One of Forrest’s patrons kicked him under the table, but he ignored the blow. Brody tried to catch his eye as he rose, but Forrest pointedly ignored him. No one in his organization had ever transmitted the “Pan-Pan” code, and he wasn’t about to waste time finding out what the problem was.

Forrest gave the lieutenant governor a deferential nod, then quickly made his way to the exit. The other diners gawked at his uniform as he passed. It wasn’t just the uniform, he knew. The scarred nub of his ear always drew stares in places like this, where he couldn’t wear his hat. Those who knew it was a battle wound considered it a badge of honor, but the average asshole usually gave him the freak treatment. He felt a wild compulsion to draw his gun and blast a few of the crystal champagne flutes off the tables.

Ozan didn’t begin talking until they’d reached the boardwalk outside, where the fetid smell of Lake Pontchartrain’s shore permeated the air.

“We got a major problem, boss. A while ago, Deke Dunn’s wife called in to say he hadn’t come in from his night shift. I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but then I remembered you’d sent him out to tell Snake and Sonny to head for Toledo Bend this morning.”

“Go on.”

“Deke stopped by Snake’s place, then headed toward Sonny’s fishing camp on Old River. Nobody heard anything from him after that. But because of your order, nobody worried about it.”

“Where is he, Alphonse?”

The Redbone shrugged his big shoulders. “I’m not sure yet. A few minutes ago, Sonny came stumbling up to Snake’s house looking like death warmed over. Last night, Dr. Cage and some crazy old Texas Ranger snatched him from his camp at gunpoint.”

“What?”

“They took him down by the borrow pits, held a gun to his head, and rolled his fingerprints onto some vials and a syringe. Trying to frame him for that old nigger woman’s murder!”

Forrest’s pulse began to race. “And?”

“Sonny had a goddamn heart attack, right there. He hardly knew a thing after that, but he’s pretty sure he heard gunshots. The next thing he remembers is waking up on the concrete outside the Mercy Hospital ER, nurses lifting him onto a gurney. He walked out this morning without the doctor releasing him.”

“And Deke?”