“No.”
“Well, shit. What do you need?”
“I know who murdered Todd Lester. It’s the same person who planted the drugs in my backpack. His name is Gerald Martin. He abducted and murdered at least four other kids. This summer I tried to force him to confess at gunpoint, and I was successful, but he got the gun away from me and threatened to kill my family if I said anything.” Ed only needed the high-level explanation; this wasn’t the time to get into the whole feeding tube threat. “Tonight I’m going to sneak out of my house, go over there, and force him to take me to where Todd’s body is buried.”
“I’m in,” said Ed.
“You need to know the plan first. He’s dangerous.”
“Yeah, I recognize that the child-killer might be dangerous. What’s your plan?”
“Can you pick a lock?” I asked.
“My older brother can. He’ll pick a lock for you if I ask him to. And he’s got a car. I’ll bring Burt and Josh, too.”
“I wasn’t going to ask you or anybody else to confront him directly. If your brother can help me break into his house, that saves me the trouble of stopping at the library to learn how to do it myself. Once I’ve got him, I wanted you to follow us to the burial site, and then help me dig.”
“The ground will be frozen,” said Ed.
“I know. That’s why I’ll need your help.”
“Why don’t you let him take you to the spot, and then call the police?”
“Because if he takes me to the wrong place, he can tell them he was bluffing to buy himself some time to be rescued. I need absolute proof first. Again, I’m not asking you to put yourself in danger. I’ll take all the risks.”
“I don’t mind taking risks. How dangerous do you think that asshole will be if he’s up against five of us?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “But, again, he’s murdered several kids. He might have a gun.”
“So will we.”
“I honestly thought you’d be a lot more reluctant.”
“Hell no. When am I gonna get another chance to kick the shit out of a madman? We’ve got your back, Curtis. Just tell me where we need to be.”
That had gone quite a bit better than I’d anticipated. After we finalized our plans, Ed let me use his phone to call another cab, and I was back on my way home. I had at least another hour before my mom got home from work, so as long as she hadn’t called while I was gone, everything was going smoothly.
As we pulled up to my house, I could see that the lights were on.
Okay. Well, I’d known the risk. My attitude had been “What’s she going to do, ground me?” If I’d known how receptive Ed would be to my plan, I probably would’ve called him instead.
I went inside, bracing myself for the firestorm.
“Where the hell were you?” Mom demanded. “Why didn’t you answer the phone?”
I explained that I just wanted to go for a long walk to see the Christmas decorations. Ours was the only house that didn’t have any. We also didn’t have a Christmas tree or any presents. We used to put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving and cover the house with lights that could be seen from the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, but the holidays had been cancelled in our household this year.
Mom yelled at me, then cried, then yelled some more, then went to her bedroom and slammed the door. I felt bad, but I couldn’t just sit around anymore and await my fate. Maybe I’d clear my name. Maybe I’d spend the first three months of 1980 locked up. Maybe I’d be dead before the new year. However it worked out, the standoff between Mr. Martin and I was over.
When Dad got home, he yelled at me, and then he and Mom yelled at me together. I just sat there and took it. They asked if I wanted to be a juvenile delinquent, and I said no, I did not. They asked why I was behaving like this then, and I said that I didn’t know. It was positively brutal.
They sent me to my room for a while.
We had flavorless meatloaf for dinner, then I went to bed.
I heard them arguing. Though it didn’t devolve into shouting at each other, the arguing went on far longer than anything I’d ever heard from them.
Then they started watching television.
That was fine. It was only about ten o’clock. Even when they didn’t have to go to work the next day, my parents were never up very late. I was supposed to meet Ed and the others at midnight.
An hour later, they were still watching television.
That was fine. I had plenty of time.
Now I could hear them arguing again.
I had to be outside at midnight. If I wasn’t out there to meet him, Ed and his buddies weren’t going to say, “Oh, hey, no problem. We’ll just reschedule.”
They turned off the television but continued to blame each other for the parenting failures that had led them to raise a drug-dealing liar.
Finally they stopped.
I’d wanted to give them more time to fall fast asleep, but I had to start getting ready. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if they were awake when I needed to leave. I supposed I’d have to simply explain that I was going out whether they liked it or not, and assume that they wouldn’t try to physically restrain me.
I left my bedroom and crept downstairs into the living room. A denim jacket wasn’t going to cut it tonight. We might be outside for a long time, and it was really fucking cold out there, so impressing my peers was no longer a priority.
I opened the closet door as quietly as I possibly could.
I heard
