I said, “A few seconds the other way, and it could have been me.”
“You were trying to save him.”
“No. I mean, he might have shoved me instead of killing himself. I wasn’t prepared.”
Scott said, “No amount of preparation could have prevented what happened.” He held me close. “You’re here. You’re safe. I love you.”
In the next few days the police found enough forensic evidence to convince them that Larry had definitely been the killer. The timing of his movements was suspicious in itself. A partial print on the screwdriver that he’d used to kill Billy Karek finally tipped the scales. It might not have held up in court—partial prints can be dicey proof—but it was enough to help close the investigation. Larry had grabbed one of the tools lying around the clinic basement from the incomplete renovation. They’d found traces of Larry’s DNA at each scene. Explainable at the clinic, not so at my car. Prior to the killing, he’d never been in it or near it.
I’d talked to Lee, who said the financial scandal was going to be hushed up. He confirmed that the books that I’d found in my car were a second set of clinic ledgers. Karek had gone to substitute the fake ones that night. So, he had gone back to implicate Fitch. The board of directors didn’t want to bring any further scandal to an already reeling community. The two people who had profited from it were dead. There was no one to prosecute. Lee told me the preliminary report said they’d skimmed several million dollars off over the years. In order to minimize any scandal and stop things from becoming public, Susanna Fitch had agreed to fund the clinic with the family’s money for as long as it took to replace what was stolen. The clinic would be safe for a while. Lee would also get his job back.
I asked him how he and Dustin were doing.
He said, “We’re determined to work things out. I’m going to try my best.” He paused. “The same with you and me. Our relationship may never be the same, but I will do what I can to stay your friend.”
I said, “I may be wary for a while. We’ll let time pass. My goal is that things between us be as close as they once were.”
The night before the end of spring break, Scott and I were in bed talking. I was looking forward to getting back to the classroom. Teaching would break up my brooding about what could have been. Teenagers, no matter what tragedy you were in the middle of, had their needs and were seldom put off simply because the proximate adult was having problems.
The lights were out. All week Scott had been his usual tremendous comfort. I’d also eaten lots of chocolate and worked out for hours every day.
I said, “We can’t let any more gay kids die by their own hand.”
“You’re not God and neither am I. We can’t save all of them.”
“I know.”
He said, “After the Fitch family money runs out, we could fund the clinic.”
“Yeah?”
“For a while. Until they secure some new revenue sources.”
I said, “Gay kids still need help.”
“I know. I’m sorry this happened to you.”
I rolled into his arms. I said, “I’m glad you happened to me.”
By Mark Richard Zubro
The Tom & Scott Mysteries
A Simple Suburban Murder
Why Isn’t Becky Twitchell Dead?
The Only Good Priest
The Principal Cause of Death
An Echo of Death
Rust on the Razor
Are You Nuts?
One Dead Drag Queen
Here Comes the Corpse
The Paul Turner Mysteries
Sorry Now?
Political Poison
Another Dead Teenager
The Truth Can Get You Killed
Drop Dead
Sex and Murder.com
Dead Egotistical Morons
With special thanks to
Barb D’Amaro, Jeanne Dams,
Rick Paul, and Kathy Pakieser-Reed
FILE UNDER DEAD. Copyright © 2004 by Mark Richard Zubro. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zubro, Mark Richard.
File under dead / Mark Richard Zubro.—1st St. Martin’s ed.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-4668-0285-8
1. Mason, Tom (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Carpenter, Scott (Fictitious
character)—Fiction. 3. Gay youth—Services for—Fiction. 4. High school
teachers—Fiction. 5. Chicago (Ill.)—Fiction. 6. Gay men—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3576.U225F55 2004
813'.54—dc22
2004042828
File Under Dead Page 24