Chapters (43)
- BY ACE ATKINS
- Dedication
- CONTENTS
- Epigraph
- Episode 1: Brandon
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- Episode 2: The Big Woods
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- Episode 3: The Search Party
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- Episode 4: The Teacher
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- Episode 5: The Sheriff
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- Episode 6: Quinn Colson
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- Episode 7: Maggie
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- Episode 8: The Witness
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
The women picked up the black-and-white photos at random, as if selecting pieces for a jigsaw puzzle. Most of the photos were obvious, teenagers doing teenager business at high school. Most of the faces Quinn had IDed on his own. One of the photos featured Caddy decorating the halls before some football game, standing on a ladder and taping up a banner. WILDCAT PRIDE! Another one showed Hubie Phillips sitting on top of his desk, surrounded by a dozen or so kids from the yearbook staff. He wore a big smile, hands thrown up in mock exasperation. Others were stark shots of the woods in the winter, dead leaves in the mud, animal tracks and twisting trails leading into darkness. A dead deer covered in frost. They could’ve been about anywhere in Tibbehah County. Quinn wasn’t sure if they meant much to Brandon beyond the quality of light and composition.
“What’s this?” Rhonda Taylor said, looking down at a photo of the Vardaman compound, then up to where Quinn stood.
“A big place in the north part of the county,” Quinn said. “I don’t think it had been there long back then. You know it?”
Rhonda Taylor snatched the half-glasses hanging from around her neck and pursed her lips as she studied it. “Can’t say I do. Shaina?”
Shaina held it up to the light coming from the kitchen window. She nodded as she studied it and then leveled her eyes on Quinn, a curious look on her face. “That’s the Vardaman place, ain’t it?”
Quinn nodded.
“What was Brandon doing out there?”
“I don’t know,” Quinn said. “Was hoping y’all might tell me.”
“Then why didn’t you just ask that straight off,” Rhonda Taylor said, scooting back the little wooden chair and waddling into the kitchen. She poured out the rest of a green smoothie shake into a tall glass. “Why’d you make us look at them football games and test shots for Most Beautiful and Most Athletic. Might’ve saved us some time, Sheriff.”
Quinn placed his hands on his hips and nodded to the women. “Brandon ever tell you about hiking out there?”
“Never,” Rhonda Taylor said, stirring the smoothie with the handle of a wooden fork.