Will nodded and Jia was already lost on her phone. I got out of the car and headed for the house. Just in case Pritcher decided to try to get me off the case by saying I coerced or intimidated a witness, I opened the recording app on my phone and hit the record button before slipping it back into my pocket.

I knocked and a beautiful—stunningly beautiful, really—brunette wearing a Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt answered. She must’ve been twenty-two or twenty-three, and she said, “Yeah?”

“Bebe?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m Tatum Graham. I’m a deputy county attorney.” I took out the badge for the first time and flashed it, felt like I was on some terrible seventies cop show, and quickly put it away. “I’m prosecuting the Patty Winchester case.”

“Oh.”

Huh. That’s it? Conversation was not going to flow easily with this girl. “Can I come in?”

“I guess.”

The house looked like a hoarder’s dream. Piles of everything from toys to letters filled boxes stacked on top of each other against the walls. The orange carpet was shaggy and thick, with stains spread out through the room. The walls were the fake wood wallpaper, and duct tape held together one of the lamps.

“You live alone?”

“Nah, my mama lives here, too, but she’s at work.” She sat down on the couch and curled one leg underneath her. “Anderson didn’t do it, you know.”

I went to sit down across from her, but the sofa had dried food on it, at least what I thought was dried food, so I stood and folded my arms instead. “Oh yeah? Why do you think that?”

“Because he ain’t nothin’. I dumped him and he was cryin’ and stuff, wouldn’t let it go. Kept showin’ up at my work and almost got me fired. He’s a chickenshit, couldn’t kill nobody.”

“You dumped him? See, because I got the impression that he was a bit of a player.”

“Yeah, he gets girls ’cause’a his money and all, but he ain’t no player. He’s weak as a turd. Like a little kid.”

“Really? Because that’s not what I heard.”

She shrugged. “Believe what you want. I’m just tellin’ you. He ain’t nothin’. Steven, though, that fool’s an idiot.”

“How so?”

“Just gettin’ all stupid wherever we go, you know? Pickin’ fights with Hells Angels and all sorts’a people. He’s got that temper.”

“So you think Steven was the one that killed Patty?”

“I mean, I don’t know, but that makes more sense. You seen Anderson? He like ninety pounds soaking wet. We got into it once, and I smacked him around like a bitch.”

I nodded and looked around the house. “What was Anderson and Steven’s relationship like?”