Jim Shepard - Kiss of the Wolf

“I wanna talk, before we get to the diner,” Bruno said.

Todd rubbed his face with the flat of his hand and tried not to panic. “Won’t we be late for the game?

“Don’t worry about the game.”

Todd could hear the traffic high above them. He looked around. He could make out a streetlight opposite the car, but the light on its cross arm was smashed. “Is it safe here?” he asked.

They’d be all right, Bruno said. Nobody was going to touch this car.

Todd asked why not. They heard a noise. Two black kids paraded by, eyeing them. Bruno waited until they were past. Then he settled in his seat, facing Todd. He spoke slowly, like Todd was going to have trouble following. He said, “Here’s the deal. I need for you to talk to me about what happened the night you drove home from your confirmation party.”

Todd froze. He had four fingers curled around the door handle. His eyes were on the dashboard. The traffic way above his head made a threshing, regular sound.

“The night Tommy Monteleone was killed. I need for you to talk to me about what happened.”

Todd made a show of concentrating. He sat forward in his seat. He folded his hands between his thighs as if he were praying.

He looked straight out the windshield in front of him, terrified. He said, “We just drove home.”

It was completely quiet. The number changed on the digital clock. Bruno folded his arms, like he was going to try a different tack. “Let me explain something to you,” he said in a low voice. “What we’re involved with here is a serious thing. A guy was robbed, and he was killed. And I’m giving you an opportunity. What is your opportunity? Your opportunity is the opportunity to tell the truth. ”

Todd opened his mouth and Bruno held up one finger. “Don’t”—he paused—“tell me something if it’s not the truth. The truth is what we’re here for. Capiche? ”

Todd nodded. He was crying. “We just drove home,” he said.

“You can help me right some wrongs,” Bruno said. He held his index finger and thumb up together in the darkness in front of Todd’s face like he was holding a spice for Todd to sniff. “It’s not right to the guy who was robbed and killed. And it’s not right to the other guys who invested in him. You hear what I’m sayin’?”

“How do they know there was money?” Todd said.

“What’re you tellin’ me?” Bruno said. As he got angrier Todd got more scared. “You want to see the police records? You want to go down see the police records?”

Todd interlocked his fingers in his lap and sniffled. He leaned hard into the door.

“Then what is this ‘How do they know’ shit? What is that? Where’d you learn that? In school? ”

“I’m sorry,” Todd said. He rolled down his window and rolled it up again. “Is the diner near here that we’re goin’ to?”

Bruno licked his lower lip and scratched the razor stubble on his chin. Todd could hear it. “You don’t want to talk about it,” Bruno said. “This is a traumatic thing. This I understand.”

“We didn’t do anything,” Todd said miserably.

“You’re what,” Bruno said. “You’re eleven years old. What do you think’s gonna happen to you? It’s an accident, you’re driving along, bip, there he is. Nothin’ you could do. You got out, see if you could help, there was this envelope.”

“No,” Todd said.

“You tell me, or you tell the cops. You tell me, I tell the cops something else.”

Todd wiped his eyes with the heel of his hand.

“You know what I see when I look at Todd? I see a boy who wavers. A boy who vacillates. This is not the time for vacillation. I know you’re saying, Be safe. I’m saying, This is not safe. Do you understand? That’s the subject of our evening together: this is not safe.”

Todd swallowed. “We’re not goin’ to the game, are we?” he said.

“There is no game,” Bruno said. “Not for you.”

He turned off the dashboard lights. It was now totally dark.

Todd said, “We may a hit something.” He didn’t recognize his voice. “We stopped, we didn’t see anything.”

“You may a hit something,” Bruno said out of the darkness.

“We may a hit something.”

“What’re you telling me?” Bruno said. “You wouldn’t know? You see his head? You wanna go down the police station see pictures of his head? ”

Todd started crying again.

Bruno opened his car door and the overhead light went on. He didn’t get out. After the darkness Todd had to shield his eyes with his hand. “I hurt your feelings?” Bruno said. “Is that what I did? I hurt your feelings? Tell me again: you hit somebody by mistake. You tell me that again.”

“I told you,” Todd said.

“You tell me again.”

“We mighta hit somebody by mistake. We heard a noise. We thought maybe it was a dog or something. We got out, we didn’t see anybody.”

Bruno nodded. He kept nodding. The door was still open. “You don’t respect me,” he finally said.

“It’s the truth. ”

“Get out of the car.”

“Get out of the car?” Todd said.

Bruno leaned across him, scaring him, and opened his door. Todd was already leaning against it and almost fell out. “Get out of the fucking car. You don’t respect me, get outta the car. I don’t want anything more to do with you.”

“How’m I gonna get home?” Todd said.

“Fuck do I care? Walk. Fly,” Bruno said. “Take a fucking monorail. Get outta the car. Want me to get you outta the car?”

“Wait, wait,” Todd pleaded. “We did hit him. We did hit him. We were going along and my mother was driving too fast and we just hit him.”

Bruno leaned back across him and shut his door. Then he sat up and waited.

“We stopped and went back, but he was dead. She went back, I didn’t go back. We were gonna go for help. I thought she was gonna go for help. But then she didn’t, and the cops were there when we came back, and we went home and she called, but she didn’t get through.”

“She called the police?” Bruno asked.

“She didn’t get through. It was busy. I heard it,” Todd said. He was still crying.

“And this is the way it happened. Exactly.”

“And then we never called again.”

“And then somebody found an envelope. Your mother found an envelope.”

Todd shook his head.

“Don’t start with me. Your mother found a fuckin’ envelope,” Bruno said.

“We didn’t. I swear.”

“The money in that envelope was not all Tommy’s. You understand?”

Todd shook his head and hiccuped. He wiped his face.

Bruno sat forward. “Tommy and Joey Distefano and I were holding that money.” He put his hand out, to show what holding meant. “Holding that money, for some other people. Those people want their money. ”

“We didn’t find any,” Todd said.

Bruno flapped his lower lip with his index finger. It made a light, popping sound. “Your mother went over to Tommy after, but you didn’t?”

Todd nodded.

Bruno watched him a minute longer and then started the car. “Aw right, look,” he said. “We’ll go get somethin’ to eat. We’ll stay out. Far as your mother knows, we went to the game, you didn’t tell me anything. Understand?”

Todd nodded.

“Hey. Am I here all alone? You understand?”

Todd said he understood.

Bruno put the car in gear. They backed over something backing out. They drove to an Arby’s in a better part of town and Bruno made him order a big meal even though he wasn’t hungry. When the food came, Bruno went to the men’s room behind the bar, and when guys came and went and the connecting door swung open, Todd could see him talking to someone on the pay phone.