In Cold Blood - Truman Capote [103]
"Well, Bill. You're a regular education." Nightfall came, and forced the hunters to quit - that, and lack of space, for they had amassed as many bottles as the car could contain. The trunk was filled, the back seat seemed a glittering dump heap; unnoticed, unmentioned by even his grandson, the ailing old man was all but hidden under the shifting, dangerously chiming cargo. Dick said, "Be funny if we had a smash-up." A bunch of lights publicized the New Motel, which proved to be, as the travelers neared it, an impressive compound consisting of bungalows, a garage, a restaurant, and a cocktail lounge. Taking charge, the boy said to Dick, "Pull in there. Maybe we can make a deal. Only let me talk. I've had the experience. Sometimes they try to cheat." Perry could not imagine "anyone smart enough to cheat that kid," he said later. "It didn't shame him a bit there with all those bottles. Me, I never could've. I'd have felt so ashamed. But the people at the motel were nice about it; they just laughed. Turned out the bottles were worth twelve dollars and sixty cents." The boy divided the money evenly, giving half to himself, the rest to his partners, and said, "Know what? I'm gonna blow me and Johnny to a good feed. Ain't you fellows hungry?" As always, Dick was. And after so much activity, even Perry felt starved. As he later told about it, "We carted the old man into the restaurant and propped him up at a table. He looked exactly the same - thanatoid. And he never said one word. But you should have seen him shovel it in. The kid ordered him pancakes; he said that was what Johnny liked best. I swear he ate something like thirty pancakes. With maybe two pounds of butter, and a quart of syrup. The kid could put it down himself. Potato chips and ice cream, that was all he wanted, but he sure ate a lot of them. I wonder it didn't make him sick." During the dinner party, Dick, who had consulted a map, announced that Sweetwater was a hundred or more miles west of the route he was driving - the route that would take him across New Mexico and Arizona to Nevada - to Las Vegas. Though this was true, it was clear to Perry that Dick simply wanted to rid himself of the boy and the old man. Dick's purpose was obvious to the boy, top, but he was polite and said, "Oh, don't you worry about us. Plenty of traffic must stop here. We'll get a ride." The boy walked with them to the car, leaving the old man to devour a fresh stack of pancakes. He shook hands with Dick and with Perry, wished them a Happy New Year, and waved them away into the dark.
The evening of Wednesday, December 30, was a memorable one in the household of Agent A. A. Dewey. Remembering it later, his wife said, "Alvin was singing in the bath. 'The Yellow Rose of Texas.' The kids were watching TV. And I was setting the dining-room table. For a buffet. I’m from New Orleans; I love to cook and entertain, and my mother had just sent us a crate of avocados and black-eyed peas, and - oh, a heap of real nice things. So I decided: We're going to have a buffet, invite some friends over - the Murrays, and Cliff and Dodie Hope. Alvin didn't want to, but I was determined. My goodness! The case could go on forever, and he hadn't taken hardly a minute off since it began. Well, I was setting the table, so when I heard the phone I asked one of the boys to answer it - Paul. Paul said it was for Daddy, and I said, 'You tell them he's in the bath,' but Paul said he wondered if he ought to do that, because it was Mr. Sanford calling from Topeka. Alvin's boss. Alvin took the call with just a towel around him. Made me so mad - dripping puddles everywhere. But when I went to get a mop I saw something worse - that cat, that fool Pete, up on the kitchen table gorging crabmeat salad. My avocado stuffing.
"The next thing was, suddenly Alvin had hold of me, he was hugging me, and I said, 'Alvin Dewey, have you lost your mind?' Fun's fun, but the man was wet as a pond, he was ruining my dress, and I was already dressed for company. Of course, when I understood why he was hugging me I hugged him right back.