“Call me Bobo. I’m feeling okay, the way things are now,” Bobo agreed. He smiled at Fiji, who’d been all wound up to attack and now was floundering to deal with the rush of adrenaline. “You’re so great to come to my rescue, Feej. I have the best neighbors.”

“We feel the same way about you,” she said, almost at random. She’d caught her breath, and now she drew herself up with some dignity. “Okay, you obviously don’t need me, so I’ll get back to work.”

“Hey, let’s go to the diner tonight,” Bobo suggested out of an obscure sense of obligation. He was relieved when Fiji nodded and spun around to leave, her long skirt swirling around her legs as she pushed out the front door. A gust of wind turned her curly hair into a tornado around her head. She’s a woman full of movement, he thought.

“Monday. It’s not open,” she said over her shoulder.

“Then we’ll go to the Barbecue Shanty in Davy.”

“Okay, come by when you’re ready to eat,” she called over her shoulder. She obviously wanted to say more, but she bit down on the words.

“Thanks,” Bobo called, loud enough for her to hear as the door swung closed behind her. “And that’s why I live here,” he told the sheriff.

“Because everyone loves you?”

“Oh, I don’t think that’s true at all,” Bobo said. “But we do help each other out.”

“To the extent that one of your buddies might kill Aubrey Lowry if they discovered that she was exploiting you?”

Bobo looked stunned. “No, of course not! That’s so drastic. Besides, no one knew Aubrey’s background until you told us.”

Smith looked skeptical, but he didn’t press his question. “What was Aubrey like? Did she ever express any extreme political views to you?”

Bobo resigned himself to a painful conversation. “Aubrey was . . . she loved the outdoors. She loved shopping on the Internet. She liked cowboy boots and blue jeans, and she was a barrel rider in her teens. She grew up on a ranch. At least that was what she told me. Was that true?”

Smith nodded. “True.”

Bobo looked away for a moment. “Okay, good. Of course, she also talked about her dead parents, and you tell me they’re alive. She told me a lot about her nonexistent sister, not a word about the brother you said she actually has. Had. But she never discussed politics. Never said anything extremely right-wing. That would have been a red flag, for sure.”

Bobo climbed off the stool and opened a little refrigerator on the floor behind the counter. He asked Arthur Smith if he wanted a Coca-Cola, and Smith said, “No, thanks.”

After Bobo got back on his stool and popped the tab on his drink, he said, “I’m assuming you know all about my grandfather.”