Ten We waited about thirty minutes, gathering our nerves, going about, trying to figure how they got in the house, and it was pretty easy to determine. They just picked the locks and came inside, easy as picking their nose. There were a few scratches on the carport door lock, but that was it. They had slipped inside, locked the doors back, and waited. I told myself I was going to put locks on all the windows, bars, and that I was going to redo the doors, get some really thick ones, and some out-of-this-world locks that a goddamn safe cracker couldn’t pick. I was going to buy a serious alarm system, and a back up to that one. I might get a vicious dog as big as a horse. I thought about all these things, as if it mattered right then. It was like thinking about putting a new barn door on the barn after the mule had run off. We put on fresh clothes, grabbed a few things, got in our car, and I drove, heading out for Manny, Louisiana, not knowing what else to do, not knowing what to think, but of one thing Kelly was certain. “You can’t testify,” she said, as I drove. “You can’t. I know you want to do the right thing, but the right thing is taking care of your family. They mean business, baby. Really bad business.” “I know that,” I said. “He may have someone waiting at your mother’s house,” she said. “He probably will.” “I know that too.”
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