Red Rain

51

A few minutes later, the three boys stepped in. They glimpsed the two police officers and lingered near the office door.

All three boys wore loose-fitting denim jeans and oversize dark T-shirts. Ira carried his game player in one hand. The twins had sweet smiles on their faces, which seemed strange to Mark. Why were they always so happy?

Pinto motioned for them to sit on the floor. He squinted from one to the other. “Those arrows on your faces.”

“We saw them on kids at your school,” Pavano offered. “The principal said-”

“It’s our new school symbol,” Daniel interrupted. He turned his face to show off his blue arrow.

“What does it mean?” Pinto asked.

“Up,” Daniel replied. “Up with Sag Harbor Middle School.”

“Nice,” Pinto said. But he gave his partner a look that said it wasn’t so nice. “Is everyone at your school wearing them?”

“They will be,” Daniel answered. “It was the principal’s idea.”

“Different,” Pavano commented.

“We just want to talk to you for a few minutes about your friend Derek Saltzman,” Pinto said, leaning toward the boys with his hands on his knees. “Of course you heard about what happened to Derek.”

The boys nodded somberly. “It’s very sad,” Daniel said softly.

“Is that how you feel? Sad?” Pinto asked.

The three of them nodded again.

“He wasn’t very nice,” Ira said, eyes down. “But he shouldn’t be killed.”

“Not very nice?” Pinto’s eyes widened.

“He was mean to a lot of kids,” Ira said, glancing at Mark.

Mark nodded, signaling him to be honest about Derek.

“Was he mean to you?” Pinto asked Ira.

Ira nodded. He stuffed his hands into his jeans. “Yeah. He took things from me. Candy and stuff. He did that to everyone. My friend Ethan, too. He took their stuff. He bossed kids around. A lot.”

“It’s. . very scary,” Samuel chimed in. “What happened to Derek.” Mark saw a tear glisten on his cheek.

Daniel’s shoulders trembled. “I’m scared,” he said, eyes on Mark. “Why did a killer do that to Derek?”

Samuel and Daniel both sobbed. Tears tracked down their faces. Ira kept his head down. He kept picking at a scab on his thumb.

“I think that’s enough for now,” Mark told the two cops.

Pinto leaned closer to the boys. “Are you feeling too sad to answer a few more questions?”

Silence. Ira spoke first. “It’s okay.”

“You said Derek was mean. Is that why you got in a fight with him Wednesday morning?”

The question made Mark clench his jaw. But the boys didn’t react at all.

“It wasn’t a fight,” Daniel said, raising his blue eyes to the cops. He wiped tears off his cheeks with both hands.

“It was just a joke, don’t you know,” Samuel told them. “That’s all. A water-spit joke. We didn’t have a fight.”

Pavano tapped notes into his phone. Pinto studied their faces.

“You didn’t get angry when Derek spit water on you?”

“Just a joke,” Daniel muttered. “The boyo was joking us.”

“Mark? Can you come here a minute? I need some help.” Mark heard Roz call from the kitchen.

He jumped to his feet and motioned to the two cops. “Be right back.” He hurried from the room.

Pinto scratched the side of his face. “Just one more thing. I need to ask you twins one more question.”

They raised their eyes to him.

“You see, we talked to the school bus driver. He told us you two weren’t on his bus Wednesday afternoon. Is that true?”

Daniel and Samuel exchanged glances. “Yes,” Daniel answered. “We missed the bus, don’t you see.”

Pinto: “Where did you go?”

“To Derek’s house.”

Both officers leaned forward. Pinto studied the twins’ faces. “You went to Derek’s house after school? Why?”

“To tell him no hard feelings,” Daniel said in a tiny voice. “We told him we weren’t mad at him. You know. About the water spitting.”

Pavano typed furiously on his phone. Then he stopped. “Does your father know you were at Derek’s house?”

They both nodded. “He came to pick us up,” Daniel said. His shoulders started to tremble again. His twin wiped tears from his eyes.

Pavano and Pinto exchanged glances again. “Funny. He didn’t tell us about that.”

“It was so scary,” Daniel uttered. “Samuel and I-we were scared.” Both twins looked to the doorway, checking to see if Mark was there.

“Why were you scared?”

“Pa yelled at Derek,” Daniel replied, voice trembling. “Pa yelled at him. He was real mad. For spitting on us, I think. And Pa slapped Derek. He slapped Derek twice.”

Both boys were sobbing now. “We were so scared,” Samuel said.

“Pa made us promise not to tell,” Daniel added, glancing to the door. “But it wasn’t right. Pa shouldn’t have done that. It made us scared.”