“I think I know why you want to punish my father,” I say softly. “Viola knew she couldn’t rely on you for the hard duties of being a son. That’s why she came back here to die. My father had the guts and the patience and the love to sit with her while she wasted away, but you couldn’t. And you want him to pay for that. You want to blame somebody for your own shortcomings, and your mother’s lack of faith in you.”

Lincoln’s dark face darkens still more with blood. Then he speaks with unsettling conviction. “When a child finds out his parents have been lying to him for his whole life—not about some little thing, but about who he is, and who they are—it doesn’t exactly predispose him toward feelings of charity. Do you feel me, bro?” Lincoln tilts his head toward mine. “Yeah, you do. The next time you look dear old Daddy in the eye, you’re gonna feel like puking. ’Cause there’s nothing worse than a self-serving lie to a child.”

“Is that what you believe? That your mother lied to you out of self-interest?”

“No. Her motive was worse than that. She didn’t lie to protect herself. That would have made sense, at least. No, she lied to protect him.” Unalloyed rage enters Lincoln’s voice. “My mother thought more of Tom Cage’s happiness than she did her own. Or mine. Isn’t that pathetic? She and I paid the price for your family’s shiny little life.”

I feel my hands shaking as my heart rebels against this twisted view of my personal history, but Lincoln goes on relentlessly.

“You ever read that story, ‘The Secret Sharer’? Well, I’m your dark twin, Mayor. The shadow you never knew you had, leading you to your destiny. We’re like two parallel lines that finally converge, against all odds. We were conceived in the same town, from the same pair of balls, the same pool of protoplasm, the same strands of DNA. But we were born and lived our lives seven hundred miles apart.”

My face has grown hot with blood. “If that’s true … will you agree to take a DNA test?”

Lincoln smiles. “Any time, so long as it’s not in Natchez, Mississippi.You won’t hear Tom Cage make that promise.”

Nothing could have stunned me more than this offer to subject his claim to scientific testing. Clearly, Lincoln believes what he’s saying.

He drains his beer glass, and the waitress moves toward the table, but I wave her away.