Sheriff Potts came back about fifteen minutes later, looking even more bored. “Well now, I got a mess on my hands. From the looks of things over there, a maniac is on the loose. Odell’s blood trail starts next door, so that’s where he was attacked.” He snapped his fingers at Mama. “Millie, get me a glass of water.” In the same breath he added, “I don’t know if the perpetrator broke in, or if them bootleggers let him in. It was more than likely somebody who had been at the house drinking earlier and when things winded down, he lagged behind. Odell entered at some point or was already there when the mayhem started. I’ll have to figure out them bootleggers’ role in this mess.”

“You think Yvonne and Milton killed Odell? Lord, Lord, Lord. They was some of his best friends. Umpossible. That’s absolutely umpossible,” Daddy insisted, wobbling up off the couch. “They was heathens, but they wasn’t killers. They didn’t do it.”

“Well, somebody killed Odell. From what I can make out based on the evidence I seen, I suspect some joker attempted to rob Yvonne and Milton and things got out of hand. The bedroom was ransacked, and the living room is a wreck. Things was knocked over, blood’s all over the kitchen and living room floors. Odell managed to get out after he got stabbed and made it to his car, which for some mysterious reason he’d parked a couple of blocks down the street. I know that because he left a mess of blood leading to it, too. The culprit got away without leaving a trace. The only blood trail I seen leading from the house next door to Odell’s car was his. He must have been out of his head and didn’t know what he was doing. He drives his car home, gets out, and staggers into his own house.”

I had never heard such a convoluted story before in my life. Nothing was making sense to me. “Well, what did Yvonne and Milton tell you, Sheriff Potts? If they were there, they have to know who stabbed Odell and why,” I wailed. I had to be careful what I said. If I confessed to my actions after Odell got home, Sheriff Potts wouldn’t waste any time putting handcuffs on me. I’d had enough bombshells dropped on me, so I was going to stick to my original story.