DUSTIN KROGER “DUSTY”

Dusty Kroger walked into the Sheriff's Office at 3:10 a.m. a free man, carrying enough band flyers to correct that oversight. He'd come to bail out his cousin Shane and the deer.

Waiting by the bulletin board, he got bored. In his coat he had flyers for Dusty & the Kroger Brothers, playing the VFW Christmas dance that night. Seemed a shame to waste good wall space on fellas who weren't even coming.

He pinned a flyer over every wanted poster. Neatly, too. Used their own pins. Dusty would never leave you short a pin, bless his heart, even while covering up your whole damn manhunt.

Dwight came back from the Coke machine. Seventeen fugitives had become seventeen Dustys.

"You covered up a murderer, Dusty."

"He's got the whole rest of the state. We got one goddamn dance."

"This ain't a booking agency."

It was fixin' to be one, though.

Dwight booked him right there in his own lobby, navy shirt and mullet and all. The Polaroid shows a Dusty & the Kroger Brothers flyer over his left shoulder. Free publicity, if you weren't particular about the charge underneath.

Shane and the deer waited another four hours. Hell of a favor to do your cousin. The band went on at nine. We love Dusty. They sounded like shit.