I shrugged.Either he was a total amateur or he panicked. He was so scared he jumped at everything. He heard a siren and he just ran out of here. Knocked over his glass on the bar and broke it while he was at it. I felt sorry for him. A lot of people dont like him. But like I say, we went through Nam together. No cracks, Mason warned. Ill take a chance on that. I know that Daddy Lutts is... well, hes... Mason smiled.The district attorney pointed her out to you? Ahh! she said. No touching. I was still trying to process all these warring personality elements when we stepped inside and I saw a peroxided thirty-something woman with an enormous bosom packed into a pink T-shirt with the photograph of a rapper on it. She was actually pretty, in a kind of fierce way. The makeup had been put on with a paint roller and the T-shirt was ready to burst, but if you just focused on the large blue eyes you saw intelligence and kindness, even if the cobra tat on her left arm said otherwise. The appliances were a couple of decades old. The refrigerator made so much noise it probably kept the neighbors awake at night. A weeks worth of dirty dishes was piled in the sink. A linoleum floor was scuffed into oblivion. A clock radio sat on the counter, along with a spice rack. A calendar with a sweet painting of Jesus on it hung from a tiny nail on one of the ancient wooden cupboards. The year was 2001. I wondered if hiswife had hung it there. It was hard to imagine Grimes doing it. The bar was a small neighborhood place with country songs and one of those female pub owners Graham Greene had once described as havinga great public heart. When she said, Nice to meet you, you had the feeling she actually meant it. Her name was Mae Tomlin. She wore a Chicago Cubs T-shirt and a welcoming smile. I told her I was with the Bradshaw campaign. She said she was on Jesss side. Stone nodded and watched him disappear into the hallway, then, presumably, down the stairs. He was back in fifteen minutes. Yes, sir. You got a cell phone I could call you on if I needed to? In the sugar bowl. I can be there in thirty minutes. He glanced at Montgomery. Mind if I bring along someone? His what? What did you have against me?.