“Oh, hell, I don’t know,” Lillie said, checking out new rifles in the rack along with the old. She ran her fingers over each one, a true connoisseur of firearms. “Before I left Tibbehah County, I found her walking the wrong way home from town one night and nearly ran over her. I drove back to her trailer and helped her get settled. Why? What’d she do this time?”

“She might be missing.”

“Either she’s missing or she’s not.”

“Her daughter says she’s down in Louisiana mud riding and raising hell.”

“Sounds about Gina’s speed.”

“Chester Pratt filed a missing person report on her last night,” Quinn said. “Earlier today I was over in Parsham County with Sheriff Lovemaiden. They found her car ditched on a back road. Looked like she’d wrecked it and maybe got someone to pick her up. No one seems to know where she’s gone.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Her daughter swears everything is fine and dandy,” Quinn said.

“Christ Almighty,” Lillie said. “You know the trouble I’ve had with her daughter. Don’t trust a word that girl says.”

“Last night Reggie and I found a burn pile out back of their trailer,” Quinn said. “Chester Pratt said he’d seen some bloody clothes and sheets in it when he went out there looking for Gina.”

“Oh, hell,” Lillie said. “That’s not good, Quinn. One of the last times I checked on Gina, TJ had beaten the shit out of her momma. There were bruises all over her. Why’s Chester Pratt checking on her?”

“They’ve been seeing each other.”

“God help that woman,” Lillie said. “He’s old enough to be her daddy. I thought he’d moved up to Oxford and opened some kind of luxury steak house.”

“He did,” Quinn said. “Closed after six months and he stiffed the landlord. Now he’s back and he’s got a liquor store out by the highway.”

“Finally something that even Chester Pratt can’t fuck up.”

“Give him time.”

“So Chester thinks TJ might’ve hurt her mother.”

“That’s the insinuation,” Quinn said. “We’ve been looking for his sorry ass all morning. But can’t find him.”

“This makes me sick as hell,” Lillie said, checking her watch and moving toward the old frosted-glass door. “But I’m not surprised. That daughter of hers is an absolute wildcat. I know Gina probably isn’t a great mother. And we both know about her daddy. But damn, Quinn. What kind of teenage girl beats the crap out of their own momma? I’d hoped all that had stopped. TJ’s been waiting for a trip down to Central Lockup in Pearl since she came kicking and screaming out of her mom’s coot.”