School Days - By Robert B. Parker Page 0,61

conviction," I said. "Might as well have some justice on the side."

Cleary kept looking at me. I smiled at him warmly.

Finally, he said, "Jesus Christ!" and leaned forward and picked up the phone.

Chapter 61

"I DON'T WANT to talk to you," Jared Clark said when they brought him in and sat him down.

"I know," I said. "Nobody does."

"Well," he said. "I won't."

"Beth Ann Blair says that she was in love with you," I said.

His eyes widened.

"What?" he said.

"Beth Ann Blair says she is in love with you and that you are in love with her."

He laughed. I didn't know why, and I suspect he didn't know why. But there it was: ha, ha.

"We're not supposed to tell anybody," he said.

"She told," I said.

"She told you she loves me."

"Yes," I said.

He laughed the same odd and inappropriate laugh.

"You want to tell me about that?" I said.

"She already told you."

"She told me how she feels," I said. "I was wondering how you feel."

"She really told you," he said.

"Yes."

"Honest to God?"

"Honest to God," I said. "You love her?"

He laughed. It wasn't a laugh about funny. I winked at him.

"Even if you didn't," I said, "Pretty good in bed, huh?"

His face got red.

"Don't say that."

"Sorry," I said.

"I love her. She loves me. When people love each other, that's what they do."

"Go to bed," I said.

He nodded firmly.

"When did you start to love each other?" I said.

"Since ninth grade."

"Wow," I said.

"Where does Mr. Garner fit in."

"Fuck him," Jared said.

"He knew you and Beth Ann were in love," I said.

"He was going to not let us," Jared said.

All of a sudden I saw it, all of it, full-formed, as if a magic lantern threw the patterns on a screen.

"You had to stop him," I said.

"Yes."

"She wanted you to," I said.

"Yes."

"But you didn't know for sure how to stop him, so you went to Dell, and he helped you."

Jared nodded.

"But when you went to do it, Garner wasn't there."

He nodded.

"And things got out of hand," I said.

"Dell kept shooting," Jared said softly.

"And you never said why you did it, because it would hurt Beth Ann."

There were tears now. I didn't blame him. I felt like crying, too.

"So you got the chance to be a stand-up guy," I said.

He nodded. He was crying audibly. The tears were rolling down his face.

"You were going to shoot Garner."

Nod.

"And Dell was going to cover you."

Nod.

"Dell plan this out mostly?"

"Yes. He knew about things like that. From Animal."

"You didn't plan on getting caught."

He shook his head.

"Dell had a different plan," I said.

Jared looked at me blankly.

"You shoot anyone?"

"No."

I could hear myself breathing. I needed more oxygen than I was getting. My throat needed to loosen. My stomach needed to unclench.

"We was going to get married," Jared said, "when I was eighteen."

"Next year," I said.

He nodded. "You think she still loves me?" he said.

I took in some more air.

"Absolutely," I said. "She loves you, and adores you, and admires very much how brave you are."

He nodded his head and continued to nod it while he sat there and cried.

Chapter 62

RITA WAS WEARING a black pantsuit today, with a green silk T-shirt. She walked to her big picture window and studied her view of the south shore. Her pantsuit fit her very well. We were high, and there was no city sound, and her office was big and had a thick carpet, and there was almost no office noise.

"Okay," she said with her back to me, which was not a bad thing. "You say that since he was in the ninth grade ... how old is that?"

"Fourteen, fifteen," I said. "I believe he was fourteen when it began."

"Since he was fourteen, he's been having sex with the school shrink who is, what, thirty-five? Forty?"

"Somewhere in there," I said.

"And the kid is functionally retarded."

"Mildly," I said.

"And the school president... what kind of high school has a president?"

"It's a private high school," I said, "and it's aiming to become a junior college as well."

"And the president finds out and blackmails the shrink into having sex with him, and she is feeling, ah, violated?"

"Violated is good," I said.

"She talks the kid into killing the president," Rita said. "Thus freeing her from his unwanted attentions and allowing the two lovebirds, Jared and Beth Ann, to be together again."

"Until Jared turns eighteen and they can marry," I said.

"Gee, I didn't know he was the marrying kind... " Rita said. "Makes him more interesting."

"He may be a little gun-shy right now," I said.

She turned away from the window and looked at