Walt took a couple of steps past Tom. “If that’s the case,” he said, “I’m sure we’ll find a way to make it up to you. But right now, you need to step into that van over there.”

“No way,” Sonny said, glancing at the Roadtrek. “I ain’t gonna. I ain’t no fool. And Doc ain’t gonna shoot me.”

Walt raised his derringer and touched the barrel to Thornfield’s forehead. “Maybe not. But I’ll blow your damn brains out and never lose a moment’s sleep over it. So, you can take your chances in the van or you can die where you stand. Make your choice, bub. I need some coffee.”

“Who are you?” Sonny asked.

“Captain Walt Garrity, Texas Rangers.”

Sonny’s mouth worked around as though trying to raise a plug of spit. There was a lot of white showing in his eyes.

“Life or death, Sonny?” Tom said. “Life is in the van.”

“Shit,” Sonny said. Then he started walking toward the Roadtrek.

CHAPTER 50

IF A MAN is forced to choose between the truth and his father, only a fool chooses the truth. That quote rings in my head like a mocking mantra as I pull into my parents’ driveway. Annie sits puzzled beside me. I woke her from a dead sleep an hour after realizing why I’d sought out the old photograph of Viola. After my epiphany about the night my father left me stranded at the hospital, I struggled to understand what might have resulted from their relationship, and I quickly came to the conclusion that Lincoln Turner was one possible answer. This realization must have overwhelmed me, because I quickly slipped into a dreamless coma. But while I slept, a key of some kind turned deep within me, for I started awake with my second revelation of the night. To my surprise, it concerned my mother, not my father.

When I called my mother earlier tonight—my second call of the evening—she told me my father was still asleep. The wrongness of that answer should have hit me instantly. Had this not been one of the most stressful days in all our lives, it would have, but I assumed that Dad was exhausted from the day’s events, and from grief over Viola. But when I snapped awake in my chair the second time, I knew how mistaken I’d been.