Joel caught something in Ranger’s voice. A small piece clicked into place. “You were jealous of us. You knew we were happy.”

Ranger stopped, his arm inside the rusted fridge.

“He’s dead, irregardless,” Ranger said. “Jason and the others made to pay back the Mexicans but the money was way overdue. Benicio had done took care of your boy already.”

The smell of this cramped, sweaty shack was making Joel nauseous. He hadn’t come here to learn any of this. He would have been happier not knowing.

If you don’t go tonight there’s no stopping it.

Joel cleared his throat. “KT Staler said selling drugs around here was your idea.”

Ranger scoffed. “The drugs have been going on for ages. It’s simple—just use some of that golden boy immunity to sell product the cops won’t hassle you for. After Troy went away, Jason thought it was a brilliant idea and started selling with the Staler boy’s sister—that crazy bitch, Savannah—until the two of thems got busted on the other side of the county line, where they wasn’t safe. Fast forward nine years, Jason gets out of Huntsville, comes back to town, finds out pretty quick KT’s looking for money to move away and somehow KT roped Garrett into selling with him. Jason didn’t tell the boys how things had ended up with Troy, of course. I told all three of them it was about the dumbest idea a man could ask for, but the money was too damn good, I guess. Jason said they’d be cleverer than last time, they wouldn’t get their product from the Mexicans. He’d heard all about this new thing when he was locked up. You can buy drugs off the internet now—did you know that? They call it the dark web.

“Those little bag boys always work the same. KT would get the product delivered off the internet to somewhere here in town. He and Garrett picked it up. Garrett sold some to folks around the county and kept some for their little gang. KT would drive a chunk of it up to Dallas and hand it off to some hotshot he knew up there—KT must have a stack of money the size of a house. Jason skipped town after the three of them got busted by Grissom in July but the arrest didn’t stop the younger boys. Jason was turning over a new leaf in Austin. He was out a few grand worth of product before the arrest so I guess he finally got desperate enough. He must have thought he could sneak into town during Friday’s game and make off with some money while they was playing. Fucking idiot.” Ranger pointed a scarred finger at Joel as if this were his fault. “Jason knew the old boys had gotten tired of him. He’d outspent his loyalty, you know.”

Joel struggled to make sense of this. “And you think Jason was killed for that? Just for coming back to town?”

Ranger burped. “This place is old, Whitley. It has rules.”