has a lot more trust in people than I do. Let?s get something to eat, and I?ll take you home.?

?You don?t know how far I live.?

?Believe me, I got nothing better to do. My girlfriend boosted my truck and took off with a one-legged Bible salesman,? the man in overalls said. He stared across the row of pews at the woman who had spoken of a dry drunk earlier; his forehead creased with furrows. The woman stood at a window, her attention fixed on the darkness outside, her hands resting on the sill as though they weren?t attached to her arms. ?Goes to show you, doesn?t it?? he said.

?Show you what?? Pete said.

?That woman over there, the one confessed to killing somebody who might not exist. She looks like she just figured out she?s created a bigger mess than the one she was already in.?

Pete didn?t answer. Ten minutes later he drove to a restaurant with the man in overalls, who said his name was Bill, and ordered a piece of cake and a glass of iced tea.

?You got a girl?? Bill said.

?I like to think I do,? Pete replied.

?She?s in the program, too??

?No, she?s normal. I never could figure why she got involved with the likes of me.?

?Where y?all living??

?A low-rent joint up the road.?

Bill seemed to wait for the next words Pete would speak.

?I?ve been thinking about something,? Pete said. ?That woman back yonder at the meet??

?The wet-brain??

?I wouldn?t call her that.?

Bill picked up the check and studied it, then looked irritably in the direction of the waitress.

?She was willing to confess to something maybe she didn?t do,? Pete continued. ?Or if she did do it, she was willing to confess to it and maybe go to prison. For her, it didn?t make any difference. She just wants to be forgiven for whatever she?s done wrong in her life. That takes guts and humility I don?t reckon I have.?

?That broad can?t add,? Bill said, getting up with the check in hand. ?I?ll meet you outside. We need to haul freight. I got to get some shut-eye.?

Pete waited in the parking lot, chewing on a plastic soda straw, looking at the stars, Venus winking above a black mountain in the west. What had Bill said earlier about a two-year sobriety chip? He hadn?t bothered to accept it? That one didn?t quite slide down the pipe. That would be like turning down the Medal of Honor because the ceremony conflicted with an evening of color-matching your socks.

?Ready to roll?? Bill said, exiting the caf茅.

Pete removed the soda straw from his mouth and looked at Bill in the glow of a neon beer sign.

?Problem?? Bill said.

?No, let?s boogie,? Pete said.

?You still haven?t told me where you live.?

?At the red light, turn east and keep going till you run out of pavement.?

?I thought you said you lived up the road, not east,? Bill said, trying to smile.

?I guess I?m not that sharp when it comes to the cardinal points of the compass. Actually, our place is so far back in the sticks, we got to bring the sunshine in on a truck,? Pete replied. ?That?s a fact.?

Bill was quiet as they drove eastward through hardpan countryside dotted with mesquite and old tires and scrap metal that sparkled like mica under the moon. He put a mint on his tongue and sucked on it and looked sideways at Pete as the SUV hit chuckholes that jarred the frame. ?How much farther??

?Another five or six miles.?

?What the hell do you do out here??

?I?m shaving and treating fence posts for a fellow.?

?That?s interesting. I didn?t know there was that much wood around here.?

?It?s what I do.?

?How about your girl??

?She?s got a little Internet business.?

?Selling what? Lizard turds??

?She does right well with it.?

Bill drove past another mile marker. Set back between two hills was a lighted house with a gasoline truck parked in the yard and a windmill in back. Horses stood motionlessly in a railed pen where the grass was nubbed down to the dirt.

?Excuse me,? Bill said, reaching across Pete.

?What are you doing??

?It?s my Beretta. You see that jackrabbit go across the road? Hang on.?

Bill pulled onto the shoulder and got out, staring at a dry wash running from a culvert into a tangle of brush that had leaves like thick green buttons. Out in the moonlight, away from the shadows, were cactuses blooming with yellow and red flowers. A nine-millimeter semiauto hung from Bill?s right hand. ?Want to take a shot?? he said.

?What