Cherie raised her middle finger, but her lips parted in a smile behind it. “Why don’t you talk to Ricky’s boss and get him some extra duty? He needs the overtime. Me and Crystal need a break from his crap, too. Not to mention, you could come around more often.”

Forrest thought briefly of Crystal Delaune, Cherie’s flirtatious sixteen-year-old, then banished the image. “Patrol isn’t my division, I told you that.”

“You could still do it if you wanted. You just don’t want to come over any more than you do now.”

Forrest buttoned his shirt and shoved the tail beneath his belt. “If I came any more often, you’d be as bored with me as you are with Ricky. Unless I marked you up good, and then he’d know about it. Which is what you want, deep down, isn’t it? To blow all this shit up?”

“You’re the one who shaved my coochie. Nothing subtle about that. Ricky’s already asked me about it like five times. Maybe you’re the one who wants to blow up my marriage.”

Forrest laughed. “Like you couldn’t lie your way out of that little dilemma with about four brain cells.”

Cherie pouted and pulled the covers over her rump. “You think you know so much. You really think I’d get bored if we was together?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Forrest said, strapping on his gun belt. “You ain’t gonna get the chance.”

Cherie scrabbled onto her knees and grabbed his belt buckle. “One more time before you go. I know you can do it. I can tell when you’ve taken a pill.”

Forrest shook his head. Now that he’d relieved his need, the prospect of collecting cash up at Fort Knox far outweighed that of a second round with Cherie. Now, if she was willing to bring Crystal into it …

Forrest’s secure cell phone rang in his pocket. Taking it out, he saw that the caller was Billy Knox. His cousin only called in cases of extreme emergency.

“What’s up?” he answered, and Cherie gave an exaggerated pout.

“Henry Sexton met with somebody else tonight.”

“Put me out of my misery.”

“Dr. Tom Cage’s son. The mayor of Natchez.”

This took Forrest off guard. “Where did this happen?”

“Over at the Beacon offices. They were together quite a while. Then Cage called the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office for protection on the way back to Natchez.”

Forrest’s threat-detection instinct went on high alert. His mind raced through possible explanations for this turn of events.

“I got that from our mole in Walker Dennis’s HQ,” Billy said. “What you want to do?”

“Doing nothing is usually best, William.”