Read Online Hard Road by Barbara D'Amato - Free Book Online Page B

told right away?" Barry demanded. "Instead of holding me there, asking me all kinds of questions. Spending two hours!"
     
     
"Well, Mr. Marsala, we didn't know—"
     
     
"You kept me there. I should have been here to take care of my child."
     
     
"Actually," McCoo said, "Jeremy and Cat have only been here about half an hour and we sent for you as soon as they arrived."
     
     
"I don't understand."
     
     
"Maybe Jeremy would like to tell you what happened."
     
     
Jeremy did. He was quite proud of his escape by now and told it with even more gusto than before. I'm pleased to say, though, that once again, despite dramatization, his facts were accurate.
     
     
"Oh, lord!" Barry said. "You're really not hurt? They shot at you? Are you hurt?"
     
     
He pulled Jeremy to him, but by this time Jeremy was embarrassed. "No, Dad. Come on. They didn't even come close."
     
     
    * * *
A female police officer was called in to stay with Jeremy and the cat. She brought along a box of checkers and a foldable board. McCoo beckoned me and Barry and another cop into an interview room. These rooms have heavy metal staples set into the cement block walls for attaching prisoners' handcuffs. It's a very unpleasant kind of place, despite the fresh, light blue paint.
     
     
"I'm sorry about the room," McCoo said. "But I think it's less disruptive to Jeremy for him to stay there and for us to come here."
     
     
"All right, all right," Barry said. "What's the problem?"
     
     
"Sit down, Mr. Marsala," McCoo said. "This will take a few minutes."
     
     
"Get going then. I have Jeremy to think about."
     
     
"Let me tell you what Cat and Jennifer saw."
     
     
And he did.
     
     
Barry had heard that Jennifer had been shot and killed. Apparently, unless he was lying and had shot her himself, he had assumed that her death had been unrelated to Plumly's. Then, after hearing that Jeremy and I had been shot at, he thought Jennifer's death had been a mistake; they had been shooting at us. But he couldn't imagine why. Finally, after McCoo told him what Jennifer and I had seen, and that he was a suspect, he sat there, apparently stunned.
     
     
After maybe a minute, which is a long time if you're waiting for somebody to speak, he asked, "Cat, you really saw the same thing Jennifer saw?"
     
     
"I saw no blood on Plumly when he ran past us. The first time I saw blood on him was when we got to you, after he grabbed you."
     
     
He shook his head. "Not possible. I didn't notice any blood when he ran up to me, but he grabbed me before I really got a look at him." There was blood on Barry's sleeve. The tech had taken a sample of it, but we all knew it was Plumly's.
     
     
"Barry, if it had been just me, just my impression, I'd think I'd been hallucinating or something. But Jennifer saw exactly the same thing."
     
     
"But, Cat, you know me," he said. "I wouldn't kill anybody."
     
     
He turned to McCoo. "And the shooting," he said. "I don't get it. Why would I carry a gun on me?"
     
     
"Well," said McCoo, "why would anybody?"
     
     
"If I shot anybody, where's the gun? I don't even own one. This is nuts!"
     
     
"Mr. Marsala, we don't know where the gun is. We've got people out searching for it. By tomorrow morning, we may have found and identified the gun. The park is a difficult area to search in the dark. If we don't find it tonight, we'll have more people out looking first thing tomorrow."
     
     
"Yes, Barry," I said. "They'll find it's registered to somebody else, and they'll find that person, and discover why this all happened."
     
     
"And what if they don't?"
     
     
I couldn't answer. In fact, it seemed very doubtful that whoever had fired those shots at Jennifer and Jeremy and me would leave the gun where it could be discovered by the police.
     
     
Barry thought for another long while. Finally, he said to me, "If you thought I killed Plumly, Cat, then you must have thought I shot at you."
     
     
"Barry, I saw what I saw. But I