There was no point in arguing with them. Billy Ray looked confused and frightened. Barrett ignored the snide comments and turned his attention to Billy Ray.
"Come on, Billy Ray. Let's go. This isn't any of our business."
Billy Ray immediately took a step toward him, but snaggletooth stopped him with his rifle barrel. "Not so fast." He turned a hard look on Barrett. "You didn't answer my question."
Barrett looked him in the eye. "I didn't hear a question. Are you telling me you are holding him prisoner?"
The man looked wary. "Are you the law?"
Barrett sighed. "I am not the law. I'm a friend of the family. They discovered that Billy Ray had wandered and I offered to search for him. That's all there is to it."
One of the other men moved forward. "Let the little retard go. No one is going to listen to him anyway."
Snaggletooth nodded. "Yeah, but he will." He used the barrel of his gun to indicate Barrett.
Barrett swallowed his anger at the way they were talking about Billy Ray. He nodded at the boy. "All this over trespassing? It isn't worth the trouble it will bring you."
He shuffled his feet to make a noise that would cover the sound of Mary Jo's retreat. They weren't going to let Billy Ray go.
Snaggletooth's laugh was as ugly as he was. "You ain't that stupid."
"So what are you going to do, kill me - like you did Jim Bob?"
Snaggletooth stood up from his slouch and his eyes narrowed when he looked at Barrett. "We didn't kill Jim Bob. He had an accident. Even the law says so."
"Yeah," one of the other men said. "This is wild country. Someone unfamiliar with the road could make the same mistake any time - like tonight."
"Shut up," Snaggletooth snarled.
The conversation had gone too far. They weren't going to let either of them get out of there alive. If he had been alone, he would have hit the ground and drawn his gun at that point, but he wasn't alone and Billy Ray would be in the line of fire. The best he could hope for was that they wouldn't search him and find the gun. This crowd would probably use it on him and Billy Ray and then claim it was a murder-suicide.
He nodded at Billy Ray. "Let him come with me. You're frightening him."