“Lord, yes,” Donna Grace said. “Sometimes that boy and TJ stopped by the shop. So handsome and funny. That crazy blond hair of his. Just last week he came in and bought a dozen roses for his grandmother Della Mae. Wasn’t that nice? I can’t believe the things I’m hearing about him now. That can’t be true now. Can it?”

Quinn didn’t answer, as running down everything Ladarius McCade had been charged with over the years would’ve taken some time. He leaned against the counter, watching Donna Grace tie together the bouquet with baby blue ribbon, eyes down on her work, a few tears still falling. “You know I used to date your daddy,” she said. “Before your momma got ahold of him. How’s he doing anyway?”

“Fine,” Quinn said. “I guess.”

“Y’all don’t talk?”

“When he left town, he saddled me with some problems,” Quinn said. “It’s been a few years since we spoke.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said. “Your father was quite a fella. When he’d come home from Hollywood, this whole town would come alive. He’d always have some new car or motorcycle. One time he brought this hippie gal named Bunny with him. She was a real hoot, crazy as a loon and wild as a march hare, but I liked her a lot. Wore bell bottoms and big ole clogs. Wonder what happened to her? So damn long ago.”

“Did Gina confide any personal problems with you?” Quinn said. “I heard she might’ve been having money trouble.”

“Gina didn’t have much,” Donna Grace said. “I’d think she’d gotten herself straight only to find out she’d blown her money for the week down at the Southern Star. Have you checked with her friends down there?”

“A few,” Quinn said. “I heard she had some trouble there the other night?”

Donna Grace shrugged and Quinn turned to the see rain tapping on the front windows of the little cottage.

“I hadn’t heard a thing about any trouble,” Donna Grace said. “Gina was going through a smooth patch lately. She told me that things were looking up for her and her whole family. They got some kind of insurance settlement that would keep them from having to buy groceries with an EBT card.”

“Insurance settlement?”

“Yes, sir,” Donna Grace said. “Don’t tell me you hadn’t heard about that? TJ’s daddy’s momma died at some broke-down facility up in Corinth. Bunch of families got together and sued the pants off those people.”

“I may have read something about it.”

“Don’t ask me how much they got,” Donna Grace said. “But Gina had called the money they got a real gift from God.”

“Do you know what she did with the payment?” Quinn said.