Took us a bit to get me into the chair and for Kabe to collect what little bits—a few cards and balloons and the like—that I’d accumulated since yesterday, as well as the stuff I’d need when I got home. Carla’d already put me in my place about having to ride in the chair, at least until I got out of the hospital. I gave up when she started quoting safety regulations. We all chit-chatted about much of nothing while I got settled and she wheeled me on into the hall. Dr. Snow walked alongside me and Kabe kinda moved back and forth like he weren’t sure if he should lead or follow.
About halfway down the hall, two ladies stepped out of a room. One was all tearful and I didn’t know her. Recognized the other as one of the sisters from the local LDS Relief Society, likely sent down by the Ward’s bishop to offer comfort. They hugged a bit, talking pretty low so we couldn’t hear. Carla slowed up and then stopped, I guess so they’d have a little bit of privacy since they hadn’t seemed to notice us yet.
“Who’s that woman?” I whispered the question to Dr. Snow.
He leaned down and whispered back, “Alex’s mom.”
Just who I needed to see right then. “Great.” I set my good leg down, braced myself on the arm of the chair with my right hand and stood on up.
“Hold on a moment.” Carla grabbed my shoulder. “You’re supposed to ride in the wheelchair until we discharge you.”
“Well.” I sassed her back. “I ain’t leaving just yet.” I reached over and tried to move on past Kabe. We traded glares for a moment, before he relented and offered up his shoulder. I’m sure he realized I’d just try walking without him if need be. I hobbled down the hall, Kabe on one side, supporting me, and Dr. Snow on the other. Both seemed about the same load of pissed. And, oh lord it hurt, but I didn’t say nothing ‘cause I weren’t about to let any of them stop me.
The one woman walked off, I half heard her mumble something about water, as we came up. Alex’s mom must have heard me gallumping along, ‘cause she turned to face us.
“Mrs. Smith.” Dr. Snow kept up with me. Not like that was hard since I moved about as fast as a three legged dog. “This is Deputy Peterson.” He introduced me and then pointed at Kabe. “And one of the EMTs who brought your son out.”
“I’m not, ah…” Kabe started hemming and hawing.
I turned away from Mrs. Smith for a moment and hissed in his ear to
shush.
She didn’t need to know that since it didn’t much matter in the big scheme of things. Then I gave my attention back to her. “I hear tell that Alex is doing pretty good, all things considered.” She just nodded like there weren’t much she could say to that so I soldiered on with why I’d taken us on this detour. “Ma’am, is it alright if I talk with your son a bit.”
She twisted the hem of her shirt all in around her fingers. “About what?” Blue circles under her eyes told me she hadn’t slept much in the last twenty-four hours.
“About why he was so scared he tried to outrun my patrol vehicle.” I chuckled a little…hoped a little humor might relax her some. “Weren’t all that smart, you know. We were looking for him and all.” Tried to shrug like it weren’t no big thing. Wasn’t all that easy balancing my weight on Kabe. “But I think I might have an idea why.”
“We didn’t know you needed him.” She seemed to think on it for a bit. Finally she licked her lips and asked, “Does the doctor think it’s okay?”
“Well, doc?” I prodded him
Dr. Snow leaned up against the wall opposite the door. His hands were crossed over his chest and he looked all put out with me bringing police business into his hospital. “He’s got some good pain meds running through his system right now.”
“So you’re saying he’s stoned?”
“No.” He snorted and pushed away from the wall. “Nothing really that heavy, don’t like to put kids his age on heavy narcotics if we can help it. But he’s liable to be a little drowsy and lightheaded.”
“Is his judgment impaired?” Hoped the answer was what I needed it to be.
“No more so than any normal seventeen-year-old’s.” We both got a little grin off that.
I turned back to her. “So ma’am, is it okay?” I soft pedaled my voice as much as I could. “You’re his momma, you can tell me to go pound sand. You know that right?”
She looked down at her hands. “If there’s something you need to talk with him about, go ahead.”
“You can come on in with me. In fact, with the painkillers and all, I’d prefer it.” Actually, I didn’t just prefer it, I pretty much needed her in there—her or social services. “I’ll respect your wishes, you want me to stop talking with him and I will.” Interviewing any minor needed to be done in the presence of an adult advocate, especially given that he might be involved in Lane’s death. When she nodded and moved towards the door, I bopped Kabe’s ankle with the tip of one crutch. “Kabe, let me have your phone.”
Although he reached into his pocket, twisting and contorting so as not to drop me on my butt, Kabe lectured me. “You’re not supposed to use cell phones in a hospital.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s got a recorder on it, don’t it?”
“Oh, yeah, here.” I think he figured why I needed it. “This is the app. Just hit record and I can email the session to you.”
While we talked, Mrs. Smith went on inside the room. Dr. Snow took leave of us then. Said we should page him if we needed anything and Carla said the same as she headed over to the nurses’ station. Kabe decided to take my stuff on out to his truck since I told him it weren’t wise to have him in on this interview, although he whined like a broken gate about me being on my own. When they all left, I took a second to settle myself. For all of a moment, I wished I had on my uniform, but then I figured the casual thing might work a bit better with Alex.
I hobbled on into a hospital room pretty similar to the one I’d been in, ‘cept this one was a double occupancy. Had to brace myself against the door frame, the wall and then managed to hop a step to the foot of the empty bed without screaming. I swallowed down the pain and grinned. “Hey, Alex.”
Boy was definitely worse off than me. Stitches crossed his chin and cheeks. His mouth and eyes were all bruised, swollen up. Casts covered his legs from the knees on down and another swathed his right arm from pit to wrist. There were more bandages than skin showing on Alex. His whole body was stung up like some marionette.
Since he really couldn’t move none, I headed over to the side of his bed. Luckily it weren’t more than a step. “We’ve met before…at least our vehicles have.” I teased. “I’m Deputy Joe Peterson.”
“Oh, ah…I didn’t…oh, heck…I got scared.” I think that equaled almost an apology of some sort.
I tried to smile. “It’s water under the bridge, boy.” My own face felt all stiff from trying to hold back the pain moving like this brought on. “Don’t fret about it none.” Once I had my hip set against his bed, I could balance on my good leg and that eased things some.
Alex’s eyelids were so swollen that he couldn’t do more than look up at me through slits. “What happened to your face?” Alex’s words came out thick, like he talked around a mouth full of marbles.
“Broke my nose when the airbag went off. Got cut up too.” My guess is he hadn’t yet seen himself in a mirror, ‘cause he was a darn sight worse. “Not so bad as you, but I’m an old guy, being cute don’t matter as much to me as somebody like you.”
His eyes slid over to look off away from me. “I guess.” His mom settled down in a chair next to his bed. She sat there, not saying much, just stroking the fingers of his left hand.
As long as I kept my weight off my left leg, I could manage. “Hurting?” Lord knew I still felt all sore. They had me on something called Tramadol, which, I was told, was like a narcotic without really being one. Seemed to ease the pain, some at least, without dulling my wits, although my stomach didn’t feel too happy. “Want me to call the doctor in?” They’d given me a prescription for the really good stuff for when I’d made it home and could lay down.
“No.” Alex’s mouth went tight. “It’s not that.”
“I think I can guess what it might be.” I held up Kabe’s phone where Alex could see it. “I need to talk to you and I’m going to record it.” Took me a moment of messing to get the thing to work right. As I fussed with the phone, I explained, “I don’t have my digital machine on me so I’m going to use this here phone, okay?” Once I got it going, I set it down on the little table that stretched half over his bed.
His gaze shifted from me, to his momma and back to me. “Can my mom…”
I figured Alex might be not wanting his mom around for this. She had to be there though given that he’d been right there at the scene when it all went down. “Look, son, your friends Cooper and Trey are in up to their armpits in the manure pile about now. Your momma is here for your protection.” Alex’s mouth got all hard again and he blinked a few times. I took it to mean he understood. “See, from what I hear tell, you were there that day, you know up on the mountain. I’ve talked to Chris, heck I’ve even talked to Austin about what happened to Lane. Right now Trey and Cooper are trying to play cool and ain’t talking. But you ain’t like them. Not the way Chris tells it.”
While I spoke, Alex moved his hand just enough so it wrapped around his momma’s fingers. He squeezed them pretty hard. “Are you going to arrest me?”
“What?” Mrs. Smith stood, almost leaning over her boy to protect him from me. “Why?”
“I cain’t promise I won’t.” Weren’t about to lie to this boy. “I can tell you right now it ain’t gonna happen any time soon, you’re gonna be in the hospital for quite some time. I’ve told your momma that she can tell me not to talk to you no more and I’ll abide by her wishes. But something tells me, you got something you want to get off your chest. Am I right?”
The whole room went quite, like funeral parlor quiet. Mrs. Smith brought her son’s hand up to her cheek. “Alex, if you know something, you owe it to Lane’s parents.” I could see her eyes misting up some. “You’ve got to tell the deputy what you know.”
“Let me tell you what I know, right now.” Figured I could start it off for him. “You just tell me where I’m wrong, okay?”
He swallowed and squeezed his momma’s fingers again. “I guess.”
“Y’all, from what I hear, from what Chris said, went up on the mountain to mess around.” My knee started aching some. Since I didn’t have a chair to plunk my butt in, I hobbled back a step or two and eased up onto the other bed. Not quite sitting, but not standing neither. “Y’all just wanted to blow off a little steam and all, ain’t that right?”
A small, “Yeah,” slipped between his clenched teeth.
“Then from what Austin said you all came up on him. And Trey, well he decided y’all should have some fun with that boy. Now, Chris and Austin, they both said that, well Austin brought a note and a rifle up to Mount Dutton. You understand?”
“Yeah, we, Trey, he had it in for Austin.” Saw the tears collecting in the corners of his eye a few moments before they slipped down his cheek and into his ear. “I thought he was okay, but you know they, Cooper, Chris, Lane and all were seniors.” He sniffled a bit. “And my dad owns the diner so I could get them free cokes and stuff, so they let me hang out with them. I didn’t…you know, Austin was okay.”
“Didn’t want to be singled out like he was though, huh?”
“No.” He huffed that one word out like the devil got up off on chest. “I never said nothing. I should have.”
I let him get back under some control then asked, “So you’re up on the mountain and a fight started?”
“Yeah, they’re all pushing and yelling.” He kneaded his momma’s fingers in his tight grip. “Trey went from being just mean to mad.” So far, Mrs. Smith stayed out of the conversation, mostly, and I appreciated her for that.
Had to shift a bit to ease up my knee. The next words came out of my mouth a little strained, “See, what I don’t know, and what I need you to tell me is what happened after Austin and Chris took off.”
Alex stared at the ceiling long enough that I thought he might have passed out. Finally though, he whispered, “He shot him.”
“Who?” That came out over Mrs. Smith’s little cry.
He shifted his eyes over to look at me. “Trey shot Lane.”
“How’d it happen?”
“The three of them, they’re yelling at each other.” Although she hadn’t let go of her son’s hand, Mrs. Smith covered her face with the other. I guessed Alex didn’t really see it, or didn’t care much at that point, ‘cause he just kept talking. “Trey said we should get in the truck and go after Austin. Lane, and even Cooper, they’re saying it ain’t no fun anymore, just let Austin go.” With each sentence out of his mouth, Alex’s pitch went a little higher. “Trey’s waving the rifle around calling us all nasty things, saying we don’t got no balls. That’s when Lane told him that he’s got a screw loose. We all knew it, but none of us ever said anything.”
I’d heard all about Chris’ dad, beating folks down, but this was the first time I’d heard that about Trey. “What’d you mean, Trey had a screw loose?” Chris hadn’t volunteered it and Trey and Cooper weren’t talking. Still, from all I’d heard, that bit about Trey didn’t surprise me none.
Alex shuddered. “Like, like once we came up on this raccoon that had a busted leg and Trey shot it.”
“Put it down?” I’d done put down my share of wounded animals. Better than leaving them to suffer.
“No,” the way he said that one word let me know what he meant even before he explained himself, “shot it so it’d scream. Took maybe five shots, he had a .22, before it died. And Trey’s just laughing like it’s the funniest thing ever.”
I let him calm down a bit again before prompting, “I’m still listening.”
Alex sighed. “So we’re up there and he and Lane start pushing each other around. And then, they’s fighting and fell on the ground and kept going, punching and kicking. Lane’s calling Trey a sick son-of-a-bitch and Trey’s calling him a pussy. And the rifle’s down there with them. And that’s when it happened.”
“The gun went off?” I got a little confused with that. “While they were all piled up?”
“No. Trey got up, like jumped up and he’s got the rifle and he just pointed at Lane and blew his face off.” I thought Alex might be ready to puke. He’d gone pale and just kept scrunching his eyes shut like he didn’t want to see what he remembered. “I mean, like looking straight at him when he did it.”