Sam Frye turned off the overhead light and knocked the sedan into drive, slowly heading up onto the back road, driving that steady speed limit, and checking his rearview until he could see the bright casino lights miles away. A billboard ahead promising THE FIRST JACKPOT YOU’LL WIN IS BY WALKING THROUGH OUR DOORS!

TWENTY

It had been five days since E. J. Royce got himself killed when Caddy headed up to Memphis with Tashi Coleman. She wanted to shut down all the bullshit, the questions, and innuendo around her brother. Those girls from New York not having a damn clue on how Tibbehah County worked, listening to anyone who’d run their mouths. If she could find Ansley Cuthbert maybe she could not only help them out, but also stop all the lies about Quinn. They roamed up Highway 45 to Tupelo and then cut up to Memphis on 78, passing the exits to Holly Springs and Red Banks. Caddy had made the trip so many times, she felt she could drive it blind.

“I saw two girls on the Square yesterday with blue hair,” Caddy said. “I think your friend Jessica is making a style contribution to Jericho.”

“She’s made a lot of friends,” Tashi said, driving her small blue rental with Caddy beside her. “That girl is good at getting people to talk, open up. She just has a way of getting sources to trust her.”

“I know you didn’t ask but I’m going to say it anyway,” Caddy said. “Quinn and Lillie didn’t have a damn thing to do with that old man’s death. Royce was one of the biggest crooks in the county, no telling what he found himself trapped in.”

“Did you hear about his dogs?” Tashi said, turning on her headlights, the sky darkening as they got close to the Tennessee line. Not really answering Caddy but not challenging her on it, either.

“Yes, ma’am,” Caddy said. “Everyone heard that detail about the dogs. Betty Jo Mize said it was too awful to print in her family newspaper. I think she worded it that the body had been ravaged by animals.”

“That made it seem like wild animals or vultures, not his own dogs,” Tashi said. “God. How could his own dogs do something like that?”

Caddy told her that if it was all the same, she’d rather not talk about it. The whole thing making her sick to her stomach, saying she always knew there was something the matter with Royce. “When I was a kid, his eyes would just kind of linger on you. He was a deputy and worked for my uncle so I believed he was important. But what kind of man stares like that at a young girl, telling her how she’s filling out and that she has a nice figure?”