‘Just tell the truth.’ I measured my words. That’s all we want.’

‘I take care of my mama.’ He was about to cry. ‘I’m all she’s got and she’s got terrible heart trouble. I been going over there every day and doing her shopping since my wife passed on. I got a daughter raising three young’uns on her own.’

‘Mr. Evans, you are not going to lose your job,’ I said, even though he deserved to.

He briefly met my eyes. Thank you, ma’am. I believe what you’re saying. But it’s what other people will say that worries me.’

‘Mr. Evans.’ I waited until he held my gaze. ‘I’m the only other people you should worry about.’

He wiped away a tear. ‘I’m sorry about whatever it is I done. If I caused somebody to be hurt, I don’t know what I’m gonna do.’

‘You didn’t cause anything,’ Marino said. That son of a bitch with white hair did.’

Tell us about him,’ I said. ‘What exactly did he do when you let him in?’

‘He rolled the body in like I said, and left it parked in the hall in front of the refrigerator. I had to unlock it, you know, and I said he could roll the body on in there. Which he did. Then I took him in the morgue office and showed him what he needed to fill out. I told him he needed to put in for his mileage so he could get reimbursed. But he didn’t pay no attention to that.’

‘Did you escort him back out?’ I asked.

Evans sighed. ‘No, ma’am. I’m not going to lie to you.’

‘What did you do?’ Marino asked.

‘I left him down there filling out paperwork. I’d locked the fridge back up and wasn’t worried about shutting the bay door after him. He didn’t pull into the bay ‘cause there’s one of your vans in there.’

I thought for a minute. ‘What van?’ I asked.

‘That blue one.’

‘There’s no van in the bay,’ Marino said.

Evans’s face went slack. ‘There sure was at three this morning. I saw it sitting right in there when I held open the door so he could roll the body in.’

‘Wait a minute,’ I said. ‘What was the man with white hair driving?’

‘A hearse.’

I could tell he did not know that for a fact. ‘You saw it,’ I said.

He exhaled in frustration. ‘No, I didn’t. He said he had one, and I just assumed it was parked in the back lot near the bay door.’

‘So when you pushed the button to open the bay door, you didn’t actually wait and watch what drove in.’

He looked down at the tabletop.