The Lost Ones

The Lost Ones

Ace Atkins

Penguin (2012)

Tags: Mystery, Thriller, Azizex666
Mysteryttt Thrillerttt Azizex666ttt

Fresh from ten years as a U.S. Army Ranger, Quinn Colson finds his hands full as the newly elected sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi.  An old buddy running a local gun shop may be in over his head when stolen army rifles start showing up in the hands of a Mexican drug gang.

At the same time, an abused-child case leads Quinn and his tough-as-nails deputy, Lillie Virgil, deep into the heart of a bootleg baby racket and a trail of darkness and death. And when the two cases collide, Quinn and his allies are forced to realize that, though they may be home from the war, they are now in the fight of their lives.

Review

“One of the best crime writers at work today.”—Michael Connelly

“A series that should push him to the top of the bestseller list.”—John Sandford

“Keep an eye on Ace Atkins, he can write rings around most of the names in the crime field.”—Elmore Leonard

“[His] estimable range may bring to mind Lee Child’s hardfisted, softhearted Jack Reacher, which is entirely a good thing.”—
Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Ace Atkins,
a former journalist, has written eight previous novels. He began his writing career in 1998, at age twenty-eight, when the first of four Nick Travers novels was published. In 2001, he earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination for his investigation into a 1950s murder. That murder inspired his 2006 novel
White Shadow
, which was followed by three further history-based crime novels,
Wicked City
,
Devil’s Garden
, and
Infamous
. Atkins lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

THE LOST ONES

ALSO BY ACE ATKINS

Crossroad Blues

Leavin’ Trunk Blues

Dark End of the Street

Dirty South

White Shadow

Wicked City

Devil’s Garden

Infamous

The Ranger

Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

NEW YORK

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

Publishers Since 1838

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
•
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
•
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
•
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Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:

80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Copyright © 2012 by Ace Atkins

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Published simultaneously in Canada

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Atkins, Ace.

The lost ones / Ace Atkins.

p.     cm.—(A Quinn Colson novel)

ISBN: 978-1-101-58496-5

1. Mississippi—Fiction.    I. Title.

PS3551.T49L67      2012                  2012010936

813’.54—dc23

Printed in the United States of America

1   3   5   7   9   10   8   6   4   2

BOOK DESIGN BY AMANDA DEWEY

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

ALWAYS LEARNING

PEARSON

For Jess

A man is sent to war and taught how to kill;

but after, the unlearning of it is left up to him.

—E
LMORE
L
EONARD
,
Last Stand at Saber River

When you’re on the march, act the way you would if

sneaking up on a deer. See the enemy first.

—R
OGERS’
R
ANGERS
S
TANDING
O
RDER
N
O
. 5

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1

A COUPLE ROUSTABOUTS HAD BEEN ASKING ABOUT GUNS AT THE TIBBEHAH
County Fair, but by the time the word had gotten back to Donnie Varner, they’d long since packed up their Ferris wheel, corn dog stands and shit, and boogied on down the highway. He’d tried for them at a rodeo up in Eupora and the fall festival over in Hernando, but it wasn’t until he pulled off the highway into a roadside carnival in Byhalia, Mississippi, that he knew he had the right spot. It was late, past nine o’clock, and the edge of Highway 78 was lit up in red, blue, and yellow neon, the fairway spreading out past the gas station and into an open cow field, bursting with folks carrying popcorn and balloons, little black kids and white kids, Mexicans working the stands. The air smelled like burnt sugar and cigarettes.

“¿Dónde está Alejandro Ramírez Umana?”

A fat brown woman running a stick around a cotton candy dryer nodded to the flashing lights of a Tilt-A-Whirl called the Cool Breeze. As Donnie walked closer, he could see the little cars spinning and zipping up into a fake ice tunnel where folks would scream when getting blasted with cold air and mist. Donnie’s white T-shirt was already soaked through from his ride up from Jericho with no air conditioner in a busted-up Dodge van he’d borrowed from his church.

How the hell else could he have brought a sampling of the fifteen AK-47s, two Mossberg 12-gauge shotguns, three MAK-90 assault rifles, a Ruger Mini-14, and a .223 caliber AR variant rifle? There was a mixed bag of ammunition, scopes, magazines, and gun cases to show that he meant business and could deliver more.

A dark girl with long legs was taking tickets, black hair pulled back from her face with a pink scarf, wearing a white tank top and shorts, a fat pink belt around her small waist. She was tall and thin, with muscular brown thighs. She wore a pair of old cowboy boots.