“Maybe Sheriff Potts mentioned it to one of his deputies, and they ran into Odell in the store, or somewhere else, and told him,” I suggested. The last thing I wanted us to have to deal with on top of everything else, was a Judas goat. I knew Odell was a lying, cheating dog, but I never thought he’d stoop low enough to try and get us sent back to prison—or killed. But that was what it sounded like he’d done. The reality hit me like a ton of rocks. “Lord have mercy,” I mouthed, shaking my head so hard a bobby pin fell out of my hair. “Well, the only way we can know for sure is to ask Odell.”

“Pffft. If he did do it, do you think he’d be man enough to admit it? Lying is all part of being a backstabber!” Willie Frank barked, swirling his finger in the air. In all the years we’d known him, I had never seen him this upset and angry. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this mess. I’ll pay Sheriff Potts a visit and fish around and see if I can get him to tell me what he told Odell.”

“Then what?” Milton asked.

“If the sheriff says he didn’t, then we’ll decide what to do about it.” Willie Frank sucked in a deep breath and rubbed the back of his head. “We can’t accuse a upstanding man like Odell of something that serious. Y’all was innocent, so y’all know how much it hurts to be blamed for something you didn’t do.” Willie Frank reached in his pocket and pulled out the keys to his truck. “I’m going to go to the sheriff’s office right now and ask him flat out if he mentioned where he got the call to somebody else. Y’all want to come with me?”

“Hell no!” I boomed. I stamped my foot so hard, the lamp on the end table rattled. “We’ll stay put until you get back. We must be the last colored people on the planet that cracker wants to see these days.”

“All right then. I’ll be back directly.” Willie Frank looked toward the door. “Uh, if Odell was to slide through here while I’m gone, don’t let on that we know nothing.”

“Oh, we ain’t got to worry about him coming today. This is Saturday. He’ll be with his sick daddy until tomorrow,” I said with a sneer.