Darkness peering by Alice Blanchard Page B

practically tearing it out of its socket
as he pulled him away from his overprotective girlfriend.

    "All right now," Nalen hissed, "I know you know more than you're
letting on."
    "Huh?"
    "About Melissa D'Agostino. Ozzie Rudd picked her up after school last
Tuesday and drove her over to Commerce City, didn't he? Tell me the
truth, Billy. Were you involved?"
    "Noway, Dad..."
    "Billy." He resisted a terrible urge to hit him. "Cut the crap.
Either you tell me the truth right now, or I'm arresting you for
possession. Simple as that."
    Billy stared at him with wounded eyes.
    "Billy?" Gillian cried, and Nalen turned to her.
    "Stay back, young lady."
    She did as she was told.
    "Dad ..."
    "Tell me."
    "Dad ... I don't--"
    "Tell me!"
    Billy's mouth contorted and blinding tears spilled from his eyes as he
confessed, "All right, all right... I was there ..."
    Nalen felt the words like an electric shock and almost lost his
balance, horror cinching up his gut. He stared hopelessly at his
tormented son. "What d'you mean, you were there?"
    "You wanted the truth, right? So I'm telling you the truth!" Billy
cried. "Ozzie picked her up on Bellamy Road and a bunch of us drove to
Commerce City together. It was no big deal. We got some ice cream and
cruised around for a while, that's all. We were just goofing on her,
Dad."
    Just goofing on her. Nalen could barely fathom the cruelty contained
within those four little words. Nothing on God's green earth was less
merciful than a child. "Who else was involved?"
    "This junior named Michelle. She rode in the Grey Ghost with

    me, and Neal and Boomer took Boomer's dad's car, and Ozzie and Dolly
took Melissa in the Green Hornet. Nothing happened."
    "Is that why you kept it from me? Because nothing happened?"
    "I knew you wouldn't believe me. I can tell you still think I
decapitated those cats."
    "I never said as much, did I?"
    "We were just having a little fun. I kept telling them not to. I told
them we should let her go, and finally we drove back and Ozzie let her
out."
    "Let her out where?"
    "You know ... Black Hill Road."
    "Let her out on Black Hill Road?"
    "Yeah, and then we took off. So we're innocent."
    "You let her out all alone on some deserted street?" Nalen slapped his
son across the face, and Billy screamed.
    "Billy!" Gillian ran to him.
    "I didn't kill her!" Billy shrieked, and Nalen hated him just then.
Tasting his own sour breath, he loosened his tie. He could see stars
swimming in his field of vision ... red stars. The boy's face was pale
and blank, Billy's patented emotionless expression, and Nalen hated him
for being a constant reminder of his former self... of his lack of
control. Physical, flesh-and-blood evidence of his buried, abusive
past.
    "I didn't!" Billy protested from somewhere far away. A nasty
desperation clawed at Nalen's insides, and he spun around and vomited
in the grass. He vomited until he got the dry heaves. The beatings
would often come after the vomiting, beatings accompanied by the smell
of bile and alcohol. Nalen almost blacked out, and then a pair of cool
hands were propping him up against a tree. He caught himself on the
damp bark. Gillian was tapping his face, whispering, "Yoo hoo, Chief
Storrow?"
    He groaned.
    "Hey. Hello. You okay?" She put her hands on his face.

    "Stop." He shoved her away and she stumbled backward, then righted
herself. She regarded him with skeptical eyes. He glanced around for
his son. "Where's Billy?"
    She stared at him. "Are you sure you're okay?"
    "Gillian," he said, straining for the most normal tone of voice he
could muster, "you'll only get yourselves into worse trouble. Come
down to the station and we'll straighten things out."
    "You never believed him," she said with an adolescent's obstinate
contempt, her eyes sparking with candor. "He didn't hurt Melissa
D'Agostino. He came over to my house. He was with me from five-thirty
to six-thirty that night, so he couldn't have done anything, right?