Crawford felt his own blood rise. This wasn’t what he expected. He had the kid and Ortiz made him clam up. He glared at Ortiz. “Get him out of here.”
The boy was mumbling expletives in an eerie impersonation of his father. His face was angry, his mouth a thin slash. “Stupid, inbred piece of dogshit…” Tears continued to roll down his cheeks but he was no longer sobbing; Crawford could see he was straight-out pissed.
Ortiz was gaping at Crawford, wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
“You heard me Ortiz. Get the little shit out of my sight. Now!”
“My pleasure, Chief.” Ortiz spat back.
Crawford didn’t even look up. In his mind he was seeing a different little boy with an abusive father. And wishing he’d had the balls to do what he accused Sean of.
(60)
Denny sat in the waiting room of Haven General pretending to read a magazine. Just as the pretty young nurse was opening the door for them, a doctor had bustled past them and overruled the nurse’s decision to let a non-family member in the room until he was done with his rounds. Now, by himself in the too-bright lights of the waiting room, he couldn’t concentrate on any of the stories, couldn’t think straight. His concern for Billy’s dad had him upset but his memories of his last visit to a hospital were torturing his mind. He’d sat in a room just like this, waiting for his father to die. In the same way that he loved the smell of the library, Denny loathed the smell of hospitals. The combination of medicines and disinfectants, the antiseptic white all around him, it all reeked of death to Denny.
He was interrupted by Billy whispering his name. “Denny, come on in. The doc is finished and Dad’s awake. He wants us both in with him.” Denny put down the magazine and entered the room of Joe Cummings. He moved slowly around the curtain that surrounded Joe’s bed. The hissing of oxygen and beeping machines were causing Denny’s mind to reel backwards. When he looked at the bed it wasn’t Joe but his own father he saw lying there. His eyes filled with tears and when the image faded to reveal Joe, his own face a mask of black and purple, Denny’s knees buckled and he dropped to the floor. He was vaguely aware of someone pulling him up and heard his name being called from far away. “Come on, Denny, wake up. If the nurse comes in now she’ll boot us for sure!”
Denny opened his eyes and saw Billy crouched over him. He shook his head trying to compose himself. “I’m okay. Help me up, Billy.”
“Are you alright, Denny?” The voice from the bed sounded like two pieces of sandpaper being rubbed together.
“I think I’m supposed to ask you that, Joe.” Joe smiled and Denny’s mind swam for a moment when he noticed the missing teeth and tracks of stitches around Joe’s mouth. This time he was able to stay on his feet. “I just thought about my dad when I saw you lying there…”
“Oh shit, Denny, I’m sorry. I wasn’t even thinking when I asked you to come here with me.” Billy sounded close to tears.
“I apologize too, Denny, it must be hard for you,” Joe added, ignoring Billy’s language, “but I need you to hear this.”
“I’m okay now, Joe, but you don’t sound too good. Should we call the nurse or something?”
“It’s just a bruised windpipe, sounds worse than it really is. But you should see the other guys…”
Denny smiled, knowing that it was really probably worse than it looked or sounded. And also knowing that there were a few guys somewhere who did look worse. Billy had told him that there were broken ribs and a serious concussion to go along with the multitude of stitches. As bad as Joe sounded, Denny had to hear what he wanted to say.
“Something’s going on here in Haven, boys, but I guess you already know that much. Something bad, something that’s too much like ’61 to be a coincidence.”
“You don’t think Paul…”
Joe cut Billy off, “Of course not, but whatever killed all those kids is back. But it isn’t Paul. I know that much.”
“All the weird stuff did start to happen when Paul came to Haven.” Denny hated himself for saying it as soon as the words left his mouth.
“I know how it looks, dammit, the same way it was back then. But it’s wrong. I was with him in ’61 when some of those kids disappeared. He was in prison when the first one was found dead this time. He told me something back then. I snuck in to see him at the hospital after Crawford found him with that dead girl. He was hurt bad. Worse than I am now, I tell you. He had some strange kind of marks on him, all around his chest and shoulders. Like big bee stings all in a nice straight row. He was delirious, or at least I thought so then. He was babbling about going back to the lake to make sure it was dead.”
“What was dead?” Denny glanced at Billy and knew they were thinking the same thing. The caves, all those bones. How many kids did they never find that year? And all the years since?
Joe closed his eyes and Denny thought he had fallen asleep. “He didn’t know, or at least he didn’t say,” he slowly opened his eyes, “but he was afraid. Paul had been through more and taken more shit than anyone I ever knew. But this was the first time I ever saw him afraid. I remember him sitting up, grabbing me by the collar and pulling me toward him. When I looked into his eyes I thought he might just have gone crazy, but it was terror I saw, not insanity. He said ‘It might still be there, Joe’ then the nurses and cops came in. They dragged me out as they were giving him a shot. I heard him screaming ‘Stay away from the lake, Joe, it might still be alive!’”
“I got friends to help me search, even hired divers with some of my college savings to find out what he was talking about.” He smiled, an ugly sight. “Your grandparents were not happy about that. Some people thought I was looking for bodies and that’s why they helped. As the word spread around what I was really doing, nobody would help, and we hadn’t found a damn thing anyway. That was the last time I ever spoke to Paul until he came back. I went off to college and he went…” His voice broke but he recovered quickly. “They blocked our letters from getting through and I just let him slip away like a bad dream.” Tears were streaming down his face now but he made no move to wipe them away. “My parents sold the house while I was still away at school, they’d had their fill of Haven.” He looked at Billy, then Denny, his eyes burning with emotion “Find Paul. Hide him from Crawford. Talk to him. Maybe things are starting to come back to him now that he’s back. It’s kind of funny. We’re all back now, like a big fu… big reunion, and it started all over again.” The last words faded and Joe’s eyes closed.
“Okay, Billy, we have to go back to the police and tell him everything, then…”
Joe’s eyes opened again. “Crawford did this, at least Dale was part of it. They handcuffed me while they… did this. You can’t trust the police,” Joe whispered. Denny stared at Joe, then Billy, the words sinking in. “Some of Dale’s gang was there, too, Billy. They threatened Mom and Julie and you. I already sent them to Aunt Sarah’s over in Malden, but you can stay with Denny. You need to help protect Paul, keep him safe until we can figure this out. I know it’s too much to ask you son, but Paul doesn’t have anyone…” Joe’s eyes closed again. The boys waited for more, but eventually Joe’s breathing slowed and the boys knew he was asleep.
“Billy, your dad’s right, they’ll go after Paul. And maybe Father McCarthy, too.”
“Paul is in Boston for a few days so he’ll be safe there. We’ll start by going to Father McCarthy…”