My heart just about dropped down to my toes. There was no use in me lying, not that it mattered anyway. Milton and Yvonne was going to die regardless, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them telling nobody else. And I wasn’t going to worry about Willie Frank spreading that information right now. If it came up, I’d figure out a way to deal with him. For now, it was more important to take care of the main source of my problem. “Who told y’all I made that call?” I asked with my voice cracking.

“Your dumb ass told on yourself when you mentioned it to Joyce. She blabbed it over here one night.”

“My wife told on me?” I was so stupefied, I almost lost my train of thought. Shoot. Now I had to wonder what else was going on in Joyce’s head.

“You ain’t got to worry about her, though. All she done was repeat some information you shared with her. She didn’t have no idea what she was saying. And Yvonne heard you tell Dr. Patterson exactly how long it took for the sheriff to get over here after he got the call. Eight minutes? How did you know that, too?”

I was shaking like a sumac leaf. The hole I was in was turning into a bottomless pit. I wondered how Milton and Yvonne had managed to keep this information to themselves so long. “All right. What if I did make that call? It didn’t work and that’s why I’m here now. How long did you think I was going to let you and Yvonne keep taking my money?”

“Well, breaking into my house will be your last mistake.” He stood wide-legged and waved the knife some more. “Yvonne, Yvonne, wake up!” He roared so loud, I was surprised the windows didn’t shatter. With his eyes narrowed, he sneered. “Listen up, Romeo, I got another humdinger of a thing to tell you that you—” I didn’t let him finish. I didn’t want to waste no more time. He’d already said enough to make my blood boil. I threw the hammer at his hand holding the knife, and it fell to the floor. I shot across the floor, picked up my hammer, and bum-rushed him so fast he didn’t have time to react. I bashed his head until he fell and stopped moving.

A few seconds later, Yvonne stumbled into the kitchen. “What—Odell, what in the world did you do to my husband?”

“The same thing I’m fixing to do to you, bitch!” I shouted. She snatched a sugar bowl off the table, threw it at me and missed. I ran up to her and slapped her face as hard as I could. She took off running toward the living room, and I was right behind her.