Sacred Sins

came down and started bitching at me.”
    “You'd lost twenty-five bucks.”
    “I'd've won it back, and twice that much, if you'd left me be.”
    “You stole the money out of my purse.”
    “Borrowed it, you cunt. Borrowed it.”
    Ben jerked his head toward the door as the argument heated up. “Let's get out of here.”

    As the door closed behind him they heard a crash over the screaming.
    “Think we should break it up?”
    Ben looked back at the door. “What, and spoil their fun?” Something solid and breakable hit the door and shattered. “Let's go get a drink.”

Chapter 9

    “M R. MONROE , I appreciate you coming by to talk with me.” Tess greeted Joey Higgins's step-father at the door to her office. “My secretary's gone for the day, but I can fix us some coffee if you like.”
    “Not for me.” He stood, uncomfortable as always in her presence, and waited for her to make the first move.
    “I realize you've already put in a full day,” she began, not adding she'd put in one of her own.
    “I don't mind the extra time if it helps Joey.”
    “I know.” She smiled, gesturing him to a chair. “I haven't had many opportunities to speak to you privately, Mr. Monroe, but I want to tell you that I can see how hard you're trying with Joey.”
    “It isn't easy.” He folded his overcoat on his lap. He was a tidy man, organized by nature. His fingers were neatly manicured, his hair combed into place, his suit dark and conservative. Tess thought she understood how inscrutable he would find a boy like Joey.
    “It's harder on Lois, of course.”

    “Is it?” Tess sat behind her desk, knowing the distance and the impersonal position would make it easier for him. “Mr. Monroe, coming into a family after a divorce and trying to be a father figure to a teenage boy is difficult under any circumstances. When the boy is as troubled as Joey, the difficulties are vastly multiplied.”
    “I'd hoped by now, well…” He lifted his hands, then laid them flat again. “I'd hoped we could do things together, ball games. I even bought a tent, though I have to admit I don't know the first thing about camping. But he's not interested.”
    “Doesn't feel he can allow himself to be interested,” Tess corrected. “Mr. Monroe, Joey has linked himself with his father to a very unhealthy degree. His father's failures are his failures, his father's problems his problems.”
    “The bastard doesn't even—” He cut himself off. “I'm sorry.”
    “No, don't apologize. I know it appears that Joey's father doesn't care, or can't be bothered. It stems from his illness, but that isn't what I wanted to speak with you about. Mr. Monroe, you know I've tried to discuss intensifying Joey's treatment. The clinic I mentioned in Alexandria specializes in emotional illness in adolescents.”
    “Lois won't hear of it.” As far as Monroe was concerned, it ended there. “She feels, and I have to agree, that Joey would think we'd abandoned him.”
    “The transition would be difficult, there's no denying that. It would have to be handled by all of us in such a way that Joey understands he isn't being punished or sent away, but offered another chance. Mr. Monroe, I have to be candid with you. Joey is not responding to treatment.”
    “He's not drinking?”

    “No, he's not drinking.” How could she convince him that the alleviation of one symptom was far from a cure? She'd already seen in their family therapy sessions that Monroe was a man who saw results much more clearly than he saw causes. “Mr. Monroe, Joey is an alcoholic, will always be an alcoholic whether he drinks or not. He's one of twenty-eight million children of alcoholics in this country. One third of them become alcoholics themselves, as Joey has.”
    “But he's not drinking,” Monroe persisted.
    “No, he's not.” She linked her fingers, laid them on the blotter, and tried again. “He is not consuming alcohol, he's not altering his reality with alcohol, but he has yet to deal with his dependency, and more importantly, the reasons for it. He is not getting drunk, Mr. Monroe, but the alcohol was a cover-up and an offshoot of other problems. He can't control or blanket those problems with liquor anymore, and now they're overwhelming him. He shows no anger, Mr. Monroe, no rage, and very little grief, though it's all bottled inside of him. Children of alcoholics often take on the responsibility for their parent's illness.”
    Uncomfortable and impatient, Monroe