The pain in his eyes is clear, but so is his commitment to silence. “I’m sorry, Penn. All I can tell you is talk to Quentin.”

“He’s not going to tell me anything. Look, the Devines promised me they would testify for Dad. Are they going to come through on that?”

His face tightens again. “I’m working to make that happen.”

“Have you got the plea deal signed or not? Is the U.S. attorney cooperating?”

Kaiser closes his eyes as though wrestling with a desire to come clean. When he opens them, though, I still see his professional shield in place. “Penn, I want your father to be acquitted. But in the end, I’m here representing the Bureau. That’s all I can tell you right now. I know it sucks, but a lot of things about this job suck. Same as being a prosecutor or a mayor. Now, I need to go. Court’s going to start back up soon.”

“What about the bomb at Judge Elder’s house?”

“A hoax, apparently.”

Again I wonder if Lincoln Turner called in the threat to empty the courtroom and get access to me.

“What are you doing here?” Kaiser asks, suddenly realizing that my being here makes little sense.

For an instant I’m tempted to tell him about Lincoln and the tape, but the impulse passes. “Doris is having a problem with the security system. I promised her I’d come down and fix it.”

After a couple of seconds’ steady gaze, Kaiser grips my shoulder. “Keep the faith, man.”

“Faith? Do we still believe in the same things?”

After a single nod, the FBI agent turns and disappears through the back gate.

“We don’t need his damned tape,” Quentin says with finality. “And certainly not for no million bucks. Jesus. Do you even have that kind of money?”

His wheelchair sits just inside the back door to the kitchen of Edelweiss. A cup of coffee stands on the creamy marble counter behind him, an insulin syringe lying beside it. Doris is upstairs, supposedly taking a shower, though it’s midday.

“Don’t you think you should talk to Dad before you make that decision?” I ask.

“I don’t need to. I know what his answer would be. We’re damn sure not going to break the law to buy anything Lincoln Turner is selling. Under other circumstances, a sting operation might be appealing, but I’m not going to play those games with that boy.”

“You’d better be sure, Quentin. I heard the tape, and I recognized both Sonny Thornfield’s and Snake Knox’s voices. They threatened to kill Viola, and they did it between the time Viola returned to Natchez to die and the day of her death. You should have heard her, man. She taunted those bastards. She practically dared them to kill her. That tape is reasonable doubt on a silver platter, just like Lincoln said.”