A few people hinted that Willie Frank was probably involved in some way. Either he was the “unknown maniac” Sheriff Potts claimed had committed the murders, or he knew who was. The only problem was, he was white and his uncle Lamar was in cahoots with Sheriff Potts. Nobody was brave enough to question him or ask Sheriff Potts to do it. Unless somebody confessed to the crime, we didn’t expect anything more. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and returned my attention to Cherie.

“I’m going to miss her so much,” she said, choking on a sob. It broke my heart to know that this poor child and her brothers would never know that Yvonne was actually their mother, not their cousin.

“Yvonne loved you and your brothers to death.” It was a struggle to keep my emotions under control.

“We loved her, too. That’s why I wanted to come today.” Cherie paused and swallowed hard. “Me and my brothers picked out the dress for Mama to be buried in.”

I gasped. “You called Yvonne ‘Mama.’ Who—”

Cherie cut me off. “Aw, shuck it, Miss Joyce. Me and my brothers knew all along she was our real mama. We heard Uncle Sherman telling it to some people right after they took us in.”

“If you’ve known all these years, how come you didn’t let Yvonne know?”

“We didn’t want her to feel no worse about not being with us than she already felt.” Cherie let out a sigh that was so long and loud, and she looked so sad, tears pooled in my eyes. “I have to get back inside and help pack up stuff. Some of Milton’s folks done already come and took what they wanted. His brother, who is a preacher in Louisiana, is on his way. He’s going to help preach their funeral tomorrow.”

“There’s going to be only one funeral?”

“Uh-huh. Aunt Nadine said that Mama loved Milton so much, that’s what she would have wanted. And they have to be buried in graves side by side.”

“Oh. Well . . . I don’t know if I’ll be able to attend the funeral. It’s going to be hard enough for me to get through Odell’s.”

“Don’t worry about it, Joyce. I understand how you feel. I’d probably feel the same way if I was in your shoes.” Cherie looked at the ground for a moment and sniffled. When she looked back up at me, there was a sudden twinkle in her eyes. “When things quiet down, can I come visit you sometime? You don’t have to give me a bunch of gifts like the last time, I just want to stay in touch with somebody that meant so much to my mama.”