“Would you call him a father figure?” Tashi asked.

Caddy shrugged and leaned back into the folding metal chair. “Sure,” she said. “Quinn and I didn’t have much of a father to speak of. At first, he was just gone. And then he came back for a while just to get divorced.”

“And Uncle Hamp filled in?” Tashi asked.

“He did more than that,” she said. “He and Aunt Halley pretty much helped my mother raise us. He took me and Quinn hunting and fishing. I worked in Aunt Halley’s garden, worked with the cattle. I had the number two beef heifer in the state one year.”

“I understand a lot of people in this county like him.”

“I’m sorry,” Caddy said. “I don’t see what my uncle has to do with Brandon’s suicide. If you’re looking into something about the investigation, you need to keep talking to Quinn. I don’t know a thing about it.”

“We know about what happened to Sheriff Beckett,” Jessica said, blurting it out a little too fast for Tashi. “Some have suggested he might have felt some guilt for what happened to Brandon.”

“What?” Caddy said. “What in the hell are you talking about? Y’all get here for a couple days and listen to a bunch of gossip and innuendo and think you got this jerkwater town figured out. First off, I’ll have you know my uncle didn’t kill himself. Someone murdered him. I don’t give a damn what anyone else has told you. Have y’all managed to look into the swamp of criminals who were here before my brother came back from the service? My uncle had gotten old and weak and someone took him out. They didn’t want him making trouble.”

“Could the same thing have happened to Brandon?” Jessica said. “Been involved with these same people?”

“My uncle was the county sheriff,” Caddy said. “Brandon Taylor was just some punk kid. Nice kid. But still a country punk. Like us all. Who brought my uncle into this mess?”

Tashi pursed her lips and didn’t say anything. Jessica combed her fingers through her blue hair, waiting for Caddy to continue, Tashi not sure either of them should comment on a source.

“I’ve told y’all all I know,” Caddy said, standing up and walking over to the trailer door and holding it wide open. Hot air blew in from outside, scattering the little AA pamphlets across the room. “But rumor and lies aren’t facts. You come back to me when y’all want to talk about something sensible. I don’t have time for this. I have mouths to feed.”

*   *   *

“How was your day?” Quinn asked.