School Days - By Robert B. Parker Page 0,25

Seeing the group diminish, the red-haired kid got to his feet.

"I gotta go, man," he said.

I took out a card and gave it to him.

"You think of anything, call me," I said. "You might as well get the reward as anyone."

"Reward?"

I nodded. He looked at my card and put it in the back pocket of his jeans and walked away. The rest of the kids left. At the bottom of the hill, Animal sat alone in the water. I stared down at him for a while, then I looked at Pearl, who was exploring where the kids had been sitting, in case they had left edible refuse. She was not successful, but there was no quit in her. She coursed back and forth among the rocks, exploring all possibilities. Hot on the trail of nothing much. Like me.

After a while I said to no one in particular, "Okay."

Pearl looked up.

"Okay," I said again.

I jerked my head for her to follow and started down the hill.

Chapter 24

I SAT AT THE water's edge on a small rock. Pearl moved along the edge of the lake, looking for frogs. Animal sat with his back to me, not moving, not saying anything.

"Three girlfriends," I said. "Way to go, Animal."

He didn't answer. His head was down, his hands resting lightly over his broken nose, sheltering it, not quite touching it.

"Put ice on it," I said. "I've had, I think, eight broken noses. They heal."

His head was forward on his chest. He didn't answer.

"You're going to be a tough guy, you need to be a lot quicker."

He didn't move.

"Or pick someone you can scare."

Nothing.

"They'll forget it," I said. "You can reestablish. Slap one of those asshole kids around and they'll think you're heroic again."

"I ain't forgetting it," he said in a thick voice.

"No, probably shouldn't. Make it a learning experience."

He stared at the pinkish lake water between his knees. His nose still dripped blood.

"I got connections," he said. "This ain't the end of it."

"You the candy man?" I said.

He didn't answer.

"Yeah, 'course you are," I said. "You're the one sells them dope."

He shook his head. It hurt. He stopped.

"You could probably get them a gun, too, they needed it," I said.

He was still.

"I'm not a cop," I said. "I'm only interested in Wendell Grant and the Clark kid."

He didn't speak.

"You sell them any guns?"

Silence. To my right, Pearl kicked up a frog from the growth at the water's edge, and it bounded ten feet out into the lake, with Pearl bounding right behind it.

"What's your name?" I said. He didn't answer.

Pearl put her head underwater and pulled it out, but she'd missed the frog. She swam in circles, looking for it.

I said, "If I have to stand you up and take your wallet and look at your ID, it'll start your nose bleeding again and probably hurt. What's your name."

"Yang," he said.

"First or last?"

"Last."

"What's your first name? "

"Luis."

"Luis Yang."

"Yes."

Pearl swam one more circle and gave up and came back into shore and began rummaging in the waterweeds again.

"Emergency room can clean that thing up and pack it for you. Maybe give you some pain pills."

Animal didn't move or speak or look at me. I stood up.

"Don't take aspirin," I said. "It'll make it bleed more."

Then I made a little chuck sound to Pearl, and she and I went back up the hill.

Chapter 25

IT WAS SATURDAY. Lee Farrell had come to spend the day with Pearl. This made Pearl happy because she liked Farrell, and he would almost certainly overfeed her.

So I was back in Dowling alone, sitting at a table on the sidewalk outside Coffee Nut in the bright morning with a large cup of coffee, cream, two sugars. The girl who had worn the pink top came by and saw me and sat down with me. Her top was white today. And her short pleated skirt was tan.

"Janey, isn't it?" I said.

"Yes."

"Can I buy you some coffee?"

"Black," she said.

I went in and got some and brought it back. She lit a cigarette.

"I heard you had a fight with Animal," she said.

I nodded.

"I heard you threw him in the lake," she said.

"He fell in the lake."

"They said you, like, creamed him," she said.

I smiled.

"I won the fight," I said.

She stared at me.

"Everyone is scared of Animal," she said. "The football players, everybody."

"He's pretty scary," I said.

"He's a perv," Janey said. "They're all pervs out there at the Rocks anyway."

I nodded. She kept looking at me.

"What's the perviest thing they do?" I said.

"All the girls have to,