Kiss of the Wolf (20 page)

“What's the worst thing you ever confessed?” he asked Brendan.

The ball bounced over to them and Brendan kicked it back with his foot. “I don't know,” he said.

“If you did something really terrible, would you confess it?” Todd said.

Brendan looked at him. “Why? You do something? What'd you do?” He sounded enthusiastic.

Todd told him nothing, but by then his face was red and he'd given himself away. Brendan stayed after him and made fun of him, and when Todd got up and said he had to get back, Brendan followed behind, guessing what it could be: Stealing? Sacrilege? Praying to Satan? It was only after Todd got home and waved good-bye and repeated that he had to go in, he had all this stuff he had to do, that he realized that none of Brendan's guesses were as bad as the real thing.

He sat out in the front yard an hour early, waiting for Bruno to show up. He had his glove with him for foul balls. His mother was in the living room with the window open, on the other side of the screen. In the afternoon sunlight she was just a shadow that came and went.

“When's the game start?” she asked.

He shrugged. He was matching Japanese maple leaves to one another. He'd pulled them off the little tree she'd planted.

He heard her clunk something around in the living room. “I'm still not sure this is a good idea,” she muttered.

He checked his wallet. He had only five dollars.

You have enough money?” she asked.

“I have enough money,” he said. Across the driveway, near the telephone pole, sparrows trooped around on the weedy part of the lawn.

“It's like you're out almost all the time now,” his mother complained.

“I'm
not
gonna say anything,” he finally said. She left the window.

Bruno's Buick turned onto the street and pulled up the driveway. Bruno got out and flipped him a new Yankees cap. It sailed end over end and landed in the grass. “You wear it,” he said. “Me, I'm not committing myself till we have a five-run lead.”

He asked if Todd had his glove. Todd held it up. “Joanie?” he called.

He was looking at the side of the house and listening for an answer. Some birds cheeped. “Where's your mother?” he finally said.

Todd said she was in the house.

Bruno looked disturbed at the news. “We're
go
in'. Good-
bye
,” he called. He waited another minute and gestured Todd toward the car. When they got in, he looked like he was deciding something and then started the car. “Your mother mad at me?” he asked as he backed down the driveway. “She say anything to you?”

Todd said she hadn't. After a little while he volunteered, “I don't think she wanted me to go tonight.”

“You got that right,” Bruno said.

“J'ou eat yet?” he asked a few minutes later.

Todd nodded. He hadn't, though. Why he did stuff like that, he had no idea.

“We'll grab something, anyway,” Bruno said.

Todd spread out on the leather seat. It was a dealer car and had the new-car smell.

Bruno yawned so widely his eyes watered. He made a loud chewing noise and straightened up. “When's your birthday?” he asked. “I had a good idea for a present.”

“It's already over,” Todd said. “May eleventh.”

“The eleventh? I was born the eleventh, too.”

“The same day?”

“The same day.”

They got up on I-95, heading south. Traffic was heavy. “It was like two weeks after my dad left,” Todd said.

“Happy birthday,” Bruno said.

“Really.”

A big red Jeep Cherokee swerved alongside them. The windows were open, and the bass
whoompf
of the stereo was amazing even from there.

“What a day,” Bruno sighed.

“You didn't sell anything?” Todd asked.

“It's not the not buying,” Bruno said. “It's the bustin' 'em off that gets you.”

Todd looked back at the road. He didn't know enough to talk about it.

“One guy today, he comes back in: ‘Hey, this Skylark option package you just sold me, I just saw it in the paper a lot cheaper at Valley Motors.' I need these comparison shoppers, right? Next he'll be kicking the tires. I go, ‘Valley Motors, jeez, you know, you're welcome to comparison shop with them, but it's only fair to warn you we had some dealings with them, we found some serial numbers filed off, you know what I'm saying?'”

He hit the turn signal, and they headed off the Sears exit in Bridgeport.

“What's that mean?” Todd said.

The Buick rolled down the ramp and stopped at the light. It was idling funny and shook. Bruno pumped the gas. He said the numbers filed off usually meant the cars were stolen. Somebody'd probably hijacked a truckload of new ones and sold them to the dealers.

How could he just tell people that about them? Todd asked. Wouldn't they complain? Bruno said not if it was true. Todd thought about it and asked how he knew it was true.

Bruno shrugged and told him he wasn't getting all the trade secrets tonight. The light changed and he went straight a block and hung a right. He hit the automatic door locks. Someone broke a bottle in an alley they passed.

“Where we goin'?” Todd said.

“Little diner,” Bruno said. “You'll like it.”

They were in a lousy part of Bridgeport. Todd was still thinking about his story. “Does Valley Motors know you're doing that?” he asked.

Bruno shrugged again. “Hey, the buyer's gonna go, ‘Hey, I hear you have stolen cars here'?

“See, what Valley Motors gets, they deserve, because stealin's wrong. Am I right?” Bruno asked. “What'd you, lose your voice?”

“No, it's wrong,” Todd said. He was afraid to look up.

It was starting to get dark. They were driving along under the highway. There was nothing around but an abandoned car and a chain-link fence. A page of newspaper rose in the wind and floated in front of them. Todd was getting a clogged feeling in the back of his throat from swallowing so much. “Why're we goin' here?” he asked.

Bruno pulled over next to a concrete highway support that went up into the darkness and out of sight. He cut the engine.

“Why're we stopping?” Todd asked. He had one hand on the seat next to him, the other on the door handle. His glove was on the seat between them.

“I wanna talk, before we get to the diner,” Bruno said.

Todd rubbed his face with the flat of his hand and tried not to panic. “Won't we be late for the game?

“Don't worry about the game.”

Todd could hear the traffic high above them. He looked around. He could make out a streetlight opposite the car, but the light on its cross arm was smashed. “Is it safe here?” he asked.

They'd be all right, Bruno said. Nobody was going to touch this car.

Todd asked why not. They heard a noise. Two black kids paraded by, eyeing them. Bruno waited until they were past. Then he settled in his seat, facing Todd. He spoke slowly, like Todd was going to have trouble following. He said, “Here's the deal. I need for you to talk to me about what happened the night you drove home from your confirmation party.”

Todd froze. He had four fingers curled around the door handle. His eyes were on the dashboard. The traffic way above his head made a threshing, regular sound.

“The night Tommy Monteleone was killed. I need for you to talk to me about what happened.”

Todd made a show of concentrating. He sat forward in his seat. He folded his hands between his thighs as if he were praying.

He looked straight out the windshield in front of him, terrified. He said, “We just drove home.”

It was completely quiet. The number changed on the digital clock. Bruno folded his arms, like he was going to try a different tack. “Let me explain something to you,” he said in a low voice. “What we're involved with here is a serious thing. A guy was robbed, and he was killed. And I'm giving you an opportunity. What is your opportunity? Your opportunity is the opportunity to
tell
the
truth.
”

Todd opened his mouth and Bruno held up one finger. “Don't”—he paused—“tell me something if it's not the truth. The truth is what we're here for.
Capiche?
”

Todd nodded. He was crying. “We just drove home,” he said.

“You can help me right some wrongs,” Bruno said. He held his index finger and thumb up together in the darkness in front of Todd's face like he was holding a spice for Todd to sniff. “It's
not right
to the guy who was robbed and killed. And it's not right to the other guys who
invested
in him. You hear what I'm sayin'?”

“How do they know there was money?” Todd said.

“What're you
tellin'
me?” Bruno said. As he got angrier Todd got more scared. “You want to see the police records? You want to go
down
see the police records?”

Todd interlocked his fingers in his lap and sniffled. He leaned hard into the door.

“Then what is this ‘How do they know' shit? What is that? Where'd you learn that? In
school?
”

“I'm sorry,” Todd said. He rolled down his window and rolled it up again. “Is the diner near here that we're goin' to?”

Bruno licked his lower lip and scratched the razor stubble on his chin. Todd could hear it. “You don't want to talk about it,” Bruno said. “This is a traumatic thing. This I understand.”

“We didn't do anything,” Todd said miserably.

“You're what,” Bruno said. “You're eleven years old. What do you think's gonna happen to you? It's an accident, you're driving along, bip, there he is. Nothin' you could do. You got out, see if you could help, there was this envelope.”

“No,” Todd said.

“You tell me, or you tell the cops. You tell me, I tell the cops something else.”

Todd wiped his eyes with the heel of his hand.

“You know what I see when I look at Todd? I see a boy who
wavers.
A boy who
vacillates.
This is not the time for vacillation. I know you're saying, Be safe. I'm saying, This is not safe. Do you understand? That's the subject of our evening together:
this
is
not
safe.”

Todd swallowed. “We're not goin' to the game, are we?” he said.

“There is no game,” Bruno said. “Not for you.”

He turned off the dashboard lights. It was now totally dark.

Todd said, “We may a hit something.” He didn't recognize his voice. “We stopped, we didn't see anything.”

“You may a hit something,” Bruno said out of the darkness.

“We may a hit something.”

“What're you
telling
me?” Bruno said. “You wouldn't
know?
You see his head? You wanna go down the police station see pictures of his
head?
”

Todd started crying again.

Bruno opened his car door and the overhead light went on. He didn't get out. After the darkness Todd had to shield his eyes with his hand. “I hurt your feelings?” Bruno said. “Is that what I did? I hurt your feelings? Tell me again: you hit somebody by mistake. You tell me that again.”

“I told you,” Todd said.

“You tell me again.”

“We mighta hit somebody by mistake. We heard a noise. We thought maybe it was a dog or something. We got out, we didn't see anybody.”

Bruno nodded. He kept nodding. The door was still open. “You don't respect me,” he finally said.

“It's the
truth.
”

“Get out of the car.”

“Get out of the car?” Todd said.

Bruno leaned across him, scaring him, and opened his door. Todd was already leaning against it and almost fell out. “Get out of the fucking car. You don't respect me, get outta the car. I don't want anything more to do with you.”

“How'm I gonna get home?” Todd said.

“Fuck do I care? Walk. Fly,” Bruno said. “Take a fucking monorail. Get outta the car. Want me to
get
you outta the car?”

“Wait, wait,” Todd pleaded. “We did hit him. We did hit him. We were going along and my mother was driving too fast and we just hit him.”

Bruno leaned back across him and shut his door. Then he sat up and waited.

“We stopped and went back, but he was dead. She went back, I didn't go back. We were gonna go for help. I thought she was gonna go for help. But then she didn't, and the cops were there when we came back, and we went home and she called, but she didn't get through.”

“She called the police?” Bruno asked.

“She didn't get through. It was busy. I heard it,” Todd said. He was still crying.

“And this is the way it happened. Exactly.”

“And then we never called again.”

“And then somebody found an envelope. Your mother found an envelope.”

Todd shook his head.

“Don't
start
with me. Your mother found a fuckin' envelope,” Bruno said.

“We
didn't.
I swear.”

“The money in that envelope was not all Tommy's. You understand?”

Todd shook his head and hiccuped. He wiped his face.

Bruno sat forward. “Tommy and Joey Distefano and I were
holding
that money.” He put his hand out, to show what holding meant. “Holding that money, for some other people. Those people
want
their
money.
”

“We didn't find any,” Todd said.

Bruno flapped his lower lip with his index finger. It made a light, popping sound. “Your mother went over to Tommy after, but you didn't?”

Todd nodded.

Bruno watched him a minute longer and then started the car. “Aw right, look,” he said. “We'll go get somethin' to eat. We'll stay out. Far as your mother knows, we went to the game, you didn't tell me anything. Understand?”