 The narrator singer describes examining the wreckage and discovering evidence of an extramarital affair between the two (Browning's wedding band hidden in a matchbox behind the dash).He disposes of the evidence and swears himself to silence for the sake of their reputations in the county; because, as he reveals in the last verse, Walter Browning was his father.Because there are thirteen states in the United States which contain a Carroll County, the apparent specificity of the named location is offset by its ambiguity.