“Mmm-hmm,” Quinn said. “He told me he liked to work for Tonya a hell of a lot better than her daddy. He said Larry was always trying to cheat him on his overtime, keeping him working sunup to sundown, sometimes making him come in on Sundays, and never giving him a nickel more.”

Chucky dug down deep into the earth, pulling out big plugs of brown and then reddish sandy soil, turning the backhoe and setting down the dirt in a neat pile behind him. As Quinn had asked, he dug the hole ten feet down, working until Quinn and Reggie could get down there with shovels and poke around a bit.

“Heard Lillie got her ass chewed out at the Marshals’.”

“She’s on administrative leave,” Quinn said. “I don’t think she minded it too much. Lillie said she was glad to spend some time with her daughter up in Memphis. I think they were going to go up to Arkansas to camp and hike. What she did, shuffling the paperwork, might’ve gotten her fired.”

Reggie nodded, something on his mind but not sure he wanted to say it. He and Quinn just stood there under the gray skies, shoulder to shoulder, watching the dirt pile up in a mound as neat as an ice cream scoop. Reggie finally said, “Damn, Sheriff. That night didn’t have to go down like that. When Cleotha—’’

Quinn held up his hand. “I don’t want to hear that talk again. Those men knew what they were doing. They stole the cruiser from an auction yard. No telling where they got those uniforms. It was all a big lie. They played us. How were you to know?”

“Don’t matter,” Reggie said. “I should have never let them roll into the sally port without any notification. I heard you caught a little hell from the supervisors.”

“Skinner made a point of asking if it all had actually happened,” Quinn said. “Said he wants to start an inquiry on whether those killers were actually there.”

“What’s that old man talking about?” Reggie. “Goddamn. That’s the craziest shit I ever heard. Those men weren’t there. Shit, I seen them. One of them held a damn gun on me.”

“He’s trying to say I killed Wes Taggart because of Boom and then made up the whole thing. Skinner’s wanted me gone since he took over for Stagg on the board of supervisors,” Quinn said, walking back toward the hole. Chucky waved to him from the seat of the backhoe, his face covered in sweat, the little hat on his head down into his small brown eyes. “Grab us some shovels. Now comes the fun part.”

“Never dug for a body before,” Reggie said. “How long is this gonna take?”