Page 102 of I Will Find You

I am shaking my head.

“You hid it down there. In some vent or pipe or something.”

I am still shaking my head, but again I think I see where he is going with this. I think I’ve seen from the moment we sat down.

“So where was I? Oh, right. The baseball bat. So a cop found it in your basement. New guy on the force. Named Rogers, I think. Why I remember his name, I don’t know. But I do. So Rogers, he wanted to make friends with your old man. Thin blue line, all that. So he told your father about the bat. Your dad, he knows this bat cooks your goose. You’re a dead man walking if the DA finds out about that bat. Your old man can’t have that. He has to protect his boy. But he also can’t get totally rid of the bat. That would be going too far.”

Nicky Fisher grins at me. There is tomato sauce on his lower lip. “You can guess what your dad decided to do, right? Come on, David. Tell me.”

“You think he planted the bat in the woods.”

“I don’t think. I know.”

I don’t bother contradicting him.

“It was smart. See, if you were the killer, the bat would still be in the basement. Hidden. In the vent or whatever. But if someone else was the killer, he would have run away. Dumped or buried the bat somewhere nearby.”

I shake my head. “That’s not what happened,” I say.

“Sure, it is. You, David, killed your son. Then you hid the weapon, figured you’d get rid of it when you had the chance.” He leans across the table and flashes that smile again. His teeth are thin and pointy. “Fathers and sons. We are all the same. I would have done anything to keep Mikey out of prison, even though I knew he was guilty. Your father was the same.”

I shake my head again, but his words have the stench of truth in them. My father, the man I loved like no other, believed that I had killed my own son. The thought pierces my heart.

“The DA had a problem now,” Nicky Fisher continues. “It’d rained that night. There was a ton of mud and dirt in those woods. Forensics, they checked all your shoes and clothes. No dirt. No mud. So once your old man planted that bat—once it was found in the woods—it helped keep you free. That didn’t sit well with me, you know what I’m saying?”

I nod because I see it clearly now. “So you got Hilde Winslow to testify that she saw me bury the bat.”

“Bingo.”

“You set that up.”

“I did, yeah.”

“Because you wanted vengeance for Mikey?”

Nicky Fisher points at me. “You say my boy’s name again and I’ll pull out your tongue and eat it with this pizza.”

I say nothing.

“And for crying out loud, have you been listening to a word I’ve said?” he snaps, pounding the table with both fists. The two goons look over, but they make no move. “This had nothing to do with vengeance. I did it because it was the right thing to do.”

“I’m not following.”

“I did it,” he said through clenched teeth, and now there is real menace in his voice, “because you murdered your own son, you sick crazy son of a bitch.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

“Your old man knew it. I knew it. Oh, maybe you had some kind of blackout or amnesia thing going on, I don’t know. Who gives a shit? But the DA had you dead to rights. Then your father, the decorated cop who used false evidence to put my son away, fixed it so you’d get off. You ever see a statue of Lady Justice? Your old man put his finger on the scale, so what I did is, I put my finger on the other scale to balance it out. You get it now?”

I don’t even know what to say.

“Justice was served. You were doing time like you were supposed to do. There was, I don’t know, cosmic balance or some such shit. But here’s my problem: My son, my Mikey, is still dead. And here you are, David, living and breathing and enjoying a fucking pizza.”

Silence. Dead silence. It’s like the entire boardwalk is trying to stand still.

His voice is low now, but it slices through the humidity like a reaper’s scythe. “So now I have a choice. Do I put you back in prison—I figured a life sentence is as good as death—or do I kill you and have my boys here feed you to the gators?”

He starts to wipe his hands on the napkin as though this is over.

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