Malice by Robert Cote Read Free Book Online Page A

faul—”
    “Not your…really? Then whose fault was it, son? Your school principal calls saying you’ve accused the counselor of trying to molest two kids. You’re a ten-year-old boy, for Christ’s sake. What do you know about sex? You shoulda seen your mother’s face.”
    His father tilted the neck of the bottle filling his glass and then some.
    “I don’t think you understand the impact a stupid joke like that could have. You might have ruined the career of a respected family man.”
    The fridge door was still open, and cool air tickled his cheek.
    “But Simon Shaw said it happened in Mr. McDowell’s office when no one else was around. Then Adrian Keslaw said almost the same thing, but both of them were too scared to do anything about it. I felt like I had to.” His face fell. “I knew you and Mom would never understand.”
    His father sounded deathly tired. “If you’d just come to us in the first place, none of this would have happened. The baby…and now they’re talking about firing the man and suspending you if you’re lying. Goddammit, Lysander, are you lying? Is this just another one of your make-believe stories?”
    “No,” Lysander screamed. Fresh tears were streaming down his face.
    “I don’t believe you.”
    “But it’s true, I swear it.”
    Glenn eyed his drink sullenly. “Get out of my sight, Lysander. I don’t want to see your face right now.”
    Lysander didn’t move.
    “That’s it, no dinner for you, get right up those stairs and go straight to bed.”
    But he couldn’t leave just yet. Somehow in Lysander’s young mind, to allow his father to dismiss him as a liar would be to prove him right.
    His father rose to his full menacing height.
    Lysander was suddenly aware that Sandy, their golden retriever, was at his side, looking up at him with her great sunken eyes. Glenn’s booming voice had alarmed her.
    His father crossed the room. “You may never have felt the back of my hand, but I promise if you don’t get up those stairs this minute, I’ll slap you so fucking hard!”
    Lysander’s whole body was gripped with terror. When his father saw he had no intention of moving, his expression darkened even more. He lunged and grabbed his son by the scruff of his collar. Sandy let out a low growl, but his father wasn’t going to stop until Lysander went up those stairs, even if it meant dragging him like a sack of dirty laundry. He clasped a hand around Lysander’s tiny arm and Sandy jumped between them, shielding Lysander with her great furry body, her teeth bared, that low growl now a menacing snarl. For several moments his father stood eye to eye with Sandy, the animal’s hot breath lapping against his nose. Even enraged, Lysander’s father had the sense to back off.
    “I’m gonna put that fucking dog down!” he yelled.
    As he walked upstairs, his father screamed after him: “You’ve cursed this family, Lysander, I don’t know how or why but you have. Since the day you were born you’ve brought us nothing but pain.” His father’s words had felt like so many razors, slicing away chunks of his flesh.
    From that day on, he had accepted responsibility for his mother’s miscarriage, and he decided never to speak of it again. Since that day there was an empty chasm between him and his father. He might not have been able to articulate it in words at the time, but that day a part of him had died.
     
    These were wounds Lysander would never tell anyone about. But what surprised him most was that Avery did most of the talking, about his own life, his schooling, the old MGB he spent time restoring. Lysander couldn’t help but notice a sense of grief—or was it guilt?—behind those eyes, filled before with such calm and wisdom. He too had battle scars. If nothing else, for the first time in his life, Lysander was happy he wasn’t alone.

Chapter 10
     
     
    “Then what do you want?” Samantha said challengingly.
    She and Alex were the only ones in the Millingham police