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.
You aint goin to help me, are you?
I done told you all I know to tell. You seen the report. That's all I know to tell you.
Bell sat watching him. Then he got up and put on his hat and left.
In the morning he went to the high school and got some names from DeMarco's teacher. The first one he talked to wanted to know how he'd found him. He was a big kid and he sat with his hands folded and looked down at his tennis shoes. They were about a size fourteen and had Left and Right written on the toecaps in purple ink.
There's somethin you all aint tellin me.
The boy shook his head.
Did he threaten you?
Naw.
What did he look like? Was he Mexican?
I dont think so. He was kindly dark complected is all.
Were you afraid of him?
I wasnt till you showed up. Hell, Sheriff, I knew we shouldnt of took the damn thing. It was a dumb-ass thing to do. I aint goin to set here and say it was David's idea even if it was. I'm big enough to say no.
Yes you are.
It was all just weird. Them boys in the car was dead. Am I in trouble over this?
What else did he say to you.
The boy looked around the lunchroom. He looked almost in tears. If I had it to do over again I'd do it different. I know that.
What did he say.
He said that we didnt know what he looked like. He give David a hundred dollar bill.
A hundred dollars.
Yeah. David give him his shirt. To make a sling for his arm.
Bell nodded. All right. What did he look like.
He was medium height. Medium build. Looked like he was in shape. In his mid thirties maybe. Dark hair. Dark brown, I think. I dont know, Sheriff. He looked like anybody.
Like anybody.
The kid looked at his shoes. He looked up at Bell. He didnt look like anybody. I mean there wasnt nothin unusual lookin about him. But he didnt look like anybody you'd want to mess with. When he said somethin you damn sure listened. There was a bone stickin out under the skin on his arm and he didnt pay no more attention to it than nothin.
All right.
Am I in trouble over this?
No.
I appreciate it.
You dont know where things will take you, do you?
No sir, you dont. I think I learned somethin from it. If that's any use to you.
It is. Do you think DeMarco learned anything?
The boy shook his head. I dont know, he said. I cant speak for David.
XI
I got Molly to run down his relatives and we finally found his dad in San Saba. I left to go up there on a Friday evenin and I remember thinkin to myself when I left that this was probably another dumb thing I was fixin to do but I went anyways. I'd done talked to him on the phone. He didnt sound like he was waitin to see me or he wasnt waitin but he said to come on so here I went. Checked in a motel when I got there and drove out to his house in the mornin.
His wife had died some years back. We set out on the porch and drunk iced tea and I guess we'd of set there from now on if I hadnt of said somethin. He was a bit oldern me. Ten years maybe. I told him what I'd come to tell him. About his boy. Told him the facts. He just set there and nodded. He was settin in a swing and he just rocked back and forth a little and held that glass of tea in his lap. I didnt know what else to say so I just shut up and we set there for quite some time. And then he said, and he didnt look at me, he just looked out across the yard, and he said: He was the best rifleshot I ever saw. Bar none. I didnt know what to say. I said: Yessir.
He was a sniper in Vietnam you know.
I said I didnt know that.
He was not in no drug deals.
No sir. He was not.
He nodded. He wasnt raised that way, he said.
Yessir.
Was you in the war?
Yes I was. European theatre.
He nodded. Llewelyn when he come home he went to visit several families of buddies of his that had not made it back. He give it up. He didnt know what to say to em. He said he could see em settin there lookin at him and wishin he was dead. You could see it in their faces. In the place of their own loved one, you understand.