Bonnie - Iris Johansen [86]
“Why did they arrest him? What were the charges?”
He shook his head vaguely. “Lots of things. Selling drugs, stealing stuff, hitting the woman who rented us the apartment. But he told the police he didn’t do any of it. That it was all lies.”
“And you think he was telling the truth?”
He looked away. “I wanted to believe it. Our landlady was a nice woman. She hurt herself bad when she fell down the stairs. I went to the hospital to see her.”
“Was she angry?”
“No. She cried. She told me to run away.”
“And did you do it?”
He shook his head. “I couldn’t leave my father. He needed me. He said it was a son’s duty to take care of his father. He wasn’t well and couldn’t work. But I was strong.”
And the leech had fastened onto the kid and hadn’t let go.
“Then how did you end up here?”
“They took him away and put him in jail. I didn’t have anywhere to go, so my landlady found this place. Mr. Daltrop said I could stay for a little while.” He smiled. “That was eight months ago.”
“Evidently, you earned a place for yourself if you managed to stay this long.”
“They think I’m smart, that I do a good job. They like me here. Everyone likes me.”
An entry.
“Did Ted Danner like you?”
His smile faded. “Yes.”
Back off a little. “Why do you think that?”
“He would come to my tent and talk to me. He taught me how to play checkers. He had a big knife, and he’d take me into the woods and show me how good he could throw it. Sometimes, he’d let me go with him when he camped out.”
Yes.
“Where was that? Where did he go?”
Ben moistened his lips but didn’t reply.
It would have been too great a piece of luck if Ben had answered that question, Joe thought. “What did he talk about?”
He frowned. “Just stuff.”
“Not people?”
“He talked about John. He liked him a lot. I think he was a relation.” He stopped, troubled. “I don’t want to talk about Ted. Do I have to do it? Will you arrest me if I don’t?”
Say the words, and he’d get what he wanted. The boy would probably believe him.
“No, I won’t arrest you. But why don’t you want to talk about him? He seems to have been very nice to you.”
He didn’t answer.
“Why, Ben?”
“He told me not to talk about him,” he said in a low voice. “Before he left, he told me that I mustn’t tell anyone anything about— He told me not to say anything. So I can’t do it even if you put me in jail.”
Don’t tense. Don’t show any sign of the excitement that was beginning to grip him, or the boy would sense it. “I’ve told you that I won’t put you in jail. I just wonder why he wouldn’t want you to talk about him when you said he was such a good man. Did he do something wrong?”
“No.” He jumped to his feet. “I don’t want to talk anymore. I want you to go away.”
“Joe,” Father Barnabas said.
He was afraid Joe was going to browbeat the kid. He had to admit that he was tempted. The stakes were too high and the time too short.
He couldn’t do it, not if there was any other way.
“I can’t go away,” he told Ben. “I have to stay until you decide to answer my questions. If I don’t, then someone I love very much could get hurt. Your friend might hurt her.”
“Ted? Ted wouldn’t hurt her. He wouldn’t hurt anyone who didn’t try to hurt him.”
Joe jumped on that last sentence. “And did you see him hurt someone who did try to hurt him? Is that what you can’t tell anyone?”
“I didn’t say that.” His hands clenched into fists at his sides. “You’re trying to trick me.”
Joe drew a deep breath. “Listen carefully, Ben. You don’t believe your friend, Ted, could hurt anyone. You may be right, but sometimes people can be kind to some people and unkind to others. Particularly if they’re sick inside. One minute they seem okay, then the anger comes.”
Ben nodded. “Like my dad.”
The boy had completely leapfrogged the explanation Joe had been trying to make. Try to bring him back around. “Was your father like that, too? Like Ted?”
“No, not like Ted. Ted never hurt me. Ted said my dad didn’t have a right to hurt me. He said he wouldn’t let him do it again.”
He stiffened. “Wait a minute.