"Hey, Francis." Francis was sitting on the second-storey balcony of his mayoral house, surveying the electric glow of the shantytown. As usual now, he was alone, without any of his old gang of boys hanging around him. He waved an arm toward Perry and beckoned him inside, buzzing him in with his phone. Perry tracked up the narrow stairs, wondering how Francis negotiated them with his bad knee and his propensity to have one beer too many. "What's the good word?" "Oh, not much," Perry said. He helped himself to a beer. They made it in the shantytown and fortified it with fruits, like a Belgian beer. The resulting suds were strong and sweet. This one was raspberry and it tasted a little pink, like red soda. "Your friends aren't getting along too good, is what I hear." "Really." Nothing was much of a secret in this place. "The little woman's taken a room of her own down the road. My wife did that to me once. Crazy broad. That's their way sometimes. Get so mad they just need to walk away." "I get that mad, too," Perry said. "Oh, hell, me too, all the time. But men usually don't have the guts to pack a suitcase and light out. Women have the guts. They're nothing but guts." Perry cursed. Why hadn't Kettlebelly called him? What was going on? He called Kettlebelly. "Hi, Perry!" "Hi, Landon. What's up?" "Up?" "Yeah, how are things?" "Things?" "Well, I hear Eva took off. That sort of thing. Anything we can talk about?" Kettlewell didn't say anything. "Should I come over?" "No," he said. "I'll meet you somewhere. Where?" Francis wordlessly passed Kettlewell a beer as he stepped out onto the terrace. "So?" "They're in a motel not far from here. The kids love coffins." Francis opened another beer for himself. "Hard to imagine a kid loved a coffin more than your kids loved this place this afternoon." "Eva's pretty steamed at me. It just hasn't been very good since I retired. I guess I'm pretty hard to live with all the time." Perry nodded. "I can see that." "Thanks," Kettlewell said. "Also." He took a pull off his beer. "Also I had an affair." Both men sucked air between their teeth. "With her best friend." Perry coughed a little. "While Eva was pregnant." "You're still breathing? Patient woman," Francis said. "She's a good woman," Kettlewell said. "The best. Mother of my children. But it made her a little crazy-jealous." "So what's the plan, Kettlewell? You're a good man with a plan," Perry said. "I have to give her a night off to cool down and then we'll see. Never any point in doing this while she's hot. Tomorrow morning, it'll come together."