Callisto by Torsten Krol Page B

truth this time.
    â€œThen it was Dean,” she said, slumping down in a chair and staring at the tabletop. “Oh, God . . . he went and did it . . .He went crazy again and did it . . .” She looked over at me. “When he left, did he have any luggage with him, a suitcase or whatever?”
    â€œNo, just the clothes he was wearing, unless he had something in his pockets I couldn’t see.”
    â€œThat’d be right,” she says, kind of talking to herself. “He took the money and . . . then he came back to deliver the package. Oh, Jesus, Dean, why’d you have to go and fuck everything up?”
    She was mad at him. I stayed quiet, not knowing whichway to jump. Lorraine’s face had gone all pale and her mouth hung open a little, but it wasn’t unattractive like Dean’s had been.
    â€œDo you still want breakfast?”
    â€œNo, I do not want breakfast! Just shut up and let me think!”
    â€œOkay.”
    I respected her wishes even if my guts were growling by then, just sat quiet on the other side of the table looking at the wall or sometimes the ceiling. Lorraine, she’s away somewhere else, thinking hard about all this. Finally she looks me in the eye and says, “You’re going to have to help me, Odell.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œThere’s no way I can keep you out of this. You’ve been seen driving his truck around town and mowing his lawns, so you can’t just disappear. Believe me, that’s what I’d prefer, just have you vanish, but that can’t happen now. God almighty, Dean went and did it, went crazy all the way and killed her. She never should’ve let him stay here, the way he was . . .”
    Lorraine started in on what a crazy guy Dean was, all fucked up from an early age with no friends that stuck with him in school and a bad record with employment, which is why Aunt Bree set him up with his own small business that prospered okay but behind the smiling lawnmower man there’s someone else, a crazy person waiting to get out. He was into drugs, she said, all kinds, which didn’t help one bit with the crazy part, and him and Bree argued a lot because he wouldn’t turn to Jesus to save himself. Bree was very big on the Lord, all the time watching those late night TV shows, which I already figured out because of Chet and PreacherBob getting called in to settle the situation, only I couldn’t say that to Lorraine, of course. And on top of everything else she says Dean had a problem about “unresolved sexuality” which means he was kind of gay the way she explained it, only he didn’t want to admit it even to himself.
    â€œDid he make any moves on you?” she asked.
    â€œNo . . . except that first night when he woke me up saying he thought he heard someone prowling around, but there was nobody.”
    â€œThen what happened?”
    â€œWell . . . nothing, he went back to bed, only it was strange the way he woke me up, whispering in my ear. It gave me a fright if you want the honest truth. That’s no way to wake someone up unless you want them to get a big surprise, which I did.”
    â€œIt figures,” she said. “You’re exactly the kind of guy he was always falling for, big and tall, the exact opposite of Dean. Listen, don’t tell anyone about that part, okay? It’s got nothing to do with what happened here.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œPretty soon I’m going to call the Chief of Police. He’s a personal friend of mine so he’ll go easy, but I’m telling you, Odell, you’re going to come under suspicion because of the circumstances, you understand that, don’t you?”
    â€œWell, yeah . . .”
    â€œSo that means you’re going to have to trim the truth a little, are you following me?”
    â€œSure. How do you mean?”
    â€œI mean, as well as leaving out the part about Dean waking you up by whispering in your ear,