Silent Confession

Chapter 14

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As soon as Officer Fisk closed the front door, Ness leaned against the railing. His palms hit the cracked paint on the railing, sending crumbs falling to the porch floor. He had been debating whether to call the police and tell them that Jack was a suspect and why he was. If it were a police officer in another place, or in another era, or if Lydia were an ordinary girl like Shelly Brierley, Pam Sanders, or Karen Adler, she would not be affected by others. As a girl who is regarded as an outlier, the police may have focused on Jack just like Ness to investigate his disgraceful history: the teacher complained that he scribbled on the desk and insulted his classmates, and the brothers of other girls accused Jack of harassing them. sister. They would also take the information Nass provided—that Jack and his sister had been hanging out all spring—and come to a similar conclusion: a girl and a boy, alone for so long—so it’s not hard to understand why Nass’s feelings about Jack The reason for the angry glare. Like Nass, the police will find suspicious clues in Jack's words and deeds.

But they won't do that, which would only complicate simple facts, which, based on what teachers and students say, lead to very obvious conclusions: Lydia is quiet and withdrawn, lacks friends, and her grades have plummeted recently. Her family is also very strange, she has no friends and is incompatible with the environment. These glittering facts blinded the police's eyes and prevented them from seeing Jack in the shadows. They thought, how could a girl like her and a boy like him be together? What kind of girl does he want without? Therefore, there was no need for the police to follow Nath's ideas. What's more, those were just his imagination and there was no evidence. Officer Fisk often told his subordinates: "If you hear the sound of hooves, think of horses, not zebras." Therefore, they only thought that Ness was suffering from delusion and thought that zebras were everywhere. Now, facing the police, Nath found that there was no need to mention Jack at all; the police had already decided who was responsible.

Fisk also leaned against the railing. "We just wanted to talk to you, Nath, in private. Maybe you'll remember something. Sometimes siblings know things that parents don't, right?"

Nath wanted to agree, but he said nothing, just nodded. Today, he suddenly remembered that it was his graduation day.

"Does Lydia have a habit of sneaking out alone?" Officer Fisk asked, "Don't worry, you're not in trouble, you just need to tell us what you know." He kept saying "You just need to", as if to ask When someone does a small favor, they actually say, "Talk to us, tell us her secrets, tell us everything." Nath began to tremble. He was sure the police could tell he was shaking.

"Has she sneaked out at night before?" the young police officer asked. Nath suppressed himself and tried to remain still.

"No," he said hoarsely, "No, never."

The two policemen looked at each other, and then the younger one sat on the railing next to Ness, chatting like students around the locker room, as if they were friends. That's what he's for, Nath realizes, to play his best friend and trick him out. His leather shoes were polished so brightly that they reflected the sun, and two dazzling halos appeared on the tips of his big toes.

"Lidya, do you have a good relationship with your parents?" The policeman changed his position and the railings creaked.

You should probably join a few clubs, honey, and meet some new people. Do you want to take summer classes? It'll be fun.

"Our parents?" Nas said. He was surprised to find that his voice had completely changed. "Of course."

"Have you ever seen her parents beat her?"

"Hit her?" Lydia was a beautiful flower in her parents' eyes, the apple of their eyes, their darling, and the only one in her mother's heart forever. When Marilyn was reading, she was always looking for articles that Lydia might like to read. Every night when her father came home, Lydia was the first person he kissed. "My parents never hit Lydia, they loved her."

"Did she say she was beaten?"

The railing in front of him blurred, and all Nath could do was shake his head desperately, no, no, no.

"Did she seem to be in a bad mood the night before she disappeared?"

Nath tried to remember. That night, he planned to talk to his sister about college: the red brick building shaded by green trees was so enviable. He stood up straight for the first time in his life. From that perspective, the whole world became bigger, more open, and more beautiful. bright. However, she remained quiet during dinner and returned to her room after dinner. He thought she was tired and thought: I'll tell her tomorrow.

Suddenly, Nath started crying, startling himself. Wet tears flowed down his nose and got into the collar of his shirt.

Both policemen turned away. Officer Fisk closed his notebook and took a handkerchief from his pocket. "Take it," he said, handed it to Nath, gave him a firm squeeze on the shoulder, and then the two of them left.

In the house, Marilyn said to James: "It seems that now I have to ask for your permission to speak and sing with you?"

"That's not what I meant." James put his elbows on the table and held his forehead with his hands. "You can't make random suspicions. It's unreasonable to accuse the police."

"Who made the accusation? I was just asking a question." Marilyn threw the tea cup into the sink and turned on the faucet. Violent foam immediately surged into the sink. "Investigating every possibility? He didn't even mention the possibility of stranger kidnapping that I mentioned. Don’t even think about sex.”

"Because you acted hysterical. You just read a news report and thought that what happened to you is consistent with it. Don't think about it." James held his head and said, "Marilyn, don't think about it."

In the brief silence that followed, Hannah ducked under the table and curled up, hugging her knees to her chest. The tablecloth cast a half-moon shadow on the carpet. She felt that as long as she stayed here and didn't put her feet out, her parents would forget her existence. She had never heard her parents quarreling in the past. Sometimes they would get into arguments about who forgot to screw the toothpaste cap back on or who left the kitchen light off all night, but it always ended with the mother holding the father's hand or the father kissing the mother's face. Getting back together again. However, this time, everything is different.

"So, I'm just a hysterical housewife?" Marilyn's tone became colder and her voice became sharper, like a ruthless steel blade. Hannah under the table held her breath, "Someone has to be responsible. If I find out about this, I also have responsibilities, and I will take them." She wiped the counter with a dishcloth and threw it aside, "I thought you also wanted to find out the truth, but listen to what you said, 'Of course, officer. Thank you, officer. We have nothing more to ask for, officer.'" Foam in the pool gathered at the drain. "I know how to think for myself, you know, unlike some people, I won't kowtow to the police."

In her daze of rage, Marilyn paid no attention to her words. To James, his wife's words were like bullets hitting his chest. Kowtow - he seemed to see a group of coolies wearing pointed hats and big braids lying on the ground. Submissive and servile. He had always suspected that was how others saw him—Stanley Hewitt, the policemen, the cashier girl at the grocery store. But he didn't expect that this "other person" also included Marilyn.

He threw the crumpled napkin on the table and pushed his chair back, its legs dragging on the floor with a screeching sound. "I have class at ten o'clock," he said. Under the ruffles of the tablecloth, Hannah watched her father's sock-clad feet—each with a small hole in the heel—move toward the steps to the garage. The feet slipped into the shoes, there was a pause, and then the garage door rumbled open. The car started. Marilyn fished the teacup out of the sink and threw it onto the floor. Bits of porcelain covered the carpet. Hannah, who was motionless, heard her mother run upstairs and slam the bedroom door. Her father backed the car out of the driveway, and the car whined softly and roared away. Only then did everything quiet down again, and she dared to crawl out from under the tablecloth and pick up broken pieces of porcelain from the foamy puddle on the floor.

The front door creaked open and Nath reappeared in the kitchen, eyes and nose red. Hannah knew that he had cried, but she pretended not to notice, keeping her head down and stacking the porcelain tiles in her hands.

"What happened?"

"Mom and Dad had a fight." She tossed the pieces into the trash can in the garage and wiped her wet hands dry on her bell-bottomed thighs. As for the water on the ground, she decided to let it evaporate.

"Fighting? Why?"

Hannah lowered her voice: "I don't know." Although there was no sound coming from her parents' bedroom above her, she was still restless: "Let's go out."