“That’s not going to happen.”
“But it might,” I insisted.
“I told you, you’re not saying anything, because you want to do everything you can to protect your little girl.”
“Don’t threaten my daughter, Vince.”
“I’m putting myself in your place. You want to do what’s best for her. And you seem to be forgetting something, Terry.”
“What?”
“The gun.”
That got my attention. “What about the gun?”
“Maybe the reason you didn’t find it is because it’s already been found.”
I waited.
“We know for sure your daughter’s fingerprints are on it. But did that gun go off? Did it hit somebody? Let’s say the answer’s yes, on both counts. Just for the sake of argument. Then that becomes a very special gun. That’s what you call a smoking gun in every sense of the word. A gun the police would like to get their hands on. Well, right now, I can make sure that never happens. But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna get rid of it. It means I’m going to keep it for insurance. You don’t know whether that gun’s bad news for your kid or not, but you’re a lot better off if it never surfaces, now, aren’t you?”
I said nothing.
“You take your girl home and you read her a nice story and tuck her in and give her a little kiss good night from me.”
Twenty-four
“It’s gonna be okay, Grace,” Jane said, sitting behind the wheel of the Mini. “Vince’ll know what to do.”
Grace, teary eyed, was unconvinced. “I know I’m going to go to jail. I’m going to go to jail and I won’t get out until I’m, like, fifty or something.”
Jane took Grace’s hand and squeezed it. “No way. That’s not going to happen. I know it’s, like, impossible to tell you to stop worrying, but everything’ll work out. You wait. Vince wouldn’t have lasted as long as he has if he didn’t know how to get out of these situations.”
Grace sniffed. “Doesn’t it bug you?”
“What?”
“That he’s, you know, like, the Mafia or something.”
Jane shook her head. “He’s not Mafia.”
“But he’s a criminal, right? And he has a gang? And Stuart’s dad is one of the people in his gang?”
Jane sighed. “Look, I’m not proud of any of this, okay? But calling Vince and Eldon and Bert and Gordie a gang, it makes them sound like a bunch of teenagers on motorcycles going around terrorizing the neighborhood. What they are is a business. That’s all. A different kind of business, but that’s what it is.”
“But he’s a criminal.”
Jane shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”
“So, like, how do you deal with that? I mean, there are days I’m totally ashamed of my dad, and he’s just a teacher.”
“Just because he does bad things doesn’t mean he’s a totally bad person. Look, this is who he is, and this is what his father did. He’s got good in him, even if, lately, he and I are kind of...”
“Kind of what?”
“I don’t know. Since my mom died, it hasn’t been the same with him, and that’s okay, you know? I’m not a kid anymore, and I don’t need a father figure in my life every day. But right now, the guy’s in a bind, and he needs your dad’s help, and your help, too.”
“Help to find out what happened, or help to cover everything up?”
Jane looked at her straight on. “Both.”
“If I did something wrong, I have to pay the price for it,” Grace said. “I have to do the right thing.”
“Sometimes doing the right thing is complicated.”
“A few weeks ago,” Grace said slowly, “my mom and I had a fight.” She wiped her eyes. “I didn’t tell you about this.”
“What kind of fight?”
“You remember you asked about this mark on my hand?” Grace showed her.
“Yeah. You said you accidentally burned it.”
“My mom pushed me and my hand hit a pot on the stove. It was kind of both our faults, but if she hadn’t pushed me, it wouldn’t have happened. I had to go to the hospital and my mom told me to tell them the truth, that it was her fault, and if that meant they had to call the police, then that’s the way it would have to be.”
Jane took Grace’s hand and gently squeezed it. “Wow. So what did you do?”
“I told them I was just goofing around, that I was dancing, and my arm hit the pot.”
“You covered for her.”
Grace nodded. “Yeah, but she was willing to pay for her mistake. She was willing to do the right thing.”
“But you didn’t let her, because you love her too much to let that happen. That’s kind of what’s happening now. I care about you, and Vince, well, he cares about the people he’s got around him, and we’d all rather go with a story that’s not exactly what happened if it means you’re going to be okay in the long run.”
“I don’t know,” Grace said.
Jane took a breath. “Okay, the first thing we have to do is figure out what really went down. You need to remember everything you can about what happened in the house. You heard a shot. Maybe it was you. Maybe it was somebody else. But you need to remember. Did you see anybody, other than Stuart?”
“No. I mean, I think someone ran past me. But I didn’t see anybody.”
“You’re sure?”
Grace nodded.
“Okay, but even if you didn’t see anyone, maybe you heard something or, I don’t know, smelled something. Maybe there’s something you noticed without even realizing it. Close your eyes.”
“What?”
“Just close them,” Jane said. “Put yourself back in that house, after the shot.”
“I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to think about it.”
“Grace, here’s the thing. You’re going to be thinking about this and thinking about this for a long time, whether you want to or not, so you might as well do it now and try to learn something. Okay?”
“I guess.” Grace closed her eyes.
“After the shot, what do you hear?”
“I’m screaming.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m going, ‘Stuart! Stuart!’ Like that.”
“And what does he say?”
“He’s not saying anything.”
“But you hear something?”
Grace tried to close her eyes more tightly. “I hear steps.”
“Okay, that’s good. Fast steps, slow steps?”
“Kind of — running? It’s not hard steps, like if someone was wearing dress shoes. It’s kind of soft and squeaky. Like maybe running shoes.”
Jane smiled encouragingly, even though Grace couldn’t see her. “That’s good. So someone was running, getting away. You think it was Stuart? You think he ran off and just decided to leave you there? Maybe you accidentally pulled the trigger, or there was someone else there with a gun, and he got scared and ran?”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Grace said, opening her eyes. “Would he?”
Jane gave her a pitying look. “Gracie, honey, please. I know these characters. Vince is solid, but the rest, and their kids — I mean, I thought I was just an idiot in school when I was there, but I was a Rhodes scholar by comparison.”
“A what?”
“Never mind. Close your eyes again.”
Grace complied.
“So you heard steps. Running. Are you saying it couldn’t have been Stuart?”
“I don’t know. I’m, like, trying to hear them again.”
Jane thought a moment. “After the shot went off, that must have been really loud. Did you kinda lose your hearing for a second?”
“Maybe.”
“So if you were able to hear footsteps, even if the person was wearing running shoes, the person would have to be pretty heavy, you think?”
Grace slowly said, “I guess so.”