You wouldn’t think we’d have to leave Chicago to see a dead body. (Chapter 1)

Of course the reporter had been lied to big-time up at the café, but Grandma’s lies were more interesting, even historical (Chapter 1)

The story of Shotgun Cheatham’s last night above ground kept The Coffee Pot Café fully engaged for the rest of our visit that summer. It was a story that grew in the telling in one of those little towns where there’s always time to ponder all the different kinds of truth. (Chapter 1)

A bunch of worthless boys who’d ransack the town every night is apt to drop a mouse in the milk just before delivering it to my door. (Chapter 2)

And she’d returned law and order to the town she claimed she didn’t give two hoots about. (Chapter 2)

You could see hard times from the window of the Wabash Blue Bird... (Chapter 3)