Local News can be weird!

This story is completely true. I'm being deliberately vague, because too much info would yield - well, too much info.

So a few months ago, M and I took a tire to get it repaired at the shop in the little town nearest where we live. The shop had recently changed hands in one of those dysfunctional, on-again-off-again deals so typical of businesses in this little town. Seems the deal wasn't quite done yet, as the new shop sorta-owner went on and on (to these two total strangers) about what a louse the former owner was, and all about his troubles. I was only half-listening, not wanting to know any of this at all, and was left with the distinct impression that this guy was kind of a head-case. Even by local standards, which can be impressive. Didn't think any more about it then; in fact I'd put it right out of my mind until...

A few days ago W and I were in town running some errands, and we saw a flier on a wall offering a reward for information about a missing kid. What made the sign memorable was the picture of the kid. It was a teenage boy obviously trying to make himself ugly and menacing, with a nasty expression, hat on sideways, the whole deal. Not what we usually see around here. We both had the same thought: Who'd want the kid back? It was a funny episode, but again I didn't give it a lot of thought until...

Yesterday M and I were in town, and we stopped at the local restaurant and there was a jar on the counter begging spare change for a funeral for a local dead kid. Now, jars on counters are pretty common in this little town: They usually involve breast-cancer treatments for a well-regarded local lady, that sort of thing. It's not real hard to become well-known in this little town, for good or ill. But the picture on this jar was unusual. It wasn't the same one that was on the flier, but the same sort of thing: Teenage kid trying to look all ugly and menacing. First thought: Is this the best picture they could find? Because I'm not too inclined to dig into my pocket to do this kid a favor, even posthumously. Second thought: Is that the same kid that was on that flier?

Fast forward less than an hour: M and I run into some neighbors in the boonies (definition: anyone within a five-mile radius) and we're having a typical lean on the pickup-bed conversation, and one neighbor says, "Heard the latest? [guy who runs the tire shop] got arrested yesterday. Seems he hired some local kids to kill this other tough kid who knocked up his daughter. They weren't too bright about it, cops went right to them when the kid went missing, found the dead kid in a shallow grave, and they rolled right over on [guy who runs the tire shop]. Funny world, huh?" Yeah. Uh-huh. Funny.

And we're driving back to the property, and M says, "Maybe they can use it in the sex-ed classes at the high school. 'Don't do it, kids, or Crazy Redneck Guy will have you killed.'"