"Ripe-smelling," he said, as he pulled back the blanket. "Oh, yeah. That's a dead one. Don't know if it's white or a nigger?"

"No," Hillbilly said. "The body's coated in oil, which gives it a dark color. That and, well, the meat is so rotten."

"Let's see here. Well, it's a woman. You can tell by that pelvis flare."

Sunset looked at Hillbilly. Hillbilly shrugged.

"Let me see," said Willie as he climbed into the bed of the truck. "Eyes are gone, but looks to have a bit of hair still in place."

Willie took hold of the hair between thumb and forefinger. "Awful fine for a nigger. I'd say it's a white woman. Maybe I ought to say a little prayer over her, case it is a white woman."

"What if she's colored?" Sunset said.

"It won't hurt her none. Hell, say a prayer over a dog it don't hurt nothing, it's just when they're dead, they got no place to go. Haul her inside for me."

Hillbilly and Sunset took hold of opposite ends of the blanket and hauled the body out of the back of the truck, followed Willie inside. It was a small room and there were three wooden coffins against the wall, and there was a table and some instruments for embalming.

"Any way to figure who it is?" Sunset asked.

"No way I know. Thing to do is find if someone is missing. See if they fit the general description. I'll get a height measurement and such. But she needs to go in the ground pronto. She come out of the ground, didn't she? There's dirt mixed in with that oil, and it's spread all over."

"Yeah," Sunset said, "she came out of the ground."

"Might could figure better who it was I knew where you found her," Willie said. "Could even be someone I know."

"The country," Sunset said. "West of here, near the woods."

"The dirt mixed in this oil, the oil makes it dark, but it looks dark to begin with to me. Not all of it, just some. Her left side is dark dirt, the right side is a lighter kind of dirt. Ain't but one person got dirt like that around here. That nigger Zendo. I figure you found it at the edge of his plowed land, that would be the dark dirt on her left side, and the other dirt, that would be land unplowed. Hell, I figure he plowed her up-you figure Zendo did it?"

"I didn't agree with you," Sunset said. "I didn't say Zendo had a thing to do with it."

"Dirt like that, that's Zendo's signature. Everyone knows that nigger could drop an egg in the ground and grow a bush of chickens. It was found on his land, all right."

"Okay," Sunset said. "The body was found on Zendo's land, but you have to take my word for this. He had nothing to do with it."

"You know that for a fact?" Willie said.

"I'm going to say I do. I better not hear a word about this body being found on Zendo's land from anyone, because I'll know where the word came from."

Willie grinned. "You wouldn't threaten me, would you, little lady?"

"I will," Hillbilly said.

Willie studied Hillbilly for a long moment. "Never said I would tell. You're both being rude."

"I'm just a little frayed," Sunset said. "I've had a rough month."

"Suppose you have," Willie said. He extended his hand to Hillbilly. "No hard feelings."

He took Willie's hand and shook it. "None. But, still, don't say anything."

"Think that might have been a little excessive?" Sunset said.

They were riding along in the truck, heading back to Sunset's tent.

"I suppose," Hillbilly said. "Just didn't like the way he was talking."

"I can handle myself. You start handling things for me when I don't need for you to, don't ask you to, people will think I can't do what needs to be done."

"I just don't like that guy."

"I think the feeling was mutual. I don't think he liked me either."

"He liked you all right. I could tell the way he looked at you, especially when you didn't know he was looking."

"Was that the reason you were so hot under the collar?"

"I'm going to be damn honest, Sunset. I ain't the jealous kind."

"Oh," Sunset said.

When they arrived at Sunset's tent, they found Ben lying under a tree on his back with his paws in the air. He turned his head to look at them, but unlike before he didn't act frightened and he didn't dart away.

"You done spoiled him," Hillbilly said.

"I certainly hope so. He's had enough of the bad life. For that matter, so have I."

Inside the tent, Karen, fresh from a bath, well-dressed and groomed, sweet-smelling, greeted them.

"My," said Hillbilly, "aren't you the picture?"

And she was. She looked older than her years. Wore her black hair down, way her mother did, and her dark eyes looked as if they had been spit-shined.

"Just threw something on, really," Karen said.

Hillbilly grinned.

"Think I'm going to make some notes," Sunset said. "That's what Pete used to do. Seems like a good idea."

"What did you see?" Karen said.

"A dead body," Sunset said. "And that's all we know."

"I thought I might go for a walk," Karen said. "You want to walk, Hillbilly?"

"I'll walk with you," Hillbilly said. "I'm not taking any notes."

"Watch for snakes," Sunset said.

Inside she pulled out Pete's notes on the baby found at Zendo's. She thought about the body she had seen. Seemed obvious there was some kind of connection.

But what kind?

Who was the woman they had dug up today?

The baby. Whose baby was it? Was it black or white?

Did Zendo know more than he let on?

No. That didn't seem right. Zendo seemed honestly upset. Of course, it could be an act, but she didn't think so. Finding a body, reporting it like that might be a way to throw suspicion off yourself if you were white, but a colored man doing it- Didn't make sense. Not when colored were normally assumed guilty.

Nope. Zendo was truly trying to do the right thing.

Did the baby belong to the woman, and if so, why were the bodies found so far apart in time?

What was the oil about?

Why Zendo's field?

And why would anyone bury a body straight down, like a post?

Sunset tapped the pencil on the table, finally pulled paper in front of her and wrote down the day's events. She tried to remember everything said and done.

When she finished writing, she had the sinking feeling that she didn't have idea one where to go next with this investigation.

Investigation.

Damn, she thought. I'm investigating. I'm like a detective.

Hell. I am the law. Me. Sunset Jones. The law. Constable Sunset, you bet your ass.

But she still didn't know what to do.

13.

When Clyde's drunk began to wear off, he awoke with a headache and the stinking smell of smoke in his nose. He looked at the ruins of his house. He didn't feel quite as happy about what he had done as before, but, on the other hand, he wasn't depressed either.

Well, no more than before he burned down his house.

Just thinking about Sunset and knowing he and she were about as likely as shooting a duck and having it hit the ground dressed and ready to be eaten.

He studied the smoldering ruins a while, then got up. When he did, it was like a shot went through his body and blew out the top of his head.

Whisky.

Bad idea, he thought. Bad idea.

Clyde sat for a while longer, and as the day grew cooler he grew restless and stronger and courageous enough to stand. He went to the well, cranked up a bucket of water and poured it over his head. He did this twice. He pulled up some more and drank from the bucket, poured the rest over his head.

He took out his pocket comb and combed his hair by feel and hoped he didn't look too ridiculous. He started walking down the path that led to the main road. He hadn't intended to do it, but all of a sudden he was walking, and at a brisk pace. As he walked, his head seemed to bob, as if it were about to come loose at the neck. The inside of his skull felt as if someone had held a rodeo there.

The day was so hot that by the time he reached the road his hair was already beginning to dry, and long before he reached his destination, the water that had spilled on his shirt and pants was dry as well.

It took him about two hours to get within reasonable distance of Sunset's place, and before he turned the corner that led to the last stretch of road that ran up to it, he saw Hillbilly come out of the woods, Karen beside him.

Hillbilly was smiling and Karen was laughing. Hillbilly stopped near the road and picked limbs and grass off the back of Karen's dress, and when he finished, Karen leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He took her hand and held it, and finally she stretched away from him, letting her hand stay in his until she just had to let go. She turned, started back in the direction of the tent.

Hillbilly stood for a while, watching Karen retreat. Finally, when Karen was around the curve, he turned, unzipped his fly and began to pee.

Clyde, standing still at the edge of the road, partially concealed by bushes, hadn't been seen.

He waited a moment, and when Hillbilly fastened up his pants, Clyde stepped out of concealment, walked over to him.

"What in hell are you doing here?" Hillbilly said.

"Walking."

"I see that. Why?"

"I burned my house down."

"What?"

"Burned it down."

"How did that happen?"

"I set it on fire."

"You set it on fire?"

"That's right. You ain't got no place to come back to now, Hillbilly. You're going to have to do otherwise. All I got now is a tarp and some of my stuff under it."

"Why in the world would you burn your house down?"

"I got tired of it. I seen Karen kissing you."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Hey, just an innocent peck on the cheek."