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intended to keep knowledge of his affair as limited as possible. For some reason, one of Benjamin Franklin’s most famous sayings invaded his consciousness: “Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.”
    That advice sounded perfectly sage.

CHAPTER 10
    MADISON, BOONE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 12:05 P.M.
    Dave bid the campaign’s lawyers adieu and jumped in Ned Hopson’s big red Ford F-450 pickup truck. Although there was a chill in the air, the sun was shining down through a bright blue sky unmarred by clouds. Climbing into the passenger side, Dave closed the door behind him and exclaimed, “All right, Ned, you’re killing me! Now that we’ve broken for lunch, could you tell me who in the hell’s that old coot you keep exchanging silent glances with?”
    The Boone County Republican Party’s chairman laughed out loud and turned the ignition key. Shifting into reverse, he gently backed up. “Ever heard of Zeke Crouser?”
    “Sure. He heads up one of the two Democrat factions down here. Knows every person up every holler in the county. The guy’s a legend.”
    Hopson put the truck into drive and cut the steering wheel to the left, maneuvering into northbound traffic headed away from Madison toward the nearby town of Danville. “Well, my friend, that old guy you’re so fascinated with is the one and only Zeke Crouser.”
    Dave’s jaw dropped open. “Why would you pay attention to anything he has to say? I mean … Why in God’s name would he want to help us? ”
    Hopson chuckled. “The world’s a strange place, Mr. Anderson. And no place is quite as strange as southern West Virginia at election time.”
    “Enlighten me, Ned. I thought I had a pretty good handle on things but you’ve got me totally lost right now.”
    “There are two dynamics here. First of all, you’re in the heart of coal country.”
    “I know that ,” Dave retorted. “Coal operators down here contributed piles of money for Governor Royal. You’d expect that. But Boone County is the heart of UMW country, too.”
    “True, some union miners would vote for Hitler before they’d vote for a Republican, and there’s nothing you can do about those guys. But there’s plenty of others who know which side their bread is buttered on, and they can’t stand Senator Wilson.”
    Dave’s mouth opened and his eyes widened as comprehension began to dawn. “Because of her environmental positions.”
    “Yep. Global warming and all that jazz … gets the operators and the miners all in a tizzy. They think she’s just another bunny-hugging Yankee secretly plotting to regulate the coal industry out of existence as soon as she gets into office.”
    “Makes sense. So what’s the second dynamic I need to know about?”
    “Pretty simple,” Ned replied. “Lotsa people in the coalfields think Luke Vincent has gotten too big for his britches. He’s broken some campaign promises, particularly when it comes to funding new roads down here. More importantly, he helped folks from the northern part of the state squeeze some of our local boys outta leadership positions in the Legislature when he took office four years ago. Including the House of Delegates’ former Finance Chairman, who is the brother-in-law of none other than our good ol’ buddy, Zeke Crouser.”
    Dave whistled. “Wow. We didn’t know there was so much bad blood down here.”
    “Down here in Boone County ,” Hopson corrected. “Vincent hasn’t alienated everyone in southern West Virginia. He still has plenty of friends in other places – like Mingo County, for instance. The governor still has a lot of patronage to throw around and plenty of chips to cash in. But two of our three county commissioners are aligned with Zeke’s faction, so don’t expect Vincent to pull off any funny business here.”
    A ringing phone interrupted their conversation. Anderson pulled his phone from his right front pants pocket and looked at the screen. It was Jonathan