Over the Darkened Landscape - By Derryl Murphy Page 0,46
and remind these bastards that the big head should do the thinking.” Danny stubbed out his smoke and stood the garbage can back up, dropping it in. “And you’ll note you weren’t going anywhere without being noticed today,” he continued, pointing to the crowd of kids outside. There were even more now, close to fifty, it looked.
“What about Sandy?”
Danny closed his eyes for a second, then shook his head. “She killed herself. Once she was done giving Hayes his drugs upstairs she was supposed to come down and tell me. She did, but not before she injected something into her neck.” He wiped a tear from his eye. “Stone dead in seconds, it seemed. When I yelled and tried to stop her, that attracted Hayes, who came downstairs like a great big drunk moose, all dizzy and giddy at the same time.”
Now Mike was all confused. “Then how do you explain her skull being all caved in?”
“Because I was pissed off!” Danny slammed his hand on the counter. “Because she was a stupid bitch for getting herself into this, for killing herself, for getting herself pregnant!”
His eyes widened and his hand went to his mouth. “I wasn’t supposed to say,” he whispered, tears welling up in his eyes.
“Oh no,” whispered Mike.
Danny leaned over to lie down on the counter top, face pressed into the glass. The tears grew, quickly became huge, desperate sobs.
“She would have had to leave Templeton.” Mike leaned over and slowly rubbed Danny’s back, looked down on his tear-stained face. “Having sex with Hayes, maybe that started up her period. Between having to leave and being pregnant, she couldn’t handle it. She killed herself.”
Danny nodded, still sobbing. He was holding his beret now, crumpling it in his hands as if trying to squeeze away all of the pain.
“That explains the extra working over you gave Hayes. With your baton?” Danny nodded. “But why did you go and visit him in the first place? And how?”
After a few shuddering breaths Danny sat back up and leaned into Mike’s chest. It felt strange to Mike as he wrapped an arm around his old friend, reminded him that he’d never had an adult to hold him like this when he’d lived here. “He had a stash of Slow on this side of the Line. I tried to warn him to stay away,” gasped Danny. “But he just laughed, and told . . . and told me that he had a friend who might like to visit me soon.”
“Jesus.”
Danny nodded. “He knew that Sandy was pregnant. Said he’d take care of that his own way. And then he warned me not to use any more of his Slow. Too expensive to waste on a kid, he said.”
Mike nodded. “Who are the rest of the pedos? Do you have any names?”
Danny reached into his jeans pocket and brought out a crumpled piece of paper, straightened it out as best he could and gave it to Mike. “Four that Sandy knew of. Sometimes Hayes would mention these guys. Only first names, though.” He slid out of Mike’s arm and back down to the floor, sniffling and wiping his nose with his sleeve. “Sorry.”
Mike tried to smile. “It’s okay, Danny. We might find something in his office. Thanks for the list.”
“So what happens now?” asked Danny, trying to brush away more tears.
“I dunno,” shrugged Mike. “It’s not like I can bring you in or anything.” He thought for a second, then said, “I think I’ll just have to tell my captain the truth, see where it goes. It sounds like this is ugly enough they’re gonna want to keep it a little more quiet.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Danny was staring at Mike now, his eyes growing wide.
“What?”
“You took Slow to come across the Line, right?”
“Yeah. Got it from Hayes’s stash. Which is gonna mean bad trouble for me when I go back across.”
“Did you bring enough to go back across?” His voice was barely a whisper.
Mike leaned back against the counter, fear and exhaustion both swamping him at once. “You don’t have any more?”
Danny shook his head. “You took the last vial from Sandy’s room. All the rest I know of are on your side of the Line.”
“Think, now.” Mike pinched the bridge of his nose and tilted his head up, eyes closed. “I am such an idiot. Simone has a cellphone, but her battery is toast. She didn’t have time to go get her charger.”