"Mr. Joseph, you're a very good parent," said Holly.
Elliot Joseph stared at her, blinking in amazement. "I'm a what? I'm a fuckingwhat?I'm a fuckingoutstandingparent. You tell me-youtellme-what father would do for his boy what I did?"
"I'm not sure, Mr. Joseph."
"Oh, no? I'll tell you what any other father would have done. He would have let the devil go on growing inside of him, until it took over hisbodyand hissouland eaten him alive! Any other father would have let him go on having nightmares for the rest of his- Jesus! Do you know whatnightmareshe was having?"
He staggered, almost losing his balance, and suddenly focused his eyes on Daniel as if he didn't know who the boy was.
"That's-that'sDaniel! Jesus, that's my boy. What have you done to him? What the fuck have you done to him?"
"He's had an accident, Mr. Joseph. I've called the paramedics and they're on their way to help him."
"Anaccident?"Elliot Joseph pushed aside one of the armchairs and dropped onto his knees on the floor. Holly could smell the whiskey on him, and it made her eyes water. He lifted Daniel's torso and shook him. "Daniel!Daniel!Listen to me, boy, this is your dad! Daniel, you listen up, now!"
"Mr. Joseph, he's very badly hurt. I know that you don't want to make his injuries any worse."
But Elliot Joseph shook Daniel even harder. "Daniel, goddamnit! What's the matter with you? Are you trying to make me look like some kind of asshole?"
"He's hurt, Mr. Joseph. He has broken bones."
"Hurt?He'snot hurt! Now, that devil, oh, yes! That devil got hurt okay! I beat the devil out of him! I beat it out! I saw it with my own eyes! It was black! It was like a black shadow! I saw it! I beat it out of him! I saved him! Daniel! Daniel, if you don't fucking open your eyes and look at me I'm going to beat the living shit out of you, boy, the same way I beat the living shit out of your devil! Open your fucking eyes!"
"He can't hear you, Mr. Joseph. Please leave him alone."
Elliot Joseph abruptly let Daniel drop back onto the floor. He gripped the edge of the armchair, missed it, gripped it again, and clambered onto his feet.
"He can't hear me? He can'thearme? Is that what you've fucking done to him? You've infected him! You've made him deaf, just like you, you bitch!"
He took one unsteady step closer, and then another. This was one time when Holly really wished she could hear, because she wanted to hear sirens. Elliot Joseph wasn't tall but he had a huge bony head, with angular cheekbones and widely spaced eyes and a flat widespread nose. His upper body was massive, like a buffalo's, even though his legs were so short. Mickey Slim had once described him as a "walking definition of threatening behavior."
"If anything happens to my boy I'm warning you. I'll tear your fucking head off, you bitch, and I'll piss down your neck."
"Mr. Joseph, something has already happened to him. Something very serious. I can't even tell if he's still alive."
Elliot Joseph licked his lips. His eyes were wandering, as if he were trying to remember something important. Then he swayed forward even closer and whispered, "Do you know who I am?"
There was a clocksprung quality in the way he said it that made Holly feel seriously unnerved. She had come across it so many times before: the quiet, illogical, unanswerable questions, followed by a gradual escalation into total rage. It was the way that violent men justified what they wanted to do.I'm trying to be reasonable here, you bitch, I'm trying to be calm, and all you can do is thwart me and provoke me. What else can I do but hit you?
Even more softly now. "I said, do you know who the fuck I am?"
Holly nodded but didn't reply. Whatever she said, it was going to be wrong.
"I am Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt. That's my real name. That's my tribal name. Do you know what that means, Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt?"
Holly shook her head.
"You should. It's one of the greatest fucking names in Nimipu history. It means Thunder Rolling Down From The Mountains, that's what it means. And I was given that name. I wasgiventhat name because I am a direct descendant of Chief Joseph, of the Wallowas, who was the greatest fucking-"
He stopped and frowned at her. "You don't give a shit about any of this, do you? You don't give a rat's ass."
"I'm worried about Daniel, Mr. Joseph, as I'm sure you are."
"You come here trying to break up my family you come here bad-mouthing me. You come here making my boy deaf. You deaf bitch."
"Mr. Joseph, just take it easy. The paramedics won't be long now."
"You deaf bitch, look what you did to my boy! Look what you did to my house! That's all you ever wanted- wasn't it?-to break up my family and break up my house. Wasn't it?Wasn't it?"
Without any warning, he swung his arm and slapped her across the side of the head. Holly saw scarlet and her head sang, and she stumbled back against one of the upturned armchairs. Elliot Joseph came for her again, seizing the lapels of her raincoat and wrenching her from side to side.
"You deaf bitch! You deaf bitch! If you've killed my boy-"
He hurled her backward. She fell against the half-collapsed curtain pole and hit her hip against the windowsill. Elliot Joseph pitched the armchair out of the way and came for her, and she could tell from the way that his mouth was stretched open that he was screaming a high-pitched scream like a woman, as if he wanted to scream for her.
He tried to pull her up to her feet, but she deliberately allowed her knees to buckle, and he was so drunk that he toppled over her into the window bay. He managed to clamber up again and strike her on top of the head with his fist, but then he abruptly spun around and jumped away from her with all the agility of a cat.
He hadn't jumped, of course. He was far too drunk to jump. He had been bodily heaved away by Mickey Slim and another officer in uniform. Two more officers were already coming in through the door, followed by three paramedics.
Holly climbed to her feet. She was trembling and gulping for air. "Please-the boy. His name's Daniel. I don't even know if he's still breathing. His mother's in the kitchen Mary. She's in a real bad way, too."
"Hey, hey, steady," said Mickey, putting his arm around her. His black raincoat was glittering with rain.
"All his bones are broken," said Holly. "Oh God. He's such a sweet little boy. He never did anything to anybody."
"I told you!"raged Elliot Joseph."Iexplainedit to you! He had that devil in him! He had that devil in him and I had to beat it out of him!"
"Will you kindly shut the fuck up?" snapped Mickey. Then he looked down at Daniel and asked the paramedic, "How is he? Is he still alive?"