Greg Iles - Turning Angel

”Go on,“ he says out of the darkness. ”Get her home. Take Logan’s car. Then swallow one more of those magic pills and do what you set out to do in the beginning.“

”What?“

”Get your buddy out of jail.“

”Thanks, Kelly. For everything.“

”Glad to do it.“

As I lead Mia through the kudzu, Kelly’s voice floats after me.

”Hey, Penn?“

”Yeah?“

”Before those cops get here?“

”Yeah?“

”This guy could make it, or he could be a statistic.“

I stop in my tracks. The flashlights are getting closer.

”You got an opinion?“ Kelly calls.

Mia squeezes my wrist. ”You saw what he did to Kate,“ she says. ”Will he even go to jail?“

”He will. Thanks to you finding that cell phone.“

”Penn?“ Kelly asks again.

I turn back toward the bayou. ”I guess he makes it.“

At first I hear nothing. Then Kelly says, ”No problem. Just wanted to give you the option.“

”I appreciate it. I’ll see you later.“

”Yeah.“

With that I take Mia’s hand and climb carefully out of the darkness.

Eight hours after Marko was admitted to the hospital, I received the most surprising call of my life. Police Chief Don Logan informed me that Marko Bakic wanted to hire me as his defense attorney. I told Logan that since I had witnessed some of Marko’s illegal acts, I couldn’t act as his legal counsel. Logan said he’d told Marko this, but that the boy wanted to talk to me anyway.

All I had to do was take the elevator up from the first floor, where the ICU was, to the fourth, where patients recovered from surgery. Two cops guarded the door of Marko’s private room. The boy lay in his bed with steel cuffs on his wrists and shackles on his legs. Another chain connected the leg irons to the hospital bed.

Marko laughed when I shuffled into the room.

”Hello, Mr. Cage. You all right?“

I nodded.

”I didn’t know that was you in the stream. I just found out this morning.“

”Why am I here, Marko?“

”I want you to be my lawyer.“

”I can’t do that.“

”That’s what they told me.“

”So why am I here?“

He smiled enthusiastically. ”I think maybe after you hear my story, you decide to be my lawyer after all.“

”It’s not a matter of want. I can’t legally do it. But even if I could represent you, I wouldn’t.“

A look of mock sadness. ”You don’t like me?“

”No.“

”You could have shot me in the stream. But you didn’t.“

”I wanted to make sure you’d be convicted for Kate’s murder.“

”I understand that. But you shouldn’t hate me, man. You never walked in my shoes. You don’t know how I got here.“

”I know you had a tough childhood. So did a lot of other people. They didn’t do the things you’ve done.“

This amused him greatly. ”Not many people had childhood like mine.“

That’s why I’m here, I realized. He wants me to understand him. He wants me to hear his story and tell him he’s not such a bad guy after all. I’ve known a lot of criminals like that. Marko is one of those guys who, no matter what he might do, will never believe it was his fault. It would serve no purpose to hear him out, other than to gratify my curiosity about Kate’s last minutes. But that was reason enough.

”Say what you want to say,“ I told him.

”I need a cigarette.“

”I need a Ferrari.“

Marko burst out laughing. ”That’s good! I like that.“

I looked at my watch. ”You’ve got five minutes.“

”What do you think they’re going to do to me?“

”Not what you deserve, probably.“

”What do I deserve?“

”The Big Sleep.“

”What?“

”It’s a book.“

”I don’t think they’re going to do anything,“ he said, like a gambler assessing the odds of a meaningless game. ”Not after they hear my story. This is America, man. I’ve seen the talk shows. They’re going to make me a cause.“

He’s already got it planned out, I thought. He sees himself on the interview circuit. ”You going to do Larry King or Oprah first?“

”Yeah!“ he cried, laughing even harder. ”That’s it! Larry King Live ! CNN. People see me even in Croatia!“

”The meter’s running, Marko.“

”Yeah, I know. Okay. I come from Srebece, yeah? It’s a little village not far from Dubrovnik. When I was in Srebece, I was nine years old. I had a family. Sister, brother, mama, papa. Everybody happy. Then the Serbs came. It wasn’t like CNN, okay? They came at night and beat down the doors. All the houses, everybody’s doors smashed. The soldiers did what they wanted, took what they wanted. Everything. Money, furniture, cars, girls.“

Marko sniffed and looked around the hospital room. He wasn’t laughing anymore. ”When they came to our house, we were eating supper. Purple cabbage, I still remember it. When Papa got up from the table, they hit him with the butt of a rifle. Five soldiers, we had. Two older guys, three kids. All with Kalashnikovs. They beat my father to the floor. After him, my brother, Karol. Karol was sixteen. Then they took my mother and sister to the bedrooms. Three guys. Papa tried to stop them, so the oldest guy shot him in the stomach. Papa lay on the floor, holding his guts in while Mama and Katrina screamed from the back.“

”Where were you?“

”One of the soldiers held me. When he let go to light a cigarette, I tried to run to Mama. That’s when the old guy stuck his bayonet into my stomach. I didn’t even feel it. It was like somebody knocked the wind out of me. Like a football hit me hard in the gut.“

Marko began jangling his handcuffs. ”The raping went on for a long time. Mama and Katrina never stopped screaming. They fought the bastards. Finally the soldiers brought them back. No clothes, blood all over them. Then the old guy said he wants a show. He tells my brother to screw my sister. You believe that? Karol says no, he won’t do it. The guy says, ‘Do it or I kill your mother, you stinking Croat.’ Now I understand he meant to kill us all anyway, but then…I was a stupid kid. The Serbs did this all over the place, man. Especially to the Muslims.“

”Like the Chinese in Tibet.“

”What?“

”When the Chinese army invaded Tibet, they forced the Buddhist monks to kill their fellow monks. Because they’re nonviolent. The Chinese made them break their most sacred vow.“

Marko nods soberly. ”That’s it. Same thing. So this is happening, yeah? Mama tells Katrina to help Karol do sex to her, do anything they say. And Karol is trying. He’s crying and doing this thing to my sister. My sister was a virgin, man. You understand this? My brother is fucking my sister on the couch. Papa is sobbing and screaming that the Serbs are animals, so they shoot him again to shut him up.“

”Did they kill him?“

Marko nods. ”Completely. So Mama goes crazy. Her life is over, she’s watching this obscenity, and she sits down on the floor and stares at the wall like an insane person. For a second I think maybe it’s going to be okay. Even though I’m bleeding all over the place, right? Then I hear a commotion outside, and about ten soldiers run through the door. They’re drunk, covered with blood. They go crazy, right there. They’re screaming at the first guys to kill us, that we’re dogs like the Muslims. Then one of them takes out a knife, kneels down, and cuts off Papa’s head.“

Marko made a slashing motion with the flat of his hand. The cuffs rattled.

”He holds out Papa’s head to my mother and orders her to nurse it. Put her breast in its mouth, yeah? She ignores the guy, so he shoots her. It was a blessing, believe me. Then they force Katrina to take Papa’s head. She’s crying, but she does what they say. They all laugh, and then someone says it’s time to get back to the trucks. The old guy looks at Karol, says, ‘Good-bye, dog,’ and shoots him in the chest. Then they grab Katrina and drag her outside. That’s the last time I ever saw her.“