Seeing and Believing

by Norah McClintock

  “What about the other two guys? Did you recognize them?”

  Sal shook his head. “They were both wearing baggy jeans and big sweatshirts with the hoods pulled up. I didn’t see their faces. I couldn’t even tell if they were white or black or what. It was dark.”

  “So how come you could recognize Vin?”

  He gave me another look. “I know Vin pretty well, Mike,” he said, talking to me now like I was three years old. “And he wasn’t wearing a hoodie like the other two guys. At least, I don’t think he was. If he was, he didn’t have the hood up. Plus he was in the light when I saw him. Anyway, I guess the cops must have showed his picture to the man who was shot, because when I went in this morning to give a formal statement, they said the old man had identified Vin.”

  “I heard the man was in critical condition.”

  “Yeah, I heard that, too,” Sal said. He shook his head. “Vin really did it this time, huh?”

  “You don’t really think he was involved, do you?”

  Sal looked at me like I was crazy. “Didn’t you hear what I just told you, Mike? I saw him. And the old man identified him.”

  “Did he say Vin was one of the robbers? Or just that he was in the store?”

  “He must have said he was one of the robbers. Why else would the cops be looking for him?”

  I still couldn’t believe it. Vin wasn’t perfect. Okay, so he wasn’t even close. But to be involved in a shooting? It didn’t seem possible.

  “How come they asked you where you were last night, Mike?” Sal said.

  “I don’t know. I guess because Vin and I are friends.” Sal gave me a sharp look. “Were friends, I mean. His mother told them about me. I guess they were just checking to make sure I wasn’t involved.”

  “You weren’t, were you?” Sal said.

  “What?” What kind of question was that? “Of course I wasn’t. I was at home.”

  “So Riel backed you up, huh?”

  “I’m pretty sure he believes me, but, no, he didn’t back me up. He couldn’t. He was out with Susan.”

  “Was Rebecca over?”

  I shook my head. “I was home alone.”

  Sal studied me the same way Detective Canton had.

  “Hey, come on, Sal. I was at home. All night.”

  Sal looked at me for a little longer. Then he checked his watch.

  “I have to get back to work,” he said.

  When I got home, Riel was on the phone in the living room. He covered the receiver with one hand and said, “I left you some lunch. It’s in the fridge.” As I went into the kitchen, I heard him say, “No, I haven’t told her. I wanted to find out where we stand first. There’s no point in upsetting anyone until I know for sure.” Who didn’t he want to upset? Was he talking about Susan? I got my sandwich out of the fridge and took a big bite, but I stopped chewing again when I heard him say, “Sure, I can be there. But it will have to be after school—after three thirty.” Riel came into the kitchen, the cordless phone wedged between his head and his shoulder, a notepad in one hand, and rooted around in a jar he kept near the fridge for something to write with. He found a pen. He set the pad of paper onto the counter and said, “Give that to me again, Kate.”

  Who was Kate? Someone from school, maybe another teacher? But that didn’t make sense. If he was going to meet a teacher, he wouldn’t have to explain what time school ended.

  Riel scribbled something down and then listened intently to whatever Kate was saying. He was still listening when I finished my sandwich and went to change for work. I had to wave at him to get his attention, and even then I could see I’d only got part of it. Whatever Kate was telling him, it was obviously something important.

  “I won’t be home tonight until maybe ten,” I said. “There’s a talent show tonight. I get paid overtime if I stay and clean up afterward.”

  I spent the next few hours at the community center, emptying wastepaper baskets and garbage cans and mopping floors. I checked out the talent show. It was all kids who were taking lessons at the center—tap, jazz dancing, a little ballet, music, choir. It was okay, but I was glad when it ended. It was dark by the time I’d put the chairs away and mopped the floor. I cut across the park that surrounded the community center, the same as I always did. I hadn’t gone far when someone stepped out from behind a tree. It was Vin.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “I was beginning to think I’d missed you,” Vin said. He smiled at me, but his lips were twitchy and his eyes kept darting around, checking for other people.

  “The cops are looking for you,” I said.

  Vin nodded and stepped back into the shadow of the tree.

  “Did they talk to you?”

  “They asked me if I’d seen you or if I knew where you were. They also asked me where I was at ten o’clock last night.”

  “You?” Vin said. “Why’d they ask you that?”

  “Your mother told them I was your friend. I guess they’re checking with people you know.”

  “Did they talk to Sal?”

  I could think of only one reason why he was asking that question. But I still couldn’t believe it.

  “Yeah, they talked to him. So did I. He says he saw you run out of the store. He also says the man that was shot identified you.”

  Vin’s shoulders slumped. “I didn’t do anything, Mike,” he said. “Honest.”

  “I think the cops have a different idea. And Sal saw you.”

  “I was there,” Vin said. “I was in the store when it happened. But I didn’t have anything to do with it. I swear it, Mike. This time, I wasn’t involved.”

  This time.

  I wished it wasn’t dark. That way I’d have been able to get a better look at Vin’s face.

  “So you saw what happened, right?” I said.

  “Yeah. I saw it.”

  “Then all you have to do is go to the cops and tell them.”

  “I don’t know,” Vin said. “I wish it was that simple.”

  I started to get a bad feeling again.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, it’s not like I can tell them who did it or anything. It was two guys, but I don’t know who they are. They came into the store after me, and they were wearing big hooded sweatshirts, just plain navy blue, and big jeans. I couldn’t see their faces or anything.”

  “So tell the cops that.”

  “I thought it would be better to wait,” he said.

  “Wait for what?”

  “What if they don’t believe me?”

  “But if it’s the truth—”

  “Come on, Mike. After what happened with Robbie, they’re going to assume I was involved.”

  “But you weren’t, right, Vin?” I didn’t feel the least bit bad asking him that after he’d already told me he wasn’t. I wanted him to say it over and over again, and I wanted him to look me in the eye every time he said it.

  “Jeez, no, Mike. What kind of person do you think I am?”

  That was the problem. I wasn’t sure anymore.

  “You have to believe me, Mike. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s all. I was on my way home. I got thirsty. And I went into that store to get a Coke. Boy, do I ever wish I went somewhere else instead or just waited until I got home. But I didn’t.” He shook his head. “I can still see it, Mike. I go into the store and I guess these two guys come in behind me. But I don’t pay any attention to them. Why should I? All I want is a Coke. So I go over to the coolers. They’re along one wall, near the back of the store. Then I just happen to look up and these two guys are there. They’re up at the front near the cash register, and there’s a woman behind the counter. One of the guys is looking at the candy bars—they’re displayed all along the bottom of the counter, you know how they are in most places, right, Mike?”

  I could picture it. Most of those stores are laid out in the same way, and they always have the gum and the candy bars up near the cash register, I think mostly so they can watch that kids d
on’t steal them.

  “I’m digging a Coke out of the cooler, and I turn around and I see one of the guys holding something in his hand. It was a gun, Mike. I couldn’t believe it. I’m standing there and I’m thinking, This has to be a joke. This can’t be real. I mean, it’s like something out of a bad movie. But it was real. The guy had a gun, and he’s telling the woman to hand over all the cash. And I just freeze. I felt like I couldn’t even breathe. You know that feeling, Mike?”

  Boy, did I ever.

  I heard something jingle behind me and turned and saw a man walking a dog on a leash. He peered at us through the darkness. Vin stepped deeper into the shadows. He waited until the man and the dog were long gone before he continued.

  “So the woman starts to come out from behind the counter. She has money in her hands and she’s holding it out to the guy, and he’s yelling at her to stay where she is, just stay there and give him the money,” he said. “But she keeps coming toward him with her hands out, holding the money. And I’m thinking, Just take the money and go. Get out of here. And then I don’t know what happened. The woman is still holding out the money in her hand and the gun goes off. I don’t know if the guy meant to shoot her or what. But, anyway, the gun goes off and the guy grabs the money out of the woman’s hand as she’s going down. You ever seen anyone get shot, Mike?” What a question. Of course I hadn’t. “It’s not what you expect, Mike. There was blood all over the place.” Sal had said the same thing. “And the sounds—I heard her hit the ground, Mike. Then this old man comes in from I don’t even know where, and all of a sudden he starts to yell and they shoot him, too. Then they take off. I look at the old guy who’s on the floor, and he looks at me, and, jeez, Mike, I didn’t even know what I was doing, I just take off, too, you know? I don’t even remember it that clearly. I know I knocked over a whole bunch of stuff on my way out. I got out of the store and took off around a corner. That’s when I see that the two guys have run around the same corner and they’re still running. So I turn and run the other way. I kept running, Mike, until I was ready to fall down from running so much.”

  Running had been stupid.

  “The cops said the woman died and the old guy’s in critical condition,” I said.

  “Yeah, I heard,” Vin said. “But he managed to identify me first, right? That’s what Sal said, right?” I nodded. “Talk about bad luck,” Vin said.

  “The guy’s critical, Vin. That means he could die.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t do it. I wasn’t involved.” I could hardly see Vin, he was so deep in the shadows between a couple of big trees. “So I thought I’d wait and see.”

  “Wait and see about what?” I said. It was the second time he’d mentioned waiting.

  “Did the cops or Sal say anything to you about the girl?”

  “What girl?”

  “They didn’t mention her?”

  “What girl, Vin?”

  “There was a girl in the store.”

  I shook my head. “Sal said there were two people in the store—the woman lying behind the counter and the old man lying farther back in the store,” I said. “He didn’t say anything about a girl.”

  “She was there, Mike. In the back. I saw her. She had short, spiky black hair, and a ring in her eyebrow, and a spider tattoo on her arm, right here.” He touched the outside of his upper left arm. “I don’t know what she was doing back there, but I saw her. I’m pretty sure those two guys didn’t, but I did. I saw her back there. That girl can tell the cops I wasn’t involved, Mike. Are you sure they didn’t mention her?”

  “Nobody said anything to me about a girl,” I said. “But cops never say much to regular people. They didn’t even tell me it was Sal who saw you. I found out from him.”

  “I thought it’d be best to wait, you know, until the cops talk to that girl. It could save me a lot of hassle if that girl tells them I didn’t come in with those guys and that I wasn’t anywhere near the register when it happened.”

  Now I was confused. “You could have told them that yourself, Vin. Running away was bad enough. But hiding out like this—that’s stupid.” I couldn’t help wondering how come Sal hadn’t mentioned seeing a girl. I wished again that it wasn’t so dark, so I could get a good look at Vin. Maybe then I’d be able to tell if he was snowing me, trying out a story on me that he was maybe going to try out on the cops next. But how smart was that? Then again, how smart was Vin? “If there was a girl, she would have gone to the cops by now,” I said. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, right?”

  “I was just waiting to hear something about it—like, the cops have a witness and they’re looking for those two guys. Two, Mike, not three. Not me,” Vin said. “Because otherwise, all they’ve got to go on is Sal seeing me do maybe the stupidest thing I ever did and the old guy identifying me as being there. Which means they’re going to arrest me. Probable cause, right? You don’t know what it’s like, Mike. I mean, unless that girl has told it and told it right, they’re going to lock me up. With that woman dead, there’s no way they’re going to let me walk around until there’s a trial. Because that’s what’s going to happen next. And it can take time. They haven’t even had the trial for Robbie yet. Being in custody is awful, Mike. You can’t do what you want when you want. You can’t even go home. And some of the kids I was in with that time, they were really messed up. I don’t want to go through that again, you know?”

  “I know,” I said. “But the cops are looking for you. Sooner or later they’re going to find you.”

  “I’m scared, Mike.”

  I tried to imagine myself in his position. I felt sorry for him.

  “We could go back to Riel’s place. He’ll know what to do,” I said.

  Vin shifted back into the shadows. “I don’t know.”

  “Vin, you don’t have any choice.”

  “Riel will probably slap the cuffs on me himself.”

  “He’s not what you think, Vin,” I said. Sure, Riel was strict. He insisted that homework came first. He insisted I hold down a job, but that it not interfere with my schoolwork. He insisted I learn to cook. He insisted that I keep my room clean and that I do my share of the chores around the house. But he was fair, and I trusted him. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  Vin stepped out of the shadows. He nodded and moved closer to the path that cut through the park. When he stepped into a puddle of light under a lamppost, I saw how terrible he looked, like he hadn’t slept in a long time. He had probably been awake since it had happened, and that was nearly twenty-four hours ago now. His face was dirty, too. I wondered where he’d been all day. We started down the path toward the road.

  We were on Riel’s street, almost at his house, when a cop car slid past us. Vin froze, which was the wrong thing to do. If one of those cops checked his rearview or sideview mirror and saw Vin tense up like that, he’d be suspicious. He’d be doubly suspicious if he had Vin’s description.

  The cop car slowed. I glanced at Vin. His eyes were focused on the cop car, and it looked to me like he was getting ready to run. I grabbed his arm. The cop car had reversed and was backing toward us. Vin tried to pull away, but I held him, afraid of what could happen if he bolted. Two cops jumped out of the car, one on each side. They had their guns out, and they were pointing them at us.

  “Put your hands above your head,” one of them said. My hands shot up. Vin shrunk into a crouch, like he was going into a starter’s pose. “Vincent Taglia?” the cop said. Vin nodded, but just barely. I saw Riel out of the corner of my eye. He came out of the house and jogged over to the cops, but stood back and didn’t say anything right away.

  “Vincent Taglia, you’re under arrest,” the cop said. He took Vin by the arm and led him over to the police car. He told Vin what he was being arrested for. Then he told him his rights and asked him if he understood what each of the rights meant. Vin said he did. The cop made Vin put his hands on the car, and he patted Vin down. Then he made him turn out his pockets. Vin didn’t have much in t
here—some gum, some matches, a couple of what looked like five-dollar bills. The cop looked carefully at those. Then he shone a flashlight down the front of Vin’s clothes—his jacket and his sweatshirt and his jeans. He kept the flashlight on the bottom of Vin’s jeans for a few moments. He said, “What’s that mark on your pants? Is that blood, Vincent?”

  “Jeez, no,” Vin said.

  “Vin, you don’t have to answer any questions,” Riel said. Vin turned to look at him, surprised. “If you say anything, they can use it. You should wait until you’ve talked to a lawyer. Minimum, you should wait until you’ve contacted your parents.”

  The cop glanced at Riel, then he turned his flashlight on the bills Vin had pulled from his pocket.

  “Where did you get these?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. The ATM. Where else do you get money?”

  “Vin—” Riel cautioned.

  “You don’t get five-dollar bills from a bank machine, Vincent,” the cop said. He peered at the bills again. “What’s this on these bills, Vincent?” he said.

  Vin shrugged.

  “Looks like dried blood,” the cop said. “Is that what that is?”

  I stared at Vin.

  “If we get that analyzed, are we going to find out that there’s blood on your jeans and blood on this money and that it belongs to the woman you shot in that store?”

  “Jeez, no,” Vin said. “I mean, maybe it’s blood. I don’t know. Look, I was in the store, okay?” Riel shook his head in disgust. “But I didn’t do anything. I sure didn’t shoot anyone. I saw that money lying in the alley after I left the store. It was just lying there, so I picked it up. But I figured if I told you that … ” His voice trailed off. He looked at me the way a dog looks at you when you’re about to leave the house, but you’re not holding a leash in your hand. “Hey, Mike,” he said. “You ever seen me pass up free money?”

  I didn’t know what to say.

  The cop handcuffed Vin and put him in the back of the police car.

  Then they got around to me. When they asked me for my name, I told them. Then Riel stepped forward and identified himself.