‘Only seven here,’ I said.
‘Yeah,’ Connerly said, nodding. ‘That’s where the bullet came from, all right.’
‘Anything else there, Ed?’ I turned to where Ed squatted on the floor.
‘Just these loose newspaper clippings. Nothing really... hey!’
‘What’ve you got?’
‘That’s strange as hell,’ Ed said.
‘What? What’s so strange?’
He got to his feet and walked over to me, holding a clipping in his big hand. ‘Take a look at this, Art.’
The clipping was scissored from one of the tabloids. It was simply the story of a boy and a girl who’d been playing in their back yard. Playing with a Colt .45 that was a war souvenir. The .45 had gone off, blowing half the girl’s head away. There was a picture of the boy in tears, and a story of the fatal accident.
‘Some coincidence, huh, Art?’
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Some coincidence.’
I put the box of clips back on the shelf. ‘I think I’d better talk to the kid now,’ I said.
We left the attic, and Connerly whispered something about the way fate sometimes works. He called Mrs. Owens, and she came up to lead me to the boy’s room on the second floor of the house.
She rapped on the door and softly called, ‘Jeffrey?’
I could hear sobbing beyond the door, and then a muffled, ‘Yes?’
‘Some gentlemen would like to talk to you,’ she said.
The sobbing stopped, and I heard the sound of bare feet padding to the door. The door opened and Jeffrey stood there, drying his face. He was thinner than the photograph had shown him, with bright brown eyes and narrow lips. His hair hung over his forehead in unruly strands, and there were streaks under his eyes and down his cheeks.
‘You’re policemen, aren’t you?’ he said.
‘Yes, son.’
‘We just want to ask a few questions,’ Ed said.
‘Come in.’
We walked into the room. There were two beds in it, one on either side of the large window. There was one dresser, and I imagined the two boys shared this. Toys were packed neatly in a carton on one side of the room. A high school pennant, and several college pennants decorated the walls, and a model airplane hung from the ceiling.
Mrs. Owens started into the room and Ed said gently, ‘If we can talk to him alone...’
Her hand went to her mouth, and she said, ‘Oh. Oh, all right.’
Jeffrey walked to his bed and sat on it, one leg tucked under him. He stared out of the window, not looking at us.
‘Want to tell us how it happened, son?’
‘It was an accident,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to do it, honest.’
‘We know,’ Ed said. ‘We just want to know how it happened.’
‘Well, we were upstairs playing with the trains, and then we got sort of tired. We started kidding around, and then I found Perry’s... that’s my other brother, who was killed in the war... I found Perry’s Luger and we started foolin’ around with that.’
‘Is that the first time you saw the gun, son?’
‘No, no.’ He turned to look me full in the face. ‘Perry sent it home a long time ago. Before he was killed, even. One of his buddies brought it to us.’
‘Uh-huh. Go on, son.’
‘Well, then we found the bullets in the box. I...’
‘You didn’t know the bullets were there before this?’
‘No.’ Again, Jeffrey stared at me. ‘No, we just found them today.’
‘Did you know where the gun was?’
‘Well... yes.’
‘You said you found it, though. You didn’t mean that, did you, son?’
‘Well, I knew it was in the attic someplace because that’s where Mom put it. I didn’t know where until I found it today.’
‘Oh, I see. Go on, please.’ Ed looked at me curiously, and then returned his interest to the boy.
‘We found the bullets, and I took one from one of the magazines, just to fool around. I stuck it in the gun and then all at once the gun went off and... and... Ronnie... Ronnie...”
The kid turned his face away, then threw himself onto the pillow.
‘I didn’t mean to do it. Honest, honest. The gun just went off. I didn’t know it would go off. It just did. I loved my brother. I didn’t want it to happen. I didn’t!’
‘Sure, son,’ I said. I walked to the bed and sat down beside him. ‘You liked your brother a lot. I know. I have a brother, too.’
Ed gave me another curious look, but I continued to pat the kid’s shoulder.
‘Yes,’ Jeffrey said, ‘I did like him. I liked Perry, too, and he was killed. And now... now this. Now there’s just me and Mom. They’re all gone. Dad, and Perry, and... and... Ronnie. Now we’re all alone.’ He started bawling again. ‘It’s my fault... If I hadn’t wanted to play with that old gun...’
‘It’s not your fault,’ I said. ‘Accidents happen. They happen all the time. No one could possibly blame you for it.’
His tears ebbed slowly, and he finally sat up again. ‘You know it’s not my fault, don’t you?’ he asked solemnly.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘We know.’
He tried to smile, but failed. ‘It was just an accident,’ he repeated.
‘Sure,’ I said. I picked myself off the bed and said, ‘Let’s go, Ed. Nothing more for us here.’
At the door, I turned to look at Jeffrey once more. He seemed immensely relieved, and he smiled when I winked at him. The smile was still on his mouth and in his eyes when we left him.
It was cold in the Merc, even with the heater going.
We drove in silence for a long time, and finally Ed asked, ‘All right, what was all that business about?’
‘What business?’
‘First of all, that brother routine. You know damn well you’re a lousy, spoiled only child.’
‘Sure,’ I said. ‘I wanted to hear the kid tell me how much he loved his brothers.’
‘That’s another thing. Why the hell did you cross-examine the kid? Jesus, he had enough trouble without your...’
‘I was just wondering about a few things,’ I said. ‘That’s all.’
‘What kind of things?’
‘Well, the clipping about the little boy who accidentally killed that girl, for one. Now why do you suppose any kid would save a clipping like that?’
‘Hell,’ Ed said, ‘you know how kids are. It probably caught his fancy, that’s all.’
‘Probably. Maybe the Luger magazines caught his fancy, too.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The kid said he found those magazines for the first time today. He said he took a cartridge from one of the clips and stuck it into the gun. Tell me how he managed to handle a dust-covered magazine without smearing any of the dust?’
‘Well, maybe he...’
“He didn’t, that’s the answer. He took that bullet from the clip a long time ago, Ed. Long enough ago for the box and the magazine to acquire a new coat of dust. This was no spur-of-the-minute job. No, sir, not at all.’
‘Hey,’ Ed said suddenly. ‘What the hell are you trying to say? You mean the kid did this on purpose? You mean he actually, killed his brother? Murdered him?’
‘Just him and Mom now, Ed. Just the two of them. No more Dad, no more big brother, and now no more little brother.’ I shook my head, and stared at my own breath as it clouded the windshield.
‘But just take it to a judge,’ I added. ‘Just take the whole fantastic thing to a judge and see how fast he kicks you out of court.’
Ed glanced at me quickly, and then turned his eyes back to the road.
‘We’ll have to watch that kid,’ I said, ‘Maybe get him psychiatric care. I hate to think what would happen if he suddenly builds up a dislike for his mother.’