“Yeah,” Snake said again.

“I think we got a problem.”

“I’m listening.”

Ever attuned to the needs of the men around her, Junelle signaled that she was going into the kitchen so Snake could have some privacy.

“The splash went perfectly today,” Toons said.

“That don’t sound like a problem.”

“But an hour later, somebody showed up at the Kuntry Kafé with a hard-on for you and your buddies.”

“Who? That FBI man, Kaiser?”

“No. The doctor’s boy. The mayor.”

Snake went still. If he remembered right, Penn Cage had faced off with Randall Regan in the Kafé. “Is that right?”

“Yeah. I had a guy in there, sitting in the corner booth. Cage walked in with a pistol and held it to one of your guys’ heads.”

Snake tried out a couple of different expressions in the mirror. When he scowled, he looked like a banker who’d missed a putt on the eighteenth green. “And?”

“One of your guys told him, ‘Ain’t you a badass all of a sudden.’ Then the mayor said something that you might be interested in.”

“Which was?”

“He said, ‘Why don’t you ask Forrest Knox that question?’”

Snake went still. As he stared blankly into the mirror, acid flooded into his belly. He suddenly looked like a clown to himself.

“You need to dump your phone after using that name,” he said in a monotone. “And I gotta dump this one.”

“Relax, man. That’s what we use ’em for.”

“Don’t fuckin’ tell me when to relax.”

“Take it easy, pops. Look, I’m gonna be comin’ by soon. You and me got something to talk about.”

“News to me.”

“I’m gettin’ tired of waitin’ on those names you promised us.”

Snake kept his voice cool. “You’ll get ’em when I said you’ll get ’em. Not an hour before.”

“We need ’em now, Knox. We got guys coming up for trial in St. Tammany Parish. One in St. Landry, too.”

“Talk to Lars. He’ll set you straight.”

“I’m always talkin’ to Lars. He told me I should ask you about it. The names, man.”

“After you’ve fulfilled your half of the bargain. That’s when you get ’em. Then and only then. That’s the deal. I’m hangin’ up now.”

“Wait. That woman of yours, the one who did the splash? She wants to come to where you’re at.”

“Tell her forget it. Nobody comes here. Not till the new passports come in. She’s gotta stick to the rules like everybody else.”

“That’s what I told her. But her and that boy of yours don’t seem to care much for rules.”

“Are you saying you can’t handle them?”

“I’m saying if I have to handle that boy, don’t bitch at me if you have to pay to have him fed through a tube for the rest of his life.”