Gil Thomason was already in cuffs in the back of a squad car by the time Darren made it back to the trailer park. There were several deputies gathered, plus Sheriff Quinn, all of them trying to calm down Marnie King, who was walking in circles with her eyes down, as if divining something in the pattern her bare feet made in the dirt. She shook off a deputy who was trying to stem her plum-faced rage and snotty tears. She was crying, telling anyone who would listen that the shit wasn’t hers. “The credit cards, rocks of crystal, you’re crazy if you think I’d ever have that shit around my kids.” She jabbed a finger against the back passenger window where Gil was tied up and said, “You can lock the son of a bitch under the jail for all I care. Just leave me and my kids out of it. Take me in too, I don’t care. I’ll tell you every goddamn thing this SOB’s been up to, all the shit he promised he wasn’t bringing into my daddy’s trailer. I’ll cut a deal right now. I just want my boy back.” She banged her hands on the squad car’s window as if, given enough time and effort, she could make contact with Gil and his “goddamn, fucking hard head.” Quinn finally grabbed her by the arms, practically lifted her off the ground, and dragged her away from his cruiser before she could do any real damage. The palms of her hands were as red as if she’d set them on hot coals.

A crowd had gathered. Marnie and Gil’s neighbors, the white couple living out of the van decorated with the DON’T TREAD ON ME flag and dixie beach towel, were standing closer than Darren might have allowed if it were his crime scene. Bo, the dude with the beard, the one who’d offered to posse up against Darren if Gil gave the say-so, was standing with his arms folded tight across his chest. His wife, girlfriend, sister—Darren had no clue—had a cigarette dangling from the corner of her dry lips. With her right hand she held up a cell phone, filming the police activity while providing running commentary between puffs on her smoke. “You see this shit, you see what it’s like out here, what it’s come to in this country when white folks is drug out they home. You see how these turncoat fake-ass cops are doing good white folks minding they own business.”