Billy's Bones (21 page)

I
T
STARTED
as mostly wind. The sky was dark at an unusually early hour, with heavy, black storm clouds gliding ominously overhead like a troubled sea and the leaves of the trees showing their pale undersides as the wind blew low and fast along the ground. Tom loved days like this. He loved being warm and cozy inside, snuggled up in front of a fire with a cup of coffee and a good book as the world raged around him. It wasn’t really cool enough to start up the pellet stove, though he was tempted.

Shadow, he quickly learned, did not share his assessment of storms as “cozy.” He was pacing around the house, tail and ears down, panting with anxiety. That wasn’t really surprising. Tom knew a lot of dogs were afraid of storms, just as children were.

What was more surprising was that Kevin was acting the same way. He couldn’t put his ears down, and he didn’t have a tail, but he was clearly anxious and walking from room to room as if searching for something.

“Are you okay?” Tom asked.

“I’m fine.”

“I’m getting the impression you don’t like storms much.”

“I’m fine, counselor,” Kevin replied curtly. He turned and headed for the kitchen. “Do we have any beer left?”

Tom recalled that Kevin had tried to head off a panic attack with beer before his suicide attempt years ago. Was it a good idea for him to be drinking now? Not that Tom could really stop him. Kevin was an adult, and he had a right to drink a beer to relax.

Nevertheless, when Shadow followed Kevin into the kitchen, hovering close to him as if for protection, Tom trailed along after them.

Kevin found one last beer in the fridge. “You mind if I snag this?”

“No, go ahead.”

He found the bottle opener and popped the cap, while Tom set up the coffee machine to brew a pot. But even while Kevin was drinking the beer, he was moving about the kitchen, unable to stay still. Tom had never seen him this agitated during storms before. But then this one felt different, even to Tom: the air was oppressively heavy, and the sudden darkness the storm had brought with it gave everything a surreal quality. Tom had checked the weather forecast earlier. There was nothing to worry about. It wasn’t a hurricane or anything like that—just a bad thunderstorm. But something about it was bothering Kevin.

“Have you had panic attacks during storms before?” Tom asked and then immediately regretted it.

Kevin practically snarled at him. “This isn’t a panic attack! I’m fine. Stop analyzing me, goddamn it!”

“Sorry.”

“And stop tugging at your goddamned beard! Are you trying to pull it off your face?”

Tom yanked his hand away from his chin as if Kevin had slapped it down. He nearly snapped back at Kevin, but something in Kevin’s eyes looked pained, as if he knew he’d gone too far but hadn’t been able to stop himself. So Tom just looked back at him calmly until Kevin looked away.

Shadow whimpered at seeing his two dads fighting, but Kevin misinterpreted it.

“When’s the last time he was out?” he asked, his tone somewhat quieter.

“I don’t know. A couple hours ago, I think.”

Kevin set his beer down on the sideboard and called to the dog, “Come on, Pup! I’ll take you out to pee.”

He led the way into the front hall.

With Shadow already nervous about the storm, Tom wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea to take him out into it. He supposed it made some sense to take him out to do his business now, before the really bad weather kicked in, but Kevin himself was starting to behave strangely. Tom knew he could be trusted with the dog, of course, but something was clearly wrong. He decided to follow them outside.

Kevin had tossed his clothing over the arm of the sofa when he came in the night before.

Now he slipped back into them, while Shadow paced around by the front door, sensing that they were going out. Tom was wearing nothing but his bathrobe, but he found his sneakers by the door and put them on.

“What are you doing?” Kevin asked him.

“I thought I’d join you and get some fresh air before the rain hits.”

Tom caught the slight frown that passed over his face before Kevin turned to put Shadow’s harness on. “What the hell do you think is gonna happen? I’m just taking him out to pee, for Christ’s sake!”

“I can’t go out for some air?”

“Fine.” Kevin opened the door, and Shadow ran out.

It wasn’t enthusiasm that propelled the dog forward. As Kevin and Tom followed him, they could see how agitated the poor pup was. He didn’t seem to know which way to go as he darted this way and that, straining at the end of his lead. If he had to pee, he didn’t show any sign of it. He was just panicking.

“Come on, Pup!” Kevin called above the wind. “Let’s go around back.”

Shadow had enough presence of mind left to obey, but he was still straining at the lead.

The rain started as they walked around to the back of the house, and Tom began to consider going back inside. But when he looked at Kevin, he thought better of it. The man’s eyes were wide and his jaw clenched. He was staring into the forest behind the house as if he was expecting some ferocious beast to come charging out of it, and when Tom said his name, Kevin didn’t seem to hear him.

There was a flash of lightning, followed a few seconds later by a low rumble of thunder, which terrified Shadow. The dog was running back and forth at the end of his lead, clearly not thinking about going to the bathroom. He needed to get inside where he could warm up and calm down. From the look of it, Kevin needed that too.

“I think we should go back in,” Tom shouted.

Kevin turned slowly toward him, and Tom realized it was too late. There was no comprehension in those hazel eyes. Kevin looked at him but didn’t see him, his focus on something far away and, Tom suspected, long ago.

Before Tom could react, there was another flash of lightning, almost immediately followed by a loud thunderclap. Shadow yanked his leash from Kevin’s hand and bolted into the forest, the heavy handle on the retractable leash dragging along after him.

“Shadow!”

The dog was too frightened to come when he was called. Tom was torn for about two seconds between running after Shadow and staying behind to help Kevin with whatever the hell was happening in his head, but Kevin was an adult. Shadow was a frightened puppy. So Tom ran into the woods after the dog, his bathrobe fluttering awkwardly around his naked legs.

He’d expected the heavy handle of the retractable lead would slow the dog down, but to his horror, Tom quickly stumbled across it tangled in the brush. The lead was there, but Shadow was nowhere to be seen. Tom reeled the lead in and found the harness Shadow had been wearing, empty. It had plastic buckles designed to give way if the dog pulled hard enough, in case he got trapped somewhere. Apparently he’d been terrified enough to pull free.

“Shadow!”

There was no response. No barking, no sound of anything moving through the underbrush. Just the hissing of the wind and rain through the trees.

Tom started half walking, half running through the forest, where a foot-high blanket of ferns obscured the ground and made his footing treacherous. It began to pour, making his bathrobe hang heavy and sodden on his body, and his sneakers grew caked with damp earth and pine needles. “Shadow! Come here, boy!”

There was an answering cry—not a bark, but almost a human cry of anguish.

Kevin?
Tom stopped running to listen, straining to hear over the wind and the rain.

He was turned around again, no longer certain which direction he’d come from. He spun around in place, searching the darkening forest. There weren’t any footprints or crushed vegetation—the ferns covered everything in an undulating sea of feathery green fronds. Terror began to grip him. Even if he found Shadow, how would he find his way out again?

“Shadow!”

Then from far away came the cry, “He’s in the well!”

Tom ran toward the sound, although he couldn’t make any sense out of it. The well? The only well he knew of was sealed under a heavy cement lid. Shadow couldn’t have fallen into it. Unless… was it possible something had collapsed? Or was there an old well somewhere on the property?

“Where are you?” Tom called in a tremulous voice.

This time, the answer was a
yipe
, like the sound of a dog in pain.

“Shadow!”

Tom ran, hoping desperately he’d judged the direction of the sound correctly. His foot suddenly punched down into a small crevasse or animal hole he couldn’t see. There was a jarring sense of falling for an extra two or three inches beyond where the ground should have been, and then his foot thudded hard against the earth. His entire body sprawled forward into wet leaves, branches, and mud.

Tom lifted himself up with his arms, feeling the sting of scraped skin on his palms, as he craned his neck to see over the groundcover of ferns.

A dog! He could hear a dog whimpering! It had to be Shadow. And something else…. Kevin’s voice. But Kevin wasn’t calling Shadow or even Tom. He was wailing something that sounded like
Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ!

“Kevin! Where are you?”

He scrambled to his feet and stumbled forward, trying to follow the sounds, terrified of what he might find. Was Shadow injured?
Dying?
Tom could no longer imagine his house without the cheerful pup he’d grown to adore.
Oh God! Please let him be okay!

Another yelp from the dog helped him get his bearings again and soon the roof of the house appeared through the tall white pine trees that surrounded him. He found them by the cement well he and Shadow had stumbled upon almost two weeks ago. Shadow was pacing back and forth in a panic, whimpering, and now Tom could see why. It wasn’t the dog who was hurt—it was Kevin.

Tom had witnessed breakdowns before, and he knew that’s what he was seeing now. Kevin was beating his hands against the thick cement cap of the well and scraping at it with his fingernails. His hands were bleeding, leaving streaks of blood all over the cement, blurring in the water that poured down upon it. His forehead was gashed where he’d apparently struck it against the well cover. He was sobbing hysterically and wailing, “He’s in the well! Jesus Christ! He’s in the fucking well!”

Tom called his name, but Kevin was beyond hearing him. When he extended a tentative hand to touch Kevin’s shoulder, braced for the possibility of Kevin lashing out at him, Kevin acted as if he couldn’t feel it at all.

“Kevin! Who’s in the well?”

“My God!” Kevin sobbed, “My God! My God!”

“Kevin, I promise—”

“Jesus Christ!”

“You need to stop scraping your hands up, Kevin. Listen to the sound of my—”

“He’s in the well!”

It was hopeless. Nothing Tom could say was getting through. Even though Tom was reluctant to leave him like this, poor Shadow was completely terrified by Kevin’s screaming. Tom put the dog back into his harness and ran with him to the house.

There, Tom let Shadow seek out his crate to hide in, and he grabbed his cell phone. He dialed 911 and gave them his location. Then he rushed out on the deck. From there, he could see Kevin draped over the cement well enclosure through the trees and at least make sure he didn’t suddenly run off.

T
HE
police arrived before the ambulance since they had come from Groveton and the ambulance was coming from Berlin. Tom heard them pull into the driveway and ran to a spot at the side of the house where he could flag them down while still keeping Kevin in sight. He felt ridiculous, standing there in his sopping wet bathrobe, praying the wind wouldn’t whip it open and cause him to flash the police. But there hadn’t been time to go inside and dress.

Part of him was worried Kevin would bolt into the forest the moment the police came into view. Fortunately, he didn’t. He showed no sign he knew others were there at all.

“What’s happening?” Chief Burbank asked Tom as he approached, trailed by the officer who’d been with him the last time Tom had seen him.

Tom gave him a quick rundown of the situation, while the chief stared in disbelief at Kevin, who was continuing to bloody his hands on the well cover.

“Well, I can’t just let him do that to himself,” the man snarled. “Mr. Derocher! This is Chief Burbank of the Groveton Police. Kevin! You need to calm down, or I’m going to have to restrain you. Do you understand?”

That got no response. Tom was worried about how Kevin might react to being restrained, but he didn’t have any more time to think about it. Burbank walked up to Kevin, and in an instant he had him on the ground, face down in the soft, wet leaves, with his arms pinned behind his back. Kevin didn’t seem aware of what had happened. He just kept sobbing and screaming himself hoarse, struggling but not really fighting.

Burbank ordered Tom to go around to the front of the house and direct the EMTs when the ambulance arrived. Tom did as he was told. The ambulance pulled in just a few minutes later, and he directed the two EMTs, carrying a stretcher between them, around to the back of the house. Kevin still seemed oblivious to what was going on as they strapped him into the stretcher and carried him to the ambulance.

Once they’d established Tom was Kevin’s boyfriend, one of the EMTs told Tom, “You can ride in the front of the ambulance, if you want to go with us to the hospital.”

Tom was grateful to be given the option, but he didn’t relish having to take a cab back to the house later. He also needed to make sure Shadow wasn’t completely panicked. “No, thank you. I’ll get dressed and drive myself over.”

“We won’t be going to the hospital,” Chief Burbank told him as the ambulance pulled out of Tom’s long driveway, and the two policemen followed Tom up onto the porch to get out of the rain. “It’s out of our jurisdiction, and I’m sure they’ll take good care of him there. But I’m curious….” He glanced back in the direction of the artesian well. “
Who
is in the well?”

Tom was wondering that, too, but he said, “There’s nobody in that well.”

“Who did he
think
was in the well?”