raised hers-delicately-and Irma Bates did likewise. Corky. Don. Pat. Sarah Pasterne. Some smiling a little, most of them solemn. Tanis. Nancy Caskin. Dick Keene and Mike Gavin, both renowned in the Placerville Greyhounds' backfield. George and Harmon, who played chess together in study hall. Melvin Thomas. Anne Lasky. At the end all of them were up-all but one.
I called on Carol Granger, because I thought she deserved her moment. You would have thought that she might have had the most trouble making the switch, crossing the terminator, so to speak, but she had done it almost effortlessly, like a girl shedding her clothes in the bushes after dusk had come to the class picnic.
'Carol?' I said. 'What's the answer?'
She thought about how to word it. She put a finger up to the small dimple beside her mouth as she thought, and there was a furrow in her milk-white brow.
'We have to help,' she said. 'We have to help show Ted where he has gone wrong. '
That was a very tasteful way to put it, I thought.
'Thank you, Carol,' I said.
She blushed.
I looked at Ted, who had come back to the here and now. He was glaring again, but in kind of a confused way.
'I think the best thing,' I said, 'would be if I became a sort of combination judge and public attorney. Everyone else can be witnesses; and of course, you're the defendant, Ted.'
Ted laughed wildly. 'You,' he said. 'Oh, Jesus, Charlie. Who do you think you are? You're crazy as a bat. '
'Do you have a statement?' I asked him.
'You're not going to play tricks with me, Charlie. I'm not saying a darn thing. I'll save my speech for when we get out of here.' His eyes swept his classmates accusingly and distrustfully. 'And I'll have a lot to say.'
'You know what happens to squealers, Rocco,' I said in a tough Jimmy Cagney voice. I brought the pistol up suddenly, pointed it at his head, and screamed 'BANG!'
Ted shrieked in surprise.
Anne Lasky laughed merrily.
'Shut up! ' Ted yelled at her.
'Don't you tell me to shut up,' she said. 'What are you so afraid of?'
'What . . . ?' His jaw dropped. The eyes bulged. In that moment I felt a great deal of pity for him. The Bible says the snake tempted Eve with the apple. What would have happened if he had been forced to eat it himself?
Ted half-rose from his seat, trembling. 'What am I . . . ? What am I . . . ?' He pointed a shivering finger at Anne, who did not cringe at all. 'YOU GODDAMN SILLY BITCH! HE HAS GOT A GUN! HE IS CRAZY! HE HAS SHOT TWO PEOPLE! DEAD! HE IS HOLDING US HERE!'
'Not me, he isn't,' Irma said. 'I could have walked right out.'
'We've learned some very good things about ourselves, Ted,' Susan said coldly. 'I don't think you're being very helpful, closing yourself in and trying to be superior. Don't you realize that this could be the most meaningful experience of our lives?'
'He's a killer,' Ted said tightly. 'He killed two people. This isn't TV. Those people aren't going to get up and go off to their dressing rooms to wait for the next take. They're
'Soul killer!' Pig Pen hissed suddenly.
'Where the fuck do you think you get off?' Dick Keene asked. 'All this just shakes the shit out of your tight little life, doesn't it? You didn't think anybody'd find out about you banging Sandy, did you? Or your mother. Ever think about her? You think you're some kind of white knight. I'll tell you what you are. You're a cocksucker. '
'Witness! Witness!' Grace cried merrily, waving her hand. 'Ted Jones buys girlie magazines. I've seen him in Ronnie's Variety doing it.'
'Beat off much, Ted?' Harmon asked. He was smiling viciously.
'And you were a Star Scout,' Pat said dolorously.
Ted twitched from them like a bear that has been tied to a post for the villagers' amusement. '
'Right,' Corky said disgustedly.
'I bet you really stink in bed,' Sylvia said. She looked at Sandra. 'Did he stink in bed?'
'We didn't do it in bed,' Sandra said. 'We were in a car. And it was over so quick . . . '
'Yeah, that's what I figured.'
'All right,' Ted said. His face was sweaty. He stood up. 'I'm walking out of here. You're all crazy. I'll tell them . . . ' He stopped and added with a strange and touching irrelevancy, 'I never meant what I said about my mother. ' He swallowed. 'You can shoot me, Charlie, but you can't stop me. I'm going out.'
I put the gun down on the blotter. 'I have no intention of shooting you, Ted. But let me remind you that you haven't really done your duty.'
'That's right,' Dick said, and after Ted had taken two steps toward the door, Dick came out of his seat, took two running steps of his own, and collared him. Ted's face dissolved into utter amazement.
'Hey, Dick,' he said.
