He waited two full minutes for quiet, then continued. “Before I say anything else … if any of you have notions of settling any scores yourselves, I would strongly advise against it. This is a police matter and it should and will be handled by the proper authorities. Is that understood?” There were nods all around. “All right then, here it is.” He swallowed and returned the matchstick to his lips—all business now. “This morning, myself and various members of my force brought into custody and questioned a number of men about the bus incident. And it does appear that some, if not all of them, took some part in sabotaging the vehicle.”

“Well, who was it?” Coot Taylor hollered. “Spit it out!”

Curtis gripped the edge of the podium and peered up from under his hat. Then he told the crowd who had killed their team.

CHAPTER 29

AT 5:27 p.m., with dusk falling, Cole pulled the Jackrabbits’ bus around to the back of the boarded-up Taco Mayo located across James Bowie Boulevard from the Butlers’ street. Parked cars already lined both sides of the tree-lined cul-de-sac, and a few had spilled over to the adjacent street.

Cole killed the motor. “Looks like we’ll have a pretty good turnout. That’s good. The more people in attendance, the sooner the word will get around, don’t you think?”

When his question went unanswered, he turned to Savannah, who stood at his side, her hand covering her nose to stifle the stench of the players piled in behind them. She was still wearing the scowl she’d had all afternoon.

Cole sighed. “You gonna keep this silent treatment up all night? What’s your problem?”

“Logan, what we’re doing is so morally and spiritually messed up that I can’t even begin to answer that question.”

“Savannah, you have to let it go. It wasn’t that big a deal.”

“How can you say that?”

“It was a horse! One horse! A sway-backed, soft-mouth nag. It’s not like a person died or anything!”

“Cole, they mutilated it.”

“So it was a quick death.”

“Then they ate it!”

“Well, at least it didn’t die for nothing. What are you, one of those vegans?”

Her face trembled. “You are unbelievable!”

“Look, I’m sorry, but I’m not exactly treading on charted territory here. They’re dead. How the hell could I have known they were hungry?”

“You couldn’t. That’s my point. Those things back there are dead!”

“Didn’t I just say that?”

“And they’re eating! Dead things aren’t supposed to eat.”

“Hell, I’m encouraged by it,” he said. “If they can still eat, then maybe they can still play football. I mean, it’s pretty much the only two things they ever did in life.”

“Logan, we’re meddling with things we have no business meddling with. And now you want to get the whole town involved.”