Lovemaiden looked to Quinn Colson and then back to her, not being able to say whatever was on his mind. He took in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and shook his head.

Quinn Colson walked over to the table and put a hand on TJ’s shoulder. “We found a body,” he said. “We don’t know if it’s your mother. But we wanted to let you know what was going on.”

TJ did not cry. She felt like she should be crying, but nothing came out. She just sat there, still and quiet in that big empty conference room, hands in her lap. Her ears still ringing with the sounds of Quiet Riot and Cinderella. She wished she was back in the car now, hands on the wheel and the music cranked up as high as it would go. She would drive anywhere and everywhere, not looking in her rearview for a minute to see what was chasing her.

“We didn’t want you hearing any rumors,” Lovemaiden said. “From one of those pesky TV reporters.”

“Y’all think it’s Momma?”

“We don’t know,” Lovemaiden said. “Not yet.”

She didn’t look at him. She looked to Quinn Colson and his lean, hard face and flinty eyes. He still had his damn hand on her shoulder and she shook free. “Y’all think it’s Momma?”

Quinn looked right at her. And he said, “Yes.”

“Lord God.”

“Tell me about the last time you saw her,” Quinn said. “And everything she said and did.”

“I already done told you.”

“You said she was going down to Louisiana,” he said. “With her new boyfriend. Is that still right?”

“ ‘Still right’?” she said. “You calling me a liar?”

That fat lawman moved around to the head of the long oval table and took a seat beside the doughy investigator with the goatee. Lovemaiden had a Styrofoam dip cup in his hand and lifted it to his lips to spit. Behind him, through the glass, she saw Deputy Caruthers walking out with none other than fucking Chester Pratt. That’s what took so long. Quinn Colson and these two men from Parsham County had been sitting down with that goddamn snake.

She and Pratt locked eyes for just a second, and Pratt, being the true coward that he was, looked away and kept on heading out to the front door.

“That’s the liar,” she said, pointing. “Whatever he told you is bullshit. Is that what all this mess is about? He’s the one y’all need to be grilling about my momma. Chester Pratt is a two-bit con man and true and authentic liar.”

Lovemaiden spit again. His left cheek twitched a bit and he set down the cup. “You and your momma were having troubles. Is that right?”