“Those credit cards’ll get you if you don’t watch out. I hope you’re not getting in too deep.”

Jim, who had just completed an Air Force course in interrogation techniques, decided to put his skill to use now to help his brother. If he could get him to talk about it, admit he was wrong, maybe there would still be a way to keep him from going to prison.

“Carrying credit cards around is dangerous,” Jim said. “People steal ’em and bust ’em, and you’re stuck with paying—” “Aw, there’s a fifty-dollar liability. After that, it’s the company gets stuck. They can afford it.”

“Like I’ve been reading in the papers,” Jim said, “about these people who got held up in the roadside-rest areas, had their credit cards stolen. I mean, you know, it could happen to you.”

Jim saw the strange look in Billy’s eyes, a clouding over, tracelike. It reminded him of the way Chalmer Milligan would look before he went into one of his violent fits of rage.

“Hey, you all right?”

Kevin looked up at him and wondered what Jim was doing here, how long he had been in the apartment. He glanced quickly at his new watch. Nine forty-five. “What?” asked Kevin.

“I said, ‘Are you all right?’”

“Sure. Why shouldn’t I be?”

“I was telling you to be careful with credit cards. You know, all these holdups at roadside-rest areas and stuff”

“Yeah, I read about it.”

“I’ve heard that some of those guys who were robbed were homosexuals.”

“Yeah. They deserved it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why should them faggots have all that money and stuff?” “But whoever did it has got to be careful. There’s a long prison sentence attached to that kind of thing.”

Kevin shrugged. “They’d have to find the guys. They’d have to prove it.”

“Well, for example, you’ve got a sword on your wall just like the one the guys described.”

“They can’t tie that sword in with the one that was there.” “Maybe so, but there was also a gun used in the robbery.” “Hey, I didn’t hold no piece. They can’t get me.”

“Yeah, but they’ll nail the other guy, and then whoever was in on it with him will take the fall just as well.”

“They can’t connect me with it,” Kevin insisted. “It’s not the kind of thing the fags are gonna press charges about. There aren’t any fingerprints or anything like that.”

Kathy came down and sat with them a few minutes. When Billy went upstairs to the bathroom, she handed Jim what she had found.

“Jesus Christ,” Jim muttered. “All these credit cards with different names on them. How the hell are we going to get him out of this one?”

“We’ve got to help him, Jim. That isn’t like Billy.”

“I know. Maybe the only thing is to confront him directly.” When Kevin came back downstairs, Jim showed him the credit cards. “This is what I meant, Billy. You did those robberies, and you’ve got the evidence right here in your own , apartment.”