The Tattooed Criminal and the Liability decide one night to rob a home. This home, a trailer, sits in a mostly vacant RV park on the edges of their small town. They drive to this property late at night because they know there are drugs, money, and valuables there. They believe the inhabitants of the trailer are gone, out of town for a few days. They take a gun, an old shotgun sold to them by a friend who stole it from her boyfriend. They say the shotgun is just for show, to scare anyone in case they are interrupted during their crime.
They break into the trailer easily; the Tattooed Criminal has been there several times and knows its weak spots. The Liability is directed to look through the closets and small dresser for cash and valuables while the Tattooed Criminal works on the safe he has seen the owner of the trailer place things in: drugs and an old watch that he believes is worth a great deal. He thinks he has figured out the code, observing this dealer the few times he has come here to buy from him.
Ten minutes pass, the Liability has filled his pockets with jewelry, money, and a Pez dispenser he thinks his kid will like. The Tattooed Criminal has not been as lucky; he has been unable to open the safe. He kicks and punches and swears but it will not open for him. In a rage, he picks up the shotgun he has brought and blasts off two shots at the unyielding lock. The two men laugh when it opens for them. They do not think of the noise.
The gunshots wake up a Sleeping Man in a neighboring trailer. He tells his Sleeping Girlfriend to wait in bed, he will investigate. He encounters the two men as they are leaving the trailer, their stolen goods and reloaded gun in hand. The Tattooed Criminal threatens the Sleeping Man, tells him to go back to his home and forget he ever saw them. To prove his point, he uses the shotgun to try and push the man down. It goes off, suddenly and loudly, killing him. The Sleeping Man is now a Dead Man.
The Sleeping Girlfriend is awake. She has pressed her face to the window, and she watches as her boyfriend’s body collapses. Maybe she screamed. The Tattooed Criminal and the Liability look up and see her face, distorted in horror. They decide that she should die too. She has seen them, knows their faces, their tattoos, the sounds of their voices. One more shot rings in the RV park, the Sleeping Lovers bleed, and the two men leave.
The stolen property is divided up between the robbers, some of it sold. There is tension between them. The Tattooed Criminal does not trust the Liability. Just look at his name.
Another person enters this story now. He is, simply, the Man.
The Man has helped sell some of the stolen goods and drugs. He receives a cut of the profits for his part in the crime. He is an old friend of the Tattooed Criminal and whispers in his ear, warns him that the Liability will rat him out to the police. They are all high, and soon, the Tattooed Criminal is hearing whispers even when the Man is not in the room.
It is clear the Man does not like the Liability. Perhaps he believes that he should have been there the night of the robbery-gone-wrong instead of the Liability. Perhaps he simply wants a larger cut. Late one night, the Man and the Liability get into an argument in the Tattooed Criminal’s house. There is a knife. There is a beating. The Tattooed Criminal enters the scene at some point, sees the Liability, maybe dying or suffering or living, we do not know. He takes the knife from the Man and finishes the job.
They do not know how to dispose of a whole body. It’s too much for them. The Tattooed Criminal and the Man take the Liability into the garage, where there are tools and sharp things. The whole becomes parts and these make more sense to them. They drive and scatter, like they are feeding the reaper’s birds.
Three people dead. One shotgun sold by a girl, by my sister. Fifteen days after the first part of the Liability is found, she too will be dead.