Step sat in a plastic lawn chair in the corner of Billy Campbell’s dark bedroom digging dirt out from under his fingernails with a pocketknife. The closeout king’s eyes had adjusted to the dim light, and he was disgusted by the filth that surrounded him. He was by no means a tidy person, but Billy seemed to take sloppy to a whole new level. The room reeked of sweat and various other odors created by the human body, not to mention the smell of animal blood that soaked into Billy’s clothes as he butchered deer, rabbit, squirrel, etc. day in and day out. Step imagined that hell itself didn’t smell nearly as bad as Billy Campbell’s bedroom.
The light came on and Billy was standing next to his bed before he caught his first glimpse of Step. He barked out a scream and backed toward the door only to be greeted by Kenny, who’d been hiding at the other end of the hallway.
“Howdy, Billy,” Kenny said, grabbing the terrified butcher by the chin. “Lordy, that spot on your forehead don’t look good. You put something on that?”
“What do you want?” Billy asked, rubbing the skinless patch on his forehead. “I settled things with Boss.”
Step didn’t look up from his hands. “Sit, Billy.”
“Didn’t Boss tell you? Me and him is square on my debt.”
“Sit,” Step said, examining the fingernails on his left hand.
Kenny nudged Billy toward the bed.
Billy’s entire body shook as he took a seat next to a pile of dirty clothes.
“First off,” Step said, “you gotta clean this goddamn place up, boy. I ain’t never smelled something so bad. Kenny could take a shit in here and make it smell better.”
Kenny patted Billy on the shoulder. “Step ain’t wrong about that. It’s intolerably messy in here. A thing like that can give you a bad outlook on life. You clean up and you just might feel better about yourself.”
Billy nodded.
“Second thing is,” Step said, putting his knife into his pocket, “I wanna know how you settled up with Boss so quick.”
Billy shrugged. “I come into some cash soon after you two near skinned me alive.”
“Lottery?” Kenny asked.
“Something like that,” Billy said.
Step leaned back and eyed the butcher. “I need specifics, Billy. How did you pay Boss back as quick as you did? You was down to making an unsettling proposition with me and Kenny yesterday. Now you’re flush with enough cash to wipe out your debt. How can that be?”
Billy couldn’t bring himself to look at Step. “Boss know you’re here?”
Kenny sat next to him and patted his leg. “You ought not concern yourself with such matters, Billy. That’s between us and Boss.”
“I ain’t in the position to say—”
Step lurched forward. “That’s an unfortunate position for you to be in, my friend, because me and Kenny are in the position to find out how this debt got paid one way or another.”
Kenny put his arm around the butcher. “Billy, this is about to take a bad turn for you, and I’ll be honest, I ain’t happy about that. I like you. I do. I swear. You always got a funny story to tell, and you’re the finest meat cutter I know.” Billy smiled awkwardly. “But,” Kenny continued, “Step’s come into an idea that you followed up your time with us with a phone call to Boss, and in that phone call you made him that same…wha’cha call it, Step?”
“Unsettling.”
“Yeah, that’s it. Unsettling proposition. You know what that means, don’t you? It means disturbing. Now, I’m of the mind that you wouldn’t do such a thing. I am. I believe in you, Billy. A fella that tells funny stories like you just wouldn’t do such a thing.” Kenny gently grabbed Billy by his chin and turned his head to Step. “Tell my partner you wouldn’t do such a thing. Tell him that daughter of yours is over at her momma’s trailer playing with dolls or some other such thing.”
Billy choked back a tear. “I didn’t have a choice.”
Step felt his blood boil. “Talk faster, boy.”
“I didn’t want to do it. I swear to baby Jesus I ducked away from Boss’s offer for as long as I could…”
“Boss’s offer?” Step asked.
“He told me it was the way to go. He said everything would be wiped out. I wouldn’t have to worry about nothing.”
Kenny snapped Billy’s head around to meet him eye to eye. “You traded out your daughter to clear your debt?”
Trembling violently, Billy nodded.
“And you’re saying Boss come to you with the offer?”
“He called it an offer, but it wasn’t really. I didn’t have no choice.”
Step stood in a huff. “You had a choice, you were just too big a coward to take it!”
Billy nervously laughed. “You think I wouldn’t have given my life for my girl’s? I would’ve! Without even thinking twice, I would’ve. You gotta believe me.”
Step pulled his knife out. “I’m gonna cut your eyes out, Billy Campbell.”
“Hold on now,” Kenny said. “Let him explain himself. What’re you saying, Billy?”
“I got other kids. Four boys, two over in Nashville and another two in Lexington somewheres.” Billy wiped his tears with a trembling hand. “Boss made it clear he knew of them. He counted them off by name, knew their mommas. Shit, he even knew their birthdays.”
Step grabbed Billy off the bed by his collar. “Get to it, goddamn it!”
“They’re good boys!”
“I don’t give a shit about your boys—”
“Boss was gonna kill them! He was gonna kill me and then go after them!”
Step gritted his teeth and tightened his hold on Billy’s collar.
The butcher let out a lunatic-laced laugh. “You were gonna kill my boys. That’s where he was gonna send you two after you got done with me. To kill my boys. Ain’t you ever asked Boss why the folks you kill deserve to die?”
Step threw Billy back on the bed.
“You thought you was just killing lowlife druggies and thugs, didn’t you? You know what I used the money for that I got from Boss? I used it to buy a new walk-in freezer because my old one quit on me. I needed that freezer for my business. I needed that business to feed my kids, all my kids. I send money up to Nashville and Lexington on the first of every month. Every fucking month. I ain’t never missed one payment. They’re my kids, and I pay for them! That’s what daddies do!”
Step roared and jumped on Billy, placing his hands around his throat. “Daddies don’t sell their daughters!”
Billy flailed his arms, trying to break free from Step’s crushing grip. Kenny grabbed his partner and pulled him off the butcher. “C’mon now, Step. Let’s try to get our heads around this thing before we deal with Billy.”
Step pushed Kenny away and walked to the other end of the room. “He sold his daughter!”
“He took the best of two bad deals,” Kenny said.
Billy crawled backward on the bed, rubbing the stinging out of his neck, regretting every second of his shit-filled life. “Step’s right. I sold my daughter, I can’t cut it no other way. I ain’t got no right to take up God’s good air for what I done!” He reached under his pillow and pulled out a Glock 19 handgun and jammed the barrel against the side of his head.
“Hold on!” Kenny said, stepping forward. “We’re gonna take care of this! We’ll find a way to turn this bad situation good…”
“It don’t matter,” Billy said. “I’ll always be the man who sold his daughter.”
The sound of the gun going off filled the room. Step stumbled forward and watched Billy jerk to the left. The flash from the barrel stretched out like fingers around his damaged head. The butcher’s eyes bulged and he slumped, lying half off the bed. The ringing from the gunshot lingered, even seeming to intensify. Step lost himself in the spectacle of it all. He didn’t know if he was standing. He didn’t know if he could wade through the confusion to form a clear thought. He didn’t know if he was really even there, staring at the lifeless body of the man who sold his daughter.