The Truth of the Matter (20 page)

In fact, it felt as if my fever was getting worse and worse.

As I ate, I looked around the kitchen. It was modest and small like the rest of the house. There were chips in the light blue paint on the wall. The linoleum on the floor looked old and faded. The refrigerator looked old too.

I saw a bulletin board by the phone against one wall. There was another cross pinned up there and some more photographs tacked up around it. A woman and a boy: the same ones who were in the pictures in the living room. A mother and a son, it looked like. The mother was pretty but tired and faded-looking, with deep lines in her face and white-blond hair that had a lot of strands of gray in it. The son was small and sad-eyed and looked worried, even when he smiled. There were no pictures here of the man, the Marine.

I wondered where this family was now. I wondered if they’d be coming home soon.

Probably, I thought. Anyway, I couldn’t take the chance. I couldn’t just stay here and wait for them to find me. The police would be spreading the word that I was on the loose. Anyone could recognize me. Anyone could turn me in. Somehow, I had to find the strength to keep moving.

I stood up. For a second I had to steady myself, holding on to the back of the small kitchen chair. The food had made me feel stronger, but I was dizzy; my head felt thick. I shivered and shivered again. Even inside, I felt cold—I felt as if the cold from the forest had eaten deep into my bones. I couldn’t seem to shake it off.

I forced myself to let go of the chair. I moved around the room unsteadily, shuffling from place to place. Moving in that way, I cleaned up the kitchen. Wiped up the crumbs. Put the milk carton back in the refrigerator. Before I closed up the plastic package of meat, I took some money out of my pocket and put it inside. It probably wasn’t a very smart thing to do. It meant they were sure to notice someone had been here, and they might even guess it was me and call the police. But I could see from the way the house looked that the people who lived here didn’t have much money. Even if they did, I didn’t want to steal from them and leave nothing in return. I put the cash in with the meat and hoped they just wouldn’t think about it too much.

Anyway, I hoped by the time the woman and her son came home, I would be long gone.

“Well, Sport,” I said to the dog, “it’s been great knowing you.”

I patted him on the head. He wagged his tail, looking up at me lovingly. I was sorry to leave him. So many people were hunting me, trying to kill or capture me, it had been good to have some friendly company for a while.

I turned off the light in the kitchen as I stepped into the living room. I hobbled to the door. When I got there, I had to lean against the wall for a minute. I was so weak, so tired, so dizzy I didn’t know how I was going to keep going. But I had to. I had to.

Maybe some aspirin
, I thought. Maybe I could find some aspirin in the bathroom, something to cut through this fever.

I managed to straighten up. I turned back into the house, thinking to find the bathroom. But instead, my eyes lit on the little work nook in the corner. The desk. The laptop. I forgot about the aspirin. I thought:
Beth
.

My friend Josh had set up phone accounts for us—for me and Beth and our friends—so we could call one another on our computers. We could even see each other if there was a webcam available. It was very helpful when the loneliness got really bad.

I was standing there, thinking about my last memory attack, thinking about how Beth had been able to see right into my mind, read my thoughts. How she’d looked up at me with all that trust in her eyes, believing in me even when I told her I was going to be arrested and charged with murder.

Maybe I could tell her the truth now. What difference did it make? Waterman was dead. My cover was blown. There was nothing to lie about anymore, nothing to protect. I could tell Beth the truth and she could reach my mom and dad and tell them about it too. I remembered my mom crying as the police came to take me away. It made me feel like someone had taken my heart in his fist and squeezed it. It would be nice if she knew the truth about me for sure.

I glanced out the window. There was no sign of anyone, no sign of lights on the driveway or even out on the road. Maybe I had time . . .

I went to the computer and turned it on. I had to sit down on the desk chair as I waited for it to boot up. I could barely keep on my feet now. My head felt like it was burning up with fever. I stared at the laptop, blinking heavily, my mouth hanging open stupidly. Sport sniffed at my leg and panted, looking worried.

After a second or two it occurred to me I better take a look outside again, make sure no one was coming. I didn’t want to do it. It seemed like a long way back to the door. Still, I thought it was the smartest thing to do.

I groaned as I forced myself to stand up. I made my way back to the door slowly. While I was there, I turned off the living room light again. I looked out the window while the computer continued booting behind me. There were still no lights outside, no cars coming.

Soon the laptop was fully working, its screen bright in the dark room. I moved back to the desk by its light, gripping the furniture for support while I went. Sport followed along beside me. I plunked down into the desk chair again. Sport sat down next to me and watched.

I brought up the browser and used it to find the phone program. There was no camera in the laptop so Beth wouldn’t be able to see me, but I’d still be able to see her. I brought up Beth’s number and called it. I sent up a little prayer that she’d be home.

The ring tone sounded so loudly in the quiet house, I looked over my shoulder at the window to make sure there was still no one coming. The tone sounded again.

Then it stopped. I heard Beth’s voice, charged, excited.

“Charlie?”

A swirling image appeared on the laptop. A caption said, “Video starting.”

“Beth, it’s me.”

“I can’t see you.”

“There’s no camera in my computer. Is your camera on?”

“Yes, you should see me in a minute. Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. How about you?”

“I’m fine. I’ve been so worried about you. Did you find the man you were looking for?”

“I found him, Beth but . . .”

I was about to tell her what happened when the video came on. There she was, her living image on the screen right in front of me. Seeing her again . . . it’s hard to describe what it was like. Even feeling as bad as I did, the sight of her was like a sort of flash of light going off inside me. I reached out for the screen and touched the image, feeling only the monitor’s cool, featureless surface against my fingertips.

“Beth,” I said softly.

She smiled. I moved my fingers down over the side of her face, trying to imagine I was really touching her.

“Beth,” I said. I could barely get the words out. “Beth, I remember.”

Her lips parted in surprise. “What . . . ?”

“I remember. I remember everything. I remember us.”

“Oh, Charlie,” she said, her voice breaking.

“I remember all about us, all of it.”

Beth covered her mouth with both her hands. I heard her sob and say: “Thank God, thank God.”

“Everything’s starting to come back to me now, soon I’ll have the whole story but . . .”

Just then, Sport let out a bark. I turned and saw headlights flash on the front windows.

“Charlie?” said Beth. “What was that noise?”

The headlights outside grew brighter. A car was approaching up the dirt drive.

Beth said, “Is something wrong?”

I turned back to look at her. I would’ve given anything not to have to say good-bye, but I had no choice.

“I have to go,” I told her.

“Go,” she answered at once. “Don’t worry. I’ll be here. Just go. Stay safe.”

Quickly, I turned off the computer. I had to close the lid to shut out its light. That wasn’t the way it was when I found it, but I hoped I’d be gone before anyone noticed the difference.

I stood up—and the minute I did, I knew I was in trouble.

My head swam. My legs felt as if they were made of rubber. I looked back at the window. The headlights glared in at me as the car grew near. I stood there unsteadily, staring at the lights and, as I did, they grew huge and out of focus and then dwindled to a small point in the darkness so that I thought I was going to faint.

It was the fever. It was getting worse, much worse. I wasn’t sure I could even walk—but I had to try. I had to get out of here.

There was no chance of running away. I just didn’t have the strength. But I thought if I could get out of the house, maybe I could make it to that shed next door. I could hide out in there until I felt better.

The headlights were right outside now, right in front of the porch. No way to escape through the front door. I had to find another exit.

As the car came to a stop outside the house, the headlights shone in on me through the front window. I could make out the room in the glow. I threaded my way between the chairs and end tables and moved toward an archway on the back wall. I passed through it into another room. It was darker in here, but I could just make out a dining table, some chairs, a sideboard. Another door on the far wall. I took a step toward it . . .

Then the room tilted sickeningly. It felt as if it were going to turn completely upside down and dump me off the floor onto the ceiling. My stomach pitched. I grabbed hold of . . . something, I don’t know what. The back of a chair, I guess. My feet felt as if they were anvils. I couldn’t lift them. I couldn’t move . . .

Now I heard the front door opening. Sport was barking happily to welcome his people home. The light in the living room went on.

I heard a little boy’s high, piping voice: “And then Dan said they’d let me play tomorrow, only they couldn’t today because the game was too important . . .”

A woman’s lower, quieter voice answered wearily, “Well, that’s good. Quiet, Sport.”

“Hi, Sport!” said the boy.

The dog’s barking stopped and was replaced by happy panting.

I had to go, had to get out of here. I took a heavy step toward the door. There had to be a back way.

I took another step—but I hadn’t let go of the chair. I didn’t have the strength to let go of it. As I moved, the chair tilted over and fell to the floor with a crash. I lost my footing and stumbled to the side until my back thudded into the wall.

Sport let out another bark in the living room.

“What was that, Mommy?”

I heard the woman answer, her voice tense: “I don’t know.”

“Is someone here?”

“Ssh, Larry. I don’t know.”

I tried to move to the door, to get out, but I felt if I let go of the wall I would topple over. The shadows whirled around me. My thoughts were muddy and confused. Red and blue lights seemed to flash in the darkness as if police cars were closing in on me. Somewhere in the distance, I thought I heard my mother sobbing.

“Is someone in there?”

That was the woman, calling from the living room. Her voice was soft, tentative, afraid. Sport came into the archway, wagging his tail. He let out another happy bark, this one at me. I stared at him dumbly, my mouth hanging open.

“Is someone in there?” the woman called again from the living room. “I’m calling the police right now!”

Then the dining room light snapped on.

I saw the woman—the woman from the photographs in the kitchen. She was staring at me from the archway. Her expression was both frightened and stern. She had the little boy clutched against her leg. He stared at me too, his eyes wide and worried. Sport stood beside them, barking and wagging his tail.

“Who are you?” she said. “What are you doing in my house? What do you want?” But her eyes softened as she looked at me. She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. “My God, look at you. Are you ill?”

I couldn’t answer her. I could only gape at her, dazed. I didn’t quite know where I was anymore. I couldn’t quite figure out what was happening. There was so much confusion. The lights flashing. The dog barking. My mother crying.

“Mom?” I said then. “Mom . . . I’m so sorry.”

And I slid down the wall to the floor.

PART IV

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Fever

This time the past came back to me in fragments and in dreams.

I was in a courtroom—but the courtroom was bizarre. The angles of the walls slanted in and out as the place got larger and smaller. The judge’s bench was huge. It towered above me, seeming to soar up toward a ceiling as high as the sky. The judge was an older man with a lot of silver hair. He glared down at me from his great height where I sat at the defense table far, far below. The defense table seemed to sit in a pool of glaring light with the rest of the court in shadows around me. In that glaring light, I felt exposed and vulnerable, put on display like a butterfly pinned to a board.

I was on trial for the murder of my friend Alex Hauser. Alice Boudreaux, the county prosecutor, a squat woman with frosted blond hair, was marching back and forth in front of me. She was talking to the jury, wagging her finger in my direction. The jury box was sunk in deep shadow. All I could see of the jurors were a dozen pairs of eyes, gleaming in the darkness, staring at me where I sat in the glaring light.

“The defense will tell you that Mr. West passed a lie detector test—and that’s true,” Boudreaux said as she marched back and forth, “but when you consider the other evidence, the overwhelming evidence against him, passing that test only proves what an accomplished liar he truly is. Consider this: By his own admission, he’s almost certainly the last person to have seen the victim alive. He and the victim argued violently before the victim went into the park. Traces of the victim’s blood were found on the defendant’s clothing. The murder weapon had his fingerprints on it and his DN A.” She stopped in her pacing and leveled a finger directly at me. “This is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the only possible verdict is
guilty
.”

Her words sent a cold jolt up my spine. I knew, of course, that it was Waterman who had put the traces of Alex’s blood on my clothes. It was the Homelanders themselves, as I found out later, who had planted the murder weapon with my DN A. The whole thing was a frame-up from start to finish. And yet as I listened to the prosecutor tick off the evidence against me, I was sickened by the idea that people all around me were believing her.