“Go ahead. I’m rather enjoying this. No one’s had the balls to ask such questions before.” She winked. “Afraid I’ll make ’em fall off, I suppose.”

“Mona, when I sat down, you asked if I was here to talk about payback.”

“Uh-huh.” She grinned at her reflection in the window, removed a pepper fleck from her teeth.

“What did you mean by that?”

She turned back and clasped her hands on the table. “Well, it’s like this, Cole Logan. I’m not a vengeful person by nature, despite what the yokels in this town may say about me. I am, however, a cat lover. I don’t like to see my kitties gutted like a dead trout any more than the next gal.”

“I understand.”

“I’m also a football fan, as you know. I hate to see my team lose, but I especially hate to see my team not even show up because their bus was sent into the river by a bunch of cat-murdering finger cutters.”

“I understand that, too.”

“You know who did this, don’t you, Cole?”

He met her gaze. “Yes. I do.”

“Figured you did.” She gnawed on a black press-on nail, thinking. “Well, shit, we can’t kill ’em, can we?”

“No. We can’t.”

“So we gotta beat ’em, right?”

“That’s right, Mona. We gotta beat ’em.”

She crushed out her cigarette and pounded a fist on the table. “So here’s what I think, neighbor: if you’re interested in getting back at the sons of bitches that did this to us, what say you get hold of a flashlight, a dead skunk, and a fresh pack of smokes, and meet me down on that riverbed tonight at a quarter of midnight.”

CHAPTER 20

HICKHAM residence.”

“Savannah?”

“Who is this?”

“It’s Cole.”

“Good-bye . . .”

“Wait! Don’t hang up.”

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t.”

“I need to see you.”

“Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Tonight.”

“Forget it.”

“Listen, I’m sorry about everything I said. It was shitty. I just … I just needed to be alone for a while.”

“I’m perfectly happy to grant you that wish. Good-bye.”

“Wait! I also want to thank you.”

“Thank me for what, Logan?”

“You were right about what you said. If you hadn’t shown up at the gas station when you did, I think I’d be in a lot of trouble right now.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“That was a brave thing you did.”

“Are you groveling?”

“Is it working?”

“Well, you’re going to have to do a lot better job if you expect me to come out with you tonight.”

“Does that mean you’ll do it?”

“Logan, I hope you don’t think I’m agreeing to some kind of date, ’cause you don’t have a chance there, buddy.”

“Just meet me in the school parking lot at eleven. Dress warm. Wear boots.”

“Boots? What’s this all about?”