?” I confirmed. “You sure?”

“Yup.”

“So he’s back at the table. What’s the next thing you remember?”

“He seemed antsy now. Squirming in his chair like a kid. In comes these other two men, maybe twenty minutes later. One of them’s real big. Like a football player. Tank top showing off his muscles. White. Dark hair. The other guy . . . I dunno. Shorter. Not memorable.”

“The unmemorable gentleman—white? Black?”

“White,” she said. “Grandpa leaves them two the case, and he gets up himself. As he does, the football player grabs his arm. You could almost see there’s gonna be a fight. But then the unmemorable guy says something and the football player lets go. And out goes Grandpa. Two minutes later, the two men take off with the case.”