“He ain’t
my responsibility. You want him, go look for him. He’s out with his sheep for
all I know.” He leaned back, cocky. A little too cocky for his own good.
“I ain’t
playing, son. You were the last one to see him. Your parents remember seeing
you with him. So I got two witnesses that put you with him. What do you say
about that?”
“I ain’t
saying nothing. You got nothing on me.”
“That’s
where you’re wrong, Junior. See, I found his blood. The earth cried out because
of the blood. Didn’t know that, did ya, smart guy? Thought you could just stick
a knife in him, walk away, and no one would be the wiser. Well, you’re
wrong, and you’re going to pay for it.”
The
cockiness faded, and eyes started darting around. “W—what are you going to do?”
I leaned
back. “You afraid, Junior? Think you’re going to go through what your brother
did? That would be justice, right? You take his life, now you give yours up to
balance things, huh?”
He
shuddered, rubbing his arms as much as the cuffs would allow.
“Well, you
should be afraid. That’s too good for you. But it’s real simple. You gotta wear
this,” I pushed the mark across the table to him. “Everyone who sees that’s
gonna know what you did. And no one’s going to want to be around you. You’re
going to live a long time knowing what you did, and nothing’s going to go your
way.”
“Please.
It’s more than I can take.”
“It’s all
about you, isn’t it? Maybe if you ever had a thought for your brother, things
would be different. Well, you’re going to have a long time to think about what
you did to Able.”