“But Rose,” he pleaded with me. “You still don’t know for sure J.R. is Gentry’s backer, so you’re planning on risking your life for possibly nothing.”

“No! Even if the backer doesn’t turn out to be J.R., which seems really unlikely given everything we know, he’s still supporting a terrible person and ordering terrible things. I can put a stop to that.”

“What if he doesn’t even show? What if he sends his men to kill you and be done with it?”

“The Lady in Black is bigger than me. Those men respect her. She has power. J.R. will be there. He’s beyond curious to meet her.”

“And you think you can keep your identity from him with a hat?”

“It’s worked up until now.”

He was quiet for several seconds, but then his shoulders stiffened. When he looked at me again, he was all business. “Simmons wants Malcolm dead, and I think your theory that he’s going to make it look like Malcolm murdered me makes sense. But why does he want to meet with the Lady … you?”

“Just like you, Skeeter was raising money and property to get me out of jail. But Sam Teagen bailed me out before he could get everything together. Jed had put together one hundred thousand cash, and he showed it to Mick Gentry. I told him it was just the beginning of what I planned to invest in Fenton County, but I didn’t deal with middlemen. I needed to meet with his backer. If nothing else, J.R. is going to want to meet with the potential competition and size me up.”

He wore the distant look he got when he was working out a problem. “You must be on to something. It looks like it worked.”

“I told Gentry that I would share my own plans for the county, but I knew his backer had plans as well and he had to share them with me. I said I didn’t want to run Fenton County on my own and I was looking for a business partner. I gave him forty-eight hours to let me know. He texted late last night, a little over twenty-four hours later. I told him I’d set the location, so now we need to figure out where would work best.”

He sat down on the kitchen chair, still all business. “So your plan is to meet him and get him to incriminate himself?”

I sat next to him. “And record it, but it has to be admissible in court. Which means we need a court order, right? Do you think you can get one?”

His eyebrows lifted. “On what grounds?”

And that was the first big clue that Mason wasn’t taking this as well as he appeared to be.

“That he’s backing a known criminal who has murder charges against him.”

“First of all, the DA dropped all of Gentry’s charges yesterday afternoon. Second, he’s never been convicted or even charged with any other crime. Yes, he owned Gems, but there was nothing illegal about it.”

“Mason! You were investigating Mick Gentry yourself! You were trying to catch him bribing you.”

“But I didn’t, did I?”

“But Joe was working with you!”

“And Joe turned against me in the meeting with the state investigator.”

“Are you really telling me that I can meet with J.R. Simmons and there’s nothing we can do to make sure what he says can be used against him?”

“Let’s back up a few steps and focus on why Skeeter Malcolm is so interested in you.”

My breath stuck in my chest. “I told you.”

“Okay, then let’s discuss what role the Lady in Black actually plays.”

I nodded, biting my lip. “I go to business meetings with Skeeter and interview some of the attendees.”

“And what does that entail?”

“I meet with them and ask them a few questions. Then I force a vision.”

“And you blurt it out in front of them?”

“Well, yeah. But I always play it off somehow. And Jed is there to intervene.”

“Oh, Jed.” He nodded, and it was impossible to miss the disgusted look on his face. “I want to know more about Jed in a minute, but first I want to know what questions you ask.”

“To focus the visions?”

“Both. Interviews and visions.”

I took a breath, trying to concentrate. “It depends on the situation. I’d start off by asking what they did for Skeeter to kind of warm them up and get a feel for them. The first time I did it, I followed up with two questions. One was if they knew anything about the attempts on your life.”

“And the other?”

“If they had turned on Skeeter.”

“So you were helping him.”

“He wasn’t going to let me sniff out your murderer if he didn’t get something out of it.” I sounded more indignant than I’d intended.

“Well, I guess I wouldn’t expect anything less from a known criminal and thug,” he said.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “No. I suppose not.”

“Have you ever done anything illegal?”

“Questioning them probably isn’t illegal.”

“I would venture not, but have you done anything else?”

“I carried a gun on Tuesday night. And I pulled it on Mick Gentry. Oh, and I left the county to meet him.”

He jumped to his feet. “You did what?”

“I know all of those things violated the terms of my release.”

“I don’t give a shit about violating your release right now!” he shouted. “You pulled a gun on a known murderer? You barely know how to use one!”