A ventilation grid was set into the outside wall of the store a few feet above his head. Occasionally he heard a sound coming from the storeroom on the other side-a box being dropped, Billy T calling out an order, the distant ringing of the telephone. Gradually the sounds had died down as closing time approached, until now he could hear Holly Grace's voice so clearly he knew she must be standing right beneath the grid.
'You go on, Billy T. I'll lock up.'
'I'm in no hurry, honey bun.'
In his imagination, Dallie could see Billy T with his white pharmacist's coat and his florid face looking down his big putty nose at the high school boys when they came in to buy rubbers. Billy T would pull a pack of Trojans off the shelf behind him, lay them on the counter, and then, like a cat playing with a mouse, cover them with his hand and say, 'If you buy those, Til tell your mama,' Billy T had tried that crap with Dallie the first time he'd ever come into the store. Dallie had looked him straight in the eye and said he was buying them so he could fuck his mama. That had shut up old Billy T.
Holly Grace's voice drifted out of the vent. 'I'm going home, then, Billy T. I have a lot of studying to do for tomorrow.' Her voice sounded strange, tight and overly polite.
'Not yet, honey,' her uncle answered, his voice as slick as oil. 'You've been slipping out on me early all week. The front's all locked up. You come on over here, now.'
'No, Billy T, I don't-' She stopped speaking abruptly, as if something had settled over her mouth.
Dallie straightened against the wall, his heart pounding in his chest. He heard the unmistakable sound of
a moan and he squeezed his eyes shut. Christ… that's why she was holding out on all the senior boys. She was giving it to her uncle. Her own uncle.
A white-hot rage settled over him. Without any idea what he planned to do once he was inside, he flung himself at the back door and swung it open. Empty cartons and packages of paper towels and toilet paper lined the walls of the back hallway. He blinked his eyes, adjusting them to the dim light. The storage room was on his left, the door partly ajar, and he could hear Billy T's voice. 'You're so pretty, Holly Grace. Yes… Oh, yes…'
Dallie's hands curled into fists at his sides. He walked toward the doorway and looked inside. He felt sick.
Holly Grace was sprawled on an old ripped couch, her white Woolworth's tights down around her ankles, one of Billy T's hands pushed up under her skirt. Billy T knelt by the couch, huffing and puffing like a steam engine while he tried to pull her tights the rest of the way off and feel her up at the same time. His back was to the doorway so he couldn't see Dallie watching them. Holly Grace lay with her head turned toward the door, eyes squeezed shut, just like she didn't want to lose a minute of what old Billy T was doing to her.
Dallie couldn't make himself look away and as he watched, the last of any romantic notions he might have had about her died away. Billy T got her tights off and started fumbling with the buttons on her blouse. He finally jerked it open and pushed up her bra. Dallie saw the flash of one of Holly Grace's breasts. The shape was distorted from the pressure of the bra band, but he could still see that it was round and full, just like he'd imagined, with a dusky nipple all puckered tight.
'Oh, Holly Grace,' Billy T moaned, still kneeling on the floor in front of her. He pushed her skirt up to her waist and fumbled with the front of his trousers. 'Tell me how much you want it. Tell me how good
I am.'
Dallie thought he was going to be sick, but he couldn't move. He couldn't turn away from the sight of those long graceful legs sprawled so awkwardly on the couch. 'Tell me,' Billy T was saying. 'Tell me how much you need it, honey bun.'
Holly Grace didn't open her eyes, didn't say a word. She just turned her face into the old plaid pillow on the couch. Dallie felt a prickle travel along his spine, a creeping of gooseflesh, as if somebody had just walked over his grave.
'Tell me!' Billy T said, louder this time. And then, abruptly, he drew back his fist and hit her in the stomach.
She gave a strangled, horrible cry and her body convulsed. Dallie felt as if Jaycee's fist had just landed in his own stomach, and a bomb went off in his head. He sprang forward, every nerve in his body ready to explode. Billy T heard a sound and turned, but before he could move, Dallie had shoved him to the concrete floor. Billy T looked up at him, his fat face puckered with disbelief like some comic book villain. Dallie drew back his foot and kicked him hard in the stomach.
'You p-punk,' Billy T gasped, clutching his stomach and trying to get out the words at the same time. 'Sh- shit-eating punk-'
'No!' Holly Grace screamed, as Dallie started after him again. She jumped up from the couch and raced to Dallie, grabbing his arm as he stood there. ''No, don't do this!' Her face contorted with fear as she tried to pull him toward the door. 'You don't understand,' she cried. 'You're only making it worse!'
Dallie spoke to her real quietly. 'You pick up your clothes and go on out into the hall now, Holly Grace. Me and Billy T are going to have ourselves a little talk.'
'No… please-'
'Go on, now.'
She didn't move. Even though Dallie couldn't think of anything he wanted to do more than gaze at her beautiful, stricken face, he made himseif look at Billy T instead. Although Billy T outweighed him by a hundred pounds, the pharmacist was all fat and Dallie didn't think he would have much trouble beating him into a bloody pulp.
Billy T seemed to know it, too, because his little pig eyes were distorted with fear as he fumbled with the zipper on his pants and tried to struggle to his feet. 'You get him out of here, Holly Grace,' he panted. 'Get him out of here, or I'll make you pay for this.'
Holly Grace gripped Dallie's arm, pulling so hard toward the door that he had trouble keeping his balance. 'Go away, Dallie,' she pleaded, her voice coming out in frightened gasps. 'Please… please go away…'
She was barefoot, her blouse unbuttoned. As he extricated himself from her grasp, he saw a yellow bruise on the inner curve of her breast, and his mouth went dry with the old fear of childhood. He reached out and pushed the blouse away from her breast, breathing a soft curse as he saw the network of bruises that marred her skin, some of them old and faded, others fresh. Her eyes were wide and tortured, begging him not to say anything. But as he gazed into them, the supplication disappeared and was replaced by defiance. She yanked the front of her dress closed and glared at him as if he'd just peeked into her diary.
Dallie's voice wasn't more than a whisper. 'Did he do that to you?'
Her nostrils flared. 'I fell.' She licked her lips and some of her defiance faded as her eyes nervously darted toward her uncle. 'It's-it's all right, Dallie. Me and Billy T… It-it's all right.'
Suddenly her face seemed to crumple and he could feel the weight of her misery as if it were his own.
He took a step away from her toward Billy T, who had risen to his feet, although he was still bent
slightly forward, holding his pig stomach. 'What did you say you'd do to her if she told?' Dallie asked. 'How'd you threaten her?'
'None of your goddamn business,' Billy T sneered, trying to edge sideways to the door.
Dallie blocked the path. 'What'd he say he'd do to you, Holly Grace?'
'Nothing.' Her voice sounded dead and flat. 'He didn't say anything.'
'You whisper one word about this and I'll call the sheriff on you,' Billy T screeched at Dallie. 'I'll say you broke into my store. Everybody in this town knows you're a punk, and it'll be your word against mine.'
'Is that so?' Without warning, Dallie picked up a carton marked fragile and threw it with all his strength against the wall behind Billy T's head. The sound of breaking glass reverberated in the storeroom. Holly Grace sucked in her breath and Billy T began to curse.
'What did he say he'd do to you, Holly Grace?' Dallie asked again.
'I-I don't know. Nothing.'
He slammed another carton into the wall. Billy T let out a scream of fury, but he was too cowardly to take on Dallie's young strength. 'You stop that!' he shrieked. 'You stop that right now!' Sweat had broken out all over his face, and his voice had grown high-pitched with impotent rage. 'Stop that, you hear me!'
Dallie wanted to sink his fists into that soft fat, to punch Billy T until there was nothing left, but something inside him held back. Something inside him knew that the best way to help Holly Grace
was to break the conspiracy of silence Billy T used to hold her prisoner.
He picked up another carton and balanced it lightly in his hands. 'I've got the rest of the night, Billy T, and you've got a whole store out there for me to wreck.' He threw the carton against the wall. It split open and a dozen
