Page 24 (1/2)

"My dad’s dead My dad is John Sweeney and he--"

"Boy, it breaks oodJohn didn’t know it, but anotherthat! You’re a liar!"

Mr Morse set down his guitar and stood up He towered over Mike, covering him with his shadow, and his eyes were fierce He placed his hands on Mike’s shoulders and when Mike tried to turn away Mr Morse held hiaze was as hot as a blowtorch "Now you listen to ood, Mike, you listen like a man, not like a boy You listen like what you hear and what you do about what you hear matters Don’t turn away from me, son, and don’t you dare call oddamn town I died for it and my memory’s been spit on for thirty years You think a rave when every time his name is spoke there’s a lie and a curse put to it?"

Mike stared at hi Mr Morse’s hands were like hot irons on his shoulders

Mr Morse never blinked Not once, and his dusty eyes were filled with a weird light "Boy, I want you to listen toto tell you ot left I know that pain, boy, and I lost ht here I made my choice, and I’ll taketo listen?"

Mike didn’t want to He wanted to block his ears, he wanted to hit this man, to push hi this led with terror in his chest and it felt like his heart would burst When he opened his o away, to leave hireement unmasked a terrible sadness in Mr Morse’s face, and for a , "I’m sorry, boy Believe me when I tell you that I ain

Mr Morse told hi Mike listened, and he listened, and he listened, and then he screamed Sometimes the truth doesn’t set you free

Chapter 15

1

"The eye is not per for Crow and Val the inforotten from the tests and the specialists Neither Crow nor Val said anything, their faces not yet showing relief "The orbit is cracked even worse now that it was before, but that’ll heal So, even though we have to be very, very careful it’s better news than we hoped"

"But…?" Val asked "Drop the other shoe"

"No, that’s it Youwhen Boyd hit you, so you actually didn’t get as serious an injury as you e If you hadn’t already had an injury there, this ht have been eneral stress, overall trauma…and the e Mark and all"

Val touched the bandage over her eye, her expression pensive

"Damn," Crow said with a release of tension that seemed to deflate his whole body He leaned over and kissed Val on the forehead

"Thanks, Saul," Val said "When can I get out of here?"

Weinstock shrugged "No reason we can’t cut you loose first thing to you take it easy, and I mean really easy" He reached over and jabbed Crow in the chest "And that means no hanky-panky for a few days, too"

"We’ll behave ourselves," Val assured hiful of air up at the ceiling Croled onto the bed and she turned to him

"Soon as we blow this joint I want you to stay at my place," Crow said He didn’t mention her house or her farht there with them

Val just nodded "I think that’s best"

There was a tentative knock on the door and they turned to see Newton peering in "Is this a bad time?"

"For once," Val said, "it’s not Come in, have a seat"

Neas an aard man at the best of times and in situations like this was nearly spastic He perched on the edge of a guest chair with all the skittishness of a high school kid waiting for his prom date

Crow handed hi useful on the Net?"

"Quite a lot, actually, though at this point it ht just serve as backstory since you all seem to think this is all over and done with" He pulled a thick file of computer printouts out of his briefcase "Aside from the ton of stuff I downloaded about…" He looked around and then used his two hooked index fingers to sie wink as if the pantoh "I also e-mailed Dr Corbiel at U of P Turns out it isn’t Jonathan Corbiel, it’s Jonatha No ‘n,’ a woer Jonatha Brooke"

"Okay"