Bud hands him a mug with a bulldog on it and Sheriff Dupree takes a sip and he winces. You’re a fine deputy boy but you sure cain’t make coffee. Bud smiles and the sheriff turns to the man they picked up this morning. Says, you need to start talking. You in a whole world a trouble Billy Lee.
Billy Lee Darling shakes his head and he laughs like a drunk in church Sunday morning. He stops sudden like in that way that he has and he looks Sheriff Sonny Dupree in the eye. Says, I been here since 9 a.m. Ain’t had nothing to drink. Nothing to eat. You think about getting me some grub up in here, and maybe I’ll think about doing some talking.
There’s a map on the wall of Larchman County. Larchman and Polk. Buncha pins stuck in it. Sheriff Dupree studies it a minute. Bud studies him. Thinking what he would do, if he were the sheriff. Billy Lee Darling watches him too, that smile on his face like Billy Lee has.
The sheriff moves a few pins around. Turns and says, Bud.
Bud says, yes sir.
Run over to Lulu’s and get Billy a samich.
Bud thinks of things that he would’ve said. He tries not to let it show on his face.
What kinda samich you want Billy Lee.
Bologna, ham. Hell it don’t matter. I’d take some Shabang’s if they got ‘em, though.
“Shabang’s” is jail and prison slang for chips. Billy Lee Darling’s no stranger to either. But he’s still a young man with a way about him. Blond hair he slicks back and downturned eyes.
Bud pulls his jacket up over his head. It’s raining a little. He cusses the rain and he cusses the sheriff. Just coddling that boy, to Bud's way of thinking. Barbecue chips, ham and cheese on white. Coffee. Large. Something missing in Billy. To do what he done, you gotta be faraway cold like the moon.
The pins in the map are bright red and yellow, blue, and green, like birthday candles. Sonny Dupree looks at Billy and smiles. My deputy, he says, thinks I ain’t got good sense.
Catch more flies with honey. Ain’t that right? Billy says.
See I know’d you was smart. Thought I was too but I cain’t understand it. What happened to you. What’d they do Billy Lee.
Nothing, he says. Ain’t nobody done nothing to me. When I was a kid we shot snakes with pistols. Killed birds, squirrels. Rabbits, deer.
But your grandma and grandpa. Your momma. Your sister. Why Billy Lee.
Billy Lee laughs in that way that he has.
'Cause they was there. ‘Cause I like killing things.
Bud gives the bulldog mug to the sheriff. Gives Billy a brown paper bag and a look: one clean bullet, that dog don’t hunt. Sheriff takes a sip and he says, now that’s coffee.
Billy eats his ham sandwich. Eats his Shabangs. Billy Lee Darling will sleep well tonight.
Sheriff studies the map of Larchman and Polk. All that was put up there before he come in. Map’s old. Outdated. Them pins don’t mean nothing. Roads on that map that ain’t there no more.