An Evil Shadow by A. J. Davidson Read Free Book Online Page B

mental flash of the bemused smirk sure to have been on Angie’s face as
she drove away.
    Duval put down the magazine. “She seems to think that
a personal appeal might succeed where your brother failed.”
    “What’s it to you? As I understand it, your UNO
acceptance has been more or less secured. Marcus wanted me installed as campus
police chief to further his own aspirations.”
    “You’re only partly correct. My acceptance was
confirmed this morning. But don’t go blaming your brother. Marcus is a charming
man, though a little pompous at times. He means well. But it was my suggestion
that he offer you the job. At first he wouldn’t hear of it, so I pointed out to
him and Angie how it might prove advantageous to his career.”
    She had had her thirty seconds and had left Val with a
dilemma: throw her out now or let her stay and say her piece. He let her stay.
    “I’d have thought the last person you would have
wanted on campus was me,” he said.
    “I have nothing against you.”
    Val held up his left hand. “That wasn’t always the
case.”
    “That was a mistake. I honestly believed you were
climbing up that tree to kill me. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
    He pulled a face. “Splitting your mother’s skull with
an axe can really screw up a kid’s day.”
    Duval hesitated and for a second allowed her sassiness
to slip, exposing a child-like vulnerability. “I didn’t kill my mother.”
    “You signed a statement admitting that you did.”
    She nodded.
    “You stole the axe.”
    Another nod.
    “Your dress was saturated with your mother’s blood.
Your fingerprints were all over the axe.”
    “Yes, Yes. Yes.” She bowed her head and her shoulders
shook.
    It left him cold. “Then you’ll understand when I tell
you that I don’t believe you.”
    “I didn’t kill my mother. I have never told anyone
what really took place that night.”
    “You could start by telling me.” His voice sharp and
heartless.
    “It isn’t easy for me.”
    “Have it your own way. The door’s over there.”
    “No it’s time it was told.” Duval sucked in a deep
breath and started. “Something had been troubling my mother for several weeks.
At first she was nervous, frightened of strangers. then one afternoon she came
back home in a state of real panic and over the next few days became
increasingly paranoid. She wouldn’t tell me what was wrong, no matter how much
I pleaded with her. She wouldn’t leave the house, wouldn’t allow me to leave.
She hammered nails into the oak tree to make at easier for me to climb, and
started to call the flat branch I liked to sit on my secret place. She told me
I was to run and hide there if bad men came. I don’t think she had ever been so
scared, not even in Haiti when my father was killed by the mob. I was desperate
to do something to help her, so I snuck out and stole the axe. Can you imagine
how I felt when it was turned against her?”
    “Your statement about the initiation ceremony was all
lies?”
    “Most of it was true. My mother started my initiation
that first afternoon. She must have been terrified of something happening to
her before she had a chance to pass on her secrets. But she would never have
hurt me.”
    “If you didn’t kill her, who did?”
    “A policeman. A white man in uniform. The two of us
were in the middle of a ritual when he knocked on the door. My mother seemed
relieved at the sound of his voice. She opened the door and let him in. He saw
the axe on the table and picked it up. He made a joke about it and asked my
mother what she planned to do with it. Before she had timeto answer, he struck the first blow. Her blood spilled on my
dress.”
    “Had you seen him before?”
    Duval shook her head and wiped away a tear with the
back of her hand. “He struck her twice more, then wiped the handle and dropped
the axe on the floor, staring at me all the time. He promised to hunt me down
and kill me if I ever told anyone about him. Then he turned and left.