As Doris does his bidding, Quentin looks at Serenity and says, “I’ve been reading your book. To help myself sleep.”

Tee doesn’t rise to his bait.

“Turns out it’s not as boring as I hoped it would be.”

Doris hands him the phone. While Quentin awaits an answer, he looks up at Serenity again and shakes his head. Then I hear a tinny version of Joe Elder’s bass voice saying, “What the hell are you doing calling me, Quentin?”

“Joe, this is important. . . . Yes, I know. I taught you that, damn it. . . . No, it’s nothing about the trial. It’s personal. . . . No, not about me. About you. I need to give you a heads-up, brother, and you don’t want me to talk about this on the phone. . . . How about you meet me on the bluff, down by the old pecan factory? . . . Listen, Joe. This is no game. This is brother to brother. . . . Right. Thirty minutes’ll work. See you soon.”

Quentin clicks end and hands the phone back over his shoulder to Doris, who retreats down the hall in her nightgown.

“Anything else?” he asks in a challenging tone.

“Yes. What if I told you I may have a Double Eagle ready to turn state’s evidence?”

To this, at least, Quentin has no sarcastic reply.

“This man has almost certainly committed murder with Snake Knox. He probably participated in the rape of Viola Turner, as well. The one at the machine shop.”

“Who is it?” Quentin asks, his eyes as serious as those of a man contemplating a duel.

“Will Devine, the man whose truck was parked near Viola’s house on the night she died. The truck with the Darlington Academy sticker on it.”

Quentin whistles long and low. “How’d you pull off that trick?”

I tilt my head at Serenity, and Quentin gives her a knowing leer. “I might have guessed Wonder Woman here had something to do with it. Well. That changes things a bit. You said you may have a Double Eagle. What exactly does that mean?”

“We’re going to meet his wife and son in a little while. We won’t know for sure what we have until then.”

Quentin is obviously working something out in his mind. “Devine’s going to want a plea deal before he testifies in open court and implicates himself. And he’s going to want protection. What are the odds you can get a federal plea deal done in time for Will Devine to help your father?”

“How long does that give me?”

“Hell, Penn, I need him by tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow!”

“Boy, how many rabbits you expect me to pull out of my ass?”

“I see your point. Well, I can sure as hell put John Kaiser on it. And I know the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana. It’s certainly possible—in theory.”