His left leg had stiffened up like a son of a bitch. Lester thought that maybe it would loosen up or get some feeling back once he was on his feet and moving again, but the paralysis—he hoped to God it was only temporary—was getting progressively worse with time. The cold wasn’t helping matters—the temperature dipping down in the low teens.

He felt like old man Moses wandering the wild with his staff in hand. Except he had no flock and he sure the hell wasn’t headed toward the promised land—not yet at least. But he had put his faith in the Lord’s hands back before he got married to Bonnie, at both her urging and insistence, and he had kept it there ever since.

His progress had been slow going. It took him three times as much energy to walk three times slower.

Keep moving, old man. More than your backside at stake here.

“Ha.” The laugh shot out of him, and the sound of it surprised him. Maybe he was delirious after all.

Up ahead of him was a small clearing. The trees gave way to a snow-covered area that for whatever reason didn’t have foliage of any kind. It was about twenty yards by twenty yards. He entered the clearing, dragging his useless leg and pulling himself along.

Midway through the clearing, he noticed them. It took him a second to register what exactly he was seeing, then another few seconds to convince himself that he wasn’t dreaming again.

It was Danny Bedford, or what was left of him, sitting in the snow at the other end of the clearing. He had what appeared to be dried blood on his jacket and pants and caked on his face and neck—blood all over him, in fact. Lester had seen plenty of men on the losing end of a bar fight. Their eyes blackened, a bloodied nose, a gash upside the head delivered by a cue stick or a beer bottle. He thought he had seen it all till he glimpsed Danny. The boy appeared much worse off since Lester had seen him at Doc Pete’s earlier in the day. The boy’s head seemed enormous. His jaw hung open like the bottom half of a rotted Halloween pumpkin. Danny’s eyes were swollen up like the rest of him, but they seemed pretty clear.

Or sane, which is what Lester was hoping for.

Lester had never seen anything like it. A man and a wild deer keeping each other’s company. Once he noticed the doe’s stump, he knew that she was the victim of a bow hunter. The hunter’s arrow had found its target but failed to make the kill. Lester had seen gangrene before. An animal that chewed off its own leg to free itself from a trap or deer that took a bullet or arrow but didn’t lie down and die. Most deer didn’t survive long after the infection had set in. The poison got into the bloodstream and killed them within ten days. This deer should be dead but apparently wasn’t ready to die just yet.

When Danny stood up, Lester noticed the gun clutched in the boy’s hands.

Lester took a few more steps toward the curious pair but was careful to move slow and easy. He kept his own rifle held down low in his left hand. The closer he got, the more the doe’s tail snapped back and forth like a surrender flag caught up in a gust of wind.

“Hello, son. Been looking for you.”

Danny nodded but stayed put. He watched the sheriff struggle to stay upright.

“You don’t look so good, Sheriff. What happened to your leg?” Danny asked.

Lester stopped walking and pushed his cap back on his head a little. “I guess my body needed to remind me that I’m an old man.”

“You gonna die?” Danny asked with no ill intent.

“I hope not. At least not today.” Lester noticed the pained look in Danny’s eyes. He figured that the boy must be in a world of hurt. He was surprised that he could even stand in the condition he was in.

“There’s been more killing,” Danny said. A simple statement of fact. “Up at the Bennett place.”

“I didn’t do nothing to Mindy, Sheriff.” Danny’s tone sounded hopeful, like he really needed the sheriff to believe him.

“Why don’t you tell me about that, son?”

Danny looked to the doe for a moment before answering, like he had to check with her before continuing on. “I was just going to her place to give her a present. Yesterday was her birthday, you know?”

“That a fact?”

“Same day as mine. That’s one reason she was my friend.”

Lester nodded. “Mindy was a good gal.”

“Yes, sir, she was. That’s why I made a present for her. When I got there, the deputy and Carl were already there. They told me that Mindy had an accident. And when I went inside, she was already . . .” Danny choked up, unable to finish. Large tears flowed down red, chapped cheeks and glistened in the setting sun.

“I believe you, son. I really do.”

Danny looked at the sheriff and seemed relieved. That brought on a new batch of tears.

“Danny, can you do me a favor and put that gun down?”

Danny looked down at the rifle he was holding and thought about it for a second, but he kept the gun right where it was. “He killed Mr. Bennett. And Mrs. Bennett is hurt real bad.”

“The deputy and Carl did that?”

“Naw. Just your deputy. Carl used the gun on himself.”

Lester was pretty sure he believed Danny but would feel a hell of a lot better if the boy would just drop his gun to the ground.

“Why’d the deputy do all these things, Danny?”

Danny gave him a strange look. “I don’t know, Sheriff. I was hoping you would know that.”

“Carl shot him. Before he put the gun under his chin. The deputy was gonna kill Mrs. Bennett. She’s hurt real bad, but she ain’t dead. I put her up in her bedroom. Told her I would go for help.”

“I guess we should do that, but it sure would make me feel a whole lot better if you put that gun down. Those things can go off if you ain’t careful.”

Danny guessed that it was okay now if the sheriff wanted him to. He started to lower the rifle to the ground when a shot rang out, and the three-legged deer flinched. A splatter of blood exploded from her chest and she fell to the ground and twitched a few times before she stopped moving at all.

Danny and Lester ducked for cover with their hands held over their heads. They both watched wide-eyed as Sokowski stepped into the clearing with his rifle secure against his shoulder. He was swaying a little and struggled to maintain his balance. His right side was soaked with blood still flowing like a leaking bottle of maple syrup.

Sokowski looked at Lester with eyes so red that it was hard to see his pupils. “Guess we finally got our man, huh, Sheriff?” His speech came out slow and mumbled.

Lester stood upright and pulled his left leg under him and tried to stand tall. Sokowski noticed anyway.

“What’s the matter with you? You look like shit.”

Lester took a breath and was careful to speak nice and easy. “Been a long day, Mike. More walking than I’m used to. And my old bones don’t like the cold so much, I guess.”

Lester sighed his response. He had never seen his deputy in such sorry shape. Boozed up beyond repair, all the anger boiling to the surface. His gut told him that this wouldn’t end well. Just like with Johnny Knolls.

“Why don’t you go ahead and drop that rifle to the ground, Lester? You won’t be needing it no more.”

Lester kept the rifle clutched in his hand. “Now, listen here, Mike—”

“Go on. I ain’t gonna tell you again.”

Lester hated to do it, but he lowered the gun onto the snow and winced at the discomfort bending down caused him.

“Ain’t so easy taking orders from other folks, is it, Lester?”

“No. Guess it ain’t.”

Sokowski had a strange smirk creasing his lips. “Things weren’t supposed to turn out this way, Lester. All this killing, you know? But it’s done and can’t be undone.”

“All right. That’s a fact,” Lester agreed.

A hard gust of wind swept through the clearing, whipping up sheets of powdery flakes all around the three men like they were standing in a snow globe.

“But I guess there’s a few choices yet to be made. Danny here ain’t nothing. You know that. No one really gives a shit about him.” Sokowski looked at Danny for a second, then refocused his drunken gaze back on the sheriff.

“It’s time to stop all this nonsense, Mike. No sense in going on with it. Enough bad has happened.”

Sokowski lost his balance a bit but kept his rifle up.

Lester nodded. “You’re right about that, too. Been in better shape.”

Sokowski spit and lowered his gun a little. Just a little. “I can walk away from all this. All that really stands in my way is you. Maybe it ain’t right, but what choice do I got?”

Lester’s heart pounded erratically in his chest. The big muscle felt like it was pulsing upward and might burst right out of his throat and drop into the snow. Sweat rolled from under his hat and down his neck and back.

“You got choices, Mike. You’re right about not being able to undo what’s happened, but there’s still right and wrong here. Too many folks have died here today. No sense in any more.”

Sokowski almost lost his balance. Squinted his eyes to block out the pain, then let go with a small laugh. “Right and wrong? Shit, Lester, when did I ever pay attention to the difference between right and wrong? You, maybe. You’ve always seemed to do the right thing in your life.”

Lester wanted to keep Sokowski talking. If he got him talking long enough, maybe he could get some reason into him. If that didn’t work, he needed to try to take the rifle away from him.

“Well, I try to do the right thing, Mike. Don’t know if I always succeed, but I give it my best shot. Damned if I don’t.”

Sokowski shook his head at him. “What does doing the right thing get you here and now, Lester? Seems like it ain’t gonna get you shit.”

“It’s not too late here, Mike. Just think about it for a moment.”

But Danny didn’t flinch. Didn’t cower or duck for cover. He just studied Sokowski with all the blood running down the side of him. Then he stared at Sokowski’s messed-up ear, a brown, shrunken piece of flesh. He knew how mean kids could be and knew that something like that would be made fun of. He kept staring at the deputy’s deformity, and for some reason he didn’t quite understand, Danny didn’t feel angry or scared of him anymore. He only felt sadness for the man.

“What you did to Mindy and the Bennetts was wrong, Mike.”

Sokowski gave him a funny look, surprised that he would be talking right now. “Yeah? Is that right, Danny?”

“I guess what I mean to say is that you did something real bad, but maybe you couldn’t help it. Like me, it’s just who you are.”

Sokowski’s eyes narrowed, and his face twisted with confusion. “Christ. What the hell are you yammering about?”

Danny continued on. Determined and assured. “Some folks are dumb. Some are smart. Some good, some bad. It’s just who we are.”

Sokowski finally laughed, sharp and loud. “That’s right, Danny. I was born one bad motherfucker.” He grinned over at Lester. “Maybe your boy ain’t so dumb after all. He knows I ain’t gonna change. You should listen to the retard here.”

“I forgive you, Mike,” Danny said quietly.

Sokowski cringed at the words. Hating Danny for who he was. “What?” But he had heard him. Danny didn’t need to repeat himself.

“Let’s not end it like this, Mike.”

Sokowski kept his rifle on Danny. Grinned a little. “You ain’t gonna shoot me, Lester. You ain’t the kind.”

“I’ll do what’s right, son. Trust me on that.”

It was getting dark, but Lester could see Sokowski’s smile fade. Sokowski started to lower his gun, then swung it toward Lester and squeezed the trigger. It was a wild shot, but it found Lester nonetheless. Lester felt a hot blast of pain as the bullet entered his leg right above the knee. The impact knocked him backward and laid him out onto the snow. His pistol dropped from his hand and sank into a few inches of snow.

Sokowski staggered toward the sheriff and stood over him. His eyes were wild but focused down on the man. “Damn, Lester.”

Lester lay sprawled out on the ground like he was making snow angels and grasped for his pistol. He should’ve taken the shot. Sokowski was right. He wasn’t the kind.

“You tried, Lester. You tried.” He put the barrel of the rifle an inch from Lester’s head and started to squeeze the trigger.

Another shot rang out, and Sokowski fell forward and thudded down beside Lester. He wasn’t even able to put his arms out in front of him to slow his fall. His throat gurgled, arms and legs jerking and twitching.

Lester squinted up toward Danny, and the boy wasn’t holding the rifle on his shoulder like you were supposed to—it was down by his hips. It reminded Lester of how John Wayne held his rifle in some of his favorite classic Westerns.

Right before Lester blacked out, he saw Danny drop the rifle into the snow and kneel beside him. The boy wasn’t crying anymore. There were no signs of fear or shock or dismay on his face. It was an expression Lester had never seen on the boy’s face before. Danny appeared calm.

“We’ll get you help, Sheriff. Don’t you go and die on me,” Danny said.

Past Danny’s shoulder the sun was barely a sliver of light above the trees as night took over the day and Lester slipped away.