Cade flung the beer can toward the kitchen. It smashed against the wall, splattering beer.

Ronnie had flinched and was still half-cowering at the stove. Louis glanced at Eric. He was staring at the beer dripping down the wall.

Eric rose slowly and went to pick up the beer can.

“Leave it the fuck alone!” Cade yelled.

Eric dropped it and looked up at his grandfather.

“What are you looking at?” Cade spat. “Get out of my face.”

Eric started toward his room, and Cade caught his arm, spinning him around. “Go outside. Get the fuck out of here.”

“Cade, leave him alone,” Louis said. “Jesus.”

Eric jerked free and ran out the front door. Cade stood there for a moment, his eyes unfocused. Then he looked at Susan, who was standing there, stunned.

“How long before I get my money?” Cade asked.

Susan started to explain about how long lawsuits took, but Louis was looking beyond Cade, into the kitchen where he could see Ronnie wiping up the spilled beer. He turned and looked out the window. Eric was in the front yard, wiping his face, kicking some rocks through the dirt.

Cade’s voice drew his attention back. “I think I’ll ask for five million.” He smiled at Susan. “But you can settle for three. That ought to be enough to get me the fuck out of here.”

Ronnie turned from the stove toward his father. “What?”

“Mexico,” Cade said. “A man can live cheap there. Three mil will last me a lifetime.”

Ronnie came forward. “What about the business?”

Cade stared at him, but it was almost like he wasn’t even seeing him anymore. “Who the hell wants it?”

Ronnie stared at his father, then turned and went back to the stove. Cade plopped back down in his chair. Susan was trying to explain something to him, but he was barely listening.

Louis flexed his aching hand. The hell with this….

He turned and left the trailer. Eric was still out front, tossing rocks, trying to hit the pile of plastic containers stacked against the shed. He looked up at Louis and then his eyes went back to the trailer door. Louis walked up next to him.

“So he’s not going back to jail, huh?” Eric asked, tossing another rock.

Louis hesitated. “No, he’s not.”

Eric stared out across the rows of plants, his jaw set. Louis tried to think of something of comfort, something that would tell Eric things would get better. But he knew they wouldn’t.

Eric looked up suddenly. “Can a kid get in trouble if he knows something?”

Louis couldn’t read Eric’s dark eyes.

“Are you trying to tell me something, Eric?”

Eric hesitated, then dropped the stones and started toward the shed. Louis followed. Eric went around the back, stopping at a group of potted palms.

He looked back at Louis, then lifted one of the palms from the pot.

“I hate him,” Eric whispered. “I just hate him.”

Louis looked down. The gun in the plastic bag looked like a hundred others he had seen. But he knew it wasn’t. It was the Chinese Tokarev.

Louis looked back at Eric. “Does your father know about this?”

Eric shook his head.

Louis rubbed a hand over his face. “Go back inside, Eric,” he said. “Don’t say anything about this. Just tell Miss Outlaw I’ll be in the car.”

“No, no,” Eric said, shaking his head. “I can’t go back in there. He’ll kill me if he finds out.” Any bravado that had been in Eric’s face was gone; he looked terrified.

“Eric, listen to me. You can’t say anything, do you understand?”

“No-” Eric started to back away. Louis grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Eric, just go back inside and be quiet. Trust me, okay?”

Eric was close to crying, but he nodded. Louis let him go, his hand lingering on the boy’s shoulder. He was shaking.

“Don’t worry,” Louis said. “I’ll take care of you.”

Chapter Forty-Six

When he dropped Susan off at her house, she asked him if something was the matter. He told her nothing; he knew there was no way he could explain it to her. He wasn’t even sure he could explain it to himself.

Back there at the Cade place, looking at Eric’s face, he had made a decision. It hadn’t come from that place Susan called his cop-brain. It had come from some place deeper inside him.

He headed the Mustang due west into the low slanting sun. The Tokarev was hidden in the trunk. He showed his resident badge at the causeway and drove on to Sanibel.

This time, when he appeared at Candace Duvall’s door, the maid let him in without a word.

He found Candace and Hayley having drinks on the patio. Hayley saw him coming and set down her glass. Candace had her back to him, but turned when his shadow moved over the table.

She moved her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose and looked at him, then turned her back. “What do you want now?”

“Money.”

Candace spun around in her chair, pulling off her sunglasses. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Twenty years ago, your husband covered up the identity of Kitty Jagger’s killer and allowed Jack Cade to go to jail,” Louis said.

Candace’s eyes flickered and she put her glasses back on. Louis had the feeling that what he had just said was not a surprise to her.

“You’re nuts,” Candace said.

“I know how he did it and why he did it,” Louis said. “And I’m on my way to tell Jack Cade.”

“And why should I care?”

“Like I said, money. The Cades will sue your husband’s law firm. Then they’ll go after his personal assets, like this pretty house.”

Candace was sitting very still.

Louis moved around so he could see her face. “I might even suggest to them that you were behind your husband’s scheme. Then they can come after you too.”

“I committed no crime,” Candace said.

“You want to tell that to a whole courtroom?” Louis asked. “With your girlfriend sitting right there in the first row?”

Candace looked over at Hayley. “How much?” she said.

“Fifty thousand, and I promise you that you’ll never hear from me or the Cades again,” Louis said. “Think of it as a gift.”

Louis stared down at her. He was blackmailing her, but a part of him didn’t care. Blackmail would be the least of it, if the rest of his plan worked.

Candace got up and went inside. Louis glanced down at Hayley. She was looking at him with a small smile on her lips.

Candace came back with a check, made out to cash. “How do I know you won’t come back for more?”

“You’ll just have to take my word for it, lady.”

Chapter Forty-Seven

It was dark by the time Louis got back to J.C. Landscaping. Ronnie’s truck was gone, but Louis could see the blue light of the TV flickering in the window of the trailer.

Louis cut the engine and opened the car door. It was quiet for a moment, then came the buzz of insects flailing against the dome light. Louis looked down at the small blue gym bag on the passenger seat, then up at the trailer.

He grabbed the bag and got out.

At the trailer door, he knocked. The TV was turned up loud to a sitcom, the one about the alien Alf, and the shriek of the canned laughter pierced the night silence. Louis waited until a lull and banged hard on the door. It opened and Jack Cade peered at him.

“Louie. .”

“Come on outside, Cade,” Louis said.

Cade rubbed a hand over his face. “What you want?”

“I want to talk.” Louis walked away. Cade followed, closing the door behind him. He stood on the patio, bare-chested, old jeans riding low on his flat stomach. His sweaty skin gleamed in the blue light coming from the television inside.

“What’s up?” Cade asked.

“Where’s Ronnie?”

“Went down to the Circle K. Why?”

“Eric go with him?”

“Yeah.” Louis could see Cade’s eyes narrow. “What’s up, Louie? What you doing back here?”

“We’re going to strike a bargain, Cade,” Louis said.