Too Close to Home

“. . I have done detestable things. I have hurt people. But what good is a man if he cannot learn from his misdeeds. . ”

And then Drew was watching the part where Randy started turning the oil tanker on a dime, making virtue out of peccadilloes. A few seconds later I could hear the applause coming out of the phone, and by the time someone shouted “Give ’em hell, Randy!” Drew was shaking his head very slowly. He looked at Randy. “They like you. You told them you’d had sex with a young girl and they applauded you.” He was dumbfounded.

Randy did something I’d rarely seen him do. He went red with embarrassment.

Drew looked back at the phone one last time, as though the gadget itself were the object of his contempt, flipped it shut, then, suddenly, flung it hard at the living room window, shattering it. Ellen jumped. Drew, turning on all of us, his voice full of exasperation, asked, “What’s wrong with those people? How could they. . how could they cheer a man like that on after he admitted something like that?”

None of us had an answer for that.

To Drew, Randy said, “Look, pal, I did what you wanted. I said what you wanted me to say. I came here of my own free will to meet you face-to-face. I can’t help it if the crowd didn’t react the way you wanted them to.”

“You son of a bitch,” Drew said, his gun hand trembling. While he glowered at Randy, I positioned myself in front of the fireplace poker.

A line of sweat ran down Randy’s temple.

“Drew,” I said softly, “the mayor here may have come out of this smelling like a rose right now, but that won’t last. His opponents will seize on that admission. Eventually, it’ll ruin him.”

“Sure,” said Randy. “I’m toast.”

“I don’t know,” Drew said. “This isn’t how I thought it would go.”

“Yeah, well, this isn’t exactly how I expected to be spending my evening either,” Randy said, trying to smile. Here he was, trying to win some sympathy from Drew. I couldn’t recall ever seeing him this desperate.

“What, am I supposed to feel sorry for you?” Drew asked.

I reached behind me for the poker, and was wrong in thinking it was a move I could handle deftly. It clinked against the iron stand as I moved it, and Drew turned and trained his gun on me.

“What was that?” he demanded.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Show me what’s in your hand.”

I displayed the poker and Drew clenched his teeth. “Drop that and go stand over there,” he said, motioning to the bookcase.

“Sure,” I said, letting the poker clang to the floor. “No problem.” I caught the desperate, hopeless look in Ellen’s eyes at that moment. I shifted over and parked myself by the books.

Turning his attention back to the mayor, Drew said, “I should feel sorry for you, you, a guy who screws teenage girls?”

“Look, pal,” Randy said. “There’s a few things you need to understand. First of all, I had no idea your daughter was that young. She looked a lot older, you need to know that from the get-go. I would never have entered into any arrangement with her knowing she was as young as she was. I have certain lines that I won’t cross.”

Drew stared at him.

“Secondly, I never approached her directly. That was handled by an associate of mine, a Mr. Lance Garrick. I’m guessing maybe you already know him, right? He should never have set that up, and I want to say, listen, Lance deserved what he got. I can’t see where anyone would blame you for what you did there.” He forced a laugh. “More than once, I felt like shooting him myself.”

Drew kept looking at him, wondering where he was going with this. I didn’t have any real idea either. I glanced at Ellen. When I looked over her way, something on the bookshelf caught my eye.

Resting on top of a row of books, inches below the next shelf, was a lawn-cutting blade from the tractor. I’d set it there when I’d come back into the house the other day and found Ellen staring out the window at the Langley house.

“The thing is,” Randy said, “there’s a lot of blame to go around here, and let’s face it, you own a bit of that yourself.” His tone wasn’t totally argumentative. He seemed to be trying to make a point with Drew, but I thought it was a risky one.

“Randy,” I said.

“Wouldn’t you agree?” the mayor persisted. “Huh, Drew?”

Drew said, “All I know is, of all the men who took advantage of my daughter, who helped to put her into the ground, there wasn’t one who should have known better more than you.”

Randy didn’t say anything.