On the drive to Patsy’s mother’s house, I tried to call Patsy for the twentieth or so time. When I didn’t reach her, I called Neely Kate.

“Made any progress?” I asked when she answered.

“We’ve knocked on a lot of doors at the apartment complex, and so far no luck. But the apartment manager’s supposed to show up at eleven, so we’re hopin’ he can tell us something.”

“Good idea,” I said. “Did you check on Marshall again before you left the farm?”

“Yeah, his fever’s still gone, and he has more color in his face. Witt said he’ll make sure the boy gets fed today.”

“Let me know when you find something,” I said.

“You too.”

I pulled in front of Blanche Stoneman’s house a few minutes before ten, surprised to see four cars in the driveway. A teenage girl appeared in the doorway before I could knock on the door.

“Are you Neely Kate Rivers?”

“No, but I’m her partner, Rose Gardner. Neely Kate got detained with something else.”

“Is that girl one of those lesbians?” an older woman shouted from behind the girl.

“No, Grandma,” the teen said, rolling her eyes.

“She said she was somebody’s partner,” the older woman called back. “That’s what they call their lovers on all those TV shows. They call ’em partners.”

The teen gave me a sympathetic look. “I apologize in advance for Great-Grandma Bluebell.”

Bluebell? Was she serious?

But I didn’t have time to ask because the teen stepped to the side and let me in.

It felt like a walk-in freezer when I entered the house. Two older women who looked like they were in their sixties were sitting on the sofa and an even older woman was sitting on a dining room chair with a four-footed walker in front of her. I suspected the woman with the walker was Miss Bluebell. Her next words confirmed it.

“Do you know those boys on that show?”

I shook my head in confusion. “I’m sorry. What show?”

“You know, that show on Netflix. The one with all those gay boys.”

I stared at her in disbelief for a second. “No. I’m sorry. I don’t.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Grandma!” a woman shouted from the other room. “We’ve already told you that not all gay people know each other!”

“How am I supposed to know that?” Miss Bluebell shouted back. “The ones on TV all seem so friendly.” She looked up at me. “Are you sure you don’t know them?”

“No,” I said, trying to hide a grin. “And your granddaughter’s right. I’m not a lesbian.”

“Oh. Well, that’s too bad,” she said as she waved her hand in dismissal. “I’ve never met one before.”

“Granny,” the teen groaned. “I’ve already told you that you’ve met gays and lesbians before. You just didn’t know it.”

“That’s a doggone shame,” the elderly woman said. “Now that I’ve stopped condemning them to eternal damnation, I’d like to talk to one. They’ve got their own parade with a rainbow flag. I’ve always liked rainbows.”

A woman who looked like she was in her late thirties appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, holding a dish towel in her hand. She gave me an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry about my grandmother.” She gestured to the girl next to me. “Nicki there introduced her to the internet a few months ago, and now we never know what she’s gonna say.”

I grinned. “That’s okay.” I turned to her grandmother. “I don’t happen to be a lesbian, but I like rainbows too.”

The older woman frowned, clearly not appeased. “Well . . . I guess that has to count for something.”

The teen leaned into my ear. “Granny just discovered tolerance at the New Living Hope Revival Church. Now she’s trying to learn about the LGBTQ community.”

“That’s great,” I said. “It’s never too late for a change in your heart.”

“That Reverend Pruitt is a miracle worker,” the girl said.

“Jonah Pruitt is a godsend to this town,” Miss Bluebell said, pointing her finger at her great-granddaughter. “I kept tryin’ to get Patsy to go to his church with me, but she’s too busy sinnin’.”

So much for tolerance.

“She goes to church, Granny,” the woman in the kitchen said. “That’s where she got into a fight with Carol Ann.”

Her face scrunched up in disgust. “It didn’t stop her from sinnin’, now did it?”

Miss Bluebell had a point. “What about Carol Ann?” I asked. “Did she come to church with you?”

The elderly woman’s eyes narrowed. “How could she have come to church with me? She was only in town for a few days, and the picnic was on Sunday.”

“I’m confused about when she got back,” I said. “Do you know what day?”

The woman in the kitchen doorway wiped her right hand off with the kitchen towel. “Where are my manners?” She held out her hand. “Poppy. I’m Patsy’s sister. Can I get you something to drink? A slice of coffee cake?”

“No, thank you.”

“I thought Neely Kate was comin’ with you,” one of the women on the sofa said.

I turned to give her my attention, suspecting that one of the two sofa sitters was Patsy’s mother. “Neely Kate got caught up in something else. I hope y’all don’t mind that it’s just me.”

The woman made a face that suggested it wasn’t ideal, but she didn’t complain.

Poppy walked into the living room and gestured to the woman who’d asked about Neely Kate. “This is my mother, Lily. And next to her is her sister Lucille.”

Lucille gave me a blank stare, looking like she was still in shock.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Ms. Nelson,” I said.

She nodded, and tears filled her eyes. “She always had a penchant for runnin’ on the wild side. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised this was how she left us.”

“Nevertheless, I’m still sorry.”

Poppy motioned to a worn and stained pale blue wingback chair by the door. “Rose, why don’t you sit over here?”

“Thanks,” I said as I took a seat and pulled a stenographer’s notebook from my purse. “First of all, I want to thank y’all for meeting with me. I know this has to be a stressful time.”

All five women nodded, and I realized I was sitting with four generations of Patsy Sue’s family.

“Patsy called us and said you and Neely Kate would likely be comin’ by,” Poppy said in a gentle tone. She’d planted herself on the sofa between Lily and Lucille. “She told us that she’d hired you to help solve Carol Ann’s murder.”

“Yes.” Okay, not exactly, but finding Carol Ann’s killer was the surest way to clear her name. “When was the last time any of you talked to Patsy?”

They all shot glances to one another. “Yesterday morning,” Lily said. “Right after word got out around town that Carol Ann was dead.”

“Do you happen to know where she might be?” I asked.

Lily shook her head. “I have no earthly idea.”

“Does she happen to own a lake house, or any other property she might be stayin’ at?”

Lily shook her head. “I know she has some rental properties, but they’re all filled with tenants.”

I couldn’t tell if she was lying, so I decided to move on. “Miss Bluebell mentioned that Carol Ann hadn’t been in town long. Do y’all know when she came back?”

“Last Thursday,” Poppy said. “She showed up at all our houses askin’ for money.”

“How much did she want?”

“Five thousand dollars.”

My eyebrows shot up. That was a lot of money.

“I laughed in her face,” Miss Bluebell said. “I’m living from one Social Security check to the next. I ain’t got any extra to give. And even if I did, I sure wouldn’t have given it to a girl who just frittered her money away.”

“Granny,” Poppy admonished. “Think about poor Aunt Lucille.”

“What?” her grandmother demanded. “Just because the girl is dead don’t make it any less true.”

Poppy cringed. “Nevertheless, Grandma . . .”

“Where do you think she was before she came back?” I asked.

“Out in California,” Lily said, “tryin’ to become famous.”

“I heard she wanted to be an actress,” I said.

“Ha!” Miss Bluebell said. “It was a way to a means.”

“So she wanted to be an actress to become famous?” I asked.

The older woman nodded. “The last we heard, she was tryin’ to get on reality TV shows. She got on a few small ones no one’s ever heard of like Bowling with Frogs and Night Fishin’ with Gators in the Swamp. But last we heard, she hadn’t been on one of them shows in a couple of years.”

“Huh,” I said as I wrote the information down. “So she was out in LA before she came back?”

“She was in Atlanta the last two years,” Lucille said in a soft voice. “She said it was easier to get acting jobs there on account of all the production studios filming shows there. I’d hoped to see her more since she was so much closer, but if anything, I saw her less. But I think she spent a few months in Vegas after Atlanta.”

“And when was the last time you saw her, Miss Lucille?”

“Thursday,” she said, looking down at the tissue balled up in her hand.

“And when was the last time you spoke to her or saw her before that?”

“Well . . . she called me about two weeks ago. She told me she was workin’ on a new opportunity that was different than anything else she’d done. She told me this one was perfect for her and it would finally bring her back home to me.”

That fit with what Neely Kate had found out from her other cousin—that she’d been working on a business opportunity. “Do you happen to know what her new business was?”

She shook her head. “She said it was a secret. That if word got out, the competition would try to stop her.”

“Competition?” I said, writing that down. “She didn’t give any hints about what the competition might be?”

“No.”

“What about where the business might be located?” I asked.

“Why are you askin’ all these questions about a business that’s never gonna happen?” Lily challenged. “My daughter is fightin’ for her life, and you’re talkin’ about Carol Ann’s pipe dream?”

“Fightin’ for her life?” Miss Bluebell snorted. “Patsy’s doin’ what Patsy does best—lookin’ out for Patsy.” She pointed her finger at Lily. “There’s no loyalty in that one. Not even to her husband.”

There was so much information here for me to dig deeper into, but I ran the risk of alienating half the people in the room with every question. “I’d like to circle back to Patsy in a bit, but first I have a few more questions about Carol Ann’s business.”

The older woman looked pissed.

I turned back to Lucille and asked in a soothing tone, “Do you happen to know where she planned on opening it?”

She shook her head. “She said she didn’t need a storefront. She could work out of her home, only she didn’t have one yet. She was workin’ on that too.”

“Do you know what part of town? Or if she was hopin’ to rent or buy?”

Lucille shook her head. “I don’t know. She was so secretive about it.”

“What does all of this have to do with Carol Ann bein’ murdered by her cousin?” Miss Bluebell asked.

Everyone in the room gasped and tensed.

“What?” the older woman demanded. “I know all y’all are thinkin’ it.”

I rested my elbows on my knees and leaned closer as I held the older woman’s gaze. “First of all, Neely Kate and I are tryin’ to prove that Patsy Sue didn’t murder her cousin.”

She snorted. “Well, that’s a fool’s errand.”

“Nevertheless, we’re gonna try. Which means part of our job is to help figure out who did kill Carol Ann and why.” When she didn’t respond, I added, “If Carol Ann was opening a business and worried about competition, then there’s the chance that the competition might have found out and killed her.”

Everyone gasped except for Nicki, who was sitting on the floor next to her great-grandmother’s chair. Nicki didn’t look shocked at all. I definitely needed to talk to her later.

“Does the sheriff know that?” Lucille asked.

“I suppose it depends on what you told them,” I said. “The more information they have, the better.” The looks on their faces told me they hadn’t thought it important enough to share.

“Carol Ann was stayin’ at the Broken Branch Motel, but she checked in on Saturday night. Did any of y’all ask where she was stayin’ before that?”

They all shook their heads.

“Did she ask to stay with you, Miss Lucille?” I asked.

“No. She doesn’t like stayin’ with me, and I don’t like the late hours she keeps.” Then she started to cry. “I guess she’s not keeping any hours now.”

“Did she have any friends she might have stayed with?” I asked.

Lucille shook her head and shrugged. “As far as I know, she burned most of her bridges years ago.”

“What about other relatives?” I asked. All the women gave me blank looks, but Neely Kate had said she’d found one of Carol Ann’s cousins. “Anyone on her daddy’s side?”

Disgust washed over Lily’s face. “Those fools live down in Big Thief Hollow.”

“I take it y’all don’t get along with them?” I asked.

“No,” Lily bit out.

“Where is your ex-husband, Miss Lucille?” I asked.

Lily let out a harsh laugh. “Husband? Carol Ann’s a bastard.”

My eyes shot open, and Poppy let out a loud protest. “Momma, you can’t go around sayin’ things like that!”

“Why not?” she countered. “It’s true.”

I turned to Lucille, trying to ignore her sister. “So you had Carol Ann out of wedlock?”

She nodded. “She’s my only child. Or I guess she was . . .”

I really wished I was conducting this interview with her alone, but Lily was beginning to seem like a bully. I doubted she would have allowed a one-on-one interview, and no doubt she would have given her sister endless grief had I insisted on it. Poor Lucille had been through enough. “What happened to Carol Ann’s father?”

“He died in prison,” Lily blurted out in contempt. “Doin’ fifty years for murder.”

Lucille looked up at me through tear-filled eyes. “He didn’t do it. He was framed.”

“Neil’s family is nothin’ but white trash,” Lily said. “It’s no wonder Carol Ann turned out the way she did.”

“Momma!” Poppy said.

Lucille turned toward her sister and slapped her hard across the cheek. The loud smacking sound made me startle.

Lily jumped to her feet. “You’re just as white trash as the rest of ’em! Get out of my house!”

“Momma!” Poppy protested while Nicki looked on with wide eyes.

“Stop it right now,” Miss Bluebell snapped. “Both y’all, stop it right now.”

“My daughter is accused of murdering that white trash fool,” Lily shouted at her mother. “So why are we wasting time talkin’ about her white trash family?”

“Miss Lily,” I said. My tone was a bit harsh, but she was starting to piss me off. It was easy to see where Patsy had gotten some of her negative personality traits. “I already told you why we’re trying to find out who killed Carol Ann. Patsy can’t bring herself to tell us what she was doin’ on Sunday afternoon, so it’s the only good avenue we have to investigate. And besides”—I gave Lucille a soft smile—“it will help Miss Lucille find some semblance of closure.”

“Sit your ass down, Lily,” Miss Bluebell said. “We’re gonna help this woman find Carol Ann’s killer. Even if it’s your sorry daughter.”

The other women looked startled, but Nicki glanced up at her great-grandmother and giggled.

“What?” the older woman asked. “You never heard the word ass before?”

The expressions on everyone’s faces suggested they weren’t used to hearing it from her.

“Carol Ann has some cousins down in Big Thief Hollow,” Lucille said with more determination in her eyes. Slapping her sister seemed to have given her more backbone. “They’re Neil’s brother’s girls.”

“And where’s Neil’s brother?”

“He’s the one Neil murdered,” Lily said in disgust.

I expected Lucille to crumple from her sister’s harsh tone, but the fierceness in her eyes said she was done with her sister’s bullying. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that Neil did not murder his brother. And before you start gloatin’, maybe you should take a moment to reflect on the fact your daughter is facin’ the exact same situation.”

Lily clamped her mouth shut.

Lucille sat up straighter. “Neil came from the other side of the tracks. He was tryin’ to make a better life for himself—and me. We were planning on gettin’ married, especially after we found out about Carol Ann. Neil had been helpin’ his brother with something illegal—”

“Drugs,” Lily said in a self-righteous tone. “He was dealin’ drugs.”

Lucille shot her a dark look. “He planned to tell his brother he was done, but it didn’t go well. Chuck said he’d never let Neil leave. The next night Chuck was dead, and Neil was arrested for his murder.” She paused. “And I was left to raise our baby alone.”

“I’m so sorry, Miss Lucille.” Nowadays, plenty of women raised their babies alone, but I could only imagine the insults and judgment Lucille must have faced forty years ago. The fact that her sister seemed to be gloating about it didn’t sit right with me.

“Was Carol Ann close to her cousins in Big Thief Hollow growin’ up?” I asked softly.

Lucille glanced up with confusion in her eyes. “No. She never saw them. Their mother blamed me for bein’ widowed, so we never had anything to do with that side of the family.”

She obviously didn’t know that Carol Ann had been in contact with them. I considered mentioning it, but I didn’t want to give Lily any more information she could use to hurt her sister, and I doubted that Lucille had anything helpful to offer. Carol Ann had purposely kept the last couple of months from her. I wanted to find out why before bringing it up. “Did you and Carol Ann get along?”

I’d been wondering. I’d come into the interview thinking they hadn’t—everyone had been quick to say they were tired of being used for money—but everything she’d said about her daughter had been loving.

She flopped her hand over in a nervous gesture. “We had our spats, but for the most part we got along.”

“Carol Ann loved her momma,” Poppy said with a tearful look. “She hated disappointin’ her.”

Lucille looked startled. “What?”

Poppy’s mouth tipped up into a sad smile. “She knew she was all you had, and she hated that she didn’t do more to make you proud. She hated that she was weak.”

I focused my attention on Poppy. “When was the last time you talked to Carol Ann?”

“Last Thursday. She asked me for money too, but I don’t have that kind of money.”

“But you gave her some?” I asked.

She nodded with an embarrassed look. “A few hundred dollars. It wasn’t much, but she was so desperate to make this new business work.”

“She didn’t give you any more information about the business?”

“No.”

“And you gave her money anyway?” Lily demanded.

Instead of addressing her mother, Poppy turned to me. “She was really tryin’ this time. I could see it in her eyes. She and her momma just needed to catch a break.”

“Do you know where she was stayin?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No.”

“And before last Thursday, when was the last time you talked to her?”

“About two months ago. That was the first time she mentioned her business—but she wasn’t asking for money that time. She just told me she was workin’ on it.”

“She was in town?” I asked.

“No. Maybe she was in Atlanta. Or Vegas? I lost track of where she was livin’, but she didn’t say.”

Lily snorted. “I don’t believe for one minute she didn’t ask you for money.”

“Well, she didn’t,” Poppy said in defiance. “She called to say she was tired of hurtin’ her momma, and she was finally goin’ to do something that would make her proud.”

I cast a glance toward Lucille, who was now silently weeping.

I really wanted to be done with this toxic environment, but I hadn’t finished questioning them. “I know that Carol Ann asked Patsy for money. Do you know who else she hit up?”

“She didn’t ask me,” Nicki said.

Her great-grandmother shot her an ornery grin. “That’s because you don’t have a pot to piss in.”

Lily’s mouth dropped open in outrage. “Momma. You have got to stop goin’ on the internet!” She glanced around the room, her face becoming blotchy. “This family is goin’ to hell in a handbasket!” Lily shouted, then pointed her finger at her mother. “And you’re in the driver’s seat!”

“You know what you need?” Miss Bluebell asked. “You need a joint. Weed’s legal in several states now.”

Lily froze and looked so horrified you could have pushed her over with a pin. And while everyone else looked momentarily stunned by her announcement, they were soon stifling giggles.

It was time for me to take charge. “Look, it’s obvious y’all have a lot of family business you’d like to attend to, so if I could ask a few more questions, I’ll be more than happy to get out of your hair.” When no one protested, I asked, “Does anyone know what Patsy was doin’ between three and seven on Sunday afternoon?”

They remained quiet.

“Do you know of anyone who held a grudge against Patsy? Someone who might want to set her up?”

They were quiet again, but I could see they were putting more thought into this question.

“She made some enemies in her business,” Poppy said.

“Fools who were jealous of her success,” Lily said.

“Her questionable success,” Poppy said.

“You hush your mouth!” Lily shouted. “You’re jealous of her too.”

“How can I not be, Momma? When you constantly shove my face in how wonderful she is and what a disappointment I am.”

Nicki stiffened during the exchange. Her great-grandmother put a hand on her head and began to stroke her hair soothingly as she gave her daughter a dark glare.

“Poppy,” I said. “Why do you say questionable success?”

“Patsy’s always braggin’ at family dinners about all her land deals. But I have a friend who says Patsy ripped her off.”

“Ripped her off how?”

“Patsy purchased the land for a lot less than it was worth.”

“And you made sure to bring it up at Thanksgivin’ dinner, didn’t you?” Lily asked. “Right there in front of everyone, you accused your sister of fraud. But you keep leaving out the part that exonerates your sister.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Patsy used an appraiser to come up with how much the land was worth. Poppy’s friend is delusional.”

Poppy made a face. “Well, my friend’s not the only one who’s pissed at her. Several people tried to bring a lawsuit against her, but Judge Berger refused to hear it.”

“See?” Poppy’s mother said. “Even the judge said she was on the up-and-up.”

“Judge Berger is as crooked as they come,” Poppy scoffed. “He was arrested for bribery charges.”

“Everyone knows he was set up.”

I resisted the urge to groan. Talk about denial. Judge Berger was the same corrupt judge who’d set my bail at a million dollars last winter after J.R. Simmons got me arrested on trumped-up charges.

“Poppy, do you think you can get me a list of the people you know who might have held a grudge against Patsy?” I pulled a business card out of my purse and handed it to her.

“Yeah.” But she didn’t look too sure, and I realized why. Giving me the information might help prove her sister didn’t kill Carol Ann. And it looked like Poppy would love nothing more than to see Patsy Sue behind bars.

I got to my feet. “Well, if there’s nothin’ else you all have to share with me, I’ll be on my way. But feel free to let me know if you think of anything.”

The women all nodded, but Poppy was the only one who got to her feet. “I’ll walk you to the door.”

I cast a glance at Nicki, remembering her reaction to my suggestion that Carol Ann’s competition might have killed her to get in the way. “Hey, Nicki. My niece’s birthday’s comin’ up. Do you think you could walk out with me so I can pick your brain about what teenagers like these days?”

“Sure.”

Poppy opened the front door and held it open for me. “Thanks for your help,” I said.

She grimaced. “Yeah. Sure. I’m not sure what good we did.”

I smiled. “You just never know.”

Nicki followed me and shut the door behind her. As soon as we reached the driveway, she said, “That was pretty much the lamest excuse you could have made to talk to me alone.” Then she grinned. “Good thing my family’s not the brightest.”

I chuckled. “I guess I wasn’t so subtle. I wanted to ask you what you know about Carol Ann’s business.”

She shoved her hands into the front pockets of her short jean shorts. “Not much more than what you learned in there.”

“But something more . . .”

“More like who she was doin’ it with.”

“Her cousins on her father’s side?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Neely Kate talked to one of them last night. Sounds like Carol Ann was in town for a lot longer than your family knows.”

Nicki glanced back at the house before answering me in a much lower voice. “I know she’d been in town for at least two months. I ran into her down in Big Thief Hollow, but you can’t tell my mom. I skipped school to go down there.”

I almost asked her what she’d been up to, but I knew the sheriff’s department had been trying—and failing—to stomp out the thriving drug market in that town. “When was this? The middle of May?”

Nicki nodded. “She was stayin’ with one of the Big Thief Hollow cousins. She asked me not to tell anyone that I saw her. I told her she had a deal as long as she kept quiet about me.”

I hesitated before asking my next question, but considering the profession of Carol Ann’s cousins’ deceased father, it needed to be asked. “Do you know if Carol Ann was using drugs?”

She stared at me like I’d just caught her letting out a loud, stinky fart.

“It might help me find out who killed her.”

“Oh, I know who killed her,” Nicki said. “Patsy’s guilty as sin. I can’t believe you’re defending that bitch.”

She glanced at the house, and I saw Lily glaring at us through the big picture window.

“Just so you know,” she said with a grin. “When Grandma Lily grills me over our conversation, I’m going to make this whole gift story sound lame as hell.”