“They killed him,” she said. “I guess you know that already.”

Quinn waited.

“Do you want me to take you to the spot I last saw him?” she said. “It’s not two hundred feet from where we parked. Goddamn, my heart is beating so fast. I feel like I’m coming loose from my skin.”

“You don’t have to,” Quinn said. “We can talk right here.”

“I need to do it,” she said. “Makes things right after I started all this back in motion. I got Shaina Taylor to reach out to those girls. I sent those letters to Maggie. It’s disrespectful if I don’t walk my ass back to where I saw him die. Christ Almighty.”

They crawled out of the truck, Quinn, in his boots, hopping down to the gravel, Ansley leading the way over a little ditch and through some brush and vines into an endless pine forest, stretching up into the hills and for thousands of acres beyond Tibbehah County. The location wasn’t completely lost to him now, knowing they were within two or three miles of Vardaman’s lodge. He’d once crisscrossed this very road looking for escaped convicts named Esau Davis and Bones Magee.

“Brandon and me were just friends,” she said, walking beneath the tall pines, feet soft on the copper-colored needles. “We might’ve fooled around a little. But mostly we were good pals, going to movies, hanging out at Mr. Phillips’s house, playing gags on folks at church camp. That kid was a real joker, always looking to put his thumb in someone’s eye.”

She kept walking, moving faster than Quinn, stopping for a moment to find her place, sunlight coming down through the tall trees, spinning for a second and then finding her way again, heading up a hill and coming upon what looked to be an old cabin falling in on itself, the rock fireplace still standing tall. “I knew I could find it.”

Quinn wanted to ask the who and the why but knew Ansley would get to it, her eyes shining with memories, false eyelashes fluttering, crying as she walked, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. “I’m the one who told him about the parties,” she said. “Mr. Stagg would pay us just to be there. You didn’t have to fool around or nothing. He said those men just liked pretty young faces bringing them barbecue and whiskey. Pleasant company. He said if you wanted to get frisky, it was all on you. You know how Mr. Stagg talks.”