Wanda Lopez was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, the murder of Phillip Marsden Miller, Camilla Reynolds, and James Madding. She received two life sentences and is currently appealing the verdict.

Stella Dennis was convicted of assault and battery, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, and kidnapping. She is currently the captain of the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women’s volleyball team. She will be up for parole in eight years.

Alma Greene was disbarred and found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and of fraud. She turned state’s evidence in consideration of a lighter sentence, testifying that Wanda Lopez had broken Camilla Reynolds’s femur by shoving her against a sink, then used the morphine drip prescribed for pain to induce heart failure via overdose. James Madding was choked by a Vienna sausage Wanda pushed down his throat when he was too feeble from drugs to defend himself. Phillip Marsden Miller was smothered with a pillow. Alma was sentenced to eleven years in the state penitentiary.

Marion Bliss, Rose’s sister, is presently obsessed with 5G.

Carter Goodman sold the painting of the truck in the desert for twelve hundred dollars. The business is now Goodman’s Used Cars and Fine Art.

Anthony “Tony” Brevard was indicted as an accessory. He jumped bail. Whereabouts are unknown.

Nurse Karen Black sued Rose Dennis for assault, deprivation of civil liberties, and psychological trauma. The suit was settled out of court for an amount rumored to be in the low seven figures. Ms. Black is on her sixth luxury cruise, this one to Antarctica.

Nancy Dennis received a new couch and adopted a rescue Chihuahua.

Daniel Dennis was promoted to manager of the Starbucks. Finding it too stressful, he quit and got rehired as a barista.

Chuck Boster went back to his wife, remarking that both he and Barbara needed someone to look after them.

Derek Pound, the not-brother, disappeared before he could be arrested. Derek had worked as a personal trainer for both Alma Greene and Charles “Chuck” Boster.

Melanie Dennis, though starting her first year of high school, still hangs out with Gigi occasionally. She and Royal remain best friends. In a short, and less than solemn, ceremony, Mel, Royal, and Rose interred Eddie Martinez’s finger in the backyard of the Applegarth house. The grave is marked with a cracked garden gnome.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Don, Carter, Kendall, Marsden Jr., Brooks, London, Helen, Lee, Charles, Liz, Jason, Marsden Sr., Logan, and Jacques for letting me join the wild and delightful world of extended family.

Also by Nevada Barr

ALSO BY NEVADA BARR

FICTION

ANNA PIGEON BOOKS

Boar Island

Destroyer Angel

The Rope

Burn

Borderline

Winter Study

Hard Truth

High Country

Flashback

Hunting Season

Blood Lure

Deep South

Liberty Falling

Blind Descent

Endangered Species

Firestorm

Ill Wind (a.k.a. Mountain of Bones)

A Superior Death

Track of the Cat

OTHER NOVELS

Bittersweet

13½

NONFICTION

Seeking Enlightenment … Hat by Hat

ABOUT THE AUTHOR