The driver nodded. “That’s the car, all right. The mayor drives it. Cage. I’ve seen him in it up on the bluff in Natchez. At the balloon races. What the hell would he be doin’ here?”

“Talkin’ to the Cat Lady, what else? Ain’t nobody else around here.”

The driver scratched his beard and looked around the car. The only visible light was a dim glow against the curtains in the rightmost room.

“You know who the Cat Lady is, don’t you?” asked the older man.

“Just an old colored woman with about a hundred cats. Why? Somethin’ special about her?”

“Not really. But a long time ago, somebody lynched her kid.”

“Klan?”

“Word was, it was the Knox brothers. The Double Eagles.”

“Huh. I never heard that.”

“Why don’t we go in there and find out what the mayor was doing here? Might just get us a fat reward. Or huntin’ rights out at Valhalla, at the least.”

The driver grunted, still thinking. Athens Point had changed a lot since Forrest Knox was killed at Valhalla.

“If we’re gonna do something, let’s do it,” said the older man. “I’m tired of sittin’ here.”

The driver took a deep drag on his cigarette. “Let’s not get hasty,” he said, smoke drifting from his mouth. “I’m gonna make a phone call.”

Deep in the well of the night, I sit up from a sound sleep with the certainty that something is terribly wrong. I listen intently but hear nothing amiss. Nevertheless, I throw off the covers, take my pistol from the bedside table, and walk out into the hall.

My mother is lying on the floor, staring blankly up at the ceiling.

“Mom!” I cry, dropping to my knees. “What happened?”

She blinks her right eye repeatedly, as though trying to clear something from it. Then she speaks in a guttural voice: “I was trying to get to your room. Penn, I can’t . . . I think I’m having a stroke.”

Adrenaline flushes through me, bringing me fully alert. “Why do you think that? You’re not slurring your speech. What’s going on?”

“My right arm . . . numb. My foot, too. And . . . I can’t see out of my right eye. I’m sorry.”

Jesus Christ. “When did this start? Just now?”

“No. I was seeing flashes of light earlier, when we were watching TV with Annie.”

Frustration balloons in my chest. “Why didn’t you say anything then?”

“I thought it was stress. I didn’t want anybody telling me not to go to the courthouse tomorrow.”

“Mom, I’m calling Drew.”

“No!”

“I’m going to pick you up and carry you into my room.”

“Don’t. I’m too heavy. You’ll hurt your back.”