“I think he felt sorry for him,” Lillie said. “Hamp could be charitable to a damn fault. How about we roll on that way and see what we can find? I sure wouldn’t mind a few minutes with Royce. I’d love to know who’s aiming to make your family look bad.”

“We know.”

“Skinner, for one,” Lillie said. “I bet he’d throw a fucking parade if you got voted out of office. Between all the trouble you caused for him with the supervisors and you going after Vardaman, that’s plenty of damn motivation. I’ve got to be honest with you, Quinn. I’m surprised as hell they hadn’t come gunning for you a lot sooner.”

Quinn slowed down on the country road, turning on his ticker, slowly stopping in the rain before deciding to take a hard turn north and head on up to Carthage and the wilds of Tibbehah County, where old E. J. Royce lived like he hadn’t moved on to a new century.

“Did you ask him about those remains you found?”

“I didn’t,” Quinn said. “But Dave Cullison went and talked to him. Royce pled ignorance on the matter.”

“He’s good at that,” Lillie said. “What’d you hear back from the state folks?”

“It was a woman’s body,” Quinn said. “Ophelia Bundren thinks the remains had been buried at least twenty years ago.”

“Maybe at the time Brandon Taylor went missing?”

“Maybe,” Quinn said. “Bones were pretty busted up. And we still don’t have a cause of death. Body was buried nearly ten feet deep.”

“With a location passed on by a Brandon Taylor freak who remains unknown to this day,” Lillie said. “You got to wonder why the fuck would all this shit start spilling out right now. Brandon Taylor’s been dead a hell of a long time and his ass ain’t coming back. Who’s making trouble? And why?”

“I didn’t tell you something,” Quinn said, steering around the winding road, headlights still on high, shining up into the tree branches and along the slick pavement. “Maggie and I tried to make contact with whoever was writing those letters.”

“And how the hell did that go?” Lillie asked.

“Nothing came of it,” Quinn said. “I think I spooked whoever wanted to meet with Maggie.”

“When was this?”

“Three weeks back,” Quinn said. “This person asked Maggie to meet them at the Flying J up in Olive Branch and not to tell anyone, especially not me. After we found the woman’s body, we agreed not to keep any more secrets. Nobody knows anything about this wild card.”

“No one showed?”