Read Online The Dead Man: Hell in Heaven by Lee Goldberg, William Rabkin - Free Book Online Page B

shouting at each other.
    “Fucking rapist has to die!” shouted one Vetch.
    “She’s a whore,” a Gilhoolie screamed back, and then a chant went up from his side of the room. “Whore! Whore! Whore!”
    One Vetch took a step toward the naked boy, but was driven back by a hail of knives and forks. On both sides, men were rolling up their sleeves, getting ready to fight.
    Matt clapped his hands, then banged his knife against his water glass, trying to get their attention, but it was no good. Orfamay let out one of her hideous throat clearing sounds, and the crowd settled down.
    “Something terrible has happened here tonight,” Matt said. “And I understand why you’re all upset. But you don’t want me to settle this. I didn’t see anything, and neither did any of you.”
    There were angry shouts from both sides of the room, demanding death for the boy, death for the girl.
    Orfamay cleared her throat again, and when the crowd settled, she turned to Matt. “Are you telling us you will not pass judgment, Lawgiver?”
    “I’m telling you I can’t,” Matt said. “But I will take him with me and make sure he gets a fair trial. Justice will be served.”
    The room was ready to erupt again, but Orfamay’s steely look silenced them. “Say it clearly,” she said. “You are abandoning your responsibility as our lawgiver.”
    “Don’t do this, Matt!” Mouse shouted, but her voice was drowned out by jeers.
    “It’s not my responsibility to abandon or to exercise,” Matt said. “I’m not the lawgiver.”
    This time there was no sound from the tables. Instead there was silence. A silence so deep and so empty Matt could practically hear the stars moving above the barn.
    And then there was a scream from the Vetch side of the room. Ezekiel Vetch had jumped to his feet and was racing toward the Gilhoolie table.
    “Fucking Hoggins killed my pig!” He launched himself at Alwyn Hoggins, who dived beneath to the floor. Vetch landed on the table and skidded across its breadth, sending plates and glasses flying. Before he reached the end, four Gilhoolies grabbed him and he was lost in a sea of fists.
    “Let him go!” someone yelled from the Vetch table, and a group of men started across the floor toward the Gilhoolies.
    “Stop them!” Mouse screamed. “Matt, you have to stop them!”
    He hadn’t needed her to tell him that. But there was nothing he could do. He was shouting at the top of his voice, but his words were drowned out in the noise from the crowd. He fought to get up, trapped by the weight of the throne against the table.
    And then the table was gone, sent tumbling into the center of the room. The giant was standing, arms raised to the room, tears in his eyes. “My cousin’s been roont!” he wailed, and then took off across the room. Heading for where the naked boy lay on the floor, curled into a ball.
    “You have to stop this,” Matt told Orfamay.
    “I can’t stop anything,” she said. “Only the lawgiver can do that.”
    Matt jumped up from his chair and ran through the litter of broken crockery on the floor. But no matter how fast he ran he couldn’t beat the giant’s enormous strides, and before he could reach the boy, the giant grabbed him and hoisted him in the air.
    “You roont my cousin!” the giant wailed. “You won’t roon another girl!”
    He held the boy’s neck in one massive hand. With the other he reached down and grabbed the kid’s penis and testicles, which were swallowed up in the mighty fist. And he pulled.
    The boy screamed in agony. His body spasmed as if he were in the electric chair. But the giant kept pulling and pulling.
    Matt finally reached him, tried to peel off his hand, but the giant knocked him back with a sweep of an elbow to his head, and Matt sprawled to the floor next to Mouse.
    “Stop him,” Mouse sobbed. “You’re supposed to stop him.”
    Matt got back to his feet, felt the floor spinning under him, and took two staggering steps toward the