"I was sheriff of this county when I was twenty-five years old." "Hard to believe." "Grandfather was a lawman." "Father too." "Me and him was sheriff at the same time, him up in Plano and me out here." "I think he was pretty proud of that." "I know I was." "Some of the old-time sheriffs never even wore a gun." "A lot of folks find that hard to believe." "Jim Scarborough never carried one." "That the younger Jim." "Gaston Boykins wouldn't wear one up in Comanche County." "Now I always liked to hear about the old-timers." "Never missed a chance to do so." "You can't help but compare yourself against the old-timers." "Can't help but wonder how they would've operated these times." "There is this boy I sent to the electric chair in Huntsville here a while back." "My arrest and my testimony." "He killed a fourteen-year-old girl." "Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasn't any passion to it." "Told me that he'd been planning to kill some- body for about as long as he could remember." "Said if they turned him out he'd do it again." "Said he knew he was going to hell." "Be there in about fifteen minutes." "I don't know what to make of that." "I surely don't." "The crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure." "It's not that I'm afraid of it." "I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job." "But I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand." "A man would have to put his soul at hazard." "He just have to say, okay." "I'll be part of this world." "Yes sir, I just walked in the door." "Sheriff he had some sort of thing on him like a oxygen tanks for emphysema or something." "And a hose that run down his sleeve..." "You got me." "You'll look at it when you get in." "Yes sir, I got it under control." "Howdy, what's this about?" "Step out of the car please, sir." "What is it?" "I need you to step out of the car, sir." "What is that for?" "Would you hold still please, sir." "Hold still." "Agua." "...Agua." "Por Dios." "Agua." "I ain't got no water." "Agua." "I ain't got no agua." "You speak English?" "Where's the last guy?" "Ultimo hombre." "Last man standing." "There must've been one." "Where'd he go?" "I reckon I'd go out the way I came in." "La puerta..." "Hay lobos..." "Ain't no lobos." "If you stopped and watch your backtrack, you're gonna shoot my dumb ass." "But if you stopped, you stopped in the shade." "What's in the satchel?" "It's full of money." "That'll be the day." "Where'd you get the pistol?" "At the gettin' place." "Did you buy that gun?" "No." "I found it." "Welyn!" "What?" "Quit your hollering." "What'd you give for that thing?" "You don't need to know everything, Carla Jean." "I need to know that." "You keep running that mouth of yours I'm gonna take you in the back and screw you." "Big talk." "Keep it up." "Fine." "I don't wanna know." "I don't even wanna know where you been all day." "That'll work." "Alright." "Llewelyn." "Yeah?" "What're you doing, baby?" "I'm going out." "Going where?" "Something I forgot to do but I'll be back." "What're you going to do?" "I'm fixing to do something dumber now but I'm going anyways." "If I don't come back tell Mother I love her." "Your mother's dead, Llewelyn." "Well then." "I'll tell her myself." "How much?" "Sixty-nine cents." "And the gas." "Y'all getting any rain up your way?" "What way would that be?" "I seen you was from Dallas." "What business is it of yours where I'm from, friendo?" "I didn't mean nothing by it." "Didn't mean nothing." "Just passing my time." "If you don't wanna accept that I don't know what else I can do for you." "Will there be something else?" "I don't know." "Will there?" "Is something wrong?" "With what?" "With anything?" "Is that what you're asking me?" "Is there something wrong with anything?" "Will there be anything else?" "You already asked me that." "Well..." "I need to see about closing." "See about closing." "Yes sir." "What time do you close?" "Now." "We close now." "Now is not a time." "What time do you close?" "Generally around dark." "At dark." "You don't know what you're talking about, do you?" "Sir?" "I said you don't know what you're talking about." "What time do you go to bed?" "Sir?" "You're a bit deaf, aren't you?" "I said what time do you go to bed?" "Somewhere around 9:30." "I'd say around 9:30." "I could come back then." "Why would you be coming back?" "We'd be closed." "Yeah." "You said that." "Well..." "I got to close now." "You live in that house out back?" "Yes I do." "You lived here all your life?" "This is my wife's father's place." "Originally." "You married into it." "We lived in Temple Texas for many years." "Raised a family there." "In Temple." "We come out here about four years ago." "You married into it." "If that's the way you wanna put it." "I don't have some way to put it." "That's the way it is." "What's the most you've ever lost in a coin toss?" "Sir?" "The most you ever lost in a coin toss." "I don't know." "I couldn't say." "Call it." "Call it?" "Yes." "For what?" "Just call it." "Well, we need to know what we're calling it for here." "You need to call it." "I can't call it for you." "It wouldn't be fair." "I didn't put nothing up." "Yes, you did." "You've been putting it up your whole life." "You just didn't know it." "You know what date is on this coin?" "No." "1958." "It's been traveling twenty-two years to get here." "And now it's here." "And it's either heads or tails." "And you have to say." "Call it." "Look..." "I need to know what I stand to win." "Everything." "How's that?" "You stand to win everything." "Call it." "Alright." "Heads then." "Well done." "Don't put it in your pocket." "Sir?" "Don't put it in your pocket." "It's your lucky quarter." "Where you want me to put it?" "Anywhere not in your pocket." "Or it'll be mixed in with the others and become just a coin." "Which it is." "Llewelyn?" "What the hell?" "Odessa." "Why would we go to Odessa?" "Not we, you." "Stay with your mother." "Well, how come?" "Right now it's midnight Sunday." "When the courthouse opens nine hours from now someone's gonna be callin' in the vehicle number on the inspection plate on the truck." "And by 9:30, they'll show up here." "But for how long do we have to..." "Baby, at what point would you quit bothering to look for your two million dollars?" "What am I supposed to tell Mama?" "Try standing' in the door and holler "Mama, I'm home"." "Llewelyn..." "C'mon, pack your things." "Anything you leave you ain't gonna see it again." "Well, thanks for falling all over and apologizing." "Baby, things happened." "I can't take 'em back." "Mind riding', bitch?" "This his truck?" "Mm-Mm." "Got a screwgie?" "Who cut his tires?" "Mexicans, I guess." "Wasn't us." "That's a dead dog." "Yes, it is." "Where's the receiver?" "I've got it." "They're ripe petunias." "Hold this please." "You want it?" "You getting anything though?" "Not a bleep." "Alright..." "Gimme that." "I thought it was a car afire." "It is a car afire." "Wendell said there was something backcountry too." "When is the county gonna start paying a rental on my horse?" "I love you more and more every day." "That's very nice." "Be careful." "Always am." "Don't get hurt." "Never do." "Don't hurt no one." "If you say so." "Wouldn't think a car would burn like that." "Yes sir." "We should've brought weenies." "That look like about a '77 Ford to you, Wendell?" "It could be." "I'd say it is." "Not a doubt in my mind." "The old boy shot by the highway?" "Yes sir, his vehicle." "Man killed Lamar's deputy and took his car." "Killed that man on the highway swapped for his car and now here it is and he's swapped again for god knows what." "That's very linear, Sheriff." "Well." "Old age flattens a man." "Yes sir." "But then there's this other." "You ride Winston." " You sure?" " Oh, I'm more than sure." "Anything happens to Loretta's horse out here I can tell you right now I don't wanna be the party that was aboard." "It's the same tire tread coming back as going." "Made about the same time too." "You can see the sides real clear." "Somebodies pried the inspection plate off the door on this one." "I know this truck." "Belongs to a fella named Moss." " Llewelyn Moss?" " That's the boy." "You figure him for a dope-runner?" "I don't know but I kindly doubt it." "OK Corral is just down there." "Oh hell's bells, they even shot the dog." "Well this is just a deal gone wrong, isn't it?" "Yeah, appears to have been a glitch or two." "What calibers you got there, Sheriff?" "Nine millimeter." "Couple of .45" "ACP's." "Somebody unloaded on that thing with a shotgun." "How come do you reckon the coyotes ain't been at 'em?" "I don't know." "Supposedly coyotes won't eat a Mexican." "These boys appear to be managerial." "I think we're looking at more than one fracas..." "Execution here Wild West over there" "That Mexican brown dope." "These boys is all swole up." "So this was earlier, getting set to trade." "Then, whoa, differences..." "You know might not of even been no money." "That's possible." "But you don't believe it." "No." "Probably I don't." "Well, it's a mess, ain't it Sheriff?" "If it ain't, it'll do till a mess gets here." "Yes sir?" "I'm looking for Llewelyn Moss." "Did you go up to his trailer?" "Yes." "Well, I'd say he's at work." "Do you want to leave a message?" "Where does he work?" "I can't say." "Where does he work?" "Sir, I ain't at liberty to give out no information about our residents." "Where does he work?" "Did you not hear me?" "We can't give out no information." "Why all the way to Del Rio?" "I'm gonna borrow a car from Roberto." "You can't afford one?" "I don't wanna register it." "Look, I'll call you in a couple days." " Promise?" " Yes, I do." "I got a bad feeling, Llewelyn." "Well I got a good one." "So, they ought to even out." "Quit worrying so much." "Mama's gonna raise hell." "She is just gonna curse you up and down." "You should be used to that." "I'm used to lots of things, I work at Wal-Mart." "Not any more, Carla Jean." "You're retired." " Llewelyn?" " Yes ma'am?" " You are coming back, ain't ya?" " I shall return." "Sheriff's Department!" "Look at that lock." "We goin' in?" "Gun out and up." " What about yours?" " I'm hiding behind you." "Sheriff's Department!" "I believe they've lit a shuck." "I believe you're right." "That from the lock?" "Probably must be." "When was he here, Sheriff?" "I don't know." "Oh." "Now that's aggravating." "Sheriff?" "Still sweating." "Oh, Sheriff, we just missed him!" "We gotta circulate this." "On radio." "Alright." "What do we circulate?" "Looking for a man who has recently drunk milk?" "Ah, Sheriff, that's aggravating." "I'm ahead of you there." "You think this boy Moss has got any notion of the sorts of sons of bitches that are hunting him?" "I don't know." "He ought to..." "He seen the same things I've seen and it certainly made an impression on me." " Take me to a motel." " Got one in mind?" "Someplace cheap." "You tell me the option." "Do what now?" "You pick the option goes with the applicable rate." "I'm just one person." "So, don't matter the size of the bed." "This is Roberto Sagramore, I'm not here right now." "Please leave a message." "Hello?" "Is Llewelyn there?" "Llewelyn?" "!" "No he ain't." "You expect him?" "Now why would I expect him?" "Who's this?" "Can I help you?" "Yeah." "You got a pair of Larry Mahan's, shoulder size 11." "I'll check." " You sell socks?" " Just white." "White is all I wear." "You got a bathroom?" "Don't stop." "Just ride me up past those rooms." " What room?" " Just drive me around." "I want to see if someone's here." "Keep going." "Don't stop." "I don't wanna get into some kind of a jackpot here, buddy." "It's alright." "Why don't I just set you down around here and we won't argue about it." "Take me to another motel." "Let's just call it square." "Look, you're already in a jackpot." "I'm trying to get you out of it." "Now take me to another motel." "The lab reports from Austin on that boy by the highway." "What was the bullet?" "There wasn't no bullet." "Wasn't no bullet?" "Yes sir." "Wasn't none." "Well, Wendell, with all due respect, that don't make a lot of sense." "No sir." "You said entry wound in the forehead." "No exit wound." "Yes sir." "Are you telling he shot this boy in the head and then went digging around in there with a pocket knife?" "Sir, I don't want to picture that." "I don't either!" "Can I freshen that there for you, Sheriff?" "Yeah, Noreen, you better had." "The Rangers and the DEA are headed back out to the scene this morning." "You gonna join 'em?" "Any new bodies accumulated out there?" "No sir." "Well then, I guess I can skip it." "Twelve gauge." "You need shells?" " Yeah." "Double ought." " They'll give you a wallop." "Y'all got camping supplies?" "Tent poles?" "You already have a tent?" "Somethin' like that." "Well, you give me the model number on the tent, I can order you the poles." "Never mind." "I want a tent." " Well, what kind of tent?" " The kind with the most poles." "Could I get another room?" "You want to change rooms?" "No m'am, I want to keep my room and get another one." "Another additional?" "Yes, m'am." "And do you have a map of the rooms?" "Yeah, we had a sorta one." "How bout 38?" "Well, you can have the one right next to yours if you want." "Number 137." "It ain't took." "No, 38 will be fine." "That's got two double beds." "No me, mate." "How'd you find it?" "No me, mate." "Shouldn't be doin' that." "Even a young man like you." " Doing what?" " Hitchhiking." "Dangerous." "You know Anton Chigurh by sight, is that correct?" "Yes sir." "When did you last see him?" "November 28th, last year." "You seem pretty sure of the date." "Did I ask you to sit?" "No sir." "But you struck me as a man who wouldn't want to waste a chair." "I remember dates." "Names." "Numbers." "I saw him November the 28th." "We got a loose cannon here." "And we're out a bunch of money and the other party is out his product." "Yes sir." "This account will give up twelve hundred dollars in any twenty-four hour period." "That's up from a thousand." "If your expenses run higher I hope you'll trust us for it." "Okay." "Just how well do you know Chigurh?" "What do you want to know?" "I just want to know your opinion of him." "In general." "Just how dangerous is he?" "Compared to what?" "The bubonic plague?" "He's bad enough that you called me." "Yeah, he's a psychopathic killer but so what?" "There's plenty of them around." "He killed three men in Del Rio Motel yesterday." "And two others in that colossal goatfuck out in the desert." "We can stop that." "You seem pretty sure of yourself." "You've led something of a charmed life haven't you, Mr. Wells?" "In all honesty I can't say that charm has had a whole lot to do with it." "I'm wondering..." "Yes?" "Can I get my parking ticket validated?" "An attempt at humor, I suppose." "I'm sorry." "You know I counted the floors of this building from the street?" "There's one missing." "We'll look into it." "One room, one night." " That'll be twenty-six dollars." " Alright." "You on all night?" "Yes sir, I'll be around here until ten o'clock in the morning." "This here's for you." "Now, I ain't asking you to do anything illegal." "There's someone who's been looking for me." "Not police." "Just call me if anyone else checks in tonight." "By anyone, I mean any swinging dude." "There just ain't no way." "Don't worry." "I ain't gonna hurt you." "I need you to drive me on out of here." "Were you in a car accident?" "Yeah." " Gimme the money." " It's right here." "Give me the clothes." "Let him hold the money." "Gimme that beer too." "How much?" "Brian." "Give him the beer." "Medico." "Por favor." "Any word on those vehicles yet?" "Sheriff, I found out everything there was to find." "Those vehicles are titled and registered to deceased people." "The owner of that Bronco's been dead twenty years." "Did you want me to see what I could find out about the Mexican ones?" "No." "Lord no." "Here's this month's checks." "That DEA agent called again." "You don't want to talk to him?" "I'm goin' to try and keep from it as much as I can." "He's goin' back out there and he wanted to know if you wanted to go with him." "That's cordial of him." "Could I get you to call Loretta for me and tell her I'm goin' to Odessa to see Carla Jean Moss?" "Yes, Sheriff." "I'll call her when I get there." "I'd call her now but she'll want me to come home and I just might." "You want me to wait till you've quit the building?" "You don't want to lie without what it's absolutely necessary." "What is it that Torbert says about truth and justice?" "Oh, we dedicate ourselves daily anew." "Something like that." "I think I'm goin' to commence dedicating' myself twice daily." "It might come to three times before it's over..." "Oh, what the hell?" "Sheriff?" "Have you looked at your load lately?" "That is a damned outrage." "Oh." "One of those tiedowns worked lose." "How many bodies did you leave with?" "I ain't lost none of 'em, Sheriff." "Couldn't you all of took a van out there?" "Didn't have no van with four-wheel drive." "You going to write me up for improperly secured load?" "You get your ass out of here." "I'm guessin' this isn't the future you had pictured for yourself when you first clapped eyes on that money." "Don't worry." "I'm not the man that's after you." "I know." " I've seen him." " You've seen him?" "And you're not dead." "Is this guy supposed to be the ultimate bad-ass?" " I don't think that's how I'd describe him." " How would you describe him?" "I guess I'd say... he doesn't have a sense of humor." "His name is Chigurh." " Sugar?" " Chigurh." "Anton Chigurh." " You know how he found you?" " I know how he found me." " It's called a transponder." " I know what it is." "He won't find me again." " Not that way." " Not any way." " Took me about three hours." " Yeah, well, I've been immobile." "No." "You don't understand." " What do you do?" " I'm retired." "What did you do?" " Welder." " Acetylene?" "Mig?" "Tig?" "Any of it." "If it can be welded, I can weld it." " Cast iron?" " Yes." " I don't mean braze." " I didn't say braze." " Pot metal?" " What did I say?" "Were you in Nam?" "Yeah." "I was in Nam." "So was I." "So what does that make me, your buddy?" "Look, you gotta give me this money." "I got no other reason to protect you." "It's too late." "I spent it." "About a million and a half on whores and whiskey ...and the rest of it, I just sort of blew it here." "How do you know he's not on his way to Odessa?" " Why would he go to Odessa?" " To kill your wife." "Maybe he's the one who needs to be worried." " About me." " He isn't." "You're not cut out for this." "You're just a guy who happened to find those vehicles." "I'm across the river." "At the Hotel Eagle." "Carson Wells." "Call me when you've had enough." "I can even let you keep a little of the money." "If I was into cutting deals why wouldn't I just deal with this guy Chigurh?" "You don't understand." "You can't make a deal with him." "Even if you gave him the money back, he'd still kill you just for inconvenience in him." "He's a peculiar man." "Might even say he has principles." "Principles that transcend money or drugs or anything like that." "He's not like you." "He's not even like me." "He don't talk as much as you, I give him points for that." "Carla Jean." "Thank you for comin'." "Don't know why I did." "I told you, I don't know where he is." " You ain't heard from him?" " No I ain't." " Nothin'?" " Not word one." " Would you tell me if you had?" " Well, I don't know." " He don't need any trouble from you." " It ain't me he's in trouble with." " Who's he in trouble with then?" " Some pretty bad people." "These people will kill him, Carla Jean." "They won't quit." "He won't neither." "He never has." "He can take all comers." "You know Charlie Walser?" "He's got that place out east of Sanderson?" "Well you know how they used to slaughter beefs, hit 'em right there with a maul... .. truss 'em up and slit their throats?" "Here Charlie's got one all trussed up and all set to drain him and the beef comes to." "It starts thrashing around." "Six hundred pounds of very pissed-off livestock if you'll excuse me." "Charlie grabs his gun there to shoot the damn thing in the head but with all the swaying' and then the trashing' it's a glance-shot and ricochets around and comes back hits Charlie in the shoulder." "You go see Charlie... he still can't pick up his right hand for his hat..." "The point bein', even in the contest between man and steer the issue is not certain." "When Llewelyn calls, just tell him I'll make him safe." "Course they slaughter steers a lot different these days." "Use a air gun." "Shoots out a little rock, about that far into the brain." "Sucks right back in." "Animal never knows what hit him." " Why you telling me that, Sheriff?" " I don't know." "My mind wanders." "Hello, Carson." "Let's go to your room." "We don't have to do this." "I'm a daytrader." "I could just go home." "Why would I let you do that?" "I'll make it worth your while." "Take you to an ATM." "Fourteen grand in it." "And everybody just walks away." "An ATM..." " I know where the satchel is." " If you knew, you would have it with you." "Find it from the river bank." "I know where it is." "I know something better." " What's that?" " I know where it's going to be." " Where is that?" " It will be brought to me and placed at my feet." "You don't know to a certainty." "Twenty minutes it could be here." "I do know to a certainty." "And you know what's going to happen now, Carson?" "You should admit your situation." "There would be more dignity in it." "You go to hell." "Alright." "Let me ask you something." "If the rule you followed brought you to this of what use was the rule?" "Do you have any idea how crazy you are?" "You mean the nature of this conversation?" "I mean the nature of you." "You can have the money, Anton." "Hello?" "Yes?" "Is Carson Wells there?" "Not in the sense that you mean." "You need to come see me." "Who is this?" "You know who it is." "You need to talk to me." "I don't need to talk to you." "I think you do." "Do you know where I'm going?" "Why would I care where you're going." "I know where you are." "Yeah?" "Where am I?" "You're in a hospital across the river." "But that's not where I'm going." "Do you know where I'm going?" "Yeah." "I know where you're going." "Alright." "You know she won't be there." "It doesn't make any difference where she is." "So what're you going up there for?" "You know how this is going to turn out, don't you?" "No." "I think you do too." "So this is what I'll offer." "You bring me the money and I'll let her go." "Otherwise she's accountable." "Same as you." "That's the best deal you're going to get." "I won't tell you you can save yourself because you can't." "Yeah, I'm going to bring you somethin' alright." "I've decided to make you a special project of mine." "You ain't goin' to have to come look for me at all." " The motel in Del Rio?" " Yessir." "None of the three had ID on 'em but they're telling me that all three is Mexicans." "Was Mexicans." "There's a question." "Whether they stopped it?" "And when?" "Yessir." "Now, Wendell, did you inquire about the lock cylinder?" " Yessir." "It was punched out." " Okay." "You wanna drive out there?" "No, that's all I've to look for and it sounds like these old boys died of natural causes." "How's that, Sheriff?" "Natural to the line of work they was in." "Yessir." "My god, Wendell, it's just all-out war." "I can't think of any other word for it." "Who are these people?" "Here last week they found this couple out in California, they'd rent out rooms to old people." "Kill 'em, bury 'em in the yard and cash their social security checks." "They'd torture them first." "I don't know why." "Maybe their television set was broke." "And this went on until, and here I quote:" "Neighbors were alerted when a man ran from the premises wearing only a dog collar." "You can't make up such a thing as that." "I dare you to even try." "But that's what it took, you'll notice." "Get somebody's attention." "Digging graves in the back yard didn't bring any." "That's all right." "I laugh myself sometimes." "There ain't a whole lot else you can do." "Tell me something." "Who do you think gets through this gate into the United States of America?" "I don't know." "American citizens?" "Some American citizens." "Who do you think decides?" " Well, you do, I reckon." " That is correct." "How do I decide?" " I don't know." " I ask questions." "And if I get sensible answers then they get to go to America." "If I don't get sensible answers they don't." " Anything about that you don't understand?" " No sir." "Then I ask you again." "How you come to be out here with no clothes?" "I got an overcoat on." " Are you jackin' with me?" " Oh, no sir." " Don't jack with me." " Yes sir." " Are you in the service?" " No sir." "I'm a veteran." " Nam?" " Yes sir." "Two tours." "What outfit?" "Twelfth Infantry Battalion." "August 7th 1966 to July 2nd 1968." " Wilson!" " Yessir." "Get someone to help this man." "He needs to get into town." " How those Larries holding' up?" " Oh, good." " I need everything else." " Okay." "You have a lot of people come in here without any clothes on?" "No sir, it's unusual." "She don't want to talk to you." "Yes she does." "Put her on." "Do you know what time it is?" "I don't care what time it is." "And don't you hang up this phone." " Llewelyn." " Hey you." " What should I do?" " You know what's goin' on?" "I don't know, I had the sheriff here from Terrell County." "What did you tell him?" "What did I know to tell him?" "You're hurt, ain't you?" "What makes you say that?" "I can hear it in your voice." "There is falseness in his voice!" "Look, I want you to meet me at the Desert Sands motel in El Paso." "Cause I'm gonna give you the money and I'ma put you on a plane." "Llewelyn, I ain't gonna leave you in the lurch." "No." "This works better." "With you gone and I don't have the money, he can't touch me." "But I can sure touch him." "And after I find him I'll come and join you." "Find who?" "What am I supposed to do with Mother?" " Nah, she'll be alright." " She'll be alright?" "Be all right?" "!" "I've got the cancer!" "Ain't nobody's gonna bother her." "Who are you?" " Me?" " Yes." "Nobody." "Accounting." "He gave the Mexicans a receiver." "He feels... he felt that..." "the more people looking..." "That's foolish." "You pick the one right tool." "I see." "Are you going to shoot me?" "That depends." "Do you see me?" "I always seen this is what it would come to." "Three years ago I pre-visioned it." "It ain't even three years we been married." "Three years ago I said them very words." "No and Good." "Here we are." "Ninety degree heat." "I got the cancer." "And look at this." "Not even a home to go to." "We're goin' to El Paso Texas." "You know how many people I know in El Paso Texas?" " No ma'am." " That's how many." " I didn't see my Prednizone." " I put it in, Mama." " Well I didn't see it." " Well, I put it in." "That one." "You just set there." "I'll get tickets and a cart for the bags." "Do you need help with the bags, madam?" "Well, thank god there is one gentleman left in West Texas." "Yes, thank you." "I am old and I am not well." " Which bus are you taking?" " We're going to El Paso." "Don't ask me why." "It's not often you see a Mexican in a suit." "You go to El Paso?" "I know it." "Where are you staying?" "Carla Jean, how are you?" "Sheriff, was that a true story about Charlie Walser?" "Who's Charlie Walser?" "True story?" "I couldn't swear to ever detail but it's certainly true that it is a story." "Yeah, right." "Sheriff, can you give me your word on somethin'?" "Yes ma'am?" "If I tell you where Llewelyn's headed you promise it'll be just you goes and talks with him?" "You and nobody else." "Yes ma'am, I do." "Llewelyn would never ask for help." "He never thinks he needs any." "Carla Jean, I will not harm your man." "And he needs help, whether he knows it or not." "What's the problem there, neighbor?" "That'll suck some power." "Over time." " You from around here?" " Alpine." "Born and bred." "Here ya go." " What airport would you use?" " Well?" "Airport or airstrip?" " Airport." " Well, where ya goin'?" " I don't know." " Just lighting' out for the territories, huh?" "Brother, I been there." "Well..." "There's airstrips." "The airport is El Paso." "You want some place specific you might could be better off just drivin' to Dallas." "Not have to connect." " You gonna clamp them, buddy?" " Can you get those chicken crates out of the bed?" "What're you talkin' about?" " Hey." "Mr. Sporting Goods." " Hey yourself." "You a sport?" "Yeah, that's me." "I got beers in my room." "Waiting on my wife." " That's who you keep lookin' out the window for?" " Half." " What else then?" " Just lookin' for what's comin'." "Yeah, but no one ever sees that." "Beer." "That's what's comin'." "I'll bring the ice chest out here." "You can stay married." "No ma'am." "I know what beer leads to." "Beer leads to more beer." "Call police." "Your local law enforcement." "I'm not on their radio." "Buy you a cup of coffee before you drive home?" "No money in his room there?" "Couple hundred on his person." "Those hombres would've taken the stash." "I suppose so." "Though they was leavin' in a hurry." "It's all the goddamned money, Ed Tom." "The money and the drugs." "It's just goddamned beyond everything." "What's it mean?" "What's it leading to?" "You know, if you'd a told me twenty years ago, I'd see children walking... the streets of our Texas towns with green hair and bones in their noses." "I just flat out wouldn't of believed you." "Signs and wonders." "But I think once you quit hearing' sir and ma'am the rest is soon to follow." "Oh, it's the tide." "It's the dismal tide." " It is not the one thing." " Not the one thing." "None of that explains your man though." "He's just a goddamn homicidal lunatic, Ed Tom." " I'm not sure he's a lunatic." " Yeah well, what would you call him?" "I don't know." "Sometimes I think he's pretty much a ghost." " He's real all right." " Oh yeah?" "All that at the?" "Motel." "It's beyond everything." "Yeah, he has some hard bark on him." "That don't hardly say it." "He shoots the desk clerk one day." "Walks right back in the next and shoots a retired army colonel." "It's hard to believe." "Strolls right back into a crime scene." "Who would do such a thing?" "How do you defend against it?" "Good trip, Ed Tom." "I'm sorry we couldn't help your boy." "Min back!" " How'd you know I was here?" " Who else'd be driving up your truck?" " You heard it?" " How's that?" " You heard what I'm - you having fun with me?" " What give you that idea?" " I seen one of the cats heard it. - But - how'd you know it was my truck?" "I deduced it." "When you walked in." "How many of those things you got now?" "Cats?" "I don't know." "Several." "Well, it depends on what you mean by got." "Some of 'em are half-wild, and some of 'em are just outlaws." "How you been, Ellis?" "You lookin' at it." "I got to say you lookin' older." "I am older." "Got a letter from your wife." "She writes to me pretty regular, keep me up on the family news." " Didn't know there was any." " She told me you were quitting'." " You want a cup?" " 'Preciate it." "How fresh is that coffee?" "I generally make a fresh pot ever week even if there's some left over." "That man who shot you died in prison." "In Angola." "Yeah." "What would you a done if he'd been released?" "I don't know." "Nothin." "Wouldn't be no point to it." "I'm kindly surprised to hear you say that." "Well, all the time you spend tryin' to get back what's been took from you more is goin' out the door." "After a while, you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it." "Your granddaddy never asked me to sign on as a deputy." "Loretta tells me you're quitting'." "How come're you doin' that?" "I don't know." "I feel overmatched." "I always figured when I got older God would sort of come into my life in some way." "He didn't." "I don't blame him." "If I was him I'd have the same opinion about me that he does." "You don't know what he thinks." "I sent Uncle Mac's thumbbuster and badge over to the Rangers." "Put up in a museum." "Your daddy ever tell you how Uncle Mac come to his reward?" "Gunned down on his own porch over in Hudspeth County." "Seven or eight of 'em come up to here." "Wantin' this and wanting' that." "Uncle Mac went back in the house and got the shotgun..." "They was way ahead of him." "Shot him in the doorway." "Aunt Ella came out and tried to stop the bleedin'." "Uncle Mac all the while tryin' to get that shotgun." "They just sat there on their horses watching' him die." "After a while, one of 'em says something in Injun and they all turned and left out." "Well, Uncle Mac knew the score even if Aunt Ella didn't." "Shot through the left lung." "And that was that." "As they say." " When did he die?" " 1909." "No, I mean was it right away or in the night or when was it?" "I believe it's that night." "She buried him the next mornin'." "Diggin' in that hard old caliche." "What you got ain't nothing new." "This country is hard on people." "You can't stop what's comin'." "Ain't all waitin' on you." "That's vanity." " I knew this wasn't done with." " No." "I ain't got the money." "What little I had is long gone and there's bills aplenty to pay yet." "I buried my mother today." "I ain't paid for that neither." "I wouldn't worry about it." "I need to sit down." "You got no cause to hurt me." "No." "But I gave my word." " You gave your word?" " To your husband." "That don't make sense." "You gave your word to my husband to kill me?" "Your husband had the opportunity to save you." "Instead, he used you to try to save himself." "Not like that." "Not like you say." "You don't have to do this." "They'll always say the same thing." "What did they say?" "They say you don't have to do this." "You don't." "This is the best I can do." "Call it." "I knowed you was crazy when I saw you sittin' there." "I knowed exactly what was in store for me." " Call it." " No." "I ain't gonna call it." " Call it." " The coin don't have no say." "It's just you." "Well, I got here the same way the coin did." "Mister, there's a bone sticking' out of your arm." "I'm alright." "Let me just sit here a minute." "There's an ambulance comin'." "Man over yonder went to call." "Alright." "Are you all right?" "You got a bone sticking' out of your arm." "What will you take for that shirt?" "Hell mister, I'll give you my shirt." "Look at that fuckin' bone." "Tie this for me." "Just tie it." "Hell mister." "Look, I don't mind helping someone out." "That's a lot of money." "Take it." "Take it and you didn't see me." "I was already gone." "Yessir." " Part of that's mine." " You still got your damn shirt." " That ain't what it was for." " Well maybe, but I'm still out a shirt." " Maybe I'll go ridin'." " Okay." " What do you think?" " I can't plan your day." "I mean, would you care to join me?" "Lord no." "I'm not retired." "Maybe I'll help out here then." "Better not." " How'd you sleep?" " I don't know." "Had dreams." "Well you got time for 'em now." "Anything interesting?" "They always is to the party concerned." "Ed Tom, I'll be polite." "Okay." "Two of 'em." "Both had my father." "It's peculiar." "I'm older now than he ever was by twenty years." "So, in a sense he's the younger man." "Anyway, first one I don't remember too well but..." "It was about meeting him in town someplace where he gave me some money." "I think I lost it." "The second one, it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin' through the mountains of a night." "Goin' through this pass in the mountains." "It was cold and there's snow on the ground." "He rode past me and kept on goin'." "Never said nothing goin' by." "He just rode on past." "He had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down." "When he rode past I seen he was carrying fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it." "About the color of the moon." "And in the dream I knew that he was goin' on ahead... and that he's fixing to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold." "I knew that whenever I got there he'd be there." "Then, I woke up."