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Chapter 27

WE HUGGED. Then Dave and I stood there and took a physical inventory of how we’d changed. He was much larger; he looked like a man now, not a kid. We slapped each other on the back. I hadn’t seen my baby brother in almost four years. “You’re a sight for sore eyes,” I said, and hugged him again.

“Yeah,” he said, grinning, “well, you’re making my eyes sore now.”

We laughed, the way we did when we were growing up, and locked hands, ghetto-style. Then his face changed. I could tell that he’d heard. Surely everyone had by now.

Dave shook his head sort of helplessly. “Oh, Neddie, what the hell went on down there?”

I took him into the park and, sitting on a ledge, told him how I had gone to the Lake Worth house and saw Mickey and our other friends being wheeled out in body bags.

“Ah, Jesus, Neddie.” Dave shook his head. His eyes grew moist, and he lay his head in his hands.

I put my arm around his shoulder. It was hard to see Dave cry. It was strange – he was younger by five years, but he was always so stable and centered, even when our older brother died. I was always all over the place; it was as though the roles were reversed. Dave was in his second year at BC Law School. The bright spot of the family.

“It gets worse.” I squeezed his shoulder. “I think I’m wanted, Dave.”

Wanted?” He cocked his head. “You? Wanted for what?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe for murder.” This version I told him everything. The whole tale. I told him about Tess, too.

“What’re you saying?” Dave sat there looking at me. “That you’re up here on the run? That you were involved? You were part of this madness, Ned?”

“Mickey set it up,” I said, “but he didn’t know the kind of people who could pull it off down there. It had to have been directed from up here. Whoever it was, Dave, that’s the person who killed our friends. Until I prove otherwise, people are going to think it was me. But I think we both know” – I looked into his eyes, which were basically my eyes – “who Mickey was working with up here.”

Pop? You’re thinking Pop had something to do with this?” He looked at me as if I were crazy. “No way. We’re talking Mickey, Bobby, and Dee. It’s Frank’s own flesh and blood. Besides, you don’t know – he’s sick, Ned. He needs a kidney transplant. The guy’s too sick to even be a hood anymore.”

I guess it was then that Dave squinted at me. I didn’t like the look in his eyes. “Neddie, I know you’ve been down on your luck a little…”

“Listen to me” – I took him by the shoulders – “look into my eyes. Whatever you may hear, Dave, whatever the evidence might say, I had nothing to do with this. I loved them just like you. I tripped the alarms, that’s all. It was stupid, I know. And I’m going to have to pay. But whatever you hear, whatever the news might say, all I did was set off a few alarms. I think Mickey was trying to make up for what happened at Stoughton.”

My brother nodded. When he looked up, I could see a different look in his face. The guy I had shared a room with for fifteen years, who I had beaten at one-on-one until he was sixteen, my flesh and blood. “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing. You’re in law school.” I rapped him on the chin. “I may need your help if this gets bad.”

I stood up.

Dave did, too. “You’re going to see Pop, aren’t you?” I didn’t answer. “That’s stupid, Ned. If they’re looking for you, they’ll know.”

I tapped him lightly on the fist, then threw my arms around him and gave him a hug. My big little brother.

I started to jog down the hill. I didn’t want to turn, because I was afraid that if I did, I might cry. But there was something I couldn’t resist. I spun around when I was almost on Perkins. “It was Darren.”

“Huh?” Dave shrugged.

“Darren Flutie.” I grinned. “Doug’s younger brother. He caught Doug’s last pass in college.”


Chapter 26 | Lifeguard | Chapter 28