It wasn’t supposed to be serious. We’d stayed late at the block party and had a few too many drinks. It was all a joke. But then on Monday, Barty rang me up and said, “So, we set the meeting place for the gym at the YMCA tomorrow around six. Bring Shannon if you want. I’m not bringing Denise, but John said he’s told Martha and she wants in.”
Such an innocent sounding phrase. She wants in. I didn’t want to bring Shannon, but I supposed she’d hear about it one way or another and it only made sense to include her from the beginning.
And that was how the six of us ended up around a card table in the gym the next night discussing murder.
“Jim, what’re your thoughts?” Levi said and shuffled a deck of cards.
I wasn’t sure how I’d ended up as the unofficial leader of this gathering, but everyone was looking to me to start the conversation.
“Well… we thought it would be best if Norman wasn’t around anymore.” I didn’t like the idea of saying died. Or got killed. Or whatever else they were thinking. Without the beers in my belly, I didn’t have the same courage.
“Right.” Martha rested her elbows on the little card table and steepled her fingertips. “Because of the news from Little Bridge?”
I nodded.
“Damn right,” Barty said. “You gonna deal those cards, Levi? Or just keep fiddlin’ with ‘em?”
Levi grinned sheepishly and then tossed the cards around the table. “Guess we’ll play some black jack?”
“Are we betting?” Shannon asked. Her face was a little pale, but I knew she wasn’t getting squeamish about the conversation. She just hated gambling.
“Nah. Just to keep our hands busy.”
“Anyway,” I said and took a glance at my cards. “Norman moved here six months ago. He’s been a nice enough fella, but he keeps to himself. Then an anonymous letter is published in the daily rag about him.”
Martha dug through her shoulder bag and revealed a copy of the newspaper. “I’ve got it here. Do you want me to read it out loud?”
I saw the mug shot of Norman on the cover and the headline was half-covered by Martha’s hand. But I knew it said, “Dark Past of Newest Resident Revealed.” Very click-bait. And of course, everyone had picked up a copy.
“Well, maybe just the highlights.” I didn’t know if I could stomach hearing every word of that article again. It had been extremely detailed.
“Okay.” Martha opened the paper and cleared her throat. She scanned the several paragraphs and began to read off random lines. “Convicted of multiple crimes before the age of eighteen. Suspected but never charged in the rape of a classmate — name omitted for her protection. But then it gets good… let’s see…. Spent three years in prison for suspected foul play with students at the local high school where he was a janitor. There wasn’t enough evidence so he was convicted on other lesser charges. He was released early on parole, but ended up back in prison… a few years later when he was arrested for armed robbery. And then when he was released… he moved here. There were a lot of other things he was suspected of, but nothing ever stuck. Mind you, no one else was ever charged for those crimes, so he wasn’t dismissed as a suspect either. That’s why he wasn’t allowed to move very far away. They have to keep tabs on him.” At some point, Martha had stopped reading from the paper and was just listing off the gossip she’d heard about Norman.
The cards lay forgotten on the table. Barty brought a flask out from the inside pocket of his jacket and took a long slug from it. He held it out to me. My first instinct was to pass on it, but I knew I would need some help to get through the rest of this conversation. We’d made our decision and needed to stick to our guns.
“And because the authorities can’t get a case against him, we need to take things into our own hands,” Levi said.
“Right.” I said and took a generous swallow from the flask. “So, let’s discuss the details.”