The Barbed-Wire Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

the one who did the nine months. He testified Fallon wasn’t there that night and didn’t know anything about what had happened.”
    “
Was
Fallon there?”
    “Depends who you ask. The bouncer who turned said it was Fallon told them to bring the kid in the back, then stood by while they beat him. But no other witnesses could put him there and the other four all stuck to their stories. Eventually there was no way they could prove anything. Fallon said he was home that entire day and night, had a birthday party for his daughter in the afternoon and never left the house after that. If he was at the club when the kid died, he covered his tracks pretty well.”
    Bobby picked up the joint, pinched it out.
    “When does the good news start?” he said.
    “I just wanted to let you know who you were dealing with here. But the point is, Fallon doesn’t need any more trouble. If he can find a way to work this out without any, I’m sure he’ll take it. That’s why you should give him some money as soon as possible. A preemptive strike.”
    Bobby picked a fleck of cigarette paper from his lip.
    “I guess in the back of my mind I was thinking there might be some other solution,” he said.
    Harry shook his head. “Like I said, I think you’re facing some limited options here.”
    They heard footsteps outside. Janine stepped into the light wash from the shed.
    “Am I invading the boys’ club meeting out here?”
    “No,” Bobby said. “It’s only when we’re in the tree house that you can’t come in.”
    She moved to stand beside him.
    “It reeks in here,” she said. “I should have guessed.”
    “Just kicking,” Bobby said.
    She looked at Harry. “So what do you think about this situation?”
    “Like I was just telling Bobby, it might not be as bad as it seems.”
    “Thank God if that’s true,” she said.
    “I have some ideas. A couple things to look into. We’ll work this out.”
    She looked at Bobby. “See? What did I tell you?”
    He smiled at her. Harry slapped him lightly on the shoulder.
    “I have to get going,” he said. “There’s someplace I need to be.”
    “Thanks for stopping by,” Bobby said.
    Harry hugged Janine again.
    “You should come by more often, Harry,” she said. “It’s no good, spending so much time alone.”
    “I’ll be around,” he said.
    He left them there in the light of the shed, walked out to the street. At the car, he turned to see them outlined in the doorway, talking low. He couldn’t hear their words.
    A soft breeze blew from the west, riffling the reeds, bringing with it the smells of the river. He started the Mustang, U-turned in the cul-de-sac. As he drove away, he looked back a final time at the house, its windows throwing squares of light onto the dark yard, and wondered why he felt so suddenly and completely alone.
    •  •  •
    On the way home, he stopped at a liquor store and bought a bottle of red wine. He opened it in the kitchen, got a glass from the cabinet, and went into the living room. He sat on the couch, poured wine into the glass, set the bottle on the coffee table.
    He drank, looked across the room at the empty fireplace and the bookcase beside it, feeling the pull. After the second glass, he got up and took the photo album down from the top shelf.
    He carried it back to the couch, filled the glass again. Months since he’d looked at it, but he knew each page by heart.
    First were childhood shots, color Polaroids, the hues already faded. Melissa had put these pages together. On the first was a photo of Harry on the day of his first Holy Communion, wearing a jacket and bow tie, standing between his father and mother in the living room of the old house. On the same page, Harry and Bobby at thirteen, wearing shirts and ties, shoulder to shoulder on the steps outside Star of the Sea Church after their Confirmation, squinting in the sun.
    He flipped the page. More shots from the old house. In one, Harry’s father stood behind him, hands on