Child of God

Sheriff Turner and Deputy Cotton inspect a wrecked car in a ravine on Frog Mountain that they believe belongs to a missing couple. The sheriff suspects that the couple’s disappearance is connected to that of the girl at the lookout (the first body Lester stole). The sheriff and his deputy conclude that the couple wasn’t in the car during the crash and that someone pushed the car into the ravine.

With his rifle, Lester accosts a couple in a truck and asks the boy for his license. When the boy tries to start the truck, Lester shoots him in the neck. Lester orders the girl to get out of the car and turn around. He shoots her through the base of her skull, drags her body into the weeds, and starts fondling her, when suddenly the truck starts. Lester rushes back to the road, “a crazed mountain troll clutching up a pair of bloodstained breeches by one hand and calling out in a high mad gibbering” (160), only to see the truck disappearing down the bend.

Lester runs for three miles after the truck, cursing the man he shot. Realizing the futility of chasing the truck, Lester returns up the road.