Zimmer nodded. “I take your point, and I’ll get the doc to have him evaluated. Now, all this aside, what can I do for you?”

I asked what he knew about Tonya Causey and her family. What he told me pretty much paralleled the story I’d been given by Joree. Tonya had been the recipient of a grim upbringing. A shredded family, deprived childhood, surrounded by dysfunctional adults, she’d quit school at sixteen, worked at a few dead-end jobs in the local area, and then just drifted away. Which wasn’t that unusual for girls in her circumstance. She had never been in trouble of any kind, so she had never popped up on the local police radar—that is, until her body was found. And sad to say, her death had been the most noteworthy occurrence of her short life.

“As for Tonya being gone for the last year, as her mother says, well, nobody ever reported her missing. So, apparently Joree wasn’t all that concerned for the whereabouts of the girl after all—at least until the money stopped coming in. I wonder if she might not be laboring under a case of regret for things that might have been. Maybe that’s what’s driving Mrs. Causey’s belief in foul play. Perhaps it’s a way of escaping from a sense of fault and self-blame,” Zimmer concluded.

I turned that over in my mind. Sheriff Zimmer may have touched on something there. It was an angle I hadn’t considered before.

“I don’t know, Sheriff,” I conceded. “But it’s something that certainly bears looking into.”

I glanced up as a tall, voluptuously built black female deputy sheriff stepped to the door. A streak of white hair ran, like a lightning bolt in a dark night, from her forehead back across her curly tresses. I couldn’t tell if it was a natural phenomenon or if it was contrived, but the effect was certainly captivating.

“Sheriff,” she said as she returned my glance with a smile. “Mr. Tanner’s car is here. The boy that drove it over has some papers for him to sign.”

“Thank you, Evaleen,” Zimmer said as he rose from his chair. I stood also and followed as he led us into the hallway.

“Let’s see about making you mobile again, and then I need to get your statement about that little dance you were performing with young Leon. After that,” he said, checking his watch, “it’s lunchtime. And since you’re my guest, I’d like to take you to a barbecue joint here in town. They treat me pretty good there—my mama runs the place.”

“Lead the way, Sheriff,” I said. “If barbecue is in the offing, seems this wasn’t a wasted trip after all.”