In Cold Blood

"And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own, And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known..."

 With the aid of his guitar, Perry had sung himself into a happier humor. He knew the lyrics of some two hundred hymns and ballads - a repertoire ranging from "The Old Rugged Cross" to Cole Porter - and, in addition to the guitar, he could play the harmonica, the accordion, the banjo, and the xylophone. In one of his favorite theatrical fantasies, his stage name was Perry O'Parsons, a star who billed himself as "The One-Man Symphony."

 Dick said, "How about a cocktail?"

 Personally, Perry didn't care what he drank, for he was not much of a drinker. Dick, however, was choosy, and in bars his usual choice was an Orange Blossom. From the car's glove compartment Perry fetched a pint bottle containing a ready-mixed compound of orange flavoring and vodka. They passed the bottle to and fro. Though dusk had established itself, Dick, doing a steady sixty miles an hour, was still driving without headlights, but then the road was straight, the country was as level as a lake, and other cars were seldom sighted. This was "out there" - or getting near it.

 "Christ!" said Perry, glaring at the landscape, flat and limitless under the sky's cold, lingering green - empty and lonesome except for the far between flickerings of farmhouse lights. He hated it, as he hated the Texas plains, the Nevada desert; spaces horizontal and sparsely inhabited had always induced in him a depression accompanied by agoraphobic sensations. Seaports were his heart's delight - crowded, clanging, ship-clogged, sewage-scented cities, like Yokohama, where as an American Army private he'd spent summer during the Korean War. "Christ - and they told me to keep away from Kansas! Never set my pretty foot here again. Although they were barring me from heaven. And just look at it. Just feast your eyes."

 Dick handed him the bottle, the contents reduced by half. "Save the rest," Dick said. "We may need it."

 "Remember, Dick? All that talk about getting a boat? I was thinking - we could buy a boat in Mexico. Something cheap but sturdy. And we could go to Japan. Sail right across the Pacific, been done - thousands of people have done it. I'm not co

 "Yes, I have," said Dick, who claimed still to be in love with his honey-blond first wife though she had remarried.

 "There are these baths. One place called the Dream Pool. You stretch out, and beautiful, knockout-type girls come and scrub you head to toe."

 "You told me." Dick's tone was curt.

 "So? Can't I repeat myself?"

 "Later. Let's talk about it later. Hell, man, I've got plenty on my mind."

 Dick switched on the radio; Perry switched it off. Ignoring Dick's protest, he strummed his guitar: "I came to the garden alone, while the dew was still on the roses, And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, The Son of God discloses..."

 A full moon was forming at the edge of the sky.

The following Monday, while giving evidence prior to taking a lie-detector test, young Bobby Rupp described his last visit to the Clutter home: "There was a full moon, and I thought maybe, if Nancy wanted to, we might go for a drive - drive out to McKi

 "We live three miles west of the Clutter place. I used to walk it back and forth, but I always worked summers, and last year I'd saved enough to buy my own car, a '55 Ford. So I drove over there, got there a little after seven. I didn't see anybody on the road or on the lane that leads up to the house, or anybody outside. Just old Teddy. He barked at me. The lights were on downstairs in the living room and in Mr. Clutter's office. The second floor was dark, and I figured Mrs. Clutter must be asleep - if she was home. You never knew whether she was or not, and I never asked. But I found out I was right, because later in the evening Kenyon wanted to practice his horn, he played baritone horn in the school band - and Nancy told him not to, because he would wake up Mrs. Clutter. Anyway, when I got there they had finished supper and Nancy had cleaned up, put all the dishes in the dishwasher, and the three of them - the two kids and Mr. Clutter - were in the living room. So we sat around like any other night-Nancy and I on the couch, and Mr. Clutter in his chair, the stuffed rocker. He wasn't watching the television so much as he was reading a book - a 'Rover Boy,' one of Kenyon's books. Once he went out to the kitchen and came back with two apples; he offered one to me, but I didn't want it, so he ate them both. He had very white teeth; he said apples were why. Nancy - Nancy was wearing socks and soft slippers, blue jeans, I think a green sweater; she was wearing a gold wristwatch and an I. D. bracelet I gave her last January for her sixteenth birthday - with on one side and mine on the other - and she had on a ring, some little silver thing she bought a summer ago, when she went to Colorado with the Kidwells. It wasn't my ring - our ring. See, a couple of weeks back she got sore at me and said she was going to take off our ring for a while. When your girl does that, it means you're on probation. I mean, sure, we had fusses - everybody does, all the kids that go steady. What happened was I went to this friend's wedding, the reception, and drank a beer, one bottle of beer, and Nancy got to hear about it. Some tattle told her I was roaring drunk. Well, she was stone, wouldn't say hello for a week. But lately we'd been getting on good as ever, and I believe she was about ready to wear our ring again.

 "O. K. The first show was called 'The Man and the Challenge.' Cha

 'Mike Hammer' came on at nine-thirty. Then the news. But Kenyon didn't like anything, mostly because we wouldn't let him pick the programs. He criticized everything and Nancy kept telling him to hush up. They always quibbled, but actually they were very close - closer than most brothers and sisters. I guess partly it was because they'd been alone together so much, what with Mrs. Clutter away and Mr. Clutter gone to Washington, or wherever. I know Nancy loved Kenyon very specially, but I don't think even she, or anybody, exactly understood him. He seemed to be off somewhere. You never knew what he was thinking, never even knew if he was looking at you - on account of he was slightly cockeyed. Some people said he was a genius, and maybe it was true. He sure did read a lot. But, like I say, he was restless; he didn't want to watch the TV, he wanted to practice his horn, and when Nancy wouldn't let him, I remember Mr. Clutter told him why didn't he go down to the basement, the recreation room, where nobody could hear him. But he didn't want to do that, either.