were torn and covered with grass stains, and his face was bloody.
But what if his parents were still fighting? Wouldn’t they get mad at him too?
He stood indecisively for a minute, then made up his mind.
He wouldn’t go home, but he wouldn’t go to school either.
Instead, he’d play hookey for the day, and go off by himself.
At least if he was by himself, no one would be mad at him.…
“You’ve decided I’m crazy, haven’t you?” Sally’s voice reflected the fear that lay like a caged beast within her. As she spoke, she could feel the beast begin to stir, begin to wake into pania “The two of you have decided I’m crazy.”
“Sally, it’s not that at all. We just think you’ve had too many problems bearing down on you, and you need someone to talk to. It won’t even be Wiseman. He said himself that he’s not qualified, but he thinks he can find someone who can help you.”
“Someone who can help me to do what? Help me find out what happened to Julie, or help me try to pretend that nothing happened to her at all?”
Before Steve could answer, there was a loud knock at the back door. Steve threw down his napkin, disappeared into the kitchen, and was back a moment later, followed by a furious Kay Connors clutching her son by her hand. When Sally saw Joey’s bruised and swollen face, and the bloodstains on Ins clothes, she gasped.
“Joey, what hap—”
“Your son happened,” Kay interrupted, her eyes blazing with indignation. “Look at him. One eye’s black, his cheek is cut, he’s bruised all over his body, and his knee is bleeding.”
Sally dabbed at her own eyes with her napkin. What was Kay talking about? What did Jason have to do with all this? “But Jason’s here,” she said. “He hasn’t left for school yet.” She glanced around, sure that Jason would be standing in the door to the living room.
He wasn’t.
Her gaze shifted uncertainly to Steve. “Isn’t he here? He must be. He didn’t say good-bye.”
“He must be upstairs.” Steve crossed the living room and went into the foyer to stand at the foot of the stairs. “Jason? Jason!”
Upstairs, the house was silent.
“If he’s there, he’s in the bathroom cleaning himself up,” Kay Connors said angrily.
“Kay, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sally protested.
“I’m talking about Jason. He picked a fight with Joey, and then proceeded to do this to him.”
Steve came back into the dining room, looking puzzled. “He’s not here. I checked his room, and his books are gone. He must have left without saying goodbye.”
Sally sat quietly for a moment, digesting what her husband had said. It made a sad kind of sense, really. Why would Jason say good-bye that morning? Neither of them had really spoken to him. They’d been too involved in their own struggle.
And what must he have thought of that? She tried to remember him sitting at the table, listening to them. Had she even seen him?
Not really.
Vaguely, she remembered him leaving the table, but that was all. What must he have been feeling, watching her cry, watching his father’s angry face, hearing the bitter words that had flowed so freely. Of course he hadn’t said good-bye. He must have wanted nothing more than to be out of the house, away from the anger. Sally tried to speak, but her throat constricted, and as her tears began to flow once more she clutched the damp napkin to her mouth and hurried from the room. Steve watched her go, then turned to face Kay Connors.
“What happened, Kay?”
Kay’s fury had been dissipated by Sally’s tears. She drew Joey closer. “I don’t know, really,” she admitted. “Joey left for school, and about ten minutes later he was back. He said Jason picked a fight with him.”
“But you’re a lot bigger than Jason,” Steve said to Joey.
“He hit me first,” Joey replied sullenly.
“But why did he hit you?”
Joey’s gaze shifted guiltily away from Steve. “I don’t know.”
“Come on, Joey. There must have been a reason. I can’t believe Jason just walked up to you and hit you.”
“Well, that’s what he did. I was just walking along, and Jason came up behind me and yelled at me. When I turned around, he slugged me.”
“Had they had a fight before?” Steve asked Kay.
“I don’t see how they could have,” Kay said. “I—well, I’ve tried to keep Joey away from Jason. First there was that Corliss boy—”
“Randy?”
“Randy, yes. He’s always been troublesome. And then the last