“All right,” I said. “Hold on.”

I covered the receiver again.

“He says he needs me to go over to the restaurant,” I said.

“Now?” Arch asked.

“He says it’s really important.”

“Go ahead,” Arch said.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “We’re almost done here. Go put Jamie’s fire out and then get some rest.”

“Sorry,” I said.

“No worries, bud.”

The drive took less than fifteen minutes. Jamie was waiting for me at the door.

“Come on,” he said. “I put them downstairs.”

“Who?” I asked.

“You’ll see.”

Jamie had converted the basement into a wine cellar, which also served as a private room for intimate dinner parties. I followed him through the dining room into a dark corridor and down a staircase lit with copper sconces.

“Go on in,” he said. “I’ll make sure no one comes down.”

“Cut the cloak-and-dagger shit, Jamie,” I said.

He shook his head. “I’ll be upstairs,” he said.

At a large table in the center of the room sat Nick Averett, an open laptop computer in front of him.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Sit down,” he said.

“I think I’ll stand.”

“You’re going to need a seat after you see what I have to show you.”

Averett turned the laptop around so I could see the screen. A grainy video was playing. There is no need to describe what it displayed.

“Who is that?”

“I assume you mean the one on top?” Averett said.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Todd is an old friend of mine from Chattanooga. Arch got his number from me, actually. The amateur photography was Todd’s idea, but when he contacted me about how he might make some use of it, I thought, ‘What an opportunity.’”

I felt dizzy.

“Turn it off,” I said. “I’ve seen enough.”

Averett closed the laptop.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“I want to go to Washington,” he said.

“You’re not happy in Atlanta?”

“Are you fucking kidding?” he said.

“It’s a nice city,” I said.

“Right,” he said. “Don’t you get it? Arch has a gift. He could go all the way. With the right people around him, of course. I tried to explain that to him before. If I’d been around, this would never have happened. He’s very lucky it fell into my hands. I’d like to fix things for him. But it won’t be cheap.”

“Why are you telling this to me?” I said. “Why don’t you just ask him yourself?”

Averett reached down under the table and brought out a folder.

“Arch never wanted me to leave,” Averett said. “He knows he needs me. The lovely wife, on the other hand—well, let’s just say she’s not my strongest advocate.”

“I don’t like you much either.”

“Why don’t you open the envelope?”