Rage

Daney said, “Hmm… I guess it wouldn’t have been anything malicious. And I can’t see Rand being confrontational. He was basically a nice kid.”

He waited for Milo’s reaction to that. None followed.

“The only thing I can think of,” he went on, “is there was some sort of miscommunication.”

“Such as?” said Milo.

“I’m not sure what I mean,” said Daney. “Like I said, this is all theorizing.”

“Understood,” said Milo. “But give it a try, ’cause we’ve got nothing else.”

“Well,” said Daney, “when we brought Rand home, he was clearly troubled. Like I told you. The only explanation I can come up with is lingering guilt. Maybe he tried to get some closure by meeting Malley face-to-face and apologizing.”

“Or Malley accosted Rand and demanded an apology,” I said.

“Sure. That, too.”

Milo said, “That makes more sense to me, Rev. Malley follows Rand when he leaves your house to go to the construction site, gets him in the truck, either by convincing him he’s friendly or at gunpoint. Then something- could be an apology demanded by Malley, or something else- goes haywire. What do you think, Doc?”

I said, “Makes sense.”

Daney said, “Rand’s verbal skills were poor, Detective. I can see him saying the wrong thing, phrasing something in a way that would spark Malley’s rage. I mean, isn’t that how so much crime originates?”

“Miscommunication?”

“Two guys in a bar,” said Daney. “An argument gets out of hand? Isn’t that a big part of police work?”

“Sure,” said Milo.

Daney took a bite of the pink doughnut. Ate half and put it down. “There is something else. Kind of far-fetched but as long as we’re theorizing…”

“What’s that?”

Daney hesitated.

“Sir?”

“This goes way back, Detective. To the boys’ hearings. I was spending a lot of my time on the case because the defense asked me to be there as support. Cherish and I attended everything and I got to look at the evidence.”

“Something about the evidence was off?” said Milo.

“No, no, nothing like that. What I’m getting at is in my field you learn to observe. People, their reactions. Kind of like what you do, Doctor.”

I nodded.

“I’m a little uncomfortable getting into this,” said Daney. “It’s nothing I’d want to sign my name to, and I really wouldn’t be comfortable going on record as the source. But if you could confirm it independently…”

He broke off. Scratched his beard. Shook his head. “Sorry for waffling, but it’s…”

He slung his jaw, shook his head. “I don’t know, maybe it’s not a good idea.”

Milo said, “We’re in bad shape on this one, Reverend. Anything you can tell us would be helpful. And if it’s something I can confirm independently, I promise you I will.”

“Okay,” said Daney. “First, let me say that I never brought this up because the boys had clearly done the crime. That isn’t to say I didn’t think they deserved compassion. But everyone had suffered enough, there was simply no point.”

He reached for another doughnut. Chose blindly and extracted an apple turnover. Holding the pastry in one hand, he watched as flakes of dough snowed on the table.

“Eye color,” he said, barely audible. “Little Kristal had brown eyes. I’d never have noticed, but in the evidence packet were photos of that poor little girl. In life and in death. The postmortem shots I couldn’t bring myself to look at. The others were baby pictures, the prosecution was going to use them to build sympathy. Emphasizing how small and cute she’d been… that’s neither here nor there. The point is I saw those photos, but at that time the fact that Kristal’s eyes were brown didn’t mean much. Until I noticed that both Lara and Barnett had pale eyes. Hers were blue or green, I’m not sure. His are definitely blue. I’m no geneticist, but I’ve learned enough science to know that brown eyes are dominant and light-eyed parents usually can’t have dark-eyed kids. I had my suspicions, but like I say, there was no reason to open that can of worms, who would it help? But last night, after you called and asked me to give the case some serious thought, I went on the Internet to confirm and it’s highly unlikely- close to impossible- for two blue-eyed parents to produce a brown-eyed child.”

His speech had grown rapid and the last few words had tapered to whispers, inaudible. Gulping air, he exhaled and put the turnover down. “I’m not out to slander anyone but…”

“Kristal wasn’t Malley’s kid,” said Milo. “Whoa.”

“It’s the only logical conclusion, Lieutenant. And that could be the source of Mr. Malley’s rage.”

“Kristal was nearly two,” said Milo. “You’d think Malley would’ve figured it out.”

“He struck me as an unsophisticated person. He worked rodeos or something like that.”

“Rodeos?”

“Riding, roping, or at least that’s what I heard,” said Daney. “From the defense.”

“Sounds like Ms. Weider did her background research.”

“You bet. She was extremely hardworking and thorough. I was glad when she got the case.”

“You were involved before she got the case?” I said. “I thought she brought you on as a support-person.”

“Just the opposite, actually,” said Daney. “I brought her on. Not officially, but I had a hand in it.”

“How so?”

“I knew Troy from working with him at 415 City. I also knew Ms. Weider from some other youth work I’d done. My seminary had a program, working with inner-city teens, trying to get them involved in summer activities. In the course of that, I developed some contacts with the Public Defender’s Office, because that’s where so many of our kids ended up. I knew several of the P.D.s, but thought Ms. Weider would be perfect for the boys. Because she was so thorough. I called her and asked if she could help out. She said there was a system in place but she’d see what she could do.”

“As a favor to you.”

“Partly,” said Daney. “To be honest, the case attracted her because it was high-profile. She was pretty ambitious.”

“And then she asked you to stay on for support,” said Milo.

“Exactly.”

“You ever tell her about the eye color thing?”

“No, like I said, I didn’t see the point.”

Milo exhaled. “Wow… that’s a bombshell, all right. Thank you, Rev.”

“I don’t like telling tales, but…”

“So you’re figuring Rand knew Kristal wasn’t Malley’s kid and mentioned it to Malley.”

“No, no,” said Daney. “I hadn’t taken it that far.”

“But it coulda happened that way.”

“No, I honestly don’t think so, Lieutenant. How would Rand know?”

“Same way you did. He noticed.”

Daney shook his head. “Rand just wasn’t that observant. But even if he did know, there’d be no reason to throw it in Malley’s face.”

“What, then?”

“What I’m getting at- and this is really out there- is maybe Barnett Malley wasn’t a total victim.”

Daney flinched, pushed the turnover away. “I feel like I’m… wading into something and I’m really not comfortable. Sorry.” Pushing up a corduroy sleeve, he peered at a black-faced sports watch. Milo placed a hand on his arm. Flashed that lupine smile. Daney stiffened for a second. Dropped his shoulders, shot us a look of misery.

“I’ve got that sinking feeling, guys, like when you’ve gone too far, you know?”

I said, “You’re saying Malley found out Lara had cheated on him, built up a whole lot of rage, and decided to act