We found an old black man on his porch, eating purple-hulled peas and cornbread and listening to Z. Z. Hill. JoJo got out of the truck with me and we asked him about where we could find a man who called himself Tip-Top. JoJo said his real name was Bob and that he liked to carve dead people.

The man pointed down the hill where some dogs gathered to eat a rooster that had been killed. At the end of the road, the sun was a dropping orange orb that looked as if, if you kept following the road for a mile, you could touch it. Walk into its big burning fire.

“How’s Maggie?” JoJo asked as we headed up the hill.

“Good.”

“This one gonna last?”

“Maybe.”

I parked on a gravel road and walked with a couple dogs trailing me. JoJo walked by my side whistling a little Muddy Waters song. The porch had been screened in, the front door hanging loose by its hinges. Wood shavings littered the buckled floor. Two pinewood coffins. New and fresh smelling. The sound of a television inside. Canned TV laughter.

“What’s he watchin’?”

We heard the familiar Love Boat theme song.

“Always liked that woman who ran the cruise,” JoJo said.

“Julie McCoy.”

“Yeah, she looked like a nice lady.”

“She liked the cocaine,” I said.

JoJo nodded. He wasn’t thrilled about Julie’s coke problems.

The door opened after a knock. An old black man strapping himself into a pair of overalls eyed us. He fixed up the strap on his shoulder. His left eye twitched. “You the man lookin’ for me?”

“You Tip-Top?” JoJo asked.

He nodded.

“This man don’t want to do you no harm,” JoJo said. “Wants to know about you and Sonny Boy.”