“Girl drank worse than my ex-wife,” Bloodgood said. “Popped prescription pills like they were Tic Tacs. I prayed on it a long time. Wasn’t no easy decision to put my baby in a place like that for the fourth time. Not since what she did with that boy at this place in Aspen. But Chastity and my current wife had a little feud going on. A few weeks back, they really got into it while we were watching Dancing with the Stars, Chastity telling her stepmomma that sexy gal from The Bachelorette wasn’t nothing but a ho-bag. Hell, I didn’t even know what she meant. A ho-bag. But my wife took some double meaning to it, that Chastity was saying that she was cut from the same cloth.”

“Has Chastity been in contact since she left?” Lillie asked.

“No, ma’am,” Bloodgood said. “We figured she might’ve run off to one of our many homes. But this was the last place we expected. It’s been shut up since the first of the year.”

“I saw the for sale signs,” Lillie said. “This place is owned by the bank?”

“Just some financial shuffling is all,” Bloodgood said. “It’s been a tough year to sell a Chevy. Sure I can’t interest you in a new vehicle? You find Chastity and we can work something out. Is that your old Charger over there?”

Lillie nodded. “Government owned.”

“What’s your personal vehicle?”

“A piece of shit Jeep Cherokee.”

“You got kids?”

“A daughter.”

“How old?”

“Nine.”

“A little girl,” Bloodgood said. “Oh, hell. I don’t have to tell you a thing. You find me my little Chastity baby and I’ll cut you a deal that’ll make you blush. I’m thinking you’d like the new Trailblazer a whole lot. You mind me asking if there’s a Mr. Virgil?”

“Listen, Mr. Bloodgood,” Lillie said. “How about we cut the horseshit for a second and get right down to it. Besides the boat, have you accounted for everything?”

“Everything?” Bloodgood said. “Shoot. That might take a while. House has sixteen bedrooms and ten baths. Haven’t seen nothing yet but I’d be most glad to show you around. Already told all I know to that mean-looking fella with the crew cut.”

“Deputy Marshal Charlie Hodge is a pussycat,” Lillie said. “He’d only shoot you if he respected you.”

“How’s that?”

Lillie told Vince Bloodgood to hang tight on the mansion tour and walked on over to where Charlie made friendly with the locals. He introduced her to the sergeant on duty and the patrol officer who’d found the kids late last night. The officer, a tall, skinny, redheaded kid with a pockmarked face, said another officer just found the boat tied up at a marina across the lake.

“Then what the fuck are we doing here?” Lillie asked.

“Ma’am?” the officer asked.