“We’ve interviewed every neighbor of the victim’s on Pecan Grove Drive. The woman who lives across the street from him, Bonita Spencer, said she saw a black Crown Victoria pull up on the curb outside Butch’s house between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. She couldn’t remember the exact time. She also said she saw the victim’s ex-wife . . .” Frannie paused. “. . . General Helen Lewis exit the vehicle and walk around the side of Butch’s house. Bonita was putting away dishes at the time and didn’t think much of seeing the car because she knew that Helen and Butch had been married once.” Frannie smiled. “Bonita, who is eighty-two years old, said she figured that Helen was making a ‘booty call,’ which is what Bonita said she’d heard the kids around town call it.”

Hank didn’t smile. “Continue.”

“About thirty minutes after seeing the Crown Vic park on the curb, while Bonita was turning out the lights and making sure all of the doors in her house were locked, she glanced out the window again and saw that the car was gone. She did find that strange, because she figured a booty call would have lasted longer than thirty minutes.”

“Did she see any other vehicles stop at Butch’s house?”

“No. The only other car she saw was a Ford truck, but it didn’t stop.”

“Do any of the other neighbors remember seeing or hearing anything suspicious?”

“No, but Terry Grimes, who lives three houses down from Butch, is the one who found him dead this morning and called the police. Grimes got worried when Butch failed to show up at the YMCA for their workout.”

“How did Grimes get in the house?”

“He said the side door, which opens to the kitchen, was unlocked.”

“Which is presumably the door the General came in the previous night.”

“It is the door. We’ve matched her fingerprints to the knob.”

“Any other prints on it?”

“Just the victim’s and Grimes’s.”

“What about the rest of the house?”

“Dusted it clean. The only prints that we’ve found belong to Butch, Grimes, and the General.”

“Go on.”

“Autopsy from Melvin Ragland was done this afternoon at 2:00 p.m., and you and I were both present for it. Cause of death was two gunshot wounds, one to the sternum and the other to the head. Bullet fragments found in the victim’s chest reveal that the murder weapon was a .44-caliber revolver. Based on the condition of the body, Ragland’s preliminary conclusion for the time of death is between 9:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. Additionally, the victim’s face, shoulders, and chest were covered with red-and-purple bruising, which Melvin concludes came from the gun. It is inconclusive whether these were made before or after the victim was shot.”

“Pistol-whipped and shot execution-style,” Hank muttered, taking another sip of coffee as a vision of Butch Renfroe’s ruined corpse filled his mind.

“Looks like it.”