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Of course as it turned out he never come home at all. There was not nothin in them letters to suggest that she had reckoned on that possibility.
Well, you know she did. She just wouldnt of said nothin about it to him.
I've still got that medal of course. It come in a fancy purple box with a ribbon and all. It was in my bureau for years and then one day I took it out and put it in the drawer in the livin room table where I wouldnt have to look at it. Not that I ever looked at it, but it was there. Harold didnt get no medal. He just come home in a wooden box. And I dont believe they had Gold Star mothers in the First World War but if they had of Aunt Carolyn would not of got one of them either since he was not her natural son. But she should of. She never got his war pension neither.
So. I went back out there one more time. I walked over that ground and there was very little sign that anything had ever took place there. I picked up a shellcasin or two. That was about it. I stood out there a long time and I thought about things. It was one of them warm days you get in the winter sometimes. A little wind. I still keep thinkin maybe it is somethin about the country. Sort of the way Ellis said. I thought about my family and about him out there in his wheelchair in the old house and it just seemed to me that this country has got a strange kind of history and a damned bloody one too. About anywhere you care to look. I could stand back off and smile about such thoughts as them but I still have em. I dont make excuses for the way I think. Not no more. I talk to my daughter. She would be thirty now. That's all right. I dont care how that sounds. I like talkin to her. Call it superstition or whatever you want. I know that over the years I have give her the heart I always wanted for myself and that's all right. That's why I listen to her. I know I'll always get the best from her. It dont get mixed up with my own ignorance or my own mea
When he walked in the house the phone was ringing. Sheriff Bell, he said. He made his way to the sideboard and picked up the phone. Sheriff Bell, he said.
Sheriff this is Detective Cook with the Odessa police.
Yessir.
There's a report we have here that is flagged with your name. It has to do with a woman named Carla Jean Moss that was murdered here back in March.
Yessir. I appreciate you callin.
They picked up the murder weapon off of the FBI ballistics database and they traced it down to a boy here in Midland. The boy says he got the gun out of a truck at a accident scene. Just seen it and took it. And I expect that's right. I talked to him. He sold it and it turned up in a convenience store robbery in Shreveport Louisiana. Now the accident where he got the gun, it took place on the same day as the murder did. The man that owned the gun left it in the truck and disappeared and he aint been heard from since. So you can see where this is goin. We dont get a lot of unsolved homicides up here and we damn sure dont like em. Can I ask you what was your interest in the case, Sheriff?
Bell told him. Cook listened. Then he gave him a number. It was the investigator of the accident. Roger Catron. Let me call him first. He'll talk to you.
That's all right, Bell said. He'll talk to me. I've known him for years.
He called the number and Catron answered.
How're you doin Ed Tom.
I aint braggin.
What can I do you for.
Bell told him about the wreck. Yessir, Catron said. Sure I remember it. There was two boys killed in that wreck. We still aint found the driver of the other vehicle.
What happened?
Boys'd been smokin dope. They run a stopsign and hit a brand new Dodge pickup broadside. Totaled it out. The old boy in the pickup he climbed out and just took off up the street. Fore we got there. Truck had been bought in Mexico. Illegal. No EPA or nothin. No registration.
What about the other vehicle.
There was three boys in it. Nineteen, twenty years old. All of em Mexican. The only one lived was the one in the back seat. Apparently they was passin around a doober and they went through this intersection probably about sixty mile a hour and just T-boned the old boy in the truck. The one in the passenger side of the car, he come through the windscreen head first and crossed the street and landed on a woman's porch. She was out puttin some mail in her box and he didnt miss her by much. She set off down the street in her housewrapper and haircurlers just a hollerin. I dont think she's right yet.
What did you all do with the boy that took the gun?
We cut him loose.
If I come up there you reckon I could talk to him?
I'd say you could. I'm lookin at him on the screen right now.
What's his name?
David DeMarco.
Is he Mexican?
No. The boys in the car was. Not him.
Will he talk to me?
One way to find out.
I'll be there in the mornin.
I look forward to seein you.
Catron had called the boy and talked to him and when the boy walked into the cafe he didnt seem particularly worried about anything. He slid into the booth and propped up one foot and sucked at his teeth and looked at Bell.
You want some coffee?
Yeah. I'll take some coffee.
Bell raised a finger and the waitress came over and took his order. He looked at the boy.
What I wanted to talk to you about was the man that walked away from that wreck. I wonder if there's anything that comes to mind about him. Anything you might remember.
The boy shook his head. Naw, he said. He looked around the room.
How bad was he hurt?
I dont know. It looked like his arm was broke.
What else.
Had a cut on his head. I couldnt say how bad he was hurt. He could walk.
Bell watched him. How old a man would you say he was?
Hell, Sheriff. I dont know. He was pretty bloody and all.
On the report you said he was maybe in his late thirties.
Yeah. Somethin like that.
Who were you with.
What?
Who were you with.
Wasnt with nobody.
The neighbor there who called in the report, he said there was two of you.
Well, he's full of it.
Yeah? I talked to him this mornin and he seemed to me to be about as unfull of it as they come.
The waitress brought the coffee. DeMarco poured about a quarter cup of sugar into his and sat stirring it.
You know this man had just got done killin a woman two blocks away when he got in that wreck.
Yeah. I didnt know it at the time.
You know how many people he's killed?
I dont know nothin about him.
How tall was he would you say?
Not real tall. Sort of medium.
Was he wearin boots.
Yeah. I think he was wearin boots.
What kind of boots.
I think they might of been ostrich.
Expensive boots.
Yeah.
How badly was he bleedin?
I dont know. He was bleedin. He had a cut on his head.
What did he say?
He didnt say nothin.
What did you say to him?
Nothin. I asked him was he all right.
You think he might of died?
I got no idea.
Bell leaned back. He turned the saltcellar a half turn on the tabletop. Then he turned it back again.
Tell me who you were with.
Wasnt with nobody.
Bell studied him. The boy sucked his teeth. He picked up the coffee mug and sipped the coffee and set it down again.