Little shit-fuck, dirty little shit-fuck, hiding in the dark, sniveling.
Then Swann broke the silence.
"How did you kill him?" Cooper relaxed. The tone of voice was just right, the punk was in the proper mood. He would ask the questions and Cooper could say the things he loved to say. It was the part of the evening he liked best, the part after sex when he talked about himself and the things he had done and the things he was going to do. Cooper had forgotten many of the details, but the punk remembered, he coached Cooper when things slipped his mind. Cooper never felt stupid when telling his stories to Swann.
"I kicked him to death," Cooper said.
"Why?"
"I told you, he was a faggot." 'When did you do this, Coop?":,At night. He come up to the car and said could he do anything for me and I said, yeah, faggot, you can do something for me. You can eat my boot."
"I meant how long ago did you do this?"
"Why didn't you say so?"
"I didn't make myself clear, i'm sorry… Was it just before you came to prison, or longer, or…?"
"It was… uh…"
"Was it five years ago, when you were in Nashville?"
"That's right."
"Did the police know about it?"
"I don't know. I didn't tell them. I don't suppose he did, do you?"
"Was that before you killed the girls, or after?"
"Before."
"How did the girls happen?"
"You like that one, don't you?" Cooper said.
"I like whatever you- like, Coop. Your favorites are my favorites."
"They're all MY favorites. I wouldn't have killed them if I didn't like it, would I?"
"Would you rather tell me about another one? Do you want to talk about the Mexican?"
"Which Mexican? I done more than one Mexican. I done lots of them. I hate Mexicans."
"The one when you were picking oranges?"
"I done lots of Mexicans," Cooper repeated vaguely, trying to remember.
"You said he got in your face because of his wife."
"Oh, yeah." Cooper waited for further reminders.
There had been so many, how could he be expected to recall the details?
That's what the punk was good for.
Cooper told about them when they occurred to him; it Was up to Swann to remember what he said.
"She was coming on to you… She was sticking her ass in your face when she was on a ladder."
Cooper chuckled. "I remember. Wiggling her ass around in my face like it itched."
"And she wanted you to scratch it."
"Wanted me to fuck it, is what she wanted."
"That's what I meant… Did you, Coop?"
"Did I what?"
"Did you fuck her?"
"What do you think?"
"Did you make her scream?"
"I always make them scream,"
"Is that the best part?"
"What?"
"Making them scream? Is that the part you like best?"
"I like seeing their faces when I put the gun in their mouth."
"You don't do that to the women, do you?"
"I wasn't talking about the women."
"Okay."
"Stick to the point," Cooper said. "We're talking about the Mexican."
"I'm sorry. I get confused sometimes," the punk said.
Cooper smiled in the darkness. The shit-fuck clerks were smart only about what they were smart about. They weren't smart about what Coop was smart about. They didn't know shit about the things Cooper knew.
"There's a lot of them to remember," Cooper said magnanimously. "I lose track myself sometimes."
"There are an awful lot of them. You must have done more people than anybody on this block."
"I done more than any come in the whole damned prison, and don't you forget it. I probably done more than anybody anywhere. What's the record?"
"I don't know, Coop. Seventeen, eighteen?"
"Shee-it, that's nothing. Is that all? I must have done thirty. More probably."
"Do the police know about them?"
"Who cares?"
"They're the ones who count, they keep track."
"They do?"
"They're the scorekeepers, sort of. If they don't know, it doesn't count."
"Bullshit. If I done them, they're dead."
"Just a manner of speaking."
"Bullshit."
"You're right, Coop."
"I'm trying to tell you about the Mexican."
"I want to hear about it."
"Then quit confusing me with all this other shit."
"Sorry."
"I could rip your head off if I wanted to, you know."
"I know you could… Did you rip the Mexican's head Off-?"
Cooper chuckled. "Naw… I gutted him. He come at me with his knife-you know all them Mexicans got knives, they're fucking born with them. I stuck my gun in his face and took the knife away and then I gutted him with his own blade. You should have heard him gurgle in Mexican."
"Spanish."
"What?"
"What did you do with the body?"
"I stuck it in a culvert."
"Do you suppose the police have ever found it?"
"I don't know, you little shit. Do police usually go looking in culverts?"
"I don't know that much about the police, Coop."
"You're in here, ain't you? I guess the police know about you, all right, you little dickhead."
"That was different. I made a mistake, I didn't kill anybody."
"You tried though, didn't you? You just couldn't pull it off."
"I didn't try, I was just defending myself. She attacked me, I was just defending myself"
"Assault with a deadly weapon, right? The judge didn't think you was 'defending' yourself. He thought you was trying to kill your landlady with a butcher's cleaver."
"She attacked me, the woman was deranged."
Cooper turned his back to the other man. He didn't understand what "deranged" meant and he was tired of talking about someone other than himself.
"You're so innocent, I guess they ought to let you go, then," Cooper said, trying to think how to get the conversation back to him.
"I know everyone says they're innocent, Coop, but I really am.
"You just couldn't manage it. If you'd killed the bitch the way you should have, maybe you wouldn't be here now, did you ever think of that?
Kill them and who's to testify if they're dead?
"Who's going to report it? Who's going to… You just didn't have the balls for it. And not everyone isn't. I ain't innocent. I just ain't been they're innocent say they don't know the half of what they were caught for what I done I done, nobody does, not even you. But I'm not telling them, let them find out for themselves."
"They'll never find out about you, Coop. You've got a reputation of deviousness all over the county. You must have bodies scattered all over."
"Uh-huh."
"You put the Mexican in the culvert..
"Yeah."
"And what else?"
"What else what?"
"What other bodies did you hide?"
Cooper tried to think. He knew the answer, he just couldn't come up with it right away. That was how his mind worked, it always got there eventually, but sometimes not as fast as others thought it should. Well, fuck them.
"Them girls," he said triumphantly. "I hid them girls."
"Are those the ones you burned to death?"
II Cooper said, laughing.
"Hell, no. I burned them alive,