“It’s not exactly something we’re in the habit of doing,” Paige said. “Either of us.”
“Are you guys going to tell me why you’re here,” I said, “watching that house?”
“We know who lives there,” Grayson said. “We know it’s only a matter of time until he shows up.”
“And then what?” I said.
The two men looked at each other.
“Listen,” Paige said. “Can we go somewhere and talk about this?”
“Sure,” I said, “but I should tell you one thing right now. You remember Detective Bateman?”
“Of course,” Grayson said. “We both just talked to him this week.”
“He was murdered yesterday morning,” I said. “The cops are looking for Darryl King.”
I waited for them to absorb that.
“That would explain all the squad cars yesterday,” Paige said.
“We figured he did something,” Grayson said. “But we had no idea…”
“I’ll tell you something else,” I said. Then I stopped myself. “Actually, is there someplace we can go and sit down? This is going to take a little explanation.”
They put me in the backseat of the SUV and drove me to a little corner bar on Grand River. There was an abandoned industrial building next door to the bar, and vacant lots on the other three corners. Ryan Grayson’s green minivan was parked in the lot. There were only three other cars there. Tanner Paige suggested that we go inside for a drink, and I could see Ryan Grayson looking around at the neighborhood and getting ready to object. In the end we went inside and sat down at a table. There were the usual accoutrements for a bar in Detroit, with the Tigers schedule on the wall and all of the other posters for the Red Wings, Pistons, and Lions. As well as both the Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans, just to be fair to both sides. I excused myself for a minute and went into the bathroom to wash off my arms. When I came back to the table, I didn’t look so much like a human pincushion anymore. Someone had ordered three beers.
“I was sorry to hear about your parents,” I said to Ryan Grayson. “The detective told me they both passed on a while back.”
“They never really recovered from that day,” he said. “Either of them.”
“I also have to say I’m a little surprised seeing the two of you working together,” I said. “I didn’t think you guys got along all that well.”
“The blame for that is all on me,” Grayson said. “I had a lot of anger, and I didn’t know where to direct it. I always regret not being a better brother-in-law.”
“It’s all good now,” Paige said, waving it away. “We were all hurting.”
“So all these years later,” I said, “what in God’s name are you two doing watching that house? Surely you weren’t thinking of doing something that would get you both thrown in prison yourselves.”
They both looked at each other.
“You have to understand something,” Grayson said. “It’s not like we’ve both been sitting around every day, thinking about some lowlife who killed my sister. You have to move on. Obviously. Or you’ll go insane. But when we got the call… When we found out that he would be getting out of prison…”
He looked down at his beer.
“It’s amazing how it can all come back. All at once. One minute you’re not thinking about it, and then bam! Guess what, the man who did this thing will be out walking around by the end of the week.”
“So what were you going to do?” I said. “You weren’t spending all that time watching for him just so you could see him in your binoculars, a block away.”
They looked at each other again.
“Honestly,” Paige said, “I don’t think we really-”
“We were going to follow him,” Grayson said. “At least that was my idea. Follow him and wait for him to go into a bar or something. Someplace like this…”
He looked over at the empty corner of the bar, like he was imagining Darryl King sitting there at that very moment.
“Then, when he got up to go use the bathroom, I just had this little fantasy, I guess you’d call it. That we’d follow him in there. Lock the door. Wait for him to realize who we were. Then we’d just start beating the hell out of him. Just grab him by the hair and…”
He held his hand up to demonstrate, making a claw where he was clutching the hair on the back of the imaginary Darryl King’s head.
“And just start beating his face against the edge of the sink. Over and over again. Just…”
He stopped abruptly and wiped at his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know I sound a little crazy.”
“It’s okay,” Paige said, grabbing his arm. “I get the same thoughts, all the time.”
“Mr. McKnight,” Grayson said, looking up at me, “I was her brother. Older than me or not, it doesn’t matter. She was my sister and I was supposed to protect her. You understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes,” I said. “I understand, but there’s no way you could have-”
“That was my job. To protect her. If my father were still alive, you could ask him, because he’s the one who told me. Until you get married and have a family of your own, being a good brother is the most important job in the world.”
“It was my job, too,” Paige said. “Being a good husband, I mean.”
“I’ll be right back,” Grayson said, pulling his arm away from Paige. He got up and went into the bathroom. That empty bathroom where there’d be no Darryl King waiting to receive his punishment.
“It should come as no surprise,” Paige said to me, as soon as his brother-in-law was out of earshot, “that this whole crazy thing was Ryan’s idea. Sitting around and watching for him. I tried to talk him out of it, but I knew he’d do it alone if he had to. So I agreed to come along so I could keep an eye on him.”
“Arnie said he’s got kids now? Surely he can see that this is a horrible idea.”
“See, that’s the thing. He was engaged to be married when Elana was killed. I don’t know if you knew that. They went ahead with the wedding, even though maybe they should have waited a little bit. Let everybody heal a little more. But that’s all hindsight, I guess. Anyway, he went right from being a grieving brother to a husband to a father, and it seemed like he was doing okay for a long time. Taking over the business from his father and everything, but then when his second kid went away to college…”
“It’s been that long?”
“They had their two kids pretty quickly. Within two or three years of Elana’s death. So yes, it was all kind of a blur to him, I think. Until all of a sudden his kids are gone and he breaks up with his wife and he’s all alone for the first time. It’s like he never really dealt with it until now. Obviously, it hasn’t gone well.”
“It seems like you’ve dealt with it a lot better.”
“I had a lot more time to myself to deal with it. But that first year or two, God, I was a mess. In fact, now that I think of it, didn’t you and the detective come to the house?”
“We did.”
“So wait a minute,” he said. “I know you already said this, but I still can’t believe it. Arnie Bateman is really dead right now?”
Ryan Grayson came back to the table then. He had washed his face and put himself back together. I was glad to see him, because I didn’t want to have to explain this part twice.
“He is,” I said, “and they’re looking for King right now.”
“He was out of prison one day,” Grayson said. “Not even twenty-four hours and he’s killing again. What the hell were they thinking letting him out?”
“You have to hear me out,” I said, “but I don’t believe that Darryl King killed the detective.”
“Are you serious?”
“Furthermore, and here’s the part where I know you’re really going to need some explanation… Because I know this was your sister we’re talking about, Mr. Grayson. And Mr. Paige, I know Elana was your wife. I wouldn’t say this if I didn’t have good reason.”