“I’m sick of her being so high-and-mighty. When we tell her about Odell and Betty Jean, let me do most of the talking. And before we do that, I’m going to practice everything I want to say. That way I won’t forget nothing.”

Milton blinked and scratched his chin. “Where do you think we should tell her at?”

“It don’t make no difference where.”

“Yes, it do. We can’t tell her over here. She might go berserk and scream her head off. If guests show up before we can hush her up, we’d have some explaining to do. A outburst like that could spook folks.”

One reason Milton made a better criminal than me was because he always thought things through more than I did. “I hadn’t thought about that. What if we go to her job and tell her there?”

Milton rolled his eyes. “What’s wrong with you? With all them teachers and uppity school folks in the mix, that would be even worse. I think we should just go over to her house one day. It’d have to be a weekend when Odell ain’t there. If she gets hysterical and her body shuts down, she’ll be in the comfort of her own home.”

I blew out some air and shook my head. “What if she don’t believe us? We ain’t got no proof.”

A concerned look crossed Milton’s face. “Hmmm. That’s a good point. Odell got her so dick-lashed, all he’d have to do is deny everything. She’d probably believe him over us.”

“No matter what she believes, our relationship with them would be over.”

“Humph. Our relationship with them was over the day Odell made that call to Sheriff Potts. We’ll just continue to act normal, and keep everything on the back burner until we get paid.” Milton sighed and picked up another chicken foot. I was surprised to see such a miserable look on his face now. “I had such high hopes. I thought that by associating with them, we’d learn how to be more polished and mellow. I never thought we would end this way.”

“Well, one good thing that came out of this mess is that we’ll get the money we need to pay off Lamar,” I reminded him.

Milton narrowed his eyes and wagged the chicken foot he was about to clean in my face. “That’s so true.”

“What happens after we get it?”

“We’ll give it to Willie Frank, and he can give it to his uncle Lamar.”

“What I meant was, what’ll happen after we pay that off?”

“Yvonne, I ain’t following you. The important thing is, we’ll be in the clear.”

“With Lamar, yes. But we’ll still be in a hole.”