“Yes, Rayford, that’s correct,” Sheriff Zimmer replied. “Mr. Tanner called in that he was on the phone with her when he heard shots fired. He called me, and by the time Deputy Travis arrived on the scene, the walls were already falling in. You know how fast these old trailers burn. By the time the fire department got here all they had left to do was spray down the ashes.”

“Since the possibility exists that a criminal act was committed, the body will have to be sent to the crime lab in Atlanta. It will be a couple of weeks before we have a full report back again.”

“I understand, Rayford,” the sheriff said.

“Well, in that case, I’ll go. The body will be at the hospital morgue, and I’ll see that it’s transported to the lab tomorrow.”

“All right, Rayford. I’ll touch bases with you in the morning. Good night.”

As the coroner departed with his grisly find, Sheriff Zimmer and I walked away from the others.

“You say that just before you heard the shots, Joree said it was Junior pulling up in the yard?” Zimmer asked.

“She didn’t say it was Junior—she said it was Junior’s truck. She called his name, but it wasn’t as though she recognized him. It sounded to me as though she were asking if that was him, and she wasn’t sure.”

“Hmm,” was his reply.

“Sheriff, there’s something I don’t understand. Maybe you can tell me why Junior Causey was the one who bailed Leon Wren out of jail and then was driving him around. It was Junior’s truck that was seen in Savannah when Leon firebombed that auto shop. And it was probably Junior who fired those two shots at my friends.”

Zimmer studied the toes of his boots. “I wish I knew myself. The judge set the bail pretty high. Then, Junior came in out of the blue and posted a cash bond. Since then, the only time those two have surfaced was the other night in Savannah and now possibly here.”

“Why kill his mother?” I asked. “Is he as crazy as Wren?”

Zimmer looked up. “I don’t think we’ll know anything for certain until we grab them. But we’ve got a call out for both of them in Georgia and Carolina. I believe we’ll have our hands on them pretty soon. Boys like these two always stay close to home. They just don’t know where else to hide.”

There was a lot I could have said, but for once, I kept it to myself. For some reason I did not feel compelled to contribute more than was apparent here. And if I saw Leon Wren or Junior Causey—well, let’s just say we were all in for an exciting time.