Little Boy Blues

by Mary Jane Maffini

  Alvin tightened his grip on the box. “Nothing, Vince.”

  In my experience, the best defence is a good offence. And offence is my speciality. I stepped forward, tilted my head and looked Vince Ferguson in the eye. “I’m glad you’re here. I want to ask you something. Will you excuse us, Alvin?”

  I guess it took Vince by surprise, because he followed me into my room.

  “Look,” I said, when the door clicked shut in Alvin’s astonished face. “I don’t like this any more than you do. But Alvin doesn’t know any of the details of the accusation against Jimmy.”

  “What accusation?”

  “Don’t bullshit me, Vince. I’m talking about Honey.”

  “That foolishness. There was nothing to any of that.”

  “Look, I don’t like you any more than you like me. And I particularly don’t like being in a confined space with you. So what? You have a big problem, and keeping stupid secrets won’t help.”

  “Wait a minute, you are an interloper here.”

  “No, you wait. I can understand why you might protect the family from whatever. And I even understand why you wouldn’t want people gossiping. But I am not in this for the gossip. You have a missing brother. I have a life on hold. So the sooner you get your head out of your butt the better.”

  Vince leaned down and stuck his face into mine. “Don’t let us stop you from going back to Ottawa.”

  “Maybe if you knew what you were doing, Jimmy wouldn’t be missing.”

  Vince turned grey. He sank onto the bed and buried his face in his hands. It took me by surprise. So perhaps that wasn’t the best way to get the answers I needed.

  “Okay, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t imply you were responsible for Jimmy’s disappearance.”

  He raised his head. “Maybe you should.” Now it was my turn to keep quiet. “If we’d handled it differently, it might have been better.”

  “Get it over with, Vince.”

  He took a deep breath before he spoke. “Jimmy was wild about that girl. First, we thought it was cute. He followed her everywhere whenever she was in town. He’d never had a girlfriend. Everyone in the family teased him a little bit, but it seemed so harmless. And she was away at Dalhousie University, except for holidays.”

  “Teenage boys get crushes.”

  “He didn’t always understand the effects of his actions.”

  “All right.”

  “We should have paid more attention. Anything that’s ever gone wrong has been because one of us wasn’t watching him.”

  “What exactly did he do?”

  “He’d sit on the bench across from her house. He’d follow her home if he saw her walking.”

  “Doesn’t sound too serious to me. He must have been about thirteen. And she was what, nineteen or so?”

  “Then he got his hands on her telephone number, and he’d call her whenever she was home from Dal.”

  “Did she tell him to stop?”

  “I think she liked having him follow her around like a dog.” Vince managed to malign both Jimmy and Honey with one sentence.

  “So she wasn’t bothered?”

  “Who knows. Her mother called to complain. Ma made Jimmy promise to stop.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then we didn’t even think much about it until the night the cops arrived to question Jimmy.” It was obvious that Vince was related to Alvin. You had to be prepared to drag everything out of both of them.

  “What did they question him about?”

  “They said a girl had been attacked. They wanted to know where Jimmy had been that evening.”

  “And where had Jimmy been?”

  “He was at the parish youth club. Later he went for a walk.”

  “He wasn’t doing homework or anything?”

  “It was a Friday night. Thanksgiving weekend.”

  “So he was out, but people couldn’t say where?”

  “After that, we really clamped down on him and made sure we always knew where he was. I’m not sure how seriously the cops took the youth club thing. It was a big crowd, and Jimmy wouldn’t have been the focus of anyone’s attention. Anybody could say they went for a walk.”

  “Okay, but the cops followed up on that church thing?”

  “Youth club. Yeah. Later on. Father Blaise said they did.”

  “But on the night they questioned Jimmy, what happened?”

  “They took him to the police station when we were out. Ma and I went over after.”

  “Why did they take him in?”

  “Why do you think?”

  “Cut the shit, Vince. What exactly was he accused of?”

  “Someone climbed in through a bedroom window and attempted to sexually assault her. The father heard a noise and knocked on her door asking if everything was all right.”

  “The alleged assault took place right in her home?”

  “Yes.”

  “Her bedroom. Where was it? On the second floor?”

  “How should I know? They wouldn’t even say who was attacked. They have to protect the victim. But we could figure it out by what they asked.”

  “So they told you the father scared the intruder away?”

  “Everyone knew.”

  “So once again, I have to ask, why Jimmy? We have a kid who’s never been in any kind of real trouble. All of sudden out of the blue he gets hauled into the cop shop to face serious allegations.”

  “It almost killed Ma.”

  “I can understand. But why did they come for Jimmy?”

  Vince’s voice broke. “Apparently she said our Jimmy tried to rape her.”

  Fifteen

  Once a defence lawyer, always a defence lawyer. I guess you can call it a curse. How would I have handled the investigation into the allegation that Jimmy Ferguson had attempted to rape a girl?

  “How did Jimmy know where her bedroom was?” Vince blinked. “You think Jimmy figured it out?”

  I liked the way the light dawned on Vince’s face.

  I went on, “Everyone keeps telling me how Jimmy wasn’t the best thinker.”

  “Finding a bedroom would hardly be rocket science.”

  “Did you know Honey’s house?”

  “Every guy in town drove by Honey Redmore’s house at least once.”

  “Redmore? That’s the name?”

  “Yes.”

  That sounded familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. I turned my attention to the alleged attack. “How many stories high was the house?”

  “Three, I guess.”

  “Now I’m hearing Jimmy Ferguson was able to figure out which room in a three-story house belonged to this girl and managed to get into the right room without alarming the household. Is that right?”

  “That was what they said.”

  “Would you have known which bedroom was Honey’s?”

  He stared. “Of course not. I’d never set foot in that house.”

  “Can you prove that?”

  Vince was back on his feet yelling. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’d like you to get a feeling for how easy it is to set up suspicions and put a person on the defensive. You with your brains and experience and Ph.D., you’re feeling it. Imagine Jimmy. He wouldn’t have a hope in hell. So had he ever been in Honey Redmore’s house?”

  “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. We never would have heard the end of it from her family if he’d been in the house.” That was quite a long burst of conversation, for Vince.

  “Did they ask how he knew his way around?”

  “I don’t think so.” Vince stared at his hands. “I don’t remember that line of questioning. It was a long time ago. Ma and I were practically in a state of shock. We couldn’t believe it.”

  “Did he have legal representation?”

  Vince shook his head slowly. “No. We didn’t think he’d need it. We thought it was all a mistake.”

  “It was a mistake, all right, and you people made
it, letting the police at that kid without a lawyer present.”

  “Why would he need a lawyer, when he couldn’t be guilty?”

  I said, “Read your newspapers if you want the answer to that.”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  “Was Jimmy charged?”

  “No.”

  “Do you know why?”

  “No. We heard rumours, of course.”

  “What rumours?”

  “That Honey refused to cooperate with the police. That she changed her story so they had no case against him.”

  “Really.”

  “A lot of people believed Jimmy had tried to attack her.”

  “And you had no way to clear his name.”

  “He was a juvenile. You can’t even talk about it. It took a long time for things to return to normal in our family.”

  “So Jimmy got convicted in some people’s minds without a trial,” I said.

  “That’s it.”

  “Would he understand why people were treating him strangely?”

  “He was upset that he couldn’t see Honey, but he didn’t really understand what was going on. It was harder on the rest of us. Tracy was only a teenager. Some of the other girls gave her a rough ride. Some of the boys too. Good thing Tracy can look after herself.”

  “I guess so.”

  “After that, we were careful when it came to Jimmy and girls.”

  “What do you mean? Did anything else happen?”

  “No, we made sure Jimmy spent time in productive ways or in visits with friends with an adult in the home. Especially evenings.”

  “And that didn’t bother Jimmy?”

  “We didn’t make a big deal of what we were doing. Allie seemed to be the one most upset by what happened.”

  “Alvin was?”

  “He was out of town, some school trip. When he found out, he had sort of a collapse. Like you claimed he had with Jimmy’s disappearance. He stopped functioning. He couldn’t even get out of bed. Then when we thought he was better, he started to get into fights at school. Came home with a bloody nose more than once.”

  “Really? I’ve seen Alvin face death and not lose his cool. Now you’re telling me on another occasion, he was behaving out of character. Do you know why? Did he learn anything about the attack?”

  “I don’t see how. He was on the debating team and he had a competition, somewhere that weekend. Halifax, I think.”

  The debating team. I should have realized. “And when he came back, he found out?”

  “That’s right. And he fell apart, and that was one more thing for Ma to deal with.”

  “Maybe it was one more thing for Alvin to deal with. Have you thought of that?”

  Vince shrugged. “He’s always been high-strung. Since they were kids.”

  • • •

  “You and Vince were talking an awful long time,” Alvin said.

  “Time is of the essence, Alvin.”

  “Yeah, but what were you talking about?”

  “More important, right now, I think it’s a good time to see what we haven’t checked out before.”

  “It seemed to me like it was a really long time.”

  “How do I find Father Blaise? I need to ask him a few questions.”

  “You don’t.”

  “What?”

  “Father Blaise is gone. Why?”

  “What do you mean gone?”

  “He left town.”

  “In the middle of the search for Jimmy, he actually left town? I thought he cut short his vacation to come home.”

  “Don’t yell at me, Camilla. I didn’t leave town.”

  “Well, I didn’t even know Jimmy, and I couldn’t leave town.”

  “But then you don’t have a bishop to give you marching orders. So what were you and Vince talking about?”

  “Stop harping on that. Where did he go?”

  “Vince? Downstairs. They’re heading out to search down near Lingan. I’m going to go with them.”

  “I mean Father Blaise, and you know it. And don’t even think about joining one of those searches. I need you for our investigation, which is finally going somewhere. I don’t know the town well enough to manage without you.”

  Alvin assumed a posture of insouciant insubordination. His eyes slanted, his ponytail swung, his nose pointed elsewhere. I knew I couldn’t trust him to do what he was told. Great. This was the Alvin I was used to. In a moment of madness I reached out and hugged him. The first time ever. Probably the last too.

  “Let’s head back downtown, Alvin.”

  • • •

  I called Donald Donnie’s and reached Mrs. Parnell. I filled her in on what we’d learned and gave her a task. “Find out where the priest went and if he remembers anything about Jimmy the night of the supposed attack. He’s bound to know about it.”

  Then Alvin and I, and, of course, Gussie, were off to hit the video store.

  The guy behind the counter had a hangdog expression despite his lovely sky blue hair. I held up Jimmy’s picture. “Did you see this man on Canada Day?”

  He said, “Man? You mean Jimmy Ferguson?”

  “Right.”

  “He was here. Sorry about that, Allie. Feel real bad.”

  “You back home now?” Alvin said.

  “Doing a couple of summer courses.”

  “When was he here?” I interrupted.

  “Around six, I guess. Give or take.”

  “And did you tell the police this?”

  “The police?”

  “Yes.”

  “No,” he said.

  “Why not?”

  “They didn’t ask me.”

  “Didn’t the police interview the staff here?”

  “Yeah, but I was off, eh. I just came in to pick up my smokes. Who is she, Allie?”

  Alvin said, “It’s easier just to get it over with.”

  I said, “Okay. So when you saw Jimmy, did you notice him with anyone?”

  “I don’t think so. He came in by himself.”

  “I guess you wouldn’t remember what video he borrowed.” I figured the police would have this information, but we could at least catch up to them.

  “He didn’t get a video.”

  “He didn’t?”

  “No, he was looking at them, and then all of a sudden he kind of took off.”

  “He did? Without a video? You’re sure of that?”

  “Jeez, yeah. I was headed out, and he almost knocked me over.”

  “Running?”

  “Yeah. Sometimes he did that, you know. He’d get spooked and take off.”

  “That’s true,” Alvin said.

  “Did you notice what spooked him?”

  His brow furrowed. “No.”

  “I think it might be important.”

  “Jeez. I wish I could help.”

  I leaned forward on the counter. “I wish you could too. In fact, I’m a little pissed off no one else here would have been public-spirited enough to let the police know.”

  “They probably didn’t see him.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, Jimmy was kind of crouched behind those shelves looking for X-Men.”

  “The comic?”

  “No, not the comic, the video. I passed him when I ducked into the back room.”

  “Okay, show us.”

  I hadn’t noticed the line that had formed behind us, but an in-charge looking guy had and walked over. “Problem?”

  “No. They want to know where Jimmy Ferguson was standing when he was in here the other night?”

  “He was here?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Nobody told me.”

  “Jeez, I feel like shit.”

  “Do what you have to,” the supervisor said. “I’ll take care of your line.”

  Buddy with the blue hair showed us where Jimmy had been standing. “He asked me if X-Men was in when I went by him. I showed him where it would be if it was in, and he went to pick it up. Gussi
e was with him too.” Gussie’s tail drummed on the floor.

  “You’re right,” I said. “They couldn’t see him from over here.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And while you were walking out, something spooked him, and he ran by you.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Was anyone else in the aisle?”

  He closed his eyes. “No,” he said, after a minute.

  “Between Jimmy and the front?”

  Again with the eyes closed. “No. And I didn’t pass anyone.”

  “He couldn’t see over these racks to the counter or the next aisle.”

  “I guess not. No, you really can’t, eh. Jimmy’s about my height.”

  “But he could see outside.”

  The three of us stared through the window at the street.

  “Yeah.”

  Alvin said, “So he might have seen someone that frightened him.”

  I turned to Alvin. “But if someone spooked him, he wouldn’t run towards them.”

  Alvin rubbed his upper lip. “You have to know Jimmy. He doesn’t always do the logical thing.”

  “But the video store was full of people. Surely someone would have helped him. He could have phoned Vince or your mother.”

  Alvin put his hand on my arm. “You might have done that, Camilla. Or I might have. But Jimmy could panic. If he panicked, he’d run. It wouldn’t have to make sense.”

  I turned to our blue-haired buddy. “Did you notice anyone outside?”

  “Jeez. I don’t know. I noticed Jimmy, because that was kind of unusual, you know. But I saw some ladies outside. I don’t remember anyone in particular. Sorry, I wish I had.”

  “It’s okay,” Alvin said. “You helped a lot.”

  “Did he make a phone call?”

  “Not while I was around.”

  “Thanks for your help. We have to let the police know what you saw. They’ll talk to you too. And listen, let us know if you think of anyone else you saw or remember anyone who was walking by. They might have seen which way Jimmy went, even if they didn’t realize it was him.”

  “Okay. I’ll call you, Allie.”

  “Thanks a lot.”

  “Listen, it’s probably not important, but I saw which way he ran.”

  “You did?”

  “Yeah. He ran down that way.”

  • • •

  “Now we are going to think like Jimmy. You know him better than anyone in the world, Alvin,” I said as we headed down Charlotte Street in the direction our blue-haired friend had pointed.