Pete's mother had consented to let him return to Temple's house for the next few days. That night we ate at a cafeteria, then I dropped them off and parked my car in back, turned on the flood lamps in the yard, poured some oats in Beau's stall, and walked all the way around the outside of the house with L.Q.' s .45 revolver under my raincoat.
Then I fell asleep on the third floor, with Great-grandpa Sam's journal open in my lap, an illogical image of torn steel cable and roaring car engines threading in and out of my dreams.
Bunny Vogel was dressed in a brown suit and sandals and a wash-faded pink golf shirt when he took the stand. He kept scratching his face with four fingers, as though an insect had burrowed into his cheek, and staring out into the courtroom, as though looking for someone who should have been there but wasn't.
I walked toward the jury box so Bunny would either have to face them when he answered my questions, or avert his eyes or drop his head. It wasn't a kind thing to do.
'Did you sleep with Roseanne Hazlitt, Bunny?' I asked.
'We went out in high school.'
'Did you sleep with her?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Would you say you loved her?'
'Yeah, I reckon. I mean, the way kids do.'
'You were a senior and she was only fifteen when y'all met, is that right?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Was she a virgin?'
'She told me she wasn't.'
'You found out different, though, didn't you?'
He knitted his fingers together, glanced out at the courtroom, at the Vanzandts, the boys he had played football with, the Mexican girl he dated now, at the few empty seats in back where maybe his father would come in late and sit down.
'Bunny?'
'Yes, sir, I found out I was the first,' he said.
'You hurt her, didn't you? You thought you should take her to a hospital?'
'Yes, sir.'
'But not in the county where people might know you?'
He turned his head away from the jury and cleared his throat. 'That's right,' he said.
'The witness will speak up,' the judge said.
'I was afraid. She was underage,' Bunny said. He pushed himself up in the chair and rubbed his hand on the back of his neck.
'Then you went to A&M and dumped her?' I said.
'She didn't lack for boyfriends. She found some a whole lot better than me.'
'Did you punch out Virgil Morales at Shorty's?'
'Yeah, we got a bad history.'
'He called you a pimp?'
Bunny's right hand squeezed on his thigh. He ran his tongue over his lips. 'Yeah, that's what he did,' he said.