"No country for old men" "I was sheriff of this county when I was 25 years old." "Hard to believe." "Grandfather was a lawman." "Father too." "Me and him was sheriffs 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." "Lot of folks find that hard to believe." "Jim Scarborough never carried one." "That's the younger Jim." "Gaston Boykins wouldn't wear one." "Up in Commanche County." "I always liked to hear about the oldtimers." "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 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 somebody for about as long as he could remember." "Said that if I 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." "Man have to put his soul at hazard." "He get to say:" "OK," "I'll be part of this world." "Yessir, I just walked in the door." "Sheriff, he had some sort of a thing on him like oxygen tank for emphysema or something." "What?" "And a hose that runs down his sleeve." "Oxygen tank?" "What the hell is that for?" "You got me." "You can look into it when you get in." "Yessir I got it under controll." "Howdy." "What's this about?" "Step out of the car please, sir." "What is that?" "I need you to step out of the car, sir." "What is that for?" "Would you hold still please, sir." "Hold still." "Shit." "Agua..." "Agua, por Dios." "Agua..." "Ain't got no water." "Agua..." "I told you 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 did he go?" "I reckon I'd go out the way I came in." "Close the door..." "lobos..." "There are no lobos." "If you stopped to watch your backtrack, you'll shoot my dumb ass." "Where did you stop?" "You stopped in shade." "What's there 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." "Llewelyn..." "What?" "Quit hollerin." "What'd you give for that thing?" "You don't need to know everything, Carla Jean." "I need to know that." "Run that mouth of yours and 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." "All right." "Llewelyn?" "Yeah?" "What are you doin, baby?" "Goin out." "Goin where?" "Somethin I forgot to do, but I'll be back." "What're you gonna do?" "I'm fixin to do somethin dumbern hell but I'm goin anyways." "If I don't come back tell mother I love her." "Your mother's dead, Llewelyn." "Well than I'll tell her myself." "There he is!" "He's down there." "How much?" "69 cent." "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 nothin by it." "Didn't mean nothin." "Just passin the time." "If you don't wanna accept that, I don't know what else I can do for you." "Will there be somethin else?" "I don't know." "Will there?" "Is somethin wrong?" "With what?" "With anything." "Is that what you're asking me?" "Is there something wrong with anything?" "Will it be anything else?" "You already asked me that." "Well..." "I need to see about closing." "See about closing." "Yessir." "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 nine-thirty." "I'd say around nine-thirty." "I could come back then." "Why would you be comin back?" "We'll be closed." "Yeah, you said that." "Well..." "I got to close now." "You live in that house out back?" "Yes, I do." "You've lived here all your life?" "This was my wife's father's place." "Originally." "You married into it." "We lived in Temple Texas for many years." "Raised a family there." "In Templeu." "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 on a coin toss?" "Sir?" "The most." "You ever lost." "On 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 callin it for here." "You need to call it." "I can't call it for you, it wouldn't be fair." "I didn't put nothin up." "Yes you did." "You 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 22 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." "All right." "Heads then." "Well done." "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 get 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." "You stay with your mother." "Well, how come?" "Right now it's midnight Sunday." "Courthouse opens 9 hours from now." "Someone's gonna be callin in the vehicle number on the inspection plate on my truck." "And around 9:30 they'll show up here." "So... for how long do we have to..." "Baby, at what point would you quit bothering to look for your two million $?" "What'm I supposed to tell mama?" "Try standing' in the door and hollerin:" "Mama I'm home." "Llewelyn..." "C'mon, pack your things." "Anything you leave you ain't gonna see again." "Well... don't fall down apologizing." "Baby, things happened." "I can't take 'em back." "Mind riding' bitch?" "Is this his truck?" "Aha." "Got a screwgie?" "Who cut his tires?" "Mexicans, I guess." "Wasn't us." "That's a dead dog." "Yes, it is." "Where is a receiver?" "I got it." "These are some ripe petunias." "Hold this, please." "You want it?" "You getting anything on this?" "Not a bleep." "All right..." "Give me that." "I thought it was a car afire." "It is a car afire." "Wendell said there was something in the back country too." "When is the county gonna start payin a rental on my horse." "I love you more'n 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'd burn like that." "Yessir." "We should've brought weeners." "Does 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?" "Yessir, his vehicle." "Man killed Lamar's deputy, 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." "Old age flattens a man, Wendell." "Yes sir." "Then there's this other." "You ride Winston." "You sure?" "Oh, I'm more than sure." "If anything happens to Loretta's horse I can tell you right now," "I don't wanna be the party that was aboard." "It's the same tire tread comin back as goin." "Made about the same time, too." "You can see the sipes real clear." "Somebody pried the inspection plate off the door on this one." "I know this truck." "Belongs to a feller 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 Corall is just yonder." "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 milimeter." "Couple of .45" "ACP's..." "Somebody unloaded on that thing with a shotgun." "How come do you reckon the coyote ain't been at 'em?" "I don't know..." "Supposedly coyote won't eat a mexican." "These boys appear to be managerial." "I think we're lookin at more than one fracas." "Execution here, wild west over there." "That's mexican brown dope." "Oh, these boys is all swole up." "So, this was earlier: getting set to trade." "Then, whoa, differences..." "You know, it might not even been no money." "It's possible." "But you don't believe it." "No." "Probably I don't." "It's a mess, ain't it Sheriff?" "If it ain't, it will do till a mess gets here." "Yes sir?" "I'm looking for Llewelyn Moss." "Did you go up to his trailer?" "Yes I did." "Well I'd say he's at work." "Do you wanna 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." "I'll call you in a couple od days." "Promise?" "Yes I do." "I got a bad feelin, 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 cuss you up'n down." "You should be used to that." "I'm used to lots of things," "I work at Wal-Mart." "Not anymore, Carla Jean." "You're retired." "Llewelyn..." "Yes ma'am?" "You are comin 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 hidin 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?" "Stil sweating." "Whoa!" "Sheriff!" "We just missed him!" "We gotta circulate this!" "On the radio!" "All right... what do we circulate?" "Lookin for a man who has recently drunk milk?" "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?" "Some place cheap." "You tell me the option." "The what?" "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 Salamores, I'm not here right now, please leave a message." "Hallo?" "Is Llewelyn there?" "Llewelyn?" "!" "No he ain't." "You expect him?" "Now why would I expect him?" "Who is 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 want to get in some kind of a jackpot here, buddy." "It's all right." "Why don't I set you down 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." "Take me to another motel." "Lab reports from Austin on that boy by the highway." "What was the bullet?" "Wasn't no bullet." "Wasn't no bullet?" "Yessir, 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." "You telling me he shot this boy in the head and then went digging around in there with a pocket knife?" "Oh, sir, I don't wanna picture that." "I don't either!" "Can I freshen that there for you Sheriff?" "Yeah Noreen, you better had." "The Rangers and 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." "You got camping supplies?" "Tent poles?" "Uh-huh." "You already have the 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." "What kind of tent?" "The kind with most poles." "Could I get another room." "You want to change rooms?" "No ma'am, I want to keep my room, and get another one." "Another additional?" "And do you have a map of the rooms?" "Yeah we had a sorta one." "Thank you." "How about 38?" "Well you can have the one right next to yours if you want." "Number 137, it ain't took." "No, 38 would be fine." "That's got two double beds." "Don't kill me." "How'd you find it?" "Don't kill me." "Shouldn't be doin that." "Even a young man like you." "Doin what?" "Hitchhikin." "Dangerous." "You know Anton Chigurh by sight, is that correct?" "Yessir, I know him every which way." "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 1200 dollars in any 24 hour period." "That's up from a thousand." "If your expenses run higher I hope you'll trust us for it." "OK." "Just how well do you know Chigurh?" "What do you wanna know?" "I just wanna know your opinion of him." "In general." "Just how dangerous is he?" "Compared to what?" "The bubonic plague?" "He's bad enough you called me." "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 at 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 you validate my parking ticket?" "An attempt at humor, I suppose." "I'm sorry." "You know, I... counted the floors of this building from the street." "And?" "There's one missing." "We'll look into it." "One room, one night." "That'll be 26 dollars." "You on all night?" "Yessir, I'll be right here till ten o'clock in the morning." "This is for you." "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." "I ain't gonna hurt you." "I need you to drive me on out of here." "Were you in a car accident?" "I'll give you 500 bucks for that coat." "Let me see the money." "Were you in a car accident?" "Yeah." "Hey, give me the money." "It's right here." "Gimme the clothes." "Let him hold the money." "Give me that beer too." "How much?" "Brian, give him the beer." "I need a doctor..." "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 has been dead 20 years." "Do you want me to see what I can 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, wanted to know if you wanted to go with him." "That's cordial of him." "Can I get you to call Loretta for me, tell her I've gone 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 til you've quit the building?" "Aha." "Don't wanna lie without what it's absolutely necessary." "What is it that Torbert says about truth and justice?" "We dedicate ourselves daily anew." "Something like that." "I'm goin to commence dedicating myself twice daily." "It may come to three times before it's over with." "What the hell?" "Sheriff?" "Have you looked at your load lately?" "That is a damned outrage." "One of the tiedowns worked lose." "How many bodies did you leave with?" "I ain't lost none of 'em, Sheriff." "Couldn't you all of taken a van out there?" "We had no van with four-wheel drive." "You going to write me up for improperly secured load?" "You get your ass outta here." "Buenos dias." "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 who's after you." "I know that, I've seen him." "You've seen him." "And you're not dead." "What 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?" "Yeah I know how he found me." "It's called a transponder." "I know what it's called." "He won't find me again." "Not that way." "Not any way." "Took me about three hours." "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?" "Yep." "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've 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." "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 Sugar?" "No no." "No." "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 for him." "He's a peculiar man." "You might even say that 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, who's got that place east of Sanderson?" "Well you know how they used to slaughter beeves;" "hit 'em right there with a maul, truss 'em up and slit their throats?" "Well here Charlie has one 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 what with the swingin and the thrashing it's a glance-shot, 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." "Point bein, even in the contest between man and steer, the issue is not certain." "When Llewelyn calls, just tell him I can make him safe." "Course, they slaughter steers a lot different these days." "Use an air gun... shoots out a little rod about that far into the brain sucks right back in, the 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." "You don't have to do this." "I'm a day-trader." "I could just go home." "Let you go?" "It'd be worth your while." "Take you to the ATM, there's 14 grand in it." "And everybody just walks away." "An ATM?" "I know where the sachel is." "If you knew, you would have it with you." "I found 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 under my feet." "You don't know to a certainty." "20 minutes it could be here." "I do know to a certainty." "And you know what's gonna happen now, Carson." "You should admit your situation." "There would be more dignity in it." "You go to hell." "All right." "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." "Hallo?" "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." "All right." "You know she won't be there." "It doesn't make any difference where she is." "So what're you goin up there for?" "You know how this is gonna turn out, don't you?" "No." "I think you do." "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 gonna get." "I won't tell you you can save yourself because you can't." "Yeah I'm gonna bring you somethin all right." "I've decided to make you a special project of mine." "You ain't goin to have to look for me at all." "The motel in Del Rio?" "Yes sir." "None of the three had ID on 'em but they're tellin me all three is mexicans." "Was mexicans." "There's a question." "Whether they stopped being." "And when." "Yes sir." "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'd be lookin for, and sounds like these old boys died of natural causes." "How's that, Sheriff?" "Natural to the line of work they was in." "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 rent out rooms to old people, kill 'em, bury 'em in the yard, 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."" "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." "Diggin graves in the back yard didn't bring any." "Oh, 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 USA?" "I don't know... american citizens?" "Some american citizens." "Who do you think decides?" "You do, I reckon." "That is correct." "And how do I decide?" "I don't know." "I ask questions." "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?" "No sir." "Don't jack with me." "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?" "Good." "I need everything else." "Okay." "You get 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." "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." "Look I want you to meet me at the Desert Sands motel in El Paso." "I'm gonna give you the money and I'm gonna 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." "After I find him I'll come and join you." "Find who?" "What am I supposed to do with mother?" "She'll be all right." "She'll be all right?" "Be all right?" "I've got the cancer!" "Ain't anybody 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..." "You goin to shoot me?" "That depends." "Do you see me?" "I always seen this is what it'd come to." "Three years ago I pre-visioned it." "It ain't even three years we've been married." "Three years ago I said them very words." "No and Good." "Here we are. 90 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 sit there." "I'll get tickets and a cart for the bags." "Do you need help with the bags, madam?" "Well by god there's one gentleman left in West Texas." "Yes thank you." "I am old and I am not well." "Which bus are you taking?" "Goin 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?" "Oh..." "True story?" "I couldn't swear to every 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 who 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?" "Yeah, that'll suck some power." "Over time." "Are you from around here?" "Alpine." "Born 'n bred." "Here ya go." "What airport would you use?" "Airport or air strip?" "Airport." "Well... where ya goin?" "I don't know." "Just lighting out for the territories?" "Brother, I've 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?" "That's me." "I got beers in my room." "I'm waiting on my wife." "Oh." "That's who you keep lookin out the window for?" "Half." "What else then?" "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 the police." "Llama la policia." "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?" "If you'd a told me 20 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 have believed you." "Signs and wonders." "But I think once you quit hearing' sir and madam the rest is soon to follow." "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 is just a goddamn homicidal lunatic, Ed Tom." "I'm not sure he's a lunatic." "Well what would you call him." "Sometimes I think he's pretty much a ghost." "He's real all right." "Oh yes." "All that over at the Eagle hotel, it's just beyond everything." "Yes, he has some hard bark on him." "That don't hardly say it." "He shoots the desk clerk one day, and walks right back in the next and shoots a retired army colonel." "Hard to believe." "Strolls right back into a crime scene." "Who would do such a thing?" "How do you defend against it?" "Well... good trip Ed Tom." "I'm sorry we couldn't help your boy." "I'm in back!" "How'd you know I was here?" "Who else'd be drivin up your truck." "You heard it?" "How's that?" "You heard my... ..you havin fun with me?" "What give you that idea." "I seen one of the cats heard it." "How did you know it was my truck?" "I deduced it, when you walked in." "How many of them things you got now?" "Cats?" "I don't know... several." "Depends on what you mean by 'got'." "Some of them are half-wild, and some of them are just outlaws." "How you been, Ellis?" "You're lookin at it." "I got to say... you're looking older." "I am older." "Got a letter from your wife." "She writes me pretty regulary, keepin me up on the family news." "Didn't know there was any." "Told me you're quitting." "You want a cup?" "Appreciate it." "How fresh is that coffee?" "I generally make a fresh pot every week even if there's some left over." "That man that shot you died in prison." "In Angola." "Yeah." "What would you've done if he'd been released?" "Oh, I don't know." "Nothin." "Wouldn't be no point to it." "I'm kindly surprised to hear you say that." "All the time you spend tryin to get back what's been took from you, more's goin out the door." "After a while you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it." "Your granddad never asked me to sign on as a deputy." "Loretta tells me you're quitting." "How come you're doin that?" "I don't know." "I feel overmatched." "I always figured when I got older God would... sorta 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 into their museum." "Did your daddy ever tell you how uncle Mac come to his reward?" "Gunned down on his own porch, over in Hudspeth County." "7 or 8 of 'em come up there." "Wantin this and wanting that." "Uncle Mac went back into the house to get the shotgun, they was ahead of him." "Shot him in his 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, watchin him die." "After a while, one of 'em said something in indian and they turned, left out." "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?" "Nineteen zero and nine." "No, I mean was it right away or in the night or when was it." "I believe it was that night." "She buried him the next mornin." "Diggin in that hard old caliche." "What you got ain't nothin 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." "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." "People always say the same thing." "What do they say?" "They say... "you don't have to do this."" "You don't." "Okay." "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." "I got here the same way the coin did." "Mister, there's a bone sticking out of your arm." "I'm all right." "Let me just sit here a minute." "There's an ambulance comin." "Man over yonder went to call." "All right." "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, I don't mind helping someone out." "It's a lot of money." "Take it." "Take it and you didn't see me." "I was already gone." "Yes sir." "You know part of that's mine." "You still got your damn shirt." "That ain't what it was for." "Maybe, but I'm still outta 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 you 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." "All right then." "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 somewhere, and 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 it was snow on the ground." "He rode past me and kept on goin." "Never said nothin goin by, just rode on past." "He had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down." "When he rode past I seen he was carryin 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 was fixin to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold." "And I knew that whenever I got there he'd be there." "Then I woke up." "Transcript AP"