Page 159 of String Boys

Jackson grinned. “You haven’t changed a bit,” he said, sounding happy about it. Then he sobered. “You doing okay?”

And Kelly saw that sincerity now for what it was—real. True. “My brother just passed away,” he said softly. “It’s been rough.”

Rivers nodded. “Yeah. That’s sort of why we’re here. I’m sorry we’re so late. I was, uh, out of commission when your brother’s package hit the police station—”

“He almost died,” Cramer and Kryzinski said in concert; then Ellery took over. “He’d let you blame him completely, if we didn’t say it. He was still in the hospital when your brother’s message and evidence arrived. He’s not even cleared to go back to work yet. But Kryzinski here came across the paperwork, and we got back from vacation this morning, and Jackson said we had to try tonight.”

“Try what?” Kelly asked, bewildered. “Why areyouhere?” He looked apologetically at Jackson. “Besides being your boyfriend, which, let me say, is pretty cool and a mark in your favor.”

Kryzinski stood up. “Kid, let me tell the story. Those two talk over each other and get muddled, which is funny because Cramer’s one of the best lawyers I’ve ever seen. He’s here to represent you and Mr. Arnold, but I don’t think that’s going to be necessary. Two weeks ago—when Jackson was still in the hospital—the police department got this. Does anybody recognize it?” He held up an open bubble mailer with Rivers’s name written in black sharpie on the front.

To Kelly’s surprise, Agnes spoke up. “That’s my handwriting. That’s the packet Matty had me mail for him before….” Her voice dropped. “Before he died.”

Kryzinski nodded. “Did you know what was in it, sweetheart?”

Agnes shook her head. “He typed for a long time, and then he had me go fetch… well, his box. Like a metal box? The kind you keep documents in? It was one of the few things he had when we moved him in, remember, Mom?”

Linda nodded. “Yeah. We just looked through it before the funeral to see if he had any assets to help pay for expenses.”

He hadn’t, but Seth had covered it. Kelly was starting to wonder exactly how much Seth actually made.

“So,” Kryzinski prompted, “he got something from the metal box and…?”

“Well, he had me leave the room, and then he sealed the envelope and asked me to address it. He looked up the address of the police station—homicide division, Jackson Rivers—and then told me to send it in.” She frowned. “There was something heavy in it, when he was done. I remember that. It… you could feel it, sliding around.”

Kryzinski nodded. “Thanks, sweetheart. That’s good to know, all of it. Now….” He grimaced. “Do we have to?” he asked Rivers and Cramer.

“I’ll do it,” Cramer said softly. “Seth? Seth Arnold?”

Seth nodded soberly.

“I’m going to ask you about a night in May, about eight and a half years ago—do you remember what happened then?”

“I was attacked,” Kelly blurted, not wanting that other night to be mentioned. With a defense attorney and a detective in the room, all sorts of things, bad things, could—

“Not that night, baby,” Seth said softly. “We may want to ask the girls to leave—”

“No,” Lily and Lulu said in concert.

“Are you kidding me?” Agnes asked, nose wrinkled. “You guys, mooncalfing over each other for years, all that tragic, ‘Seth can’t come home!’ shit going on, and you think we’re gonna leave the roomnow? The only reason I’d leave the room is to make popcorn, but that’s Kelly’s spaghetti sauce on the stove, and I’m holding out for that.” She waved her hand. “Go on, Seth. Tell the man a story.”

Seth smiled at her, slowly. “God, you look so much like Kelly. It’s not even fair.” His smile died, and he stood up, probably so he could wander.

“See, Kelly had been attacked two days before. And he was so… scared. Those moments in that awful place, with Castor—it had him terrified. And I had to leave, you know? Dad and I, we’d agreed. I had to go to Bridgford. I’d be leaving him alone. So I went out that night, and I was going to find him, and I was going to warn him off.”

“Castor Durant?” Rivers clarified.

“Yeah. I just wanted him… to stay away. He’d hurt Kelly. I needed him not to do anything like that again. He was getting high, out in the old field. And I… I was so mad. He laughed at me, and I kicked him, and… we fought. Bad. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

He came out of his trance for a minute. “I can fight better now, but that night, I was all fury, you know?”

Everybody nodded, and he went on.

“Anyway, he was on top of me, and… and he was winning. He was gonna kill me. He had his hand on my throat, and he was reaching for something on his belt, and my vision went black.”

He swallowed, and that eerie self-possession he’d had since the three men arrived on their doorstep disappeared. “When I came to again, he was… dead. His throat had been cut, and he was on top of me, and I was covered in blood.”

Kelly stood and grabbed his hand, shaking.