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Neither of them spoke as A
How could it? Why would it? He was a little boy who loved his dad like he was a god. What would be the point of him understanding it now or ever?
A
She pulled the car into the parking lot-not up to the doors of the building. Once they went inside, everything would change. She wanted this one moment alone with Tommy.
She got out of the car and went around to the other side to take Tommy’s hand-the same way she had the day he and the other kids had found the body, and she had taken him home to face his mother.
She knelt down and looked at his face, his eyes, trying to read him, feeling that in the snap of a moment his soul had aged a thousand years. Her heart ached for him and for herself as if God had taken it from her chest and wrung it out like a sponge.
“You are so precious,” she whispered, tears filling every part of her. “And this is going to be so hard. I wish I could change it for you, Tommy.”
“I’ll be all right,” he said, as if to reassure her.
A
She touched his cheek like touching an angel. “You’re my hero, you know,” she said, tears falling.
A
And when they walked through the doors, everything changed.
People swarmed them, meaning well, wanting explanations, needing statements, demanding answers. With everybody added to the crowd, A
His eyes met A
A
Closing her eyes, she slipped away from consciousness. The last thing she remembered in her mind’s eye: Tommy standing alone in a little red boat, his hand to his heart as he drifted out of view until all that remained was the faintest memory of his sad little smile.
93
A
“… broken ribs… collapsed lung…”
“… oh my God… we’re lucky she’s not d-e-a-d…”
“I can spell.”
Her voice was rusty and dry and didn’t carry very far, but it carried far enough.
“Hey, look who’s back,” Vince said with a soft smile as he came to her bedside.
“Oh, A
A
“Hey,” Vince objected. “You should see the other guy. They had to airlift him to LA. Our girl got a couple of good licks in. She knocked his eye out with a tire iron!” he said proudly.
Fra
“Gave him a skull fracture, broke his nose…”
“Who are you?” Fra
“I’m alive,” she said simply.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he said, melting. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“I’ll be sure to mark this day on my calendar,” A
“I want to hug you, but I’m afraid you’ll hurt me. I was going to say that the other way around, but you beat a man’s head in with a tire iron, so…”
A
“My dentist,” Fra
A
He shook his head. “He got a lawyer. We can’t touch him.”
“But he did this to A
“No,” Vince said. “He’s a slam dunk for this, and he knows it. I think he’ll try to cut a deal.”
“Fuck that!” Fra
Vince patted him on the shoulder. “I like how you think, my friend. If that was an option…”
“But the murders?” A
“Right now, there’s just not enough physical evidence. In fact, there’s almost no physical evidence. He didn’t make a mistake-until he went after you,” he said. “How did you get the necklace?”
A
His sweet gesture had set off the chain of events that led to his father being revealed as a monster. The Greeks couldn’t have come up with a better tragedy.
“Have you talked to Tommy?” she asked.
She knew the answer by the tension in his face.
“The mother won’t let us near him.”
He read her distress just as easily and closed his hand gently around hers. “There’s nothing you can do, honey. Let it go.”
A deep sense of sadness settled in A
“I brought you a get-well present to cheer you up,” Fra
A
“Some people give flowers or candy. My friend gives lingerie.”
“Nothing says ‘Get well’ like a negligee,” Fra
“Always makes me feel better,” Vince confessed.
“See?”
A
Fra
“He’s something,” Vince said, chuckling, as Fra
A
“Seriously, now,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
She felt no need to try to be brave or analytical with him. The tears came high in her eyes as the emotions flooded through her, leaving her trembling. “I’ve never been so afraid in my life.”
Vince eased a hip onto the bed so he could put his arms around her.
“You should have seen me,” he murmured. “When I knew that bastard had you…”