Tashi sat on the bed with her legs folded, MacBook in her lap, scrolling through scanned records of the Taylor file. Jessica was on the floor, headphones on, listening to the two-hour confidential interview they’d done with Ansley Cuthbert, speaking about her friendship with Brandon, taking money from Johnny Stagg for the “Daddy parties,” and how she and Brandon threw in with a girl named Skylar Cole to blackmail the guests. All of it culminating with Skylar beaten to death and buried deep, Brandon being forced to watch and then running for his life to where he and Ansley hid in an abandoned house in the Big Woods. Ansley did not want to be named on the podcast. She’d remain anonymous, a friend of Brandon’s only, someone the killers never knew existed.

Tashi closed the laptop and left Jessica listening to the interview, heading out into the first-floor hallway and through the screen door to the front porch. The door closed with a hard thwack, Maggie Colson looking up from where she sat in a metal glider with a huge black man who appeared to have a prosthetic arm.

Maggie introduced him as Boom Kimbrough, the sheriff’s best friend.

“Quinn had to head over to Alabama,” Maggie said. “He asked Boom to stick around while he’s gone.”

“Does he think those men will come back?”

Maggie shook her head and nodded toward Boom. “Boom was coming over to supper anyway,” she said. “Quinn just asked him to come on over a little early.”

Tashi couldn’t help but notice a very large handgun in Boom Kimbrough’s lap. It was big and silver and seemed as large as a cannon.

“Don’t you worry,” Boom said, smiling. “I’m a better shot now than when I had two arms. Ain’t nobody getting on this porch without permission.”

Tashi smiled but didn’t say a word. She didn’t like guns, never liked them, and hated the idea of being protected in such a way. She and Jessica shouldn’t have to hide out like criminals in an effort to tell their story. Ansley Cuthbert shouldn’t have to keep quiet and be afraid to speak out even twenty years after Brandon’s death.

“Did Quinn go to see Johnny Stagg?” Tashi asked.

“I don’t know,” Maggie said, but Tashi could tell she was lying. Quinn had mentioned last night he’d put in a request to meet with Stagg, Stagg being the man in charge of north Mississippi back then. “Y’all are welcome to stay as long as you like.”

“It shouldn’t be long,” Tashi said. “We’re getting close.”

“Is Ansley enough?”

“I wish she’d let us use her name,” Tashi said. “It would give us a lot more credibility. But for now, it’s all we have.”