Billy nearly peed his pants. “I found the ring.”
His father yanked harder on the shirt and gave him a shake hard enough that his eyeballs seemed to rattle. “Yeah, you found it, all right. In some old lady’s dresser.”
“No!”
Another yank and this time his old man twisted on the fabric so that it tightened around Billy’s neck. “Don’t you lie to me.”
“I ain’t!” Billy insisted, gasping for breath. “I…I found the ring…Really…at that grave. Honest to God.”
His father’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “At the grave?”
“Yeah, it was there in the dirt and I…I took it. Didn’t figure it would harm nothin.’”
“But it weren’t yours and that’s tamperin’ with evidence or somethin’. Goddamn it, boy, I swear, sometimes you have shit for brains. You’re a fool. A damned, slow, sorry-assed fool! Hell.” Disgusted, he let go of the T-shirt and Billy coughed as he pulled in a lungful of air. “I s’pose you found that pipe there, too.”
The old man was baiting him. Billy didn’t fall for the trap. “No, sir.”
“It’s yours?”
“No…”
“I warned you. No lies.”
“It…belongs to one of my friends.”
“Which one?”
“I can’t say.”
“Oh, yeah, you can, and you will.” Big muscles bunched under his plaid shirt. Merle’s nostrils flared and his eyes were dark as the obsidian ring he wore. His fists curled, showing huge knuckles.
“Pa, please…”
“Who?”
Merle’s fists tightened.
“Crap.”
“You got a name for me, Billy?”
Billy Dean swallowed hard and lied through his teeth. “It’s Preston’s, Pa.”
Merle’s jaw worked. “Shoulda known,” he muttered. Sighing, he relaxed his hands. “Well, I s’pose that boy has all the trouble he needs right now, all busted up in the hospital the way he is. The good Lord saw fit to punish him right. But what about you and what’re we gonna do ’bout this here ring?”
“I dunno.”
“What say we call the sheriff’s department in the morning?”
“If we have ta.”
“Don’t you think it would be the right thing to do?”
Billy Dean nodded. Felt bad about lying about Preston but figured it didn’t hurt anything.
“Thought so.” His old man pocketed the ring and winked before shutting off the light. “G’night, boy.”
“Night, Pa,” Billy Dean said, and as the door closed, he pounded his fist into his pillow. He shoulda sold that ring right away, gotten rid of it and made a few bucks. As it was now, he was shit outta luck. Seemed as if his old man was right. He was a damned fool.