Right from the start Perry and I had agreed that we would split up after the robbery, and then get back together to leave Kansas. If Perry told Capote that we decided to stay together in case we were picked up, that that way we could back up each other’s story, that part is true. For now, we were going to leave town together and I wanted to see my parents one last time. They are good people. Were good people. Mom is still alive but Dad is gone.

After I brought the car we had been using back to the garage, I stole a ’57 Chevy and changed the plates. When I arrived at the house Dad asked where I got the car and I said it belonged to a friend of mine. He seemed to believe me, but his face drooped a little bit in this sad look he started getting the first time I stole a car (that was what I was in jail for the first time).

Mom did not ask any questions, she just cooked my favorite dinner, fried pork chops, and I must have eaten four big ones. After dinner when the sun was down I hid the shotgun behind a cedar chest. That’s where they found the gun later.

On November twenty-first I drove into town to pick up Perry to go to Mexico, planning to kite some checks on the way to fund us. When I pulled up in front of the rooming house I saw the boy standing next to Perry. I suppose I had told myself that the boy would not stick with us. It was a shock seeing him there, I must say.

No, I said. Just no.

Before you go getting upset, wait until you hear him out, Perry said. They both got into the car, Perry in the front passenger seat and the kid making himself comfortable laying across the back seat like he had whenever we drove somewhere.

I still protested, even as I got back into the car. Not Jerry, I said. He made me as nervous as he did before. Worse now, because while we were split up, Jerry had gone to a gun shop and bought a .22 caliber pistol and some shells. He waved it back and forth while we talked. I asked where he got the money for it.