Gin Palace 02 - The Bone Orchard

past that strata of trouble and grief.
    “Your father’s been arrested,” I told her. “He’s being charged with manslaughter.”
    She didn’t say anything, just watched my face carefully, as if she might see something in me that would help make sense of this.
    “Frank’s bailing him out. He’ll be home later today. You okay?”
    She shook her head from side to side.
    “I’m going to do what I can for him. You should stay with him when he gets home, okay? Somebody has to keep an eye on him. Augie can sometimes be his own worst enemy. You know?”
    “Yeah.”
    “It’s going to be okay. If this goes to trial, he can beat it pretty easy, we think. But it’ll cost him. So I’m going to do what I can to make sure it doesn’t come to that, okay?”
    “You’ve got troubles of you own, Mac.”
    “It doesn’t matter. And anyway, I’m not convinced the two matters are unrelated.”
    “You think the Chief is trying to get to you through my father?”
    “I’m not sure. In any case, I can’t sit around and watch your father bleed dry. I’ve got to do something.”
    “What can you do?”
    “The girl who died in the accident last night was from your school. She was a senior. She was driving an old Corvette. I need to know who she was.”
    A look came over her face fast. She said, “I know … Oh my God. That’s Amy Curry. She’s dead?”
    I nodded. “Was she a friend of yours?”
    “Not really. I just knew of her. Everyone knew her. She was one of the prettiest girls in school. She’s dead?”
    “Did she have the Corvette at school yesterday?”
    Tina nodded. “I saw her take off in it during lunch. The seniors just got their rings yesterday. They handed them out at lunch. She must have grabbed hers and ran.”
    “She drives a car like that to school every day?”
    “It’s her father’s. When he’s away she drives it.” She thought for a moment. “She was a puzzle, you know,” she said. “She got good grades, didn’t date, didn’t do drugs, all her teachers loved her, she was on every committee. But when she got in that car she’d go crazy. She was an accident waiting to happen. Everyone said that.”
    “The thing is, Tina, your father doesn’t think it was an accident. Do you know of anybody who’d want to hurt her or maybe even kill her? A boyfriend, anyone?”
    “I told you, she didn’t date?”
    “Anyone who wanted to date her and she turned down, anything like that.”
    “She wasn’t like that. She didn’t call attention to herself. She was pretty, that was it, but most of the boys go after the easy girls, not girls like Amy. She wasn’t into anything, except her committees and her schoolwork.”
    “Do you know where she lived?”
    “Halsey Neck Lane.”
    “Money.”
    “I think so, yeah.”
    “What else can you tell me about her?”
    Tina seemed reluctant then to say what was on her mind.
    “What?” I urged.
    She shrugged. “I didn’t remember till now, till you asked me where she lived. I don’t know why I just thought of it.”
    “Of what?”
    “There was a list that went around school a while back. Before last spring. Before … you know … I was attacked. Before you hurt Tommy Miller. It was a list of all the girls he was supposed to have done it with. On it were the girls he had … forced himself on, and the girls who had done it with him willingly. Supposedly Amy’s name was on the list. I don’t know if she was one of his victims or not. No one believed it, but then supposedly there was a video he showed to some people of him and her together. That’s all I heard. No one said if he was hurting her or not on it. Anyway, there were supposed to be fifty names on the list. He was a monster, everyone knows that. He deserved everything you to did to him, and more.
    “Maybe this isn’t so bad, what’s happening to my father, I mean. If it is payback for what you did, then maybe this is a chance to put an end to this once and for all.”
    I said nothing to that, just looked at her.
    “Let them see what they get when they mess with our family,” she said. “When they mess with you and me and Augie.”
    “Is today a school day?”
    Tina nodded. I got up and picked up the phone. Tina told me the number and I dialed it. It rang twice and was answered by a woman. I said, “This is Augie Hartsell. Tina’s ill and won’t be in today.” I hung up and looked down at her.
    “Stay here till you hear from your father,” I told her. “Call Eddie for a