3
I know.
I'm running out of
time.
In a few minutes,
your people will come to take the last of my writings. I have pushed off your deadlines as much as
you'll let me.
One more thing.
I followed him as
much as I could. I didn't think I had
any special talent for spying, but I wasn't somebody many took particular
notice of. He noticed me once, and I
thought the jig was up. He came up to me
and said, "Do you miss her much?"
He didn't seem angry, which is what I would have expected. After all, as the trial ended, he had just
basically threatened to kill me by mouthing the words, "You're next",
to me from across the room. He seemed
almost sad, even wistful as he said it, which was not the emotion I was
expecting at all. I was so taken aback,
that he was gone before I could I even think of a reply.
Late at night,
Robert Pelley would often sneak out to the boy's locker room. He would meet with other guys there, and they
would laugh and tell jokes, often crude jokes about what girls they would like
to 'do it' with. His buddies, Walter
Drayton and Stevey Tubbs (with Robert, they formed the trio Artie and I called
'The Three Hoodlums') were often there.
At other times there were various athletes, including Mark Granite and
Wilbur James.
How did I observe
this? I had a key to Coach Walterzak's
office, and to the adjoining equipment room, keys that I had obtained from my
father's old office, now the new principal's office, Mr. Larry Tate. How did I get into Mr. Tate's office? I had always had a key to my father's office,
something they either forgot or never knew.
Going in to Coach
Walterzak's office, I then entered the equipment room. The equipment room opened into part of the
men's locker room (the part that included benches, exercise equipment and
whirlpools). The door was slatted, like
a closet door, and the slats could be opened ever so slightly so you could see
what was going on in that first part of the locker room.
There was almost
always drinking going on, the rough moonshine made from strawberries and other
fruit. I didn't think they were making
it themselves - except for maybe Mark Granite or Wilbur James, that seemed to
be well above their intelligence grade (I didn't know how to make it either,
but I had no interest in it). It had to
have been David Izzner, which meant that he had made accommodations to the
Grani-Knights, but making accommodations was what Izzner did best. This almost certainly meant I could no longer
count on him as an ally.
Occasionally, they
had a few girls with them. I am not a
voyeur, and some of that I had to divert my attention from. They seemed willing. Other than that, I don't care to discuss it.
Anyways, I only
have a few minutes left to write, so to the point. There was a night, a night that was actually
April 16th, the night before we would have been trapped one full year, a night
where I lost where Robert Pelley was going.
And where did I go to try to find him?
To my hidey hole behind the door of the equipment room.
At first, I could
just hear sobbing; sobbing that sounded if it came from an adult woman. "Why?
Why are you doing this?" she pleaded, in a voice I instantly
recognized, a voice that would have been one of the last ones I ever expected
to hear coming from the men's locker room.
It belonged to Mrs. Dorrie Forsyth, and she sounded terrified.
I opened the slat
more and I saw Robert Pelley. But he did
not have Mrs. Forsyth. He was standing
there, shivering, shaking with nervous laughter. He looked crazed, terrified, his eyes bugging
out.
Who had Mrs.
Forsyth? I turned towards the sound of
the new voice I heard. "Why? You
ask why?" he said, oozing a sarcastic hatred. "Because I can."
And then I saw
it. He took a small knife and raked it
quickly across her throat. Blood gushed
out of her, even on to the face and hands of the boy who killed her. Mark Granite stood there, smiling maniacally
in his blood-splattered glory. He let
her body go, and she fell to the floor, dead.
I couldn't stop myself. I let out a loud gasp.
Robert Pelley
turned towards the equipment room door.
He stared right at where I stood.
I froze in fear. He pointed
towards the door. "I heard
something! I think there's someone
there!"
They both came
towards the door, Mark Granite with his bloody knife in hand.
Your staff is here
to pick up my writings. I will have to
finish this next time.
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