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Back We Were Killers Once Save as PDF
Chapters (65)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty–one
  25. Twenty–two
  26. Twenty–three
  27. Twenty–four
  28. Twenty–five
  29. Twenty–six
  30. Twenty–seven
  31. Twenty–eight
  32. Twenty–nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty–one
  35. Thirty–two
  36. Thirty–three
  37. Thirty–four
  38. Thirty–five
  39. Thirty–six
  40. Thirty–seven
  41. Thirty–eight
  42. Thirty–nine
  43. Forty
  44. Forty–one
  45. Forty–two
  46. Forty–three
  47. Forty–four
  48. Forty–five
  49. Forty–six
  50. Forty–seven
  51. Forty–eight
  52. Forty–nine
  53. Fifty
  54. Fifty–one
  55. Fifty–two
  56. Fifty–three
  57. Fifty–four
  58. Fifty–five
  59. Fifty–six
  60. Fifty–seven
  61. Author’s Note
  62. Acknowledgments
  63. Also by Becky Masterman
  64. About the Author
  65. Newsletter Sign-up

The kid started up the humming and popping again and that was when he caught my eyes in the rearview mirror. I tell you, I was afraid to turn around and afraid not to turn around, the way you are when you know there’s a mean dog behind you. Will you set it off if you pretend to ignore it? Will you set it off if you turn around and let it know you know it’s there? I didn’t turn around, but finally put the car in gear and headed on. It is true there were bottles out in that field. I can still picture them glittering like a pond in the sunlight, and that old man sitting among them, dazed like he still did not understand what was happening, and looking like he was treading water.

You know where this is going. When we got to Emporia where I wanted to get some supplies for the job, I again said this is where we drop off the kid. And the kid said, you know you missed the turn for Tulsa a while back there. I know because we came through it. Where are you really going? He refused to get out of the car and Perry refused to come with me if he did. Perry seemed to be enjoying the whole thing. I even thought maybe that this was Perry’s way of avoiding doing the job altogether. But I kept on. I picked up some duct tape that we would need at a shop and we headed on.

Now I did not know what would happen. With about a hundred miles left to go before we would reach the Clutter place, we stopped in Great Bend for dinner. It was a good meal with steak and all, because we had all the money we collected from the bottles. Perry started to talk. He told the boy about how he and I were in prison at the same time, and how I had come to him with a story I had heard from another prisoner.

Tell him, Perry said. You tell it.

You shut the fuck up, Perry, I said.

Perry would not shut up. He told the boy how I was in for grand larceny and Perry was in at the same time for something I cannot now remember. Perry told the kid the same story he had told me, where he had killed a man in Las Vegas with a bicycle chain. He watched the kid as he told the story, as if he was looking to see how the kid would react. Kid leaves his grandfather to die in the elements, what did Perry expect? The kid did not look shocked. The kid hardly looked interested. But he did look at Perry with more interest than he looked at me, and I started to wonder who was heading this operation anyway.