Tom shook his head. “I wish to God she had, because things went to hell right after that. Viola thought her brother was still hiding out in Freewoods, but the rape rumor had already done its work. Jimmy and Luther had come out of hiding the previous day, and the Eagles kidnapped them late that night.”

“Shit.”

“Viola got word that her brother had left Freewoods, and when he didn’t call her, she just about went out of her mind. She was sure the Klan had them. She didn’t know what to do. How could she go to the police, when she’d just committed murder herself? She knew the cops wouldn’t do anything anyway. She begged me to help, but I didn’t know what I could do.”

“I’m glad you didn’t call me,” Walt said. “I was caught up in the same kind of mess over in Texas. Nothing but Klan trouble for a few years, seems like. For once the Mexicans actually got put on the back burner. Anyway … what happened next?”

“The Double Eagles took Viola.”

Walt had been toying with a cold french fry, but he stopped and looked up. “What?”

“The very night we killed Frank Knox, they grabbed her right out of her house, about two in the morning. I didn’t know any details then, of course. But when she didn’t show up for work, I went straight to her house and saw the signs of a struggle.”

“Did you call the police?”

“Hell no. You know I couldn’t do that. I called Ray Presley.”

A hard smile cracked Walt’s wrinkled face. Ray Presley was one chapter of Tom’s life that Walt did know about. More to the point, Presley’s reputation as a crooked cop and former New Orleans Mafia enforcer stretched all the way to Texas. “You wanted her back,” Walt said. “What choice did you have?”

“None that I could see. I told Ray to find her, no matter what he had to do. I told him I’d pay any price.”

“And?”

“He did.”

Walt smiled. “How long did it take him?”

“Less than twenty-four hours. He called in a lot of favors to do it, but he found her in a machine shop out in Franklin County, north of where we are now.” A wave of heat crossed Tom’s face. “It was bad, Walt. Snake Knox was enraged over his brother’s death. Sonny Thornfield and a couple of others were with him. They’d been torturing Luther and Jimmy out of anger, but also out of pure sadism. The worst torture, of course, would be to hurt Viola, so they kidnapped her.”

“What did they want from the boys?”