“Later I heard he was doing it for a promotion in his gang. I was like, gang? What gang could he join at his age? The Littles Rascals? He knew I was holding, so he yelled at me to cover him while he went into the little room and jacked the register.”
Carlotta presents testimony about how he strived to prevent Kaffy from engaging in violence. He promised to offer Kaffy money, but that did not deter him from shooting Mrs. Green. At the time of the shooting, Carlotta was not aware of Kaffy's involvement in any gang. Kaffy is brainwashed by his gang members to the degree that he commits a gross crime to gain their validation. Obsession with promotions makes him discontinue his critical thinking at the time of the crime.
“Kaffy always been cute, he don’t look threatening, even though he actually a real dangerous dude. He pretended to have a question about a bottle of Malibu rum or something—like he deliberately chose a sweet type of liquor so she wouldn’t get suspicious.”
While recounting the happenings at the time of the shooting, Carlotta underscores Kaffy's non-threatening nature. Kaffy's intention in making the order was to lure Mrs. Green out of the bulletproof cage where money is stored. Mrs. Green would not suspect Kaffy because he sounded sincere in his inquiries. Eventually, he shoots her after she falls for his innocence-looking facing.
"Stinkbug, a white dude, periodically blew up into rages without warning. He had tried to brain his wife with a golf club, thinking the exhaust would choke her dead, but she lived, and still kept trying to hire someone to snuff her from prison, as if the two of them lived on the same cosmic plane outside morality, outside reality. Maybe outside mortality."
Stinkbug's obsession with murdering his wife does not end even after he is incarcerated. He lacks morals and forgets that he, too, will have to experience mortality someday. His imprisonment was intended to transform him, but he is unwilling to embrace morality. He is still determined to commit the crime that had him incarcerated. The prison walls do not stop him from being a threat to his wife. He is a creepy man living up to his name's connotations.
