Joel couldn’t help but say, “And you were shocked when he came over with more than Jesus on his mind?”

Wesley closed his eyes. “You don’t know what it’s like here, Joel.”

“You could leave.”

“Right. Of course. And have you found someone special in the city? Someone to wake up for?”

After a moment, Joel said, “No.”

Wesley gave him a tight-lipped smile: spiteful, and yet with a strange air of relief, like he’d just heard confirmation that he’d made a wise choice back at some difficult time. Joel would never forgive him for that smile. “I’m glad to hear it.”

“Did Luke mention the ad on Friday night?” Joel said.

“What ad?”

“The one the players were passing around at halftime.”

“The boy doesn’t have friends. It’s why we got along so well.” Wesley gave a tipsy burp. He rounded on Joel, jabbed a finger in the air, suddenly all anger and self-justification. “What we did was nothing compared to the shit that goes on in this town, you know.”

Just as he had last night at the dam, Joel felt something large looming in the air, waiting to be said.

“What sort of shit, Wesley?”

“You remember.”

“Let’s say I don’t.”

Rage overcame Wesley. He stared at Joel, eyes black and narrow, and said, “You’re as bad as your fucking brother, you know that? You fucking sanctimonious shit. Who do you think burned down my church? Some meth addicts? No, you fucking idiot, it was your brother and those boys, those goddamn footballers who can get away with anything. They’ve been a terror for years because they know the cops won’t touch them.”

Wesley’s voice grew louder. Here was a man, Joel thought, who could fill a pulpit.

“Most of them are happy to rip off someone’s stereo or a wallet but your brother decided he wanted to save the fucking world and torch a church. Dylan only ever showed up at the service to sit next to Bethany Tanner and keep this town thinking he was their damned heart and soul. Luke figured it out easy.”

Wesley paused to give his lip an angry bite.

“When that mother of y’all’s moved a man into her house over the summer there was a little perplexity why those two couldn’t follow basic protocol. There was talk.”

“Dylan burned down a church because people were gossiping about our mother?”

“He didn’t even bother lying when Luke spotted the kerosene cans in his truck.”

Joel let a long silence settle before he said, “What else was Dylan doing? Where did he and KT go on the weekends?”

Wesley gave an indignant little shrug. “How the hell should I know? They never talked to me.”

This sounded genuine to Joel’s ears. He let it go for now. Something Wesley had said a moment before echoed with something Bethany had told him yesterday: “The cops never bothered Dylan.”

“So Dylan was immune to police investigation? Why isn’t Jamal? He’s on the team too, backup or not.”