Red Rain

75

Mark found Roz in the flower bed at the side of the guesthouse. She was on the grass, digging with a trowel in a square of black dirt. Axl, in red shorts and a sleeveless red T-shirt, sat nearby in a clump of freshly planted petunias, stabbing at the ground with a plastic shovel in imitation of his mother.

Roz looked up and brushed a bee away from her shoulder. “Who was that on the phone?”

Mark hunkered down beside her. He liked the smell of the fresh dirt. Like rich coffee. “Sergeant Pavano. You remember. The cop.”

Roz nodded. “Of course I remember him. What did he want? To arrest you for some other murder you didn’t do?”

Mark snickered. “Don’t be bitter. He had no choice really.”

“Of course he did. And I’ll be as bitter as I want. He was a total idiot.”

“Not total,” Mark said. “Don’t forget. He was brave. He tried to rescue Ira and Elena and the other kids. He went in before anyone.”

She shoved the trowel into the dirt. “So what did the big hero want?”

“Actually, I think he called to apologize for the way the police treated me. But he never got around to it. He just asked how everyone is doing. You know. With Lea gone.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I said Ira and Elena hadn’t really accepted it yet. But they were doing the best they could. What else could I say?”

Roz sighed in reply.

Mark twisted his face in a frown. “Pavano says he’s going back to New York City. He said the city is a lot safer than out here.”

Roz concentrated on the trowel. “Maybe he’s right.”

“Look this. Look this.” Axl called to them, holding up his yellow shovel.

They turned to see what the little guy was staring down at. Mark saw two fat brown insects in the scoop of the shovel. “Those are called beetles,” he said.

Axl held the shovel close to his face. His dark eyes studied the two bugs. “Look what Sammy teached me. Sammy teached me this.”

Roz’s mouth dropped open. “What? What about Sammy?”

“Sammy teached Monkey Boy.”

Mark felt his heart skip a beat as Axl’s eyes flared. In a few seconds, they were fiery red. Axl lowered his glowing gaze to the shovel, and all three of them watched as the beetles sizzled and burned.