Random Road

by Thomas Kies

  “Anyway, the meth isn’t the most interesting part. No, what’s really interesting is when they searched Jimmy’s place they found an antique samurai sword.”

  His eyes widened for a brief moment and he sucked in a deep breath. Almost at the same time, he tapped out another short sentence on his laptop.

  “Who’re you talking to, Drew?”

  He was quiet for a minute as he looked across the top of his computer screen at me. Finally, he replied, “Guy I was playing the game with. He’s wondering why I stopped playing. Did Jimmy lawyer up?”

  “I don’t know. But what I do know is that Jimmy likes making deals.” I leaned down and took the recorder out of my bag. I hit the on button and set it in front of me. “Let’s start with something easy. Whose idea was it to copy the Home Alone gang?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  I sighed. “How old are you, Drew?”

  “I’ll be seventeen next month.”

  Interviewing a minor without parental consent is a journalistic fuzzy area, especially when talking about drugs.

  But I’m not letting that get in my way.

  “You’re a minor. Nothing’s going to happen to you,” I said.

  His shifted his eyes to the computer screen again. I could see he was reading something. It only took him a moment and then he slowly reached up and closed the laptop. “Okay, it was Jimmy’s idea.”

  That’s it, Drew. Throw Jimmy under the bus.

  “Jimmy,” I repeated.

  “He said it would be a real adrenaline rush. He’d read all about that gang in the newspaper. He figured if they could do it then we could do it. Jimmy knows a guy who works IT for Aztec Security. For a couple hundred dollars he’d switch off the alarm when and where Jimmy told him to. The first house we did was in Westport. It was kind of scary and cool all at the same time, like we were doing a heist. It was like something out of a movie.”

  “Pretty smart. Everyone thought it was the pros. You guys play the game, somebody else gets the blame. What all did you get?”

  He thought for a moment. “I don’t know…some cash, a bunch of jewelry, an antique coin collection, some other stuff.”

  “How did you unload it?”

  “Jimmy knows a guy in the city.” Jimmy Fitzgerald is his own one-man crime syndicate, I thought.

  “Some of it we sold on E-bay.”

  “How many houses did you guys hit?” I was assuming it was at least two.

  Drew didn’t answer. Instead he turned his head and gazed out over the dark, moving surface of Long Island Sound.

  “Drew,” I interrupted, “help me out here. I know you broke into at least two houses, nicely done, professional. But what was the deal with breaking into the blind woman’s apartment? That wasn’t like the others, now was it? This was, well, sloppy.”

  I could see his jaw working as he ground his teeth. He looked back at me and replied, “Jimmy got pissed off at us.”

  “You and Lance.”

  “Yeah, he didn’t want to have anything to do with us anymore.”

  “Why?”

  Drew shrugged and continued, “After he got pissed off at us, Lance wanted to show Jimmy that we didn’t need his sorry ass. So we were over on Briar Street a couple of nights ago smoking a little weed and talking, just killin’ some time until we had to come home. We noticed that as it got darker, nobody was turning any lights on in one of the ground-floor apartments. We figured the place must be empty.”

  They figured wrong.

  “Who broke in that night? Was it you?”

  He slowly shook his head. “It was Lance. When he came back to the car, he was freakin’ out. He said he’d been attacked by some crazy bitch with a butcher knife. Did you say she’s blind?”

  Big tough guy, chased away by a blind woman wielding a chisel.

  “How come Jimmy didn’t want to have anything to do with you and Lance anymore?”

  He just stared down at his closed laptop.

  I decided to go for broke. “Last Wednesday night, did you guys break into the Chadwick house?”

  He stared at the table, refusing to answer.

  “Was there really a party on Jimmy’s boat last Wednesday night?”

  “Yes.”

  “But it was just the three of you.”

  “Yes.”

  “Were you doing drugs?”

  “Yes.”

  “Meth?”

  “Tequila first,” he answered softly. “Then some grass. a little coke, then some meth.”

  “Okay, so you guys got toasty. What happened then?”

  “Me and Lance left the marina and drove back home. Jimmy followed in his dad’s Hatteras a little later and tied up to our dock.” He motioned toward the water with his jaw.

  “Why’d you pick the Chadwick house?”

  He pursed his lips while he thought about his answer. “A few years ago. Lance and I shoveled snow out of Mr. Chadwick’s driveway. When we went inside his house to get our money, he showed us his room full of antique weapons. He called it his armory. He was real proud of it.”

  “And you told Jimmy about the armory.”

  “He said that some collectors will pay serious cash for those old guns and swords.”

  “Drew, wouldn’t it be easier just to ask your dad to bump up your allowance?”

  I was startled to see him look up at me in anger, shaking his head. “You don’t know, you don’t know what it’s like. My father, he’s self-made, he came from nothin’. He put himself through college, he earned every dime. I hear that every day…every fucking day. That’s why he wants us to work on that stupid ferry boat. He wants us to earn our own way like he did. But that ferry boat gig? It doesn’t pay shit.”

  “Not like earning a thirty-thousand-dollar sports car by getting good grades?”

  He stayed silent and stared at me through angry slits.

  “Why did you boys pick last Wednesday to hit the Chadwick place?

  He still glared at me. “We’ve heard mom and dad talking about the Chadwicks, about how they were perverts and how they went to sex parties. So Lance and I started watching their house.”

  “You watched their house? Why?”

  He shrugged. “We’ve never seen a sex party. We were hoping to sneak a look through one of their windows.”

  “And?”

  Drew frowned again. “We watched their house for a whole month and we never saw them throw any kind of party. But every Wednesday night, they went out and didn’t come home until real late, sometimes around five or six in the morning.”

  Five or six in the morning? Was George Chadwick so far up the corporate food chain that he didn’t have to work office hours like a normal person? Was he so rich and important that he could party like a porn star and then take all the next day to recover?

  “So it was a safe bet that no one would be around if you hit their house. Did you walk over there?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you guys get in?”

  “Basement window.”

  “What time?”

  “I don’t know, eleven-thirty, maybe closer to midnight.”

  “And once you were in,” I said, “the Chadwicks came home.”

  He tapped his hand on the top of the closed laptop while he stared past me, thinking about that night.

  “What happened?”

  He stayed silent, thinking. The only sounds were from the raindrops and the distant wind chime and the lapping of the water on the sides of the dock and against the hull of the powerboat.

  “Drew, the Chadwicks came home while you, Lance, and Jimmy were in the house. What happened?”

  He licked his lips. When he began talking, it was little more than a whisper. “Lance and I were in the armory. Jimmy went upstairs to look f
or cash and jewelry. We’d just busted out the locks on two of the display cases. And then we heard them come home.

  “Lance and I just stood there, looking at each other. He was high and I remember that he was having a hard time not laughing. He thought it was all hilarious. Me, I was freaking out. We turned off our flashlights and stood there in the dark. I couldn’t breathe, I was so afraid they’d hear us. While I was standing there in total darkness, I was thinking to myself that we were standing in a room full of antique weapons. The question ran through my head, how many guns, real guns firing real bullets, did Mr. Chadwick have in the house? There in the dark, in my head, I could see him coming into the armory, putting a gun barrel up to my face and pulling the trigger.”

  “But that’s not what happened,” I suggested. “Is it?”

  He slowly shook his head. “At first, all we could hear were the Chadwicks. She said something about getting the wine open and he said something about getting the movie started. Then Mrs. Chadwick said something about a guy named Jim and how he’s a crazy bastard. But I couldn’t hear her real good.

  “And then there were other voices. I couldn’t tell how many. Lance and I listened to them talking and laughing. Mr. Chadwick said something about how the movie was made in some club in New York and how he and Mrs. Chadwick had been there a couple of times. They talked a little more and then I guess they started watching the movie because it got pretty quiet.”

  “By that time, how long had you been hiding in the armory?”

  He shrugged again. “I don’t know, maybe fifteen minutes.”

  “What happened next?”

  He turned his face away from me again and looked out over the black waters of the sound.

  “Drew?”

  No answer.

  “Tell me about Mrs. Webster, Drew.”

  He continued to stay silent.

  “Was she a good teacher?”

  Drew stared out at the water.

  “I know how a good teacher can change your life, Drew,” I said. “For me it was Mr. Sibelius, my English Lit teacher in high school. He taught me the beauty of language. He showed me the poetry of life. He was someone I related to…he made me feel like an adult. Even now, I think about him with great affection. Was Kathy Webster that kind of teacher, Drew?”

  He turned slowly back to me. “Yes, she was that kind of teacher. She taught me not to be ashamed of myself.”

  “Drew, why would you be ashamed of yourself?”

  I could see tears welling up in his eyes. “Just look at me and then look at Lance. He’s older and better-looking, smarter. Girls are always all over him. I’ve heard the way my father talks about Lance. How proud he is of him.”

  I frowned. “You’re father is proud of both of you. He told me that the afternoon I was here.”

  “Dad thinks I’m a stupid freak.”

  That sat me back in my chair. I wasn’t sure what my next question would be.

  “But I’m not,” Drew said. “Mrs. Webster saw something special in me. And she fell in love with me.”

  “Were you in love with Mrs. Webster?”

  “And she was in love with me.”

  “Did she say that?”

  “Yes. She said I was an old soul, a lost soul. She said I was a boy yearning to be a man. She was interested in what I had to say, my thoughts, my opinions. She talked with me and she listened to me, I mean really listened.”

  I stayed quiet for a moment. “Was this strictly an emotional love, Drew? Did it go beyond that?”

  He nodded slightly. “Yes, it started with kisses on my forehead and my cheek, and long hugs.”

  “Where did the two of you get together?”

  “In her classroom, after school, eventually at her house. She lived here in Sheffield.”

  “Was Mr. Webster ever home when you were there?”

  “Sometimes,” he answered. “He mostly stayed in his office upstairs.”

  “Did you ever do more than kiss?”

  He bobbed his head. “She could tell I’d never done it before. She said she’d helped other boys become men. She said she wanted to help me too.”

  “So the two of you had sex?”

  His whole body took on an air of belligerence. “We made love.”

  “Sorry, was Mr. Webster in the house?”

  Suddenly his face flushed crimson. “Yes,” he whispered. “He never knew. We were very quiet.”

  I bet Kit Webster not only knew but recorded it on video.

  “How many times did you and Mrs. Webster make love?”

  “Three times,” he answered. “The first time I was kind of clumsy and it was all over really fast. But the last time it was slow and beautiful. I know she came at least twice. She told me. She said I was the best she’d ever been with.” He puffed out his chest.

  “When was the last time?”

  “It was only two weeks ago.” I watched as a deep sadness replaced the pride that had so briefly dominated his demeanor.

  I leaned forward. “Drew,” I said in a voice that could barely be heard. “When you and Lance were in the armory and it got really quiet in the living room, what was happening?”

  That’s when I saw Lance’s reflection in the mirror and my blood turned to ice water. He was standing directly behind me, holding a butcher knife in his right hand.

  “Jesus, Drew, when I told you to keep talking and keep her here, I didn’t expect you were going to give her a complete confession.” Lance leaned over my left shoulder and reached out. He picked up my recorder off the table and hit the off button. Then I watched his reflection as he placed the tiny machine in the pocket of his blue jeans.

  It had been Lance that Drew was talking to on his computer, not some guy he was playing a video game with.

  I started to stand up and Lance put both of his hands on my shoulders, pushing me roughly back into my chair. The knife was clenched tightly in his right fist, the blade aimed at my throat. My heart was hammering so hard I could feel the pressure in my ears.

  “What happened next, Miss Chase?” Lance growled in a voice much too close to my ear for comfort. “When it got real quiet in the living room I decided I wanted to see what was going on. So I opened the door just a crack and took a look. A skin flick was on the big screen on the wall over the fireplace. But the real show was on the floor. They’d laid blankets down and all six of them were as naked as the day they were born. And they were having themselves a good old time, playing with each other, sucking…fucking. Soft moans and groans, it was hard to tell what was coming from the movie and what was coming from the floor.”

  I glanced at Drew. He wore a pained expression. He already knew what the next part of the story was.

  Lance was leaning close to my ear. I watched him in the mirror as he slowly straightened himself back up. He was also looking into the mirror, straight into my eyes.

  “I thought it was hilarious, but hell, I was pretty fucked up, wasn’t I, Drew?”

  The young man nodded again.

  “So I told Drew that he had to take a look. But Drew didn’t think it was quite as funny as I did.”

  I didn’t know just how afraid I was until I tried to find my voice. I had to clear my throat twice before I could coax my vocal chords to ask, “Did you recognize Mrs. Webster, Drew?”

  The young man stared straight ahead. His eyes were focused on what was happening in his head. “She was naked, on her back. Men were using her, using her like a whore.”

  He sounds exactly like Jim Brenner.

  Lance spoke up. “Old Drew just snapped, didn’t ya, Drew?”

  He sat across the table from me without making a sound, still visualizing that night.

  Lance spoke again. “Drew was holding a three-hundred-year-old samurai sword. I looked it up and the correct name for it is a ‘katana.’ The blade is m
ade of several layers of forged steel sharpened and balanced to the point where it’ll cut through bone like butter. Isn’t that right, Drew?”

  The young man remained stone-still.

  “Well, I’m standing next to Drew and the next thing I know, he’s in the middle of all those naked bodies and I’m watching through the doorway. He’s holding the katana with both hands and then he’s bringing it up to his shoulder like he was getting ready to swing a baseball bat. Somebody on the floor must have seen him because there’s this piercing scream and Drew brings the blade down on somebody’s neck.

  Drew muttered but it was so low that I couldn’t understand him.

  Lance asked, “What’s that, Drew?”

  “Mr. Chadwick,” he whispered in a low growl. “It was Mr. Chadwick. He was on top of her. He was on top of Kathy…Mrs. Webster.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Lance acknowledged, “took his head completely off.”

  Drew huddled over his laptop in misery.

  “And then all of the sudden, everyone was screaming,” Lance said. “They were starting to get up off the floor. Some guy actually had his hand on Drew’s arm. The next thing I knew, I was there swinging my own katana. I took that guy’s arm off at the shoulder.”

  I studied Lance’s reflection in the mirror. His face was flushed and his eyes were glassy. I was guessing he was high. “Lance,” I managed to croak, glancing down at the knife blade he held inches from my neck. “How stoned were you that night?”

  He laughed out loud. “Oh, I was fucked up bad.”

  I need a way out, any way out.

  “Those are mitigating circumstances.” I hoped I sounded like I knew what I was talking about. “Involuntary manslaughter. There’s a good chance you can get out of this with probation.”

  I watched Lance smile and shake his head. “I’m fucked up now, Miss Chase. When I kill you, will I get off on probation?”

  Definitely taken the wrong road. Find a different direction.

  “Why did Jimmy get so pissed off at you guys?”

  Drew started whispering again. “He saw us. He stood at the top of the steps and watched us. Once we started, we couldn’t stop. I just kept swinging the blade, over and over. Until the screaming ended.”