Stagg sucked on the new candy and looked up at the ceiling, a dark water stain spreading around two of the ceiling tiles. It hadn’t taken long for that woman to turn the best truck stop in Mississippi into a redneck shithole.

“I may have done some business with him,” Stagg said. “At one time or another. Hate to see that boy jammed up too bad.”

“You want me to keep you posted, Mr. Stagg?”

“You know I sure would appreciate that,” Stagg said. “Sheriff Lovemaiden.”

*   *   *

“That smell gets you,” Ophelia Bundren said. “Doesn’t it?”

Quinn had walked out the side portico of the Bundren Funeral Home and back to the tailgate of the truck. He’d set fire to a cigar just as soon as he hit the door, more than glad to inhale the smoke and fresh air. The rain had stopped but the skies were still dark and gray. An ice-cold wind blew across the slick parking lot.

“Pretty rough.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Quinn said, drawing on the cigar and leaning against his truck. Ophelia watched him, quiet and reassuring, looking a lot different than she had when they’d been together. She seemed happy and calm, healthy and fit, with smiling brown eyes and short brown hair, a gold wedding band now on her finger. Ophelia was beautiful, and one of the smartest and most resourceful women he’d ever known, but he’d made a real mess of things by not being able to stay away from Anna Lee Amsden. The end of it had come months before he’d met Maggie, Ophelia throwing a steak knife at him, sticking in the kitchen wall a foot from Quinn’s head.

When Quinn complimented her aim, she said that, actually, she’d missed.

“Not sure a fingerprint will be possible,” Ophelia said. “State folks will be here within the hour.”

“What do you say?”

“It’s a woman,” she said. “Seems to be the age of Gina Byrd. But legally, I can’t say unless I can perform a full autopsy. Dental records. I figure the person who did this knew how that all works. In a case like this, no one wants to see that locally.”

“You do a damn fine job, Ophelia,” Quinn said. “We’re lucky to have you.”

“I’m glad y’all didn’t ask her kid to see this,” Ophelia said. “That would mess up that girl’s mind for life.”

“You did your best to make sense of what you had.”

“Wasn’t easy,” Ophelia said. “Hardest jigsaw puzzle I ever worked. And I wasn’t authorized to stitch her back together.”

“What did Lillie say?”