Dark Series, The Color of Seven and The Color of Dusk (Books We Love Special Edition) (5 page)

‘
Chloe Duval Devlin
’.
The letters, though blurred, were still legible.
‘
April 15, 1864
—
February 3, 1888
.
’
Beneath it in smaller letters was inscribed, “Paul Everett Devlin
IV”
.
There was only one date
.
‘
February 3, 1888
.
’

It made no sense.
T
his was a double plot with one side vacant. She knew Paul’s body had been shipped home. So why wasn’t he lying beside Chloe?

She moved away from Chloe’s grave and continued her ramble
. Then
she saw it. It was very large, as mausoleums go, probably the largest in the entire cemetery. It stood behind Chloe’s grave
. C
lose, yes, but why not regular burial beside the woman he’d so loved?

‘
Paul Everett Devin III.
’
The letters were sharper th
a
n the letters on Chloe’s marker. The door was set under the roof’s overhang, protected from the elements.
‘
July 21, 1858 – October 12, 1888.
’
There was no other inscription.

Ria stood puzzl
ed for a few moments. Another group of visitors moved through the markers, calling to each other to come look at this or that. Ria shook her head and went back to her car. The couple’s separation made no sense, and there was nothing she could do about it, but it bothered her.
A lot.

* * *

Ria returned to the office
. An
unexpected visitor s
at
in the foyer, thumbing absently through the pages of a magazine.

“Dennis!
What brings you h
ere?”

There was genuine pleasure in the greeting.
Ria’s father practiced medicine with Dennis’s father.
Together the two men formed the professional medical group of Macon Neurology, P.C.
Dennis had been Ria’s favorite babysitting job
back in her teens when Dennis
had
still needed a babysitter
and she’d been his favorite an
d pretty much only babysitter. S
he loved him like a little brother, but
he didn’t fool her a bit.
She
knew
damn well he was considerably sma
rter than his grades indicated and way too easygoing for his own good.

“I’m sorry I came down without calling, Ria.”

“That’s okay. You don’t need to call to see me.”

“Can I?”

“Can you what?”

“See you for a while. Ria, I need to talk.”

“Sure,” She
head
ed
to her office and hop
ed like hell t
his wasn’t a professional call. Dennis
radiated the
nervous air of a kid in trouble.

She closed the door behind her.

“So.
What kind of trouble are you in?”

“You never did beat around the bush.”

“Do your parents know you’re here?”

“No. I’m eighteen now, Ria, you don’t have to tell ‘em, do you?”

“Dennis, they’re going to find out sooner or later, whether I tell ‘em or not
. W
hich I won’t.
Besides, y
ou’re over eighteen and you’re consulting me in a professional capacity.
So
I couldn’t tell ‘em even if wanted to.
Speeding ticket?
DUI? Or possession,
maybe?

“Jesus, Ria!”

“They’re the most common ones
. Which is it?
”

“I haven’t been arrested at all. But if I had been, I don’t think it’d have been just for possession.”

“Then what would it have been for?”

Dennis hesitated. He’d had a wild crush on Ria when he was a kid
. Even at six and seven, he’d known she was
major hot.
But it wasn’t just that.
She was strong. Her self-confidence radiated out two feet in front of her. He’d never seen her in a situation where she didn’t know what to do, even the night he’d run that high fever while his parents were at a Country Club party.
She’d taken his temperature and frowned. Then she’d dosed him with Tylenol and ordered him into a bathtub of warm water. By the time she’d run down his folks and gotten them back home, the thermometer read a mere 100 instead of 103.
And she’d only been sixteen herself.

Shit
. She was going to be so disappointed in him.

“Well?”

“I guess the charge’d be dealing. I guess.”

“Dennis! You idiot!”

“I didn’t think lawyers were supposed to give lectures.”

“I’ve put you in the bathtub, boy!
If all you want’s a lawyer, you’ll have to go somewhere else! If you want me,
I’ll lecture any time I feel like it! How in the
hell
—
why
in the
hell
did you get involved in something
like—oh, wait! L
et me guess
!
Justin Dinardo.”

“You never did like Justin.”

“Damn straight I’ve never liked that kid! There’s something wrong there, Dennis, he’s missing something! Did he ever pull the wings off flies and laugh when they tried to fly?”

Never could fool Ria. And he’d tried plenty.
Now, l
ooking at Justin with newly
opened
eyes, Dennis admitted he’d always known Justin was dangerous
. Not because of size or athletic ability.
Because Justin just wasn’t
right
.
And
he’d been scared enough of him to allow
Justin to control him
.
Dennis
shuddered,
envisioning
Lori running down the halls from the
school
parking lot screaming, knife slashes pouring blood
down her face
.
Not happening.

“Well, I’m waiting.” Ria brought him out of the imaginary scene.

Dennis told her.
Everything.
Almost everything. He
didn’t tell her about the
skeleton buried in the cave hill. She’d think he’d been using himself if he told her that.

“Maybe there’s hope for you yet.”

“
What now? I
know I was stupid, but
Justin—I know you’re
right, Ria. He’s got something missing somewhere. And I’m scared. But not for me, that rat in Lori’s locker, and the look on his face when his hand moved to that knife in his pocket. And he’s ri
ght next door to us. Suppose—”

“Suppose the house catches fire one night
and your folks can’t get out
?”

Dennis nodded miserably.

“Wouldn’t surprise me a lot.”

“So what
do we do?
”

“Is he still selling?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“
Y
ou think he’s still storing his stuff in the same spots?

“Probably.”

“You know when he goes?”

“That varies.”

“Could you figure out when he’s going?”

“Why?”

“It’s called turning state’s evidence. You turn him over and you get immunity. Though we don’t want him busted on a minor charge. He’ll be home in six months, if he gets any jail time at all, right next door to you and your folks,
if he goes up
on a small pos
session charge. Even on
a small selling charge. I want him for a big possession with intent to distribute. I’d like to catch him in a big sale, and the more drugs he’s busted with, the bigger the charge, the longer the jail time. Especially since he’s never been in trouble before and comes from a good family. We don’t want to tap his hand with a ruler. He is already eighteen, isn’t he?” she asked in sudden alarm, struck by the thought that Justin might still be a juvenile offender.

“Yeah. Yeah, he is.”

“Well, thank God for small mercies.”

“What do you think he’d get?”

“Well, that depends on what we can catch him with. And I’m not just going to tell you, I’m going to show you.”
Ria turned to her computer and tapped rapidly on the keyboard.
“I assume y’all have some cocaine and crack stashed?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Of course, why did I ask? Schedule II. Here it is. Come look.”
Ria motioned him around to the screen. “Prison term of not less than five or more than twenty,” she read aloud.“
I
f we pin distribution on him.
Same thing you’d be lookin’ at if you were still fartin’ around with him.
You got that?
Does that compute?”

“That much?”

“Dennis, that’s for the first offense. A second conviction carries a life term. The law doesn’t take drug traffic real lightly. But I doubt seriously he’d serve anywhere near that, no. So.
You got it in your head
now—real clear—I
want it real clear, Dennis
. T
hat’s what you
’ve
been flirtin’ with.
How’s that make you feel, now that you’re relatively sane again?”

“I guess I thought—”

“You thought it wouldn’t be much worse than getting caught smoking a roach, right?

“Well, yeah. I guess.”

“Welcome to the real world. How much did y’all keep stashed?”

“
Ten, fifteen
thousand dollars worth at the time, I guess.
Sometimes more.
We’d built up.”

“In weight, Dennis, not dollars.”

“
Justin did all that,
I never was
any
good
with it
.”

Ria sighed. “Some dealer you are. Okay, was that your price or street value?”

“Our price.”

“I guess to hell you had built up. That’s a good chunk of street change.”

“Do my folks have to know?”

“Dennis, you’re not going to be able to put Justin out of action unless you’re willing to testify, and trial testimony’s public record. He’s small time, and I don’t know how much publicity it’ll get, if any, or how well your folks read the newspapers or if the paper would
carry anything about it at all. But you want to take the chance they’ll find out about it that way, instead of from you? Don’t kid yourself. In lots of ways, in our folks’ social circle, Macon’s still a real small town, and they’ll find out. Eventually.”

“But suppose I keep my mouth shut and he just gets busted? I mean, he could always just get busted, couldn’t he?”

“Sure he could. He could screw up anytime. He could
carve Lori’s face before then, too,
couldn’t he?”

Dennis stood up and moved restlessly.

“Hey, probably I’m overreacting
. I mean, he wouldn’t really—”

“Dennis.
He would.
Really.
Listen to me. I don’t like Justin
,
I never have. Do you know why?”

“I never knew why but I knew you didn’t.”

“Then let me t
ell you a secret. Sometimes—”
Ria broke off and
searched
for the right words. “Sometimes, I don’t operate just on intellect, know what I mean? I don’t mean I’ve got ESP or any shit like that, I jus
t mean that sometimes, I get—I
think people call ‘em gut feelings.
E
verybody has ‘em, but some folks seem to develop ‘em a little more than others.
I trust mine. I
f I get a real strong gut feeling, I go with it. I’m usually right. Like this house.
I
t was a wreck, and everybody thought we’d lost our minds, but look at it now. Believe it or not, Dennis, when I walked in the first time, I could hear it whispering ‘buy me’.
”

“But I don’t understand what that’s got to do with Justin.”

“Once or twice, your folks went out with Justin’s folks and I sat with both of you, remember? Over at your house?”

“Yeah.”

“And I never did it again. Told your mother I
wasn’t goin’ to
sit with Justin. Because Dennis, full-blown sociopaths don’t just happen. They develop. Bit by bit.
I
could feel it.
Coming out of him
in waves. And he’s been developing. From what you’ve told me, he’s speeded up considerable
in the last couple of months. Yeah, he’d
carve Lori’s face
. B
ecause he’d enjoy it. Now you tell me you don’t know that, too.”