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Matt is outraged that his son's killer continues to live—and not at all far from him and his wife, Ruth. He tells his friend Willis, "He walks the Goddamn streets." Matt knows that it is torturous for the people who cared about Frank to see Strout living. Matt's other son, Steve, says "I ought to kill him." Matt begins carrying a gun when he sees Strout in public, and Matt believes Ruth would shoot Strout herself "if she thought she could hit him." Willis confesses his hatred for Strout, and his willingness to help Matt encourages him to act.
Matt does not believe that the criminal court system will offer the kind of justice that he thinks he and his survivors deserve. He is grieving and angry and has no faith that Strout will adequately pay for taking his son's life.
Matt and Willis agree that Strout must pay for his crime. Ruth is vaguely aware of the plan they hatch, and the two men go about it methodically and with controlled emotions. He presses the gun hard into Strout's head when Strout tries to excuse his actions, but he is able to maintain control of himself and tells Strout not to talk. He thinks about what Frank's last moments with Mary Anne might have been like as he and Willis near the place they will execute Strout.
After Matt kills Strout, he and Willis bury him as planned and dispose of the evidence, and Matt tells Ruth what he has done. He is not regretful. In Matt's mind, the scales of justice have been balanced. He does not revel in what he has done, and he thinks of the youthful faces of both young men who lost their lives when their paths crossed. In his mind, it is appropriate that Strout be dumped into an unmarked grave in the woods while his own son rests in dignity at a place where people can remember him.
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