His wife had gone to bed at the end of the first quarter, and he’d been thinking about getting Ozan to call him out on a fake emergency so he could run over and pop the wife of a young moron in Patrol. Cherie Delaune had sent Forrest the all-clear signal an hour ago—meaning her husband was on patrol and her daughter was spending the night out—but Forrest hadn’t been able to summon the energy for the trip. If he could have snapped his fingers and been in Cherie’s bed, he’d have done it. But ever since Katrina hit, work had been steadily grinding him down. Tonight was only the second time since the storm that he’d gotten home before 9 P.M.

“Good ol’ Glenn,” he said, ruminating about his father. “Poor bastard. Rest in peace, Mountain.”

Forrest reached down to the floor for his black leather boots, pulled them on with a groan, then stood and buckled on his gun belt. Walking into the kitchen, he spat tobacco juice into the sink, then unscrewed the top off a prescription bottle and dry-swallowed four Adderall, which had been given to him by a detective-sergeant in the narcotics division. The Adderall helped him focus. Then he opened a second bottle and swallowed a 50 mg Viagra. Even with the Morehouse development, he had time for a quick stop by Cherie’s house. He needed to hit it fast, or he’d risk her husband going off shift. Forrest didn’t need a confrontation with a fellow state cop, even if he was just in Patrol. He called Ozan on his secure cell. The captain answered on the first ring.

“What you think, boss?” Ozan asked by way of greeting.

“Was it the cancer, Alphonse?”

“Don’t know yet. I just called Billy, but he didn’t answer. I know Snake has been nervous as a cat since that Viola Turner got back to Natchez, and I think he may have got Brody Royal stirred up.”

“Brody? What makes you say that?”

“I ran into Royal’s son-in-law, that Randall Regan, buying a muzzle-loader over at the Bass Pro Shops. He mentioned the Turner woman dying. So Brody’s obviously been thinking about her. I been thinking that her and Morehouse dying on the same day seems a little funny. Don’t it?”