“Things are moving fast in the wake of the storm,” Royal said. “It’s a hell of a mess down there, but there’s also a lot of opportunity. The nigras have finally scrambled out of there like rats from a flooded basement, and the old-money boys were caught flat-footed. It’s like 1927 in reverse.”

Snake wondered how old Brody Royal could have been during the 1927 flood. Just a baby, surely. “I know if anybody can turn a profit out of that bitch Katrina, it’ll be you.”

Royal looked offended by the coarse language, but then he grinned and slapped Snake on the back. “You’re a good man, Knox, like your brother was. Frank was hard. Nobody to cross.”

“That’s a fact, sir.”

“Let’s keep this visit to ourselves. If anyone questions you, you asked whether I knew of any crop-dusting work over in the western parishes. Meanwhile, keep me apprised of any developments regarding Morehouse, and also what Forrest is thinking. Do you have any problem with that?”

“No, sir. That’s why I’m here.”

“Good man.” Royal glanced down the flight line, toward the ragged crop dusters of Knox’s Flying Service. “I noticed the other day that your Pawnee sounds past due for an overhaul.”

“She is getting a little loose in the joints, all right.”

“Have the mechanic put her on his schedule. On my tab.”

“I appreciate it, sir.”

“An ounce of prevention’s worth a pound of cure.”

“You said it.”

Royal signaled to the men with the rifles, then made his way toward a blue Range Rover parked in the general aviation lot.

CHAPTER 8

HENRY SEXTON DROVE toward the twin bridges that crossed the Mississippi River at Natchez, a sense of dread perched like a crow on his shoulder. For so many years he’d been investigating on his own, a solitary fisherman dropping his lines into backwaters long abandoned by others. But all the while, time and mortality had been working like rust at the bottom of his boat, eating away at the craft that supported his quest for justice. Witnesses died or fell victim to Alzheimer’s disease; hidden evidence sank deeper into the mud below the dark water. Viola Turner was only the latest to die without revealing what she knew.