serving minors? How am I going to explain this to my mother?
She’s already pissed off at my suspension from school. And my old man will have a field day. He’ll be ranting on me. I told you so, I told you so, didn’t I tell you so? That’s all I’m going to hear… Jesus, it’s not like we intended to kill Johnny… You know, he wasn’t such a bad guy once you got to know him.”
Wiggy collapsed on the hood of the Chev. Terry looked at him.
“That hole sure was deep,” Terry said, dropping his cigarette on the asphalt and grinding it out with his shoe. He looked around the parking lot. There were always security guards to worry about. They were going to have to return Adelle’s Chev.
“We should fill the Chev up before we return it,” Terry added.
Wiggy looked at Terry with a puzzled expression on his face.
“That hole was deep,” he said. “Did you hear Johnny hit the bottom?”
“What are you getting at?” Terry asked.
“Maybe there ain’t no bottom. Maybe Johnny just kept on dropping.” Wiggy flicked his cigarette high in the air over a nearby Volkswagon.
There was a look of terrible optimism in his eyes.
Terry looked at Wiggy, stood up, and snapped his fingers. “That’s it!
You’re a genius. All we gotta say is that we left Johnny after the pub. We can say we went over to Adelle’s. She’ll give us an alibi. They’re not going to suspect a bunch of teenagers of murder.”
“You think that’ll work?” Wiggy asked.
“Why not?” Terry responded. “As long as we keep our stories straight and no one talks too much. If they don’t find a body, there ain’t no crime.”
“I never liked Johnny anyway,” Wiggy stated, climbing to his feet. “He didn’t have any respect for women.”
Good-bye
Sam Kelly pulled the car over to the curb. Margaret turned toward him.
“Thanks for the lift home.” Margaret smiled.
Sam nodded.
“Is it all over now?” she asked. “Are they still going to try and find out what happened to all those people?”
Sam stared out the front window of the police car.
“Nothing is ever over,” he said. “Too much has happened to drop everything. But it’s over for me. I’ll put in for early retirement. The way I’ve handled things, there won’t be any argument.”
“What will you do?”
Sam laughed bitterly. “Don’t know. Don’t really know anything but police work. The future,” Sam hesitated for a moment before continuing,
“seems pretty dark.”
Margaret smiled and patted Sam on the hand.
“The future is supposed to be dark. It hasn’t happened yet.” Sam looked at the woman sitting beside him. He took her hand, squeezed softly, and then released it. “Thanks,” he said.
Margaret waited for a moment, then opened the car door. She turned to the detective.
“Would you like to come in for a coffee?”
Sam paused, then smiled.
“Another time, maybe.”
Margaret nodded then stepped out of the car. About to leave, she turned back to the car and leaned in the open window.
“Sam, you be careful. If you need someone to talk to, you know where I am.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Why are you so sure it’ll work?” Frank leaned against the side of the telephone booth, gripping the receiver in his hand.
“Where are you calling from?” Terry’s voice asked.
“A telephone booth,” Frank responded, turning to look out across Bloor Street. “Across the street from the plaza. I didn’t want to talk in my house. My mother’s always listening in on the other line. If my parents even get a whiff of what we’ve been doing, I’m a goner. No college.
Heck, they’ll kick me out of the house. I don’t know why I let you guys talk me into it in the first place. Maybe if we told them it was an accident.
The rope slipped. We only wanted to scare… ”
“Look,” Terry said, “just keep the story simple, just like I told you.
Don’t elaborate on it. No extra details. If the cops try to probe deeper just say that you’d had a few beers and you were out of it. And whatever you do, don’t go telling them about any accidents.”
“Terry?” Frank asked, his head bent as if he were looking into the receiver.
“Ya.”
Frank hesitated. “Did you know Johnny’s folks?” Terry was silent for a minute.
“No.”
“I wonder how they’re taking it.” The volume of Frank’s voice began to decrease. He was now almost whispering. Frank looked around again to make sure that no one was listening. “My parents would be pretty upset. I don’t know if my folks could stand up to it. My dad’s had heart problems. Are Johnny’s parents strong enough? I don’t want any more bodies on my conscience.”
“I told you, Frank, I don’t know Johnny’s parents. We’ve got to stay focused on our plan.”
“Maybe the cops won’t even talk to us,” Frank said.
“They’ll be talking to everyone,” Terry said. “This is real big, Frank.
Johnny’s parents are going to want answers. We just gotta wait it out.
What’s wrong, Frank?”
“Nothing. Just having trouble breathing. My stomach is in knots.”
“Calm down. Take a deep breath.”
“Okay,” Frank replied. “I’m trying. You’re sure Adelle will give us an alibi?”
“I already talked to her. We won’t have any trouble there.”
“Do you trust Wiggy?” Frank asked. “He ain’t going to be able to keep his mouth shut. You know what he’s like.”
“Wiggy will be quiet. For now. He’s just as scared as we are. Later, we can take care of him.”
“What?” Frank asked. “What does take care of him mean, Terry?
Should we go to the funeral to see Johnny’s body? I don’t think I could do that, Terry. I couldn’t look at that face again. I just couldn’t.”
“Stay calm, Frank. There won’t be any body. Nobody is going to look down that hole.”
“Terry?”
“Ya, Frank?”
“Does this make us murderers? I don’t know if I could live thinking I was a murderer. I want to have kids some day. How could I raise kids knowing that I was a murderer? How could you keep a secret like that from your wife? It would come out. Eventually everything comes out.”
“No, it doesn’t. Some things disappear. You’ll forget about it, Frank.
One day you’ll have trouble even remembering that all this really happened, that it wasn’t just a bad dream. But for now you’ve got to bury it some place deep inside. You’ve got to put it some place where no one can ever find it.”
“Oh, shit!” Frank cried.
