Karl becomes a father figure to Frank, who misses his real father and despises Doyle. As they grow closer, Karl reveals to Frank that he is haunted by an incident that happened when he was six or eight years old. His parents performed an abortion of his unwanted baby brother. The baby was wrapped in a bloody towel and given to Karl with instructions to "get rid of it"; however, Karl realized that the infant survived the abortion. He then buried him alive to spare him the abuse and neglect Karl had received at the hands of his own father. Karl later visits his father, who has become a sickly hermit. Karl tells his father that killing his baby brother was wrong and that he had wanted to kill his father for making him do it but decided that he was not worth the effort. Karl thereafter decides to be baptized.