We walk down to the bluff and stand looking at the muted sheen of the river in the darkness two hundred feet below. Then we check the doors and windows of Edelweiss, which Quentin Avery and his wife, Doris, will be moving into tomorrow for the duration of the trial. As we head home, I think about walking up State Street to take a look at the jail that tomorrow will become my father’s home until his case is judged. But in the end, I decide I don’t want that image in my mind while I try to fall asleep tonight.

We walk up Washington instead, and Tim smokes a cigar on the way. As we near the top of the incline where the public library, the Episcopal church, Temple B’nai Israel, and majestic Glen Auburn face one another from four corners, Tim stops to stub out his cigar. While I stand looking at the steps of the church, where I stood after graduating from high school, Tim looks back down the long grade we just walked.

“There’s that old man again,” he says. “Walking his dog.”

I peer down through the sporadically lit darkness until I see man and beast slowly cross Washington on Wall Street. “Looks like the dog is walking the man.”

“I just realized something,” Tim says. “Those Double Eagles are all old guys. Maybe we need to have a word with our dog lover down there.”

“Next time,” I tell him, sweating under my bulletproof vest. “I’m ready to hit the rack.”

“Okay,” he says after a few seconds. “Tomorrow.”

Sunday
Chapter 17

Serenity and I got up early to make the drive to Athens Point. We don’t have all day to spend following this lead. According to John Kaiser’s latest call, my father is scheduled to depart the Pollock FCI for the Adams County jail at two p.m. He’ll be transferred in an FBI vehicle, which should put him at the sheriff’s office for the handover and processing at about three. Mom will be following in her own car, with an FBI vehicle bringing up the rear. I plan to be back to Natchez to get Mom settled in at my house.

Serenity has said nothing about her late activities last night, and I haven’t asked. Our breakfast conversation consisted of arguing with Tim Weathers until he agreed to let us make this trip without bodyguards. Tim didn’t like it, but Serenity forcefully persuaded him that she could not only spot a tail from a mile away, but kill any civilian foolish enough to try to ambush us on the road or in Athens Point.