Chris was having trouble finding District Attorney Royal “Roy” Moody, which wasn’t surprising. First, Royal didn’t like him and pretty much avoided him whenever he could, and second, he had two offices: one in Murfee and another in Nathan. That was the burden of being the DA for Big Bend, Terrell, Jeff Davis, and a couple of other West Texas counties—almost sixteen thousand square miles. A lot of land and not enough of you to go around to cover it all. This morning Moody wasn’t in either of his offices, but Chris finally tracked him down at the Whistle Stop Café in Nathan, enjoying breakfast with former Texas Ranger Bethel Turner. The two men looked up from their coffee when Chris walked in, and Bethel stood fast, his Stetson in his hand.

Bethel was in his fifties, and still looked every bit the Ranger. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a touch of gray at his temples. His skin was permanently tanned, the way it darkened only for a West Texas native. In fact, standing there in his Wranglers and white shirt and Sam Browne belt and red tie with tiny silver Texas stars on it, he looked like the sort of actor you’d hire to play a Ranger in a movie. The only thing missing was the real silver-star badge. Chris remembered that Bethel may have done some advertising for the Rangers a few years ago, some sort of TV commercial or some poster. Chris had nothing against Bethel, who was supposed to be decent enough, even if he was trying to take Chris’s job.

Royal Moody, on the other hand, was a whole other story. He was short, maybe five-foot-six, wearing his usual blue chambray shirt, bolero tie, black vest, and a dark blazer that was neither black nor blue but some other color in between, the color of a fresh bruise. He had his own Stetson Bent Tree straw hat on the table next to a half-finished plate of sunny-side-up eggs and ham. Chris had never warmed up to Royal—the feeling was more than mutual—but he’d afforded him and the office he held the respect he thought both were due, until recently. That’s when it became clear that Royal was not only going to back Bethel Turner in the coming election, but was actively helping fund the campaign against Chris.

There were probably rules somewhere against an elected official like Royal politicking while on the job, or using the resources of his office to help a candidate, but this was Texas, which made it politics as usual. You weren’t expected to whine about it or cry foul. If you wanted it bad enough, you were expected to find a way to win.