Ozan was clearly behind the curve. “Who you talking about, boss?”

“Snake and Sonny. The original Double Eagles. Last of the crazy racist crackers.”

The blood drained from the Redbone’s face. “Are you shitting me?”

“If we want to go scorched earth, it’s the only way. We have to give the FBI somebody they can close the cases on, fast. With no doubters at the table.”

Frightened wonder still shone from Ozan’s face. “You mean it, don’t you?”

“You bet your ass I do. Listen to me. Katrina has given us a chance to get our snouts up to the big trough. One or two deals with the guys I’m rubbing shoulders with now is worth more than everything I ever made out of Snake and Billy’s operation.”

Ozan still looked unconvinced. “But . . . how can you take those guys down? The second Snake and Sonny figure what you’re up to, they can cop a plea and send you to death row. And me along with you.”

Forrest shook his head. “Give me some credit, Alphonse. By the time Snake knows what I’m really doing, it’ll be too late.”

“You’d better lay this out for me, boss. ’Cause I can’t see it working.”

“You know Snake. A more hotheaded son of a bitch never drew breath. And once he hears what happened tonight, and how much danger we’re all in, he’ll be screaming for blood. The fact that he fucked up the hit on Henry will make him that much more ready to do it. You agree?”

“That’s Snake, all right.”

“Okay. Now, he’ll be expecting me to hold him back, like I usually do. Only this time I won’t, see? I’ll tell him the stakes are so high that killing those three is our only hope. And he’s the only man to do it.”

A tight smile had appeared on Ozan’s face. “Snake’ll eat that up, all right.”

“Here’s the twist, though. As soon as Snake has made the hits, we’ll leak something that puts the FBI on his trail—but not too close. Naturally, we’ll know where Snake’s hiding. Sonny’s fishing camp would be perfect. It’ll be Snake and Sonny, maybe one more Eagle. I’ll make a public appeal as Snake’s nephew, to get him to turn himself in. I’ll have told him to expect that, that I’m just playing the game. But then the FBI will corner them.”

Ozan was nodding.

“I’ll volunteer to go into the house and talk Snake out. Once inside, I’ll stall a little, tell him I’m figuring a way to break him from jail once he goes in. Then, when he’s distracted, I’ll take him out. Sonny, too.”

The Redbone blinked; the rest of him remained as motionless as a cigar store Indian. “You mean kill him?”

“Snake and Sonny both. And whoever else is with them.”

The Redbone swallowed hard. “Your own uncle?”

“It’s the only way, Alphonse. If I’m willing to kill my own uncle because he committed murder, I’ll be permanently safe. Washed in the blood, son. Better yet, that’s political gold in this state. You can’t buy that kind of press.”

“Ain’t you forgetting something?” Ozan asked, still looking wary. “What about Billy? You think he’s gonna stand by and keep his mouth shut after you kill his daddy?”

Forrest had thought a lot about his cousin during the past hour. “I can’t say for sure. But I do know this: Billy knows his father is a hothead. And the last thing he wants on this earth is to go back to prison. Billy did a jolt in Raiford in the eighties, and that was all the hell he could stand. He just might sit still for this, if I put it to him the right way. After all, Snake’s had a good run. It’s time for our generation to take the helm.”

Ozan swallowed the last of his bourbon, then leaned back in his chair. “It’s a ballsy plan, I’ll say that.”

“Can you see any other way to take those people out and stay out of prison?”

As if against his will, Ozan shook his head. “You know I’m up for damn near anything, boss. But when you start killing family . . . I don’t know. It’s like asking for trouble from the gods.”

Forrest barked a laugh. “The gods? Alphonse, the only god you need to be worrying about at this point is the god of war. And you know what he says.”

“What’s that?”

“Kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out.”

Ozan gave him a smile, but it looked forced. The Redbone’s hesitancy shocked Forrest. He’d watched Ozan commit acts as brutal as anything he’d seen in Vietnam, even among the tribes up in the Highlands. To see him sobered by such a logical proposal gave Forrest pause.

“When will you decide?” Ozan asked quietly.

“I think I already did. The only question is when. It’s too late to stop the girl from getting tomorrow’s newspaper out. Whatever she knows at this point is going to hit the street. I just have to hope my name is nowhere in it. And that Snake’s is.”

“It will be,” Ozan said with certainty. “I checked with Brody’s mole at the paper, like you said. They know Snake killed one of those women in the insurance fraud case. The whistleblowers. Morehouse told Henry the story. They’re going with that tomorrow.”

A rush of excitement went through Forrest. “Goddamn, that’s perfect.”

“As long as the cops don’t arrest Snake before he can take out our targets.”

“They won’t. What evidence do they have besides a story told by a dead man? No, there’s a mile of wiggle room between a newspaper story and an arrest warrant.”

Ozan jerked in his chair at the muted ring of a cell phone. He dug into his uniform pants and brought out a black TracFone.

“Who the hell is calling you?” Forrest asked. “Didn’t everybody get my order?”

“We got two guys missing, remember?” Ozan said. “The ones we sent to get Dr. Cage at his partner’s lake house. I hope to God it’s them.”

“Is that a burn phone?”

“Yeah.” Ozan answered with a press of his thumb. “What’s the word?” he asked, then waited for a coded reply. “Okay. What happened?” As Ozan listened, his face darkened. “Where are you now?” he asked after nearly a minute. “Then get here as fast as you can. . . . What? . . . I’ll tell him. Out.”

The Redbone clicked off and looked at Forrest with something close to fear in his eyes. “This ain’t our night.”

“What happened?”

“That was Floyd Grimsby, one of the two guys I sent after Dr. Cage. The other was named Deakins. They’re off-duty cops from Monroe. They were the closest to where we traced Dr. Cage’s nurse’s cell phone to.”

“And?”

Ozan shook head. “They found the doc there, down by the water. Deakins was about to shoot him when Dr. Cage gut-shot him with a pistol from his pocket. He fired right through the pocket. Floyd went for his piece, but Cage had the drop on him. Then Cage drugged him and dumped him out in a cotton field somewhere.”

Forrest felt as though a cold wind had blown through the room. His blood pressure was dropping. “I don’t believe that,” he said. “Old Dr. Cage?”

Ozan shrugged. “You told me he served in Korea, didn’t you? And him and that Garrity did kill Deke Dunn.”

“Was Garrity at the lake house?”

“No sign of him, Grimsby said.”

“Jesus Christ. We can’t catch a break.”

“There’s one more thing,” Ozan said.

“What’s that?”

“Dr. Cage gave Floyd a message for you.”

“Me? What message?”

“Floyd said it had to be face-to-face. He’ll be here in less than an hour.”

“My face’ll be the last thing that fuckup ever sees.”

Ozan got up and started pacing. “What kind of message would Dr. Cage send you?”

“You don’t think the FBI has Grimsby, do you? That this is a setup?”

“I don’t think he would have given me the right code if it was like that.”

Forrest snorted. “A dirty cop from Monroe? Can you put a man down by the gate before he gets here?”

“Sure. I’ve got four in the bunkhouse.”

“Do it. Meanwhile, I’ll have a think about Tom Cage, M.D.”

“How much do you know about him?”

“A bit. Daddy always liked him. And I know he did some favors for Carlos Marcello back in the day.”

“Dr. Cage?”