Kisscut

She let a full minute pass before asking Mark, 'Tell me what happened.'

He shook his head. 'It's so wrong,' he said. 'It all just went so wrong.' He leaned forward, his chest almost to his knees, his face contorted in pain as if someone had kicked him. He covered his face with his hands and started to sob again.

Before she knew what she was doing, Lena was down on her knees beside the boy, holding one of his hands. She put her hand on his back, trying to comfort him. 'It's okay,' she told him, hushing him.

'I love her,' he whispered. 'Even after what she did, I still love her.'

'I know you do,' Lena told him, rubbing his back.

'She was so mad at me,' Mark said, still sobbing. Lena pulled a Kleenex out of the box and gave it to him. He blew his nose, then whispered, 'I told her we had to stop.'

'Why did you have to stop?' Lena whispered back.

'I never thought she needed me, you know? I thought she was stronger than me. Stronger than everybody.' His voice caught. 'And she wasn't.'

Lena stroked the back of his neck, trying to soothe him. 'What happened, Mark? Why did she end up hating you?'

'You think she hates me?' he asked, his eyes searching hers. 'You really think she hates me?'

'No, Mark,' Lena said, pushing his hair back out of his face. He had switched to present tense, something people often did when they could not accept that a loved one had died. Lena had found herself doing the same thing with her sister. 'Of course she doesn't hate you.'

'I told her I wouldn't do it anymore.'

'Do what?'

He shook his head no. 'It's all so pointless,' he said, still shaking his head.

'What's pointless?' Lena asked, trying to make him look up at her. He did, and for a shocking moment, she thought he might try to kiss her. Quickly, she moved back on her heels, catching herself on the arm of the chair so she wouldn't fall. Mark must have seen the shock in her expression because he turned away from her, taking another tissue. Mark looked at Jeffrey as he blew his nose. Lena looked at neither of them. All she could think was that she had somehow crossed a line, but what that line was and where it had been drawn she could not figure.

Mark spoke to Jeffrey, and his voice had more authority to it. The kid who had broken down moments ago was gone. The surly teenager was back. 'What else?'

'Jenny liked to study?' Jeffrey asked.

Mark shrugged.

Lena said, 'Was she interested in other cultures, other religions?'

'What the fuck for?' Mark countered angrily. 'It's not like we're ever gonna get out of this fucking town.'

'That's a no, then?' Lena asked.

Mark pursed his lips, almost as if he was going to blow a kiss, then said, 'Nope.'

Jeffrey crossed his arms over his chest, taking back over. 'Around Christmas, you stopped being friends with Jenny. Why?'

'Got tired of her,' he shrugged.

'Who else did Jenny hang around with?'

'Me,' Mark said. 'Lacey. That was it.'

'She didn't have other friends?'

'No,' Mark answered. 'And we weren't really even her friends.' He laughed lightly. 'She was all alone, I guess. Isn't that sad, Chief Tolliver?'

Jeffrey stared at Mark, not answering.

'If you don't have any more questions,' Mark began, 'I'd like you to go now.'

'Do you know Dr. Linton?' Jeffrey asked.

He shrugged. 'Sure.'

'I want you at the children's clinic tomorrow by ten o'clock to give that blood sample.' Jeffrey pointed his finger at Mark. 'Don't make me come looking for you.'

Mark stood, wiping his palms on his pants. 'Yeah, what-ever.' He looked down at Lena, who was still on the floor. She was at his crotch level, and he smiled, more like a sneer, when he noticed this.

Mark raised one eyebrow at her, his lips slightly parted in the same sly smile he had given her before, then left the room.

Monday

Chapter Eight

Around six o'clock in the morning, Jeffrey rolled out of bed and fell onto the floor. He sat up, groaning at the pain in his head as he tried to remember where he was. The trip to Sylacauga had taken him six long hours last night, and he had tumbled into the twin bed without even bothering to take off his clothes. His dress shirt was wrinkled, the sleeves pushed up well past his elbows. His pants were creased in four different places.

Jeffrey yawned as he looked around his boyhood room. His mother had not changed a thing since he had left for Auburn over twenty years ago. A poster of a cherry-red 1967 Mustang convertible with a white top was on the back of the door. Six pairs of worn-out sneakers were on the floor of the closet. His football jersey from Sylacauga High was tacked to the wall over the bed. A box of cassette tapes was stacked high under the room's only window.

He lifted the mattress and saw a stack of Playboys, that he had started stockpiling at the age of fourteen. A much-loved copy of Penthouse, purloined from the local store down the street, was still on the top. Jeffrey sat back on his heels, thumbing through the magazine. There had been a time in his life when he had known every page of the Penthouse by heart, from the cartoons to the articles to the lovely ladies in provocative poses that had been the focus of his sexual fantasies for months on end.

'Jesus,' he sighed, thinking some of the women were probably old enough to be grandmothers now. Christ, some of them were probably eligible for social security.

Jeffrey groaned as he slid the mattress back into place, trying not to push the magazines out on the other side. He wondered if his mother had ever found his stash. Wondered, too, what she must have thought of it. Knowing May Tolliver, she had ignored them, or made up an excuse that allowed her to block out the fact that her son had enough pornography under his mattress to wallpaper the entire house. His mother was good at not seeing things she did not want to see, but then most mothers were.

Jeffrey thought about Dottie Weaver, and how she had missed all the signs with her daughter. He put his hand to his stomach, thinking about Jenny Weaver standing in the parking lot at Skatie's. The image was like a Polaroid etched into his eyelids, and he could see the little girl standing there, the