“Assist?” Stagg asked. “Funny choice of words. Makes it all seem like some type of goddamn game. Only reason I’d assist is to get back at some folks I like even less than you. You and Holliday sure cornholed my ass to Hong Kong and back.”

“You cornholed yourself, Johnny.”

“Boy, if I can figure out a way a man could cornhole himself, I’d damn well make a million dollars,” he said. “Especially in a place like this.”

Stagg nodded toward the wide receiver, saying the man’s name under his breath and listing all the teams he’d played with and some of his stats. Stagg said he could never imagine how a fella would go from ten million a year to selling damn dope from the back of his SUV. “I think he played ball in college with that other fella who murdered all them folks up in Boston. They say he’d gotten his damn brains bashed in and didn’t know right from wrong.”

“Lot of that going around these days.”

“Bullshit,” Stagg said. “Folks like Vardaman just realized they can feed the weak-minded bullshit for supper and call it a chocolate cake. Doesn’t matter what they do. Deeds don’t mean squat. Folks only care about what you say, preach up there in the political pulpit. You better heed that, son, as an elected official.”

Quinn listened, not turning to see the football player at the other table but hearing his children laughing. He sipped on his coffee, waiting for Stagg to make up his mind. He looked forward to getting on the road back home, to the farm and Maggie. Wanting to be a decent father to Brandon, maybe teaching him some more survival skills. Every kid should know how to shoot a gun and follow a compass. Know right from wrong, truth from a sack of lies. “I need to know if you were there,” he said. “At the hunt lodge. November 1997.”

Stagg shook his head.

“How about Vardaman?”

Stagg shook his head again and sucked some meat from a tooth. “I heard he was there when they buried that girl. They used his personal backhoe and everything. Wish I could tell you more about who she was. But she was just a drifter, never using a real name, working on a cash-only basis. You were in the service. You know how those transactions go.”

“What was her name?”