part 2
"Bloody Hell!" Goniff rounded on his commander and pulled one of Casino's moves by jabbing the air with his finger. "What was I s'posed to do, just let that guy get the drop on you?"
"No! And I certainly appreciate your action� but there are better ways of going about it than just popping up behind a guy during a fire fight and telling him to turn around and look behind him!"
"Worked, didn't it?"
He just stared at the man a moment, "Yeah, it worked." Garrison pulled his fingers through his hair in frustration. "But you could've gotten yourself killed pulling a stunt like that."
"And what if I did? Wouldn't be losin' much would we?" Goniff shrugged. "Not many'd be missin' the likes of a little coward like me."
Garrison frowned and stared at his English pick pocket and opened his mouth to question that remark but Casino cut him off
"Well I'd miss ya, ya idiot! But if I half ta knock you outta the way a some Kraut that's tryin' to kill ya again, just ta have him take a bead on me instead, I might just finish his job for him and go ahead and miss ya!"
"Knock it off Casino." Garrison pulled the safecracker around and shoved him off towards Actor. "No one's questioning your courage, Goniff. You've proved it so often we all take it for granted. But if you're worried about it all of a sudden I think you'd better tell me why."
Goniff stared back at the Warden, opened his mouth and closed it.. opened it again, and then looked at the others watching him from behind the Lieutenant. "I ain't worried about nothin'!" Tuning on his heel he stalked away down the trail towards their extraction point.
Garrison shot a look at Chief and jerked his head in the direction his little hero had taken. He watched as the young man took off down the trail and then turned to face the others with a frown.
"Jeeze! What's gotten into that guy?"
"I don't know. But as soon as we get back I mean to find out." Goniff was no coward, but he had a highly developed sense of self preservation. It wasn't like him to voluntarily make himself a target ,,,just like the running... And he'd actually seemed more relaxed over here than he had been on their own home ground. Something was going on, as soon as they got back he'd have to find out what it was.
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But as soon as they got back Garrison's time was taken up with meetings and briefings at headquarters. When he thought about it he couldn't really fault Goniff, he'd saved his neck after all drawing the guards' attention away from him like he did. But to reinforce the fact that there could've been a safer way to do it he had the Sergeant Major putting all of them through their paces on the training grounds around the estate. A little course on strategy seemed to be in order. That ticked them all off enough that they were keeping their distance from him � They'd get over it, he thought, and it was a nice break, not having someone under his elbow all the time.
He was in the library, standing at the French doors watching them drag themselves back across the lawns towards the house when the call came through.
"Lieutenant Garrison?"
Stepping over to the intercom on the wall near the inner door he flipped the switch and answered. "Yes, Sergeant, what is it?"
"There's an officer from the village here to see you, sir."
Great! Even worn out from all the extra training some how they'd still managed to have enough energy to get off the grounds and get in enough trouble that a police officer needed to come out and talk to him about it. "Send him in here, Sergeant. And see to it the men come in here too."
"Yes, sir, I'll attend to it."
Garrison heard a piercing whistle and the Sergeant Major's shouted orders to the men and glanced out the open outer doors to make sure they'd decided to obey him for a change before he turned and stepped out in the hall. The Sergeant's office was several doors down from the library, with all of the rooms in the large house it would be easy for a stranger to get lost� And the police weren't regular visitors to the estate... They didn't usually come to him, he usually had to go to them... to bail his guys out.
Offering his hand as the middle aged man reached him he drew him into the library just as his men came in from outside. "What brings you out here, constable? What can I do for you?" Shooting a look at the cons he waited for one of them to squirm and give himself away, but they all just looked back at him with innocent interest.
"Sorry to have to bother you, sir. We've had a child go missing from the village and I've come out to get your permission to search the grounds."
"Of course. Did you tell Sergeant Major Rawlins?"
"No Lieutenant. I thought I'd need to speak to you first."
Garrison moved back to the intercom and summoned the British NCO to the library. "Constable�?"
"Lamberton, sir."
"Constable Lamberton, if you'll wait just a moment I'll have the Sergeant come in so you only have to tell your story once. If you want a thorough search of the grounds he'll detail a group of men to help you do it."
"Thank you, sir that would be a great help." Lamberton turned and acknowledge Rawlins as he entered the room, then swung back to face the Lieutenant. Three of the men that had been standing in the outer door moved up near the Army officer, one, a fidgety blonde fellow, held back by the doors and drew his attention.
Garrison's attention had been drawn to the pick pocket too. Goniff had lost what little color he had and looked like he wanted to bolt from the room. The Warden watched the stranger study his cat burglar and a cold feeling seeped up along his spine and sent tendrils out into his heart. A missing kid? Goniff? It was all he could do to concentrate on the stranger in their midst, "Well, Constable Lamberton?"
"Right." He focused on the officer standing in front of him. "As I said, one of the little fellows from the village has gone missing. We've searched the town and the surrounding area and come up empty, I'm afraid. Now we're having to move a little further afield."
"How old's this kid?" Casino asked, "How long's it been since he took off?"
Lamberton had his notebook out and checked it. "The boy's nine years old, according to the records."
"The records?" Stepping up shoulder to shoulder with Garrison Actor frowned "You mean his parents didn't report him missing?"
"Hasn't got any, poor lad. They were caught in a firestorm that got started after one of Jerries little nighttime visits to London. He doesn't have any other family so the boy was sent up here to stay."
"This one a Mrs. Reid's kids?"
Lamberton turned to consider the darker skinned young man who'd just spoken. He'd heard there was an American Indian in the mix out here. "No. She's got her hands full with the refugee children she takes in from Europe. He's been sent up to stay at the youth facility the new vicar's started at the church." Turning back to the Lieutenant and his British aid he gave them the particulars of when the boy'd gone missing, what he looked like and his name� "but the other children call him Saint V." and to answer their questioning looks, "Seems he's a bit of a jumpy lad."
"How long's he been here in town?"
"I'm afraid he only spent ten days with us before he decided to strike off on his own."
"Then surely he's trying to head back to his home in London."
"Yes. That's what we think as well, but until he shows up there we'll need to keep looking."
"Jeeze a little kid like that, goin' all the way to London from here?"
"It's not all that far, Casino. All the kid'd need to do is hop on one a them trains." That's how Chief had gotten away from one of the schools he'd been sent to once� just hopped a freight train and ended up in a whole different state�And he'd managed on his own for several months before he got picked up. But he'd had his grandfather to train him�and he was older, not some little city kid.
"No one has seen him around the train station� and during the time he's been missing we've had an increase in reports of petty theft. Those reports lead in this general direction, and as you are on the road to London�."
"�It'd make perfect sense for him to be here� if he could get on the grounds." Garrison turned on his expert escape artists. "Gentlemen since you are so good at getting off the grounds, I think you'd be perfect to lead the search for just how a young man might get on them." And, as he'd expected, they all agreed�all but Goniff, he was already gone.
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"I don't know. I just got this feelin' he's one step ahead of us." At least searchin' for the kid had kept Rawlins off their backs but the safecracker was gettin' tired, and frustrated that they were comin' up with anything.
"Come on, Casino. A little tyke like that givin' us the slip? We're experts."
"Yeah. If we're such experts how come we ain't caught him yet?"
Goniff turned to stare out at the rain that was just beginning to fall. "Well, it's been three days, he's prob'ly long gone by now."
"If he's gone, how do you explain the missing food from the kitchen?" Garrison studied the pick pocket. Normally any missing food could be laid down to Goniff's foraging through the supplies, but the naturally thin second story man had been dropping weight lately. If he had a hand in removing the items, as he suspected, he certainly wasn't consuming them. He�d also gone from sticking to him like glue to avoiding him like the plague.
"Well, there's nothing we more we can do until morning. I suggest we all turn in so we can get an early start. I want to go over this place one more time before I'm willing to give up and say he's taken off for greener pastures." Ushering the men out of his office he watched as they started up the stairs� all but Goniff who was shuffling his feet in the hall, his hands jammed down in his pockets. "You got a problem, Goniff?"
"Who? Me?" The Englishman shrugged and then grinned at his commander. "Nah, it's just that, well, all that talk a missing food's got me hungry is all." Moving off towards the kitchens he called over his shoulder. "Any a you blokes want a little something?" But the others were tired from their search, he knew they wouldn't take him up on his offer. Stopping he turned back and met Garrison's gaze and held it for a moment.. "It's alright, isn't it Warden?"
Garrison studied him. "Sure, Goniff. Just make certain all the doors and windows are locked before you head up to bed." Turning his back on the cat burglar he made his way up to his own room.
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Trailing Goniff across the grounds was harder than he thought it would be. The English thief was cautious and jumpy, turning at ever sound. If he hadn't had the rain to mask his own steps Garrison thought he wouldn't have been able to follow him out to his destination. He thought he'd caught an invitation in this pick pocket's stare, but it could have been his own wishful thinking.
The gardener's cottage had lain unused since the grounds had been turned over for the military's use. It was too far away from the main house to be useful as a storage building, too small to quarter any of the guards. In the first few weeks Chief had come out here when he needed to put some space between himself and the others, but since they'd settled into their friendship the building hadn't even been used for that. They'd searched it over and over again and hadn't found any sign that the boy was there, but there must be some reason for the pick pocket to lead him here now, in the middle of a rain storm, almost in the middle of the night.
Garrison leaned against the tree and listened, straining to hear voices through the sounds of falling rain, but it was useless. If the kid was in there, and they were talking, the rain drops pattering down around him were blocking it out. He'd have to catch Goniff on the way back and get the truth out of him when he had him face to face. He didn't have to wait long, he spotted movement in the shadows by the cottage door and watched as the wiry cockney headed back towards the house. He decided to follow him back and get far enough away from the cottage that they wouldn't spook the kid into running again. At least he was out of the rain in there.
"You want to explain why you're out here?"
Goniff's heart stopped when he heard the quiet question. He'd expected him, but wasn't sure now he'd reallly wanted the Warden to follow him out here. He opened his mouth, but closed it again and hung his head, when the Warden spoke again, digging the toe of his shoe into the mug.
"And don't try �just getting a breath of air' on me, because I won't believe you." Garrison stepped out of the darkness a few feet a head of him and motioned him forward.
Goniff jammed his hands deep in his pockets and drug himself forward into the irritated presence of his commander. "Warden, I,, uh,,, well." he grinned up at him and then looked away. "I� It's like this�"
"Goniff, it'll go a lot faster if you just tell me the truth." Waving back the way they'd come, back towards the cottage. "How long have you had him stashed out here, and how much longer did you think you could keep him hidden?" And with an exasperated sigh he pointed out. "The police are looking for that kid, Goniff, you're likely to get in a lot of trouble for helping him stay out of their reach. Now I want an explanation, and I want it now."
"Well, he run away� He don't like it at that school�"
"Look Goniff, I know he's had in rough and he probably doesn't understand why he's in a strange place all of a sudden, but he'll settle in."
"It's not that easy Warden. I mean, I know the kid can't stay here, but he don't want to leave, does he?"
"He's too young to decide that and you know it."
"He ain't got no where to go."
"He's got the youth hostel at the church in the village�"
"Right! A little bloke'd have ta be bloody desperate to go back there." Goniff looked at the man standing in front of him. The Warden was a clever one alright, he could pull them outta almost any tight spot with his quick thinking, but there was just some things he didn't know nothin' about�. And as much as he didn't want to explain it all to him he didn't have much choice in the matter, did he? He'd just have to do it. "Warden, you and me's got somethin' to talk over. And that little guy ain't goin' nowhere," Goniff squinted up into the falling rain, "Least wise not tonight."
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They were holed up in the library and he�d hemmed and hawed around enough that he�d run himself out of time and worn out the Warden�s patience, so finally he just up and told him. Garrison sat there still as a statue for a bit, just starin' straight ahead and breathin' slow and careful like, before he finally glanced up at him.
Goniff sighed and licked his lips. He didn't' want to go any farther, add any details, but the Warden was sitting there, staring at him ,,,waiting.
"I had brother, Albert� Bertie. He died when he was just a kid. He was a scrawny one, sickly from the time he was just little. The doctors said it was the air where we was livin' and the folks, they sent him to the country, out to stay with me Dad's uncle so's he could be out of the smoke and dirt� Didn't do no good though, he just got worse and worse until the doctors, they said there wasn't no help for it. He was gonna die, so me parents brought him home to be with them, and they sent me out to stay in the country. Kinda got me out from under foot while they was dealin' with him, see."
Goniff studied the Warden a minute before he took a deep breath and continued. "That's where I first met that Reverend fella. He had the church there in the village, him and his wife, they ran the school�." Goniff shot a worried glance at Garrison and then got up and started pacing the room. "Well, uh,,,, I...." He settled in the corner of the room, shoving back into it and hunching his shoulders forward he concentrated on the carpet at his feet. Taking another deep breath he lauched off
"Well, see there was this kid that I knew there. This other little kid at that school....."
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He watched Garrison's face harden and he knew he was thinkin' different now. That's why he never told no one since that first time, not in all these years. He didn't want people to change. He didn't want to see that look come into their eyes, the look that was in the Warden's eyes now. That look told him they didn't want him around �em, �.didn't think he was good enough, that he couldn't be trusted to act right.
It was all he could do to sit still. His hands ached to get hold of the man and tear him apart. Anyone that could do that didn't deserve calm rational justice meted out by the courts, or sympathetic treatment by society� they deserved what his primal urges were demanding, death at the hands of the victim's family. A long, slow, painful death. Garrison could see it, it didn't take any planning, how he'd do it just invaded his mind and took over. He could feel himself doing it, feel the bones breaking� He turned away from the pleading look on Goniffs face and took a deep breath and tried to get the logical side of his brain to take control again.
There, he'd lost him, he was turnin' away from him, just like he knew he would. But Goniff had decided to tell it,,, for the kids sake,,, and once he got started he couldn't seem to stop. All of it came out, right down to hidding out in that abandoned cottage, and how he'd nearly drowned himself in the icy water of the brook that ran behind it, washing over and over and over again�
"And you're sure he's telling the truth?" Garrison asked quietly.
The answer was just as quiet. "He's tellin' the truth Warden."
They sat there in silence several minutes. The story was over but it was taking a long time for what he'd just heard to sink in. He could feel Goniff�s eyes on him, feel the man's need for him to do something.., say something. "What do you want me to do Goniff?"
"Keep it to yerself. I don't want the others knowin' I don't want them to blame me for makin��"
"You?!" He'd nearly lost it then and had to use all his control to rein in his rage.
Goniff cringed away from him, drew back from the hand that reached out to shake him and then shove him away. He was gonna be turned out for this, he knew it.
"Damn it, Goniff!" Garrison dropped his hand when he saw the little man flinch away from him. He knew this sort of thing went on in the prisons... He'd gotten a rather shocking education in that aspect of prison life one night after they'd all shared a bottle of brandy and the men started talking. He knew all of them had to parry advances, and deal with the offers. And he knew not everyone was given a choice, some were forced. They'd all laughed it off, made a grim joke of it that night, but they'd all managed to cope, Actor with his ready wit and size, Casino and Chief with the threat of violence, and Goniff by making powerful friends on the inside who would protect him. But they were adults, able to fend for themselves � This was different and he couldn't believe that it had happened to his jester of a pick pocket, or that little kid hidden out in that dark cottage. He couldn't sit still any longer and shoved off the couch and started to pace the room.
Goniff followed the Warden with his eyes as he huddled into the corner of the sofa and waited to hear what his sentence would be. He didn't want to leave the group. He thought he'd made friends of the fellas..., even his commander. That was all gone now, broken by what he'd just confessed. He'd be on the next transport back to the states, and by the look on the Warden's face he'd be lucky if he escaped a beating. When the Lieutenant dropped onto the low table in front of him Goniff struggled to sit up straight, not to shrink away from him.
He had to sit there for a while, organize his thoughts. He wanted to reach out and take Goniff by the shoulders, shake some sense into him, or pull him into a bear hug like Casino would have done, but he knew from the look on his face that physical contact wouldn't be welcome. He leaned forward, rested his arms on his knees and studied the carpet at his feet. Clasping his hands together in a fist his attention was drawn to the club he'd created, and he sat and considered the use he could make of it... Pulling his thoughts back Garrison let his hands drop apart. "Look, Goniff, I know you don't want to, but I think you have to go�"
"I know I gotta go Warden." he cut across the Lieutenant, pleading with him. "But don't tell the other blokes why, OK? Tell �em� tell 'em me Mum's got sick or somethin' and I had to go back for that�."
"What are you talking about?" Garrison frowned at the man in front of him for a moment before it hit him, and he suddenly saw the kid he�d been staring up at him instead. "My God, Goniff!" Running a hand through his hair he got up and started pacing the room again. "You don't think I hold you to blame for any of what you just told me? How old were you when you were that 'other little kid'...ten?� You weren't� you aren't responsible for anything that happened. That man hurt you when you trusted him, when you couldn�t do anything about it. He's the one that should be punished for it, not you!"
He'd worked his way around behind the couch and stood in back of Goniff as he sat staring stiffly forward. His instincts wanted to reach out somehow and make contact, comfort the man that sat there, but logic told him to hold back. He let instincts guide him, and laid his hands on Goniff's shoulders. "And I'd be glad to do it myself," he said grimly, "but there are rules against that sort of thing." He felt the some of the tension go out of the little man and finally let go when the cockney leaned forward.
Goniff rested his elbows on his knees and covered his face with his hands and sat there for several moments before he could muster the strength to look up, by that time the Warden was sitting on the table in front of him again. He took a deep breath, he could see it better now but it was takin' a while for it to seep into him. That look on the Warden's face, that wasn't meant for him. That tightly controlled black rage was focused on that man what took him all those years ago�the man that took that little tyke just two weeks ago. He had a feeling that if he asked him, even though it went against all them rules, the Lieutenant'd use that rage, and the deadly skills he had to destroy that bloke�tear him to bits, and do it gladly to. Made him feel a little bit stronger somehow, seeing that look. "What am I s'pose ta do Warden?"
"Did you tell anyone? Did you report him?"
The little man sat back with a laugh that carried no humor. "I tried, didn't I." And he told the rest of it. How he'd been caught and run back to the school as a truant. How he'd tried to tell the local Bobby why he couldn't go back there, why he shouldn't leave him there and go off on his rounds� but he didn't have the right words to tell it. He didn't know how to say it so they wouldn't blame him for it. And how when they'd finally listened to him they'd laughed at him for coming up with such a wild tale to explain why he'd run away, and then gotten mad at him for trying to make trouble. And how he didn't have the backbone, didn't have the courange to stick to his story when they stood round him and insisted he was lyin', that it was all just a kid's tall tale.
"Nobody listened. They b'lieved him see, not me� that's the way it always is. Grownups don't b'lieve kids �bout stuff like that. They can't. They can't let themselves know what kinda stuff happens." He leaned forward and stared in his commander's eyes. "You know what they decided would be good for me, Warden? They figgered I needed help to stop lyin', see� and they picked the vicar to straighten me out. Him all full a Christian forgiveness, an all, fer what I done." Goniff scrubbed at his face with his hands, remembering the terror of that one enforced session he�d suffered through. The old bugger had spent the whole time detailing what people'd think of him if he told it again, what it would do to his folks and his family if everyone knew what kind of a boy he was, that he was a boy could make a man, even a churchman, do something like that. Them with a dyin' son at home and all. How it'd all been his own fault� "What a laugh, right? The bloody vicar!"
"What'd you do?"
"Are you balmy? I ran. Just like he's done. I ran clean back to London. Didn't go right home though. I thought the folks'd be mad at me so I kinda hung around on the streets a while. That's how I got started pinching stuff regular, but I got caught, see. They hauled me home but Bertie was just gettin' ready to die and they didn't have any time for me. When the dust settled after he was dead and my old man finally realized what I'd been brought home for, that I'd brought the law home so's they had a chance a findin' out what he had in hand, he didn't half spare his belt on me� But after that he forgot it, and me for a time. And Mum was in such a state, well she didn't have the time to worry over me either."
"So you never told them what happened?"
"Blimey, a �course I never told em! Even if they'd a b'lieve'd me, what were they gonna do about it? That fella's respectable Warden, not no account like me. �Sides who'd want their Mum and Dad to know a thing like that?" The Warden was up and pacing again, like he did when he was figurin their way out of a jam over in Europe. Then it dawned on him, he'd cut him off when he was about to tell him�. "So what am I s'posed ta do, Warden?"
Garrison worried the inside of his lower lip with his teeth as he leaned against the window frame and stared out into the darkness, out towards the gardener's cottage hidden in the trees at the far edge of the lawn that stretched away behind the house.
"What's that kid's name again?"
"Edward. Edward Charles Weston." It'd taken almost three days just to get that out of him.
"You think Edward would tell the authorities what happened?"
"Blimey! You didn't listen, did ya? Warden you can't ask him to do that! He's just a little kid, and he's got no one to stand up for him, no one to back him up."
"He's got you." The Lieutenant settled a steady gaze on the man seated on the couch.
"Me? Bloody Hell! I'm a con!" Goniff looked at him in amazement. "They ain't gonna b'lieve me now any more'n they did way back then." For whatever bizarre reason of his own the Warden believed him, trusted him, had faith in him, even about this� but those other blokes? People that didn't know him, just looked at what he done and where he come from? "No. You can ask me to do it neither." He shook his head, openmouthed at the Warden's faith in things turnin' out right just because they oughta. "People like Eddie �n me, we don't count for nothin' where them bailiffs is concerned. Don't you get it? They'll just b'lieve that kindly old vicar again and Eddie'll get tagged a liar just like I did. Blimey! They'll prob'ly shove him right back into the old bugger's waiting arms, for correction of his evil ways, just like they tried to do with me."
"And where will he run when he takes off like you did Goniff? At least you had a home to go back to, parents to take care of you�He doesn't have that." Garrison studied Goniff for a moment before moving back to stand behind him again. Maybe it was too much to ask, and he didn't honestly know what he'd do, put in the same situation. Reaching out he laid his hand on the man's shoulder and waited as he tensed and then relaxed under his touch. "Goniff it's your decision. I'll go along with anything you choose to do. And we can get Edward out of there somehow, without anyone knowing the real reason why. But I want you to think about something." He just needed to put it into words, the little man was already thinking about it. "You two, together, can put a stop to this guy. You don't really believe that he's only done this twice, or that he won't do it again�" Goniff twisted away from him and he let him go. "We could start some rumors, leave an anonymous tip with the police. That might get an investigation started. But it would take time, and it would give that man time to get himself transferred away from here where no one would know what happened."
Goniff grabbed his elbows and pulled his arms down tight across his belly. He sat there, locked inside himself for a minute before giving a shudder and pushing up onto his feet. He kept his back to the Warden, he didn't want to see his eyes, didn't want him lookin' at him. It was too much to ask a bloke� He'd been able to hide all these years, and to ask him to stand up and tell it� To pit himself against somebody so respectable? He couldn't do it. He didn't have the courage to do it.
Garrison watched him struggle and kept his mouth firmly shut. It was Goniff's decision. They could get Edward out of here and into care with someone else, Mrs. Reid could find him a place. They could even get an investigation started on the minister's background, get someone to check with people in his past postings� He could tear the man's head off and hand it to him� but that wouldn't help Goniff. He watched the little man start for the door. "Where are you going, Goniff?"
The cockney burglar stopped in the doorway, grabbed the frame hard enough Garrison could see his knuckles blanch from across the room. "I ain't gonna do it Warden� I'm gonna keep me secrets just like I done all along. And I'm gonna tell Eddie to do the same. Wouldn't no one believe us even if we was to go to 'em together. You�d have ta bring a hundred like us to go up against somebody like him." He leaned his forehead against the wooden frame for a moment. "I'm sorry. I know you wanted me to do it� but I just can't, I ain't brave enough for it. If that changes things, if that means I can't be part a the group no more� Well I guess I'll understand, and I'll be sorry I ever told ya." Dropping his hand he straightened his shoulders as he moved out into the hall. "Now I'm gonna go out and see if I can talk Eddie into comin' in here where it's warm. Ain't no use in him hiding out there, now you know he's here."
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Things was different from when he was a brat. They didn't make Eddie come into a room and face all the judges and hear the vicar call him a poor, disadvantaged idiot who didn't know what he was sayin', didn't know the difference between tellin' the truth and lyin' through his teeth to get out from under bein' punished for somethin' he done. But they made him sit there and get stared at. Let the vicar stare at him and wonder who he was and what he was doin' there. He was s'posed to be big enough to take it. Well, he might be big enough on the outside, but he didn't feel big enough on the inside� not near big enough.
They read off the story Eddie'd told the doctor that looked him over. That was different too, there hadn't been no doctor for him. Just the bunch a Bobby's that worked in the village and the local justice a the peace staring down on him as they stood round him in a circle. And the damn vicar� he was there a �course, explainin' to 'em all how a boy could do that sort a thing to hisself, and then get all scared at what he done and want ta blame it all on someone else.
Soon as the story was all read out proper they turned to the vicar and asked him if he had anything to say to it. He said just what he done the last time. And he took a long time to say it too. He went on and on about what a sad case Eddie was, like he was some kind a dim witted charity kid. He told about how the little tyke couldn't help himself, coming from a background like his. There was studies, he said, proved that was all they could expect out of a little kid with an upbringing like he'd had�and how they just had to help him understand how it was wrong to do such things, tell such stories. Then he reminded them about Eddie's parents gettin' killed, and laid it all to the shock a bein' on his own at so young an age. The men sitting on the bench were getting twisted �round his little finger, Goniff could see it. And then he had the nerve to tell �em all he'd dealt with boys who'd had the problem before and got �em all straightened out.
There wasn't gonna be no point in him openin' his mouth� they'd never listen to some one like him.
His heart stopped when the magistrate called him by name and asked the question. The blood froze in his veins and all his muscles seized up so's he couldn't move. Only his head, he could turn his head and he did, enough to look at the Warden. He sat there not moving, just staring at his commander's face as the fella in charge asked again.
The Warden gave that little nod, just like he done when he was facin' that firing squad. It felt just like that time too. He made the muscles in his neck turn his head back and looked at that man sitting there waiting for him to say something without really seein� him. His mouth was dry, he could hear his own heart pounding in his ears. Grabbing the edge a the table he insisted on making his body work again. He bit down hard on the back of his tongue and got some spit working in his mouth. He pushed on the table with his hands, forced his knees to straighten and found himself standing there, center of attention.
"So, sir, do you have anything pertinent to add, or not?"
His knees shook at that, almost dropped him back in his seat but he could feel the others ranged behind him, propping him up with their anger. His mouth started to dry out again. Goniff cleared his throat and took a deep shuddering breath. "Yes sir, I b'lieve I do."
And he told it. For only the third time in his whole life he told it, all of it.
And they sat there..., and they listened.
