“That’s some find, Mathews.” Wilson sounded vaguely proud, but he was unable to mask a fog of suspicion that rolled out of his mouth on a sigh that colored the whole conversation gray. “I mean, if there’s something to this, it not only explains what happened to Ronnie Malvo but also sets a potential capital murder charge against Bill King, plus conspiracy. And again, you’re sure you haven’t mentioned anything like this to the San Jacinto County DA? I mean, with them trying to solve this thing and still asking questions about you, and then this here falls right in your lap…” He paused, allowing Darren the opportunity to fill in the silence with something that would make sense to Fred Wilson. Darren could tell he wanted it to be this simple, but he needed Darren to sell it, to help him wave away the pinch of stink that was hovering in the fog over this whole conversation.

“Don’t know about you, but I was raised not to look too closely in a horse’s mouth, especially not when its gifts might wrap up a federal case.”

Wilson chuckled softly. Darren heard the creak of his office chair and pictured the older man leaning back, head nearly bumping the framed commendations on the wall behind him. “Well, this gives me a reason not to call Vaughn back on the Malvo case. I’ll wait until we see if we really got something here.”

Darren swallowed a lump in his throat. “He called again?”

“No matter.”

Something heavy seemed to have lifted off the lieutenant. Wilson’s voice came back lighter, damn near buoyant. “This is good work, Ranger,” he said. Darren felt a wave of nausea over how easy this was, how far he’d wandered from how he was raised. He thought of his uncles, both of whom were men of truth, in all things. Could there ever be honor in lying, even when it might save an elderly black man from prison, even if Ronnie Malvo deserved no more than knockoff justice, a cheap facsimile? Could anything really justify what he was doing? He immediately wanted to take it all back.

He made Wilson promise to keep the information close to the vest until he could dig a little deeper. And of course there was still the business with the kid. It made sense, he said, for him to stick around Marion County for a while. “Sure, sure,” Wilson said, adding that he was still working on getting Darren inside the Telford Unit in Bowie County. “But I’m having a hell of a time.”

“What’s the holdup?”

“Someone dragging his feet at the Department of Criminal Justice. But don’t worry, I’m going to get you in front of Bill King one way or another.”