A Sudden Silence by Eve Bunting Page B

stood at the back. It wasn't rounded. There was nothing round and white.
    "Did you take something off of here? A decal? A sticker?"
    He looked puzzled. "No, man! Nothing."
    I bent down to look at the tires. They were almost bald. No way could these have left those deep marked tracks. The car was the wrong color. The wrong size. The wrong shape. It was the wrong car.
    "Maybe you borrowed a customers car to go drinking at the Marina."
    "Uh-uh. Two other guys work with me. I couldn't get away with that. Besides, I remember driving there. In my own car. Getting out the bottle. I keep one under a blanket."
    "Great," I said. "Good going."
    He fumbled with his keys, carefully not looking at me.
    "It wasn't you," I said.
    "It wasn't?" His face was slack, the jaw hanging open. "You know that for sure? I mean, God!" The eyes had no understanding.
    "I'm telling you, it wasn't you," I said again.
    He leaned his arms on the hood and bent across them, head down. His shoulders heaved.
    "Not this time, you punk," I said, and turned away before I'd give in to the temptation to smash his head down on the hard metal. "You'd better get help, buddy," I said over my shoulder. "You're death waiting to happen."
    In the window of the Honda I saw my distorted reflection, my cold, angry-eyed face. Maybe I needed help myself.

11
    I TOOK C HLOE HOME.
    "So that's it," I told her when I finished my report about Plum. "Zilch."
    "How can you be so sure?"
    "I'm sure. Now I've got nothing ... except..." I didn't want to, couldn't bear to explain about the shoe, so I rushed on, "And whatever stupid thing is buried in my head and won't come out."
    I heard her shift a little in the seat. "Don't lose hope, Jesse."
    I'd never liked my name, Jesse. When I was little I thought it sounded like a girl. But I liked it now, the way she said it.
    "Yeah, well. And there's still Sowbug."
    We drove in silence.
    "It's weird, Chloe," I said. "I'm beginning to feel kind of sorry for Plum. He cried. I was so mad at the time ... but now, knowing he didn't do it..."
    "Don't feel sorry for him," Chloe said fiercely. "He could stop with this drinking and driving. There are places that his family and friends have probably been begging him to go to get help. He doesn't want to, that's all. Don't give me this poor-guy stuff. Bry's dead. You wouldn't be so cool about that creep if he had killed Bry."
    "You're right," I said.
    "You bet I'm right. The creep!"
    My father keeps a box of Kleenex in back; I heard the soft rusde as she pulled one out. In the mirror I saw her rub her eyes then rest her head against the back of the seat. "I hate liquor." She sounded tired all of a sudden. "I swear, I hate it more than anything. It destroys and destroys."
    "Don't think about it anymore now," I said quietly. "Try to rest. I'm sorry you had to wait for me so long."
    "Don't worry. A meter man came, though. I showed him my foot and told him there was nowhere for you to park and that I needed pain pills, which was certainly no lie."
    "Chloe! I shouldn't have left you. I'll find a drugstore right now and get..."
    "Uh-uh. I just want to be home."
    I squirmed through the traffic, making as much safe time as I could. At her house I left her in the car while I ran up and rang the bell. It was her mother who opened the door. She was all dressed up in something silvery and she smiled her tight carefiil smile and said, "Hello, there," then looked past me. "Is that Chloe? Oh, no! What happened?"
    "She hurt her foot but we've been to the emergency room and it's OK." I was having a horrible flash of déjà vu. Me, coming to another door like this, the cops with me, and Dad asking, "What's wrong? Where's Bry? Has something happened to him?"
    Chloe's mother was running down the steps to the driveway, calling back, "Harry. Come quickly. Chloe's hurt," and I was running after her, but more slowly, my mind filled with the memory of my father's face that awful night.
    "Don't get crazy, Mom." Chloe stood, holding