School Days (22 page)

“S
O SHE WAS
fucking this guy to keep him from telling everyone that she was fucking this kid?” Cleary said.

“Well put,” I said.

“And the kid was underage when she was fucking him?”

“Almost certainly,” I said.

“And you can prove this?”

“Whoops,” I said.

“You can't prove it,” Cleary said.

“I can probably prove it. I got the naked photo.”

“Evidence of a possible felony,” Cleary said. “I'll have to examine it closely.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Take a number. DiBella's already got first dibs.”

Cleary smiled.

“The photo's pretty good leverage.”

“With her,” I said. “I have only her word with Garner.”

“But you know they were spending the night together.”

“Yes.”

“So why do you want to talk with the kid again?” Cleary said.

“I need to know where the love affair with Beth Ann fits in to what he did.”

“And I should help you with this?”

“In the interest of justice?” I said.

“Justice?” Cleary said. “This office wants convictions, not justice.”

“You'll convict him,” I said. “But maybe the circumstances would mitigate the sentence.”

“His sentence gets mitigated and the fucking community will be in open rebellion,” Cleary said.

“Lot of heavy stuff happened to that kid,” I said.

“A lot of heavy stuff happened to other kids, in the school, when he killed them,” Cleary said.

“I need to know what happened,” I said.

“Spenser, get away from me,” Cleary said. “His lawyer's already conceded. Nobody wants the sentence mitigated. His parents even want him long gone.”

“I might be able to do something about the lawyer,” I said.

“Well, wouldn't that work out good for me?” Cleary said.
“If I am really cooperative, I can turn this case into a major headache for myself.”

“The woman may have caused this,” I said.

“Even if she did,” Cleary said, “even if he had a better lawyer, he's going away.”

“We need to know,” I said.

“They don't want a better lawyer. They want him gone.”

“Maybe I could persuade them,” I said.

“You got another lawyer in mind?”

“Rita Fiore,” I said.

“The best defense attorney in the fucking state,” Cleary said. “And you want me to help you bring her on board?”

“Exactly,” I said.

Cleary looked at me. I looked back.

“You're going to get your conviction,” I said. “Might as well have some justice on the side.”

Cleary kept looking at me. I smiled at him warmly.

Finally, he said, “Jesus Christ!” and leaned forward and picked up the phone.

“I
DON
'
T WANT
to talk to you,” Jared Clark said when they brought him in and sat him down.

“I know,” I said. “Nobody does.”

“Well,” he said. “I won't.”

“Beth Ann Blair says that she was in love with you,” I said.

His eyes widened. “What?” he said.

“Beth Ann Blair says she is in love with you and that you are in love with her.”

He laughed. I didn't know why, and I suspect he didn't know why. But there it was: ha, ha.

“We're not supposed to tell anybody,” he said.

“She told,” I said.

“She told you she loves me.”

“Yes,” I said.

He laughed the same odd and inappropriate laugh.

“You want to tell me about that?” I said.

“She already told you.”

“She told me how she feels,” I said. “I was wondering how you feel.”

“She really told you,” he said.

“Yes.”

“Honest to God?”

“Honest to God,” I said. “You love her?”

He laughed. It wasn't a laugh about funny. I winked at him.

“Even if you didn't,” I said, “Pretty good in bed, huh?”

His face got red. “Don't say that.”

“Sorry,” I said.

“I love her. She loves me. When people love each other, that's what they do.”

“Go to bed,” I said.

He nodded firmly.

“When did you start to love each other?” I said.

“Since ninth grade.”

“Wow,” I said.

“Where does Mr. Garner fit in.”

“Fuck him,” Jared said.

“He knew you and Beth Ann were in love,” I said.

“He was going to not let us,” Jared said.

All of a sudden I saw it, all of it, full-formed, as if a magic lantern threw the patterns on a screen.

“You had to stop him,” I said.

“Yes.”

“She wanted you to,” I said.

“Yes.”

“But you didn't know for sure how to stop him, so you went to Dell, and he helped you.”

Jared nodded.

“But when you went to do it, Garner wasn't there.”

He nodded.

“And things got out of hand,” I said.

“Dell kept shooting,” Jared said softly.

“And you never said why you did it, because it would hurt Beth Ann.”

There were tears now. I didn't blame him. I felt like crying, too.

“So you got the chance to be a stand-up guy,” I said.

He nodded. He was crying audibly. The tears were rolling down his face.

“You were going to shoot Garner.”

Nod.

“And Dell was going to cover you.”

Nod.

“Dell plan this out mostly?”

“Yes. He knew about things like that. From Animal.”

“You didn't plan on getting caught.”

He shook his head.

“Dell had a different plan,” I said.

Jared looked at me blankly.

“You shoot anyone?”

“No.”

I could hear myself breathing. I needed more oxygen than I was getting. My throat needed to loosen. My stomach needed to unclench.

“We was going to get married,” Jared said, “when I was eighteen.”

“Next year,” I said.

He nodded. “You think she still loves me?” he said.

I took in some more air.

“Absolutely,” I said. “She loves you, and adores you, and admires very much how brave you are.”

He nodded his head and continued to nod it while he sat there and cried.

R
ITA WAS WEARING
a black pantsuit today, with a green silk T-shirt. She walked to her big picture window and studied her view of the south shore. Her pantsuit fit her very well. We were high, and there was no city sound, and her office was big and had a thick carpet, and there was almost no office noise.

“Okay,” she said with her back to me, which was not a bad thing. “You say that since he was in the ninth grade . . . how old is that?”

“Fourteen, fifteen,” I said. “I believe he was fourteen when it began.”

“Since he was fourteen, he's been having sex with the school shrink who is, what, thirty-five? Forty?”

“Somewhere in there,” I said.

“And the kid is functionally retarded.”

“Mildly,” I said.

“And the school president . . . what kind of high school has a president?”

“It's a private high school,” I said, “and it's aiming to become a junior college as well.”

“And the president finds out and blackmails the shrink into having sex with him, and she is feeling, ah, violated?”

“Violated is good,” I said.

“She talks the kid into killing the president,” Rita said. “Thus freeing her from his unwanted attentions and allowing the two lovebirds, Jared and Beth Ann, to be together again.”

“Until Jared turns eighteen and they can marry,” I said.

“Gee, I didn't know he was the marrying kind. . . .” Rita said. “Makes him more interesting.”

“He may be a little gun-shy right now,” I said.

She turned away from the window and looked at me. Her suit fit very well in the front, too.

“Aren't they all,” she said. “So, he connects with the school badass, who hooks them up with a gangbanger, who gets them guns and teaches them how to shoot, and they go into the school like two commandos, only the president isn't there that day, perhaps out tapping the school shrink against her wishes? So the kids start shooting the place up, except that our kid, Jared, says he didn't shoot. Any way to prove that?”

“Probably not.”

“And the school badass says he did?”

“Wendell Grant, yes.”

“You don't suppose the cops told him that if he ratted out his pal, he'd get a break?”

“Cops do that?” I said.

“He's not going to get a break,” Rita said. “Not for shooting up a school. He'd lose nothing by saying Jared didn't shoot.”

“He might just enjoy taking Jared down with him,” I said.

“Not easy,” she said.

Her mouth was open. She was tapping her bottom teeth with a ballpoint pen. Her thick, red hair came to her shoulders. She was something to see.

“You have a functionally retarded underaged boy whose parents really want to get rid of him,” I said. “Who was sexually exploited by an older woman. You oughtta be able to do something with that.”

“Jared's going away somewhere,” Rita said.

“And probably should,” I said. “But maybe he shouldn't spend the rest of his life somewhere, and maybe it should be a kinder somewhere.”

“If such a place exists,” Rita said. “Will Beth Ann Blair stick to her story?”

“I don't know,” I said.

“And Jared?”

“I don't know,” I said.

“I love a nice, solid case,” Rita said.

I shrugged.

“The kid deserves better than he's getting,” I said.

She looked at me and smiled, which was something to see in itself, and walked to her desk and sat in her big leather partner's chair and put her feet up and tapped her teeth some more.

“Tell me something,” Rita said. “You have stuck by this kid, whom you barely know, like he was your own. But you don't seem interested at all in the other one.”

“Grant?”

“Yes. Don't you suppose he might have serious problems that weren't addressed? Doesn't he need help? Isn't he a kid, too? Should he spend the rest of his life in jail?”

“Nobody hired me to stick with Grant,” I said.

“That's it?” Rita said.

“Yes.”

“That's all?” Rita said.

“That's all there is,” I said.

“No right or wrong, nothing like that?”

“Right or wrong?” I said. “Rita, you're a lawyer.”

“I know, never tell that I said that.”

We were quiet for a moment.

“There's thousands of people need saving,” I said. “I can't save them all. Hell, I can't save half the ones I try to save.”

“So you let chance decide?” Rita said. “Someone hires you?”

“Chance and choice,” I said. “I don't take every case.”

“How do you decide?” Rita said.

“I'm not sure,” I said. “I usually know it when I see it.”

“You can't save everybody,” Rita said.

“And if I try, I end up saving nobody,” I said.

“And saving one is better than saving none,” Rita said.

I nodded. Rita looked at me silently before she spoke.

“Do you know what I bill an hour?” she said.

“I believe I do.”

“How you going to pay me?”

“I'll give you every cent I earn on this case from here on,” I said.

She looked at me some more and smiled wider.

“They fired you,” she said. “Didn't they?”

“Well,” I said. “Yuh.”

“And you're offering me half of that.”

“Yuh.”

Rita laughed softly and flipped the ballpoint pen onto her desk.

“I'll take it,” she said.