Bent Road - Lori Roy [95]
At noon, Mrs. Ellenton dismisses the class for lunch. Daniel doesn’t wait for Ian like he normally would. Instead, he takes his bag-lunch from the shelf near the door and races through the halls with his head down because every kid in school is staring at him—the kid who saw Julianne Robison dead. He hears Ian calling out but his crooked legs can’t keep up. The cold weather seems to have made Ian stiffer, like every step he takes is painful. If it were possible, Daniel would say Ian looked even smaller, like he shrunk during the snowstorm. Everything except his head. It seems to have grown, and Daniel rubs his own neck thinking how heavy Ian’s head must be to carry around all day. Once inside the cafeteria, Daniel sits at his usual table, which seems to be more crowded today, and opens his lunch. When Ian finally sits, he is panting for air. His eyelids are gray and sunken into his head and a bluish tint surrounds his mouth.
“Hey,” he says, tossing his lunch on the table. “What are you doing?”
All around the cafeteria, kids watch Daniel. Not one of them has been his friend all year, but now they all want to hear about Julianne Robison.
“Doing nothing,” Daniel says. “Eating.”
“So you found her. You really found her.” Ian smiles at the full table and leans forward. “What’d she look like?”
Daniel shrugs. He sees Julianne every time he closes his eyes, but he thinks he’s really seeing only what he imagines. Once Jonathon realized what they were looking at up there on the second story of Norbert Brewster’s house, he grabbed Daniel’s arm and shoved him back into the hallway, telling him to stay put, stay damned well put, until he could figure things out.
“Come on,” Ian says, cupping his mouth with both hands so no one can hear what he’s saying. “You got to tell me.”
“She didn’t look like anything,” Daniel says, taking a bite from his sandwich but thinking if he chews or swallows, he’ll vomit.
“Did it smell bad?” Ian asks, but then answers his own question. “I guess not, because of the cold. Frozen, huh?”
Daniel lifts his eyes, looking out from under his brow without moving his head. “Yeah.”
“You know, most folks say your Uncle Ray did it.” He leans forward and whispers, “But I still say it was Jack Mayer. Swiped her up the second he broke out. Swiped her up and killed her there in Brewster’s old house.”
Ian leans back and studies his lunch like he’s thinking about eating it, but he pushes it farther away instead and closes his eyes. He sits that way, taking in deep breaths for a good long minute before opening his eyes, ready to go again.
“She’s the first person murdered around here in twenty-five years,” Ian says. “The first in twenty-five years.” He waves at two of his brothers sitting at the other end of the table. They both jump up and sit back down next to Ian. Once they are settled, Ian starts talking again. “ ’Course you know who the last person murdered was.”
Daniel shakes his head and keeps eating even though he feels sicker with every bite.
“ ’Course you know.”
Both of Ian’s brothers nod but neither says anything.
“It was your own Aunt Eve. Your dad’s sister. You know that? Murdered right there in your Grandma’s shed. Everyone says your Uncle Ray did it but they couldn’t ever prove it.”
Daniel stops chewing.
“Say he killed her same as Julianne. You know, blond like Julianne. A girl. Older, of course. But blond just the same. Say he couldn’t help himself.” Ian looks at his brothers again, like he’s making sure he’s telling everything right. Both brothers nod. “But I say it