Fall Guy

got back, and that he'd get someone in to take care of the upstairs.
    „Michael, when this first happened, did it make any kind of sense to you? Did you think of Tim as the kind of man who would ...“
    He shook his head. „Nobody's that smart, Rachel. Nobody knows what's going on in someone else's head, in their heart.“
    „He didn't talk to you about any of this?“
    He shook his head, looking over toward the oak tree, the muscles in his cheeks jumping.
    „But you knew about it?“
    „Some of it. I knew he'd lost his kid brother.“
    „But not how.“
    „An accident.“
    We walked out onto West Tenth Street. A uniform was standing outside the gate. Brody pointed to his car and handed me the keys.
    „I'll call you when I'm on the way back,“ I said.
    When we got to the curb, I stopped and turned toward him.
    „Michael, I did what I had to do,“ I whispered. „I did what you would have done. There's no need to discuss it.“
    „Are you okay?“
    I shrugged. „I will be,“ I said, „in time.“
    He touched my arm, then headed across the street toward the station house. I stayed where I was for a moment, watching him go.

CHAPTER 33
    I still don't understand,“ Maggie said. „How did Francis find Tim after all those years?“
    „Internet search, perhaps. I tried it. Tim's name showed up twenty-seven times in newspaper articles. There are also national phone directories. Tim had a driver's license, so the Department of Motor Vehicles had a record of his whereabouts. But my guess is that he found out from his parents.“
    „Simple as that?“
    I nodded.
    We were sitting in the backyard, Dashiell lying across my foot, not taking any chances that I might leave when he wasn't paying attention.
    „I think he stayed in touch with your aunt and uncle all along. He was too hung up on family not to have done that. But since they had said he'd become a monk, they wouldn't be telling anyone anything to the contrary—that he'd been in jail, perhaps, or that he was living as a drifter with occasional jobs washing dishes or delivering takeout.“
    „Is that what he's been doing?“
    „I don't know what he's been doing. I only know what he did.“
    „But why did he wait so long? I understand he couldn't do anything when he was twelve, but why wait twenty-nine long years, hold all that hatred in your heart and act on it after all that time?“
    „Because of what happened with your father. I don't believe his intent was to hurt your father. My guess is he was horrified at what happened.“
    „What was his intent? To get Tim into trouble? To hurt him back?“
    „That's what I thought at first. But that might not have been the case. He was still a kid, a very, very troubled kid. He'd lost the two people he was closest to in all the world, his best friend and his brother. His life had been turned upside down. Worse than that, it seemed to be destroyed. I think in talking to your father he was trying to alleviate some of the pain he was feeling.“
    „How? I don't understand the point of telling my father what really happened. Didn't he see that...“
    I shook my head. „The point was confession. No one could fix the sorrow he felt. But maybe talking to his uncle could help with the guilt.“
    „Over Joey's death?“
    I nodded. „And more. When someone you're close to commits suicide, there's always the feeling that...“
    „If only you'd known, you could have done something. You could have prevented it.“
    I nodded.
    „I know that well.“
    „I know you do, Maggie. It was a heavy burden to grow up with.“
    „So Francis was only trying to help himself to feel better. He thought my father would be able to help him live with it,“ she said. „But it didn't turn out the way he expected it to.“
    „No, it didn't.“
    „Once my father knew what had truly happened that day, he couldn't find a way to live with it, to live with himself.“
    „That's what I think, too.“
    „Because if one of his sons killed the other, what kind of a father could he have been?“
    And what kind of a man? I thought. When he learned he'd failed to protect those who needed him most, his own children, how could he have lived with himself another day?
    „And after your father's suicide,“ I said, „no way was Francis going to take the chance of being the cause of your mother's death, too.“
    „By killing Tim while she was alive.“
    „Exactly. My guess is that when his parents told him that your mother was sick, that's