"So what do we do?"

"Sit tight. I may need your help later. Or more to the point, Oliver will."

"I owe Oliver everything. So I'll be there if you need me."

STONE ROSE, his right hand undoing his belt as he did so. He slipped it off and held it by the buckle. The silver pointed end dangled a few inches from the road.

The men circled him, holding their bats ready.

"Odds don't look too good for you, pops," said one of them.

An instant later he was on the ground, his face covered in blood from where the belt point had bitten into his eye.

As he writhed and screamed with his hands over his face, one of his buddies took a step toward Stone and swung his bat with all his strength. Stone ducked under the blow and snapped his belt against the side of the man's face, gouging it. The fellow yelled in fury and came at Stone again, his bat whipping back and forth. Stone dodged out of the way, but one of the wild blows caught him squarely on the arm. He dropped his belt, rolled and snatched up the fallen man's Louisville Slugger with his good arm. One smack to the man's knees brought him down; the second to the base of his neck kept him there.

The remaining attacker dropped his bat and ran. Stone turned and threw the bat he was holding. It whipsawed through the air and nailed the guy in the back. He screamed, dropped to the road, picked himself up and kept going. Stone started to go after him but stopped when Danny moaned. He raced back to his side even as the truck sped off.

"Danny, Danny, can you hear me? Can you get up?"

Stone looked around. One man unconscious. The other still rolling around on the ground. He was worried the third attacker would go get reinforcements. And his arm was killing him.

"Danny, can you walk?"

Danny finally focused on Stone and nodded. Stone heaved him to his feet, the pain shooting across his injured limb. He was still able to support Danny as they made their way down the road. They reached Willie's trailer. Stone loaded Danny into the truck and raced into the trailer. He found Willie's truck keys, ran back out, fired up the truck and pulled off.

He drove first to Doc Warner's office but no one was there. He changed direction and headed to the hospital.

Danny lay against him in the front seat. His face was bloody and one arm hung limp. "Hold on, Danny, we're going to the hospital."

Danny mumbled something.

"What?"

"Call my mom."

Stone watched as Danny slowly dug his hand in one pocket and drew out his phone. Steering with his knees, Stone flipped it open, found the number on the speed dial and hit the key.

It took a few rings but she finally answered. "Hello?"

"Abby, it's Ben. I've got Danny. He's been attacked by some guys with baseball bats. I'm taking him to the hospital. Meet us there."

To her credit the woman didn't scream or start crying. All she said was, "I'm on my way."

Less than an hour later Stone once more pulled into the hospital parking lot. He half carried Danny into the emergency room entrance. While they were working on him Abby screeched to a stop in the parking lot, jumped out of the Mini Cooper and rushed in. Stone met her at the door and took her to Danny, who was lying on a gurney in the triage room.

Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes as she held her son's hand. "Danny, what the hell happened? Who did this to you?"

He murmured, "Just an accident, Ma. Don't worry. I'll be good to go. Took better hits on Friday game nights."

Abby looked at Stone. "An accident?"

He shook his head.

The doctor said, "We need to get him admitted and have some tests run. He seems stable now, but he may have internal bleeding."

"Will he be okay?" Abby said anxiously.

"Ma'am, we need to run some tests. We'll take good care of him. And we'll let you know how he is."

A moment later they whisked him away.

Abby stood there, teetering a bit. Stone put an arm around her shoulders and led her to a chair in the waiting area.

"He said it was an accident."

"It was no accident. Three men. Big and mean with baseball bats."

"How do you know that?"

Stone didn't answer her immediately. Something had just occurred to him. One of the men he'd beaten up had looked familiar. He tried to think where he'd seen him, but couldn't place him.

"Ben?"

"What? Oh, because they came after me when they were done with Danny."

"How'd you get away?"

Stone touched his waistline. "It cost me my belt, but I hurt two of them pretty bad. One of them got away. I need to call Tyree and report it. Do you have his number?"

She handed him her phone and he made the call.

After he explained things to the sheriff and described the men and their truck, he nodded at something Tyree said. "Right, we'll be here," he replied.

Stone handed the phone back to Abby. "He's going to come here to get a statement after he checks out the crime scene."

"I can't believe this is happening." But there was a hollow ring to her words that puzzled Stone.

"When I called you didn't sound all that surprised that someone had attacked Danny."

She didn't look at him.

"Abby, I know I'm a stranger here, but I saw those guys up close and personal. If Danny hadn't managed to throw himself out of the truck, he'd be dead. And they might come back to finish the job."

She touched her eyes with one of her hands, brushing away the tears. "There's some things been going on in Divine. Strange things."

"Like what? Was that why Danny left? And now someone's upset he's back?"

"I don't know why he left. He wouldn't tell me."

"Abby, I saw Danny crying his heart out over the top of Debby Randolph's grave."

She looked at him strangely. "Debby Randolph?"

"Yes. Did he know her? Did he love her?"

"They dated a couple times in high school. But she was Willie's girl now."

"How did she die?"

"Committed suicide. With a shotgun in a little shed behind her parents' house."

"Why would she have killed herself?"

"I don't know. I guess she was depressed. Tyree's looking into it."

"But right after she died, Danny left Divine?" Abby balled a tissue between her fingers and nodded slowly. "Did he ever mention Debby to you recently?"

"No." She dabbed at her eyes again.

"So what strange things are you talking about?"

"Just things."

"Abby, can't you be more specific?"

"There was a murder right before Danny left."

"Murder? Who?"

"Fellow named Rory Peterson."

"I saw his grave too. Who murdered him?"

"Don't know. Tyree's still looking at that one too."

"Who was Peterson?"

"An accountant. He also helped run the town fund."

"Town fund?"

"Divine has been through enough booms and busts so we decided to try a different approach. Everybody kicked in some money, businesses, regular folks. I put in more than most because I had more money. We put it all in an investment account and it's done real well. Rory did the books. The fund pays out quarterly dividends. It's been a godsend to folks around town. Kept businesses going that otherwise wouldn't be able to make a go of it. Allowed folks to keep their houses, pay off their debt, survive the lean times."

"You said Peterson did the books. Was he maybe skimming and somebody didn't like that?"

"I don't know. I know Rory had some contacts in New York. That was where he was from originally. That was another reason the fund was doing so well. He got us piggybacked on some of those private equity people's investments up there. At least that's what he said. Hitting stuff out of the park, at least according to the dividends I get."

"Would Danny be mixed up in that somehow? Or Debby?"