Finally, Mama could stand the tension no longer. “Let’s all count our blessings, girls. Imagine if any one of us were Ronnie, or his poor widow, Alice.”

I did as she said, adding a silent vow that I’d also try to be less of an argumentative jerk.

Out of the blue, Maddie said, “Maybe that hog’s head is linked to the Mafia.”

Mama tapped her lip with an index finger, thinking. “Wasn’t there something like that in a movie? I remember a pig’s head in a man’s bed.”

“A horse head,” Carlos said. “From the first Godfather.”

“With Marlon Brando as Don Corleone,” Maddie added. She was Himmarshee’s movie expert, on account of her daughter being in college in California, studying film. “The don sent the horse’s head as a message. Maybe this is the same thing.”

Tucking her hair behind her ears, Marty stared at Maddie. “A Mafia don? In Himmarshee? That seems a little far-fetched, Sister.”

“May I remind you of Jim Albert and his murder last summer, Marty? Not that I’m trying to start an argument.” I smiled when I said it, but I was still smarting a little.

Carlos said, “Jim Albert’s criminal enterprise was set in place a long time before he came down here.” His eyes got a far-away, thoughtful look. I had the urge to take my thumb and smooth the wrinkle in his brow, and maybe follow that with a little something with my tongue.

Maybe Carlos was right about the water. I was angry one minute, aroused the next. Either I was getting some kind of weird hormones from the faucet, or the shock of finding Ronnie’s body had upset me more than I let on.

“What are you thinking?” I asked him.

“Just that Maddie might be right.”

My big sister beamed.

“Not about a Mafia godfather,” he said. “But maybe about a message.”

An image of Ronnie’s corpse popped into my brain, all jumbled up with the blood-crusted head of the pig.

“What would the message be?” I asked. “This is what happens when you squeal?”

The neon sign for the Booze ‘n’ Breeze lit up the dark road ahead, a red-and-purple beacon for the thirsty motorist. It reminded me I could use a six-pack for the fridge at home. I put on my blinker, slowed, and turned into the drive-thru lane. As I did, my Jeep’s headlights flashed on an ancient Toyota parked next to the little store’s dumpster.

Two things made the car stick out in Himmarshee: It was a compact, whereas most of the locals drive trucks; and it had some unusual bumper stickers for a town that likes to call itself the buckle in the cattle belt of Florida.

Meat is Murder, the right rear bumper scolded. Fur: Brush It, Don’t Wear It, said the left side.

I was surprised nobody had plastered over those sentiments with a more common sticker seen in these parts: Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner.

I motored up slowly to the cashier. The Booze ‘n’ Breeze is a barn-like, wide-open building with a road right through the middle. Stock is arranged on either side. The whole idea is that drivers can mosey through and tank up without ever getting out of their cars.

I recognized the blond dreadlocks on the head bent over a book propped on top of the cash register. When I got closer, I saw the title on the book’s spine: Animal Liberation.

“Hey, Linda-Ann,” I said. “Doing a little light reading?”

She looked up, eyes sleepy beneath two small silver hoops, one piercing each eyebrow. “Hey, Mace. My boyfriend gave me this.” She lifted the book so I could see it. “Trevor says after I read it, I’ll understand how we exploit and abuse animals every day.”

An impressionable girl and an activist boyfriend. Now there’s an original concept.

“Have you read it?” she asked me.

“Can’t say that I have,” I said. “When you finish it, why don’t you give me a synopsis?”

“Say what?” She stuck the end of a dreadlock in her mouth and sucked on it.

“A summary.”

She nodded, brushing the hair across her lip. “I’ll try, but it’s about ten times harder than anything I’ve ever read. I hope I can get through it, not to mention understand enough of it to give you that …” She paused.

“Synopsis.”

“Right,” she said, smiling. “Now, what can I get for you?”

I told her to hand over a six pack of Heineken, and to make sure they weren’t warm ones.

Watching her return to the register and place the beer on the counter made me think of an old joke. “Hey, what’s a redneck’s idea of a seven-course meal?”

“A possum and a six-pack.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ve only heard that one about two hundred times, Mace. I think I was still at Himmarshee Middle School the first time I heard it. How is old Mad Hen Wilson anyway?”

That was how the students at my sister’s school referred to her behind her back. Little did they know that Maddie, Madison Wilson, actually embraced the nickname.

“Doin’ fine,” I said. “Keeping the kids on their toes.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.” She put the beer into a plastic bag. “Anything else?”

My eyes roamed over the offerings: chips, candy, milk, eggs, enough liquor for the next three spring breaks in Daytona Beach.

“Still thinking,” I said.

“Take your time. Hardly anybody stops in this late at night. I like the company, to tell you the truth.”

A drive-thru in Okeechobee County had been hit recently by an armed robber. The cashier wasn’t hurt, but it had all the clerks nervous in the neighboring counties.

“You remember that murder from last summer?” she asked me.

Of course I did. The victim had been Linda-Ann’s boss. And Mama was briefly the prime suspect. I nodded.

“Whatever happened to that good-looking cowboy who came in here the day I met you? The one you used to like. Did y’all ever get back together?”

Jeb Ennis. I felt a shiver of desire at the thought of him. I guess with a first love that never really goes away.

“He’s back on the rodeo circuit,” I said. “I don’t think Jeb and I were cut out to be a couple.”

I wondered if the fit was better for Carlos and me.

“I was just asking because I have a serious boyfriend now.” She looked down, studying the tip of one of her dreadlocks. “He’s my first one, if you know what I mean.”

Judging by the blush on her pretty face, I knew exactly what she meant.

“Trevor has changed the way I look at everything,” she gushed. “He’s in graduate school. And he’s incredibly smart. Trevor says I’m intelligent, too. He says I just have to learn to apply myself.”

She gazed at the thick book on the counter. She didn’t seem all that eager to apply herself to it.

“Just be careful, Linda-Ann.” I knew I was about to sound like an old fogey who can’t understand young love, but I couldn’t help myself. “It’s all right if both of you agree to make some compromises. But you should never let a man change you too much. When you try to be somebody else to make a man happy, you lose who you really are.”

She chewed methodically on the end of her hair. I couldn’t tell if she was pondering what I said, or just passing the minutes until closing time. I glanced at the big clock on the wall. Ten minutes to midnight. I was beat. It’d been a long day.

“I guess that’ll do it,” I said.

“So, you’re done thinking? Should I just ring up the beer?”

I was just about to tell her yes when I remembered the display of beef jerky that used to sit right on the counter at driver eye level. The spicy maple flavor was addictive.