“Do I look like the kind of woman who eats at a fucking Olive Garden?” she asked. “I just drove two hours down from Tibbehah County to have a face-to-face meeting in y’all’s little Honeycomb Hideout here. If the senator was ashamed to see me, he should’ve made it clear before I made the trip. I sure as shit am not about to drive back to Jericho without a meet.”

“They won’t see you.”

“Bullshit,” she said, blowing out a long stream of smoke, watching it float from her car out into the parking lot. “When did Vardaman start running y’all’s show? I remember a time when the establishment wouldn’t let a hick like him park cars at a place like this. You boys always liked making money, but when did you stop being any fucking fun? The hell of it is, I’m pretty sure Vardaman believes half the shit he’s saying. Did y’all ever consider what’s gonna happen to y’all when they open the barn doors and those crazy folks come to suck at the state tit?”

Bentley, God love him, seemed to be sweating even more. She loved making him nervous. He looked down at the face of his phone and across the parking lot to the steakhouse. He was so damn fidgety that he looked like a man who needed to take a leak bad. Being in a parked car with Fannie Hathcock might damage whatever political career the kid had imagined for himself.

“He’s not here,” Bentley said. “I don’t know what you heard.”

“Then get him here,” Fannie said, looking down at the Cartier on her wrist. “I have all damn day to sit at the bar and make small talk with y’all’s friends until he shows up.”

“My father asked that you leave,” he said. “He didn’t like what you were saying up at the bar about a certain good friend of his and a Shetland pony.”

“I was joking,” Fannie said. “A Shetland pony’s too good for that man. The fat son of a bitch couldn’t get laid in a mannequin factory.”

“I’ll talk to my father,” he said. “Can I relay your message to him? Personally.”

Fannie shook her head, spewing more smoke. “No, sir,” she said. “I’m sorry to have disturbed whatever circle jerk y’all had planned today. But I have something your dear ole daddy and Vardaman need to hear live and in person.”

“Can you at least tell me what this is about?” he asked. “They’ll want to know.”

Fannie turned to him and patted his smooth face. “Back room, kid,” she said. “Tell those boys to open their fucking ears and cover their nuts. Vardaman’s world is about to get tossed inside out and Miss Fannie’s the only one who can make things right.”

*   *   *