Shallow Graves

Keith was trying to sound cheerful while he recited phrases like, “You’re doing great, skipper” and “You’re a tougher man than I.” Sam would blink and look at his father as if he were speaking a foreign language.
    “Hi, Mr. Pellam,” Sam said. His face brightened a little but there was hardly any color in it.
    “How you feeling, son?”
    “I got sick.”
    “You’ll be fine in the morning.”
    “I don’t feel too good.”
    “Well, get better soon. We’ve got to practice our football, remember?”
    “Yeah.”
    Meg, Sam and Pellam stood together, silently, while Keith paid the bill with a check and took a prescription and instruction sheet from the doctor.
    The door opened and the sheriff walked into the clinic.
    “Meg, I just heard.”
    “Tom,” she said, nodding toward him.
    The sheriff looked stonily at Pellam for a long moment, then glanced down at Sam. “How you doing, young man?”
    “Pretty okay, sir.”
    “Attaboy.”
    The doctor joined them, along with Keith. Meg told the sheriff about finding her son in the woods and the doctor explained about the drugs.
    “What is it, you know?”
    “I’m sending the sample to a lab in Poughkeepsie. I’ll get you a copy of it. I think it’s a heroin derivative.”
    The sheriff winced. “Yeah, guess I’ll have to go to the NYBI.”
    “Second time we’ve had an overdose,” the doctor pointed out. “That boy last year.”
    Tom nodded. “He was in high school. They’re getting younger.”
    The sheriff looked down at Sam then said to Keith. “You mind if I talk to him just for a minute?”
    Meg asked her son, “You mind, honey?”
    “Uh-uh.”
    “Maybe just you, me and the boy?” Tom asked her.
    Pellam and Keith took their cues and stepped outside.
    THE SHERIFF CROUCHED next to a jaundiced potted bamboo palm, vainly reaching for a tiny, greasy window in the front door, the only source of natural light in the waiting room.
    Meg was struggling to stay calm, struggling to concentrate. All she wanted to do was throw her arms around the boy.
    The sheriff looked into the boy’s eyes. “What happened, Sam? You remember?”
    “I found this envelope. And there was some candy inside. I ate it.”
    “You ate it?”
    “A bunch of it. I guess I shouldn’t’ve. Mom’s pretty mad at me.”
    Meg said, “No, I’m not, honey.”
    Tom said, “She’s just worried about you, that’s all. So you don’t know where the envelope came from?”
    “No, sir.”
    “You’re sure nobody gave it to you?”
    “No, sir. I mean, yeah, I’m sure nobody gave it to me.”
    “You just found it.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “You know what happened to the envelope?”
    “No.”
    “I’m going to ask you a question, Sammie, and I want you to answer it truthfully.”
    “Sure.”
    “You know Mr. Pellam.”
    “Sure.”
    “Did he give you the candy?”
    Meg stiffened when she heard this. This hadn’t even occurred to her. She started to speak but the sheriff waved her quiet.
    “You mean, that he won?”
    “What?”
    “He won a chocolate turkey and gave it to me.”
    “When was that?”
    “Just before I got sick.”
    “It was a game,” Meg said. “A booth at the fair.”
    The sheriff ignored her. “Did he give you the candy in the envelope?”
    Sam shook his head. “No, sir.”
    “You found it, right?”
    Sam swallowed. “Yeah, it was just lying there. I found it.”
    “Okay, Sammie. You go home now and get some rest.”
    “So he gave the boy some candy,” the sheriff said.
    Meg frowned, repeated, “From the turkey shoot booth. Chocolate. Not . . . that crap.”
    “Look, Sam claims he found the envelope but he’s lying. I can see. All right, not lying exactly. He’s confused. You know kids, Meg, come on. What I’m saying is I know somebody gave him those pills and he knows who it is.”
    Meg asked, “You think it was Pellam?”
    “Kind of a coincidence, wouldn’t you say? His friend’s doing drugs and gets himself killed. Then your son overdoses.” He asked, “Was Sam alone with Pellam today?”
    She didn’t answer at first. “No.”
    “Any other time they may have been together alone?”
    She swallowed and shook her head. “I want to be with my son.”
    “Sure, Meg.”
    OUTSIDE, PELLAM WATCHED the two of them push out the door and head toward Keith’s car. Meg hugged Sam. “Let’s get you home, into bed.”
    “I don’t feel good.”
    Pellam stepped forward, crouched down and took the boy by the shoulders. “When you’re