School Days - By Robert B. Parker Page 0,10

reach me. Call anytime. I live in Lexington."

"Thank you," I said.

My voice sounded hoarse to me. I put the card in my shirt pocket and stood up.

"I'm sure we'll be in touch," I said. My voice was hoarse.

"I do hope so," Beth Ann said.

Chapter 10

HEALY GOT ME an interview with Jared Clark at the Bethel County Jail. DiBella took me over and walked me to the interview room.

The room was gray-walls, floor, and ceiling-with no windows. The gray door was metal and had a small window in it, covered with wire mesh, through which a guard could watch the proceedings. There was an oak table in the room, and four straight chairs. I sat at the table. DiBella waited outside.

Jared Clark looked badly out of place in his jail coveralls when two guards brought him in. He wasn't very big, and I was pretty Sure he didn't shave yet.

One of the guards said, "You're with Sergeant DiBella."

I said I was.

The guards put Jared in a chair opposite me.

"Be outside," the guard said. "Bang on the door when you're through."

I said I would.

Jared sat back in his chair with his arms folded and looked at me scornfully. I took out one of my business cards and put it in front of him. He looked down and read it without touching it. Then he looked at me, and snickered faintly and shrugged. I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back in my chair and shrugged back at him. Neither of us spoke. The Bethel County jail was a new facility. It was air-conditioned. I could hear the white sound of cool air moving through the vents. In the far background, I could hear the darker sounds of jail life.

We did this for a while.

Jared had light brown hair cut short. His nose was small and sharp. His mouth was thin and not very wide. He was short and seemed wiry. His hands were small. It was possible, of course, that Jared would outlast me. I knew he had noplace special to go, and that staring it out with me was as pleasant as his day was going to get. On the other hand, he was seventeen and alone in a scary place, whereas I was not seventeen, and I was tougher than Bill O'Reilly. I might mean something to him. He'd need to know what.

And he did.

"So, what are you," he said finally.

"I've been hired to save your ass," I said.

He snickered again. We went back to quiet again.

"Who hired you to do that?" he said after a while.

"Your grandmother," I said.

He nodded.

"She thinks you're innocent," I said.

He nodded, and shrugged and smirked. I was tiring of the smirk.

"Care to tell me what happened that day in the school?" I said.

"Me'n Dell took out a lot of assholes," he said. "Needed taking out."

"Dell being Wendell Grant?"

"Sure."

"Can you name them?" I said.

"Who?"

"The people you took out."

For a moment, I thought he actually saw me. But it passed quickly.

He shrugged.

"How many did you take out?" I said.

He shrugged.

"Why did they need it?" "They were assholes."

"And you could tell that how?" I said.

"Whole school was assholes," he said. And smirked.

"Lot of that happening," I said.

He didn't say anything.

I didn't say anything. We were back at it.

After a while he said, "How much she pay you?"

"Your grandmother?"

"Yeah. How much she paying?"

I told him.

"She can afford it," he said.

"Your lawyer wants to plead you crazy," I said.

Jared shrugged.

"You okay with that?" I said.

Shrug.

"You crazy?" I said.

"You ever kill anybody?" he said.

"Yes. "

"You crazy?"

"No."

He smirked.

"Are you comfortable spending the rest of your life in the jug?" I said.

He shrugged.

"Have you thought about it? Sixty, seventy years?"

Shrug.

"Can't do the time," he said, "don't do the crime."

I was quiet for a moment.

"You don't think it'll happen," I said.

He shrugged.

"You don't think you're going away forever."

He shrugged again and smirked. What range.

"Even though you confessed," I said.

Shrug, smirk.

"You know something I don't know?" I said.

He snickered. And shrugged. And closed with a smirk. Three for three. I had really broken through.

We sat for a while longer. I stood up.

"This has been great," I said.

He stayed seated, looking at the middle of my chest. "Next time, you might want to extend your emotional range."

"Huh?"

"Work on sneering," I said.

I went and knocked on the door to get out. Behind me, I heard Jared snicker.

Chapter 11

IT WAS DARK by the time Pearl and I got home. The rain had stopped, but the air was still heavy with its threat. The first thing