(3)

Tommy put up a Christmas tree, strung the lights and put out the presents he’d made for Marlene and the family. He looked

forward to going over to Spring Street later to see Mom, Del, Kathy and her boyfriend Rob.

The early evening at Spring Street went well until Rob and Kathy came into the living room and Kevin found himself on the spot.

“Hey, that’s a good-looking leather jacket,” Rob said. “And I noticed you’re wearing a new Seiko.”

Kevin held the watch up. “Best there is.”

“I’ve been wondering about that, Billy,” Kathy said. “You haven’t been making that much at Anchor Hocking. Where are you getting the money?”

Kevin smiled. “I’ve discovered the perfect crime.”

Kathy looked up at him quickly. She felt there was something different again, that sneering, cold-blooded attitude. “What are you talking about?”

“I ripped off some fags at a roadside rest. No way they could ever find out who did it. Didn’t leave any fingerprints or anything. And those guys won’t even dare complain to the cops. Got money and credit cards.” He held up the watch.

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It wasn’t like Billy to talk that way. “You’re joking, aren’t you?”

He smiled and shrugged. “Maybe I am and maybe I’m not.” When Del and Dorothy came in, Kathy excused herself and went out to the hall closet. Finding nothing in his new leather jacket, she went out to the Car. Sure enough, there was a wallet in the glove compartment. There were also credit cards, a driver’s license and the identification of a male nurse. So he hadn’t been joking after all. She sat in the car for a while, wondering what to do. She put the wallet into her purse and decided she had to talk to someone.

After Billy left, she showed her mother and Del what she had found.

“God Almighty,” Dorothy said. “I can’t believe it.”

Del looked at the wallet. “Why not? I believe it. Now we know how he’s been buying all this stuff.”

“You’ve got to call Jim,” Kathy said. “He’s got to come home and see what he can do to straighten Billy out. I have some money in the bank. I’ll pay his plane fare.”

Dorothy made the long-distance call and begged Jim to take an emergency leave to come home. “Your brother’s in trouble.

He’s into something very bad, and if he can’t get it straight, I think we’ll have to go to the police.”

Jim applied for emergency leave from the Air Force and came home two days before Christmas. Del and Dorothy showed him the wallet and the clippings from the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette about the roadside-rest robberies.

“You got to see what you can do with him,” Del said to Jim. “God knows, I’ve tried to be like a father to him. I thought for a time after Zanesville that Billy could take the place of my own boy—rest his soul—but Billy won’t let no one tell him nothing.”