Shame

said.
    “That’s not it,” she said quietly. “Like you, I’m trying to figure out what could have occurred.”
    “I’m not insane, and I don’t have rabies.”
    “I never suggested...”
    “Your tone did. You don’t need to be scared of me. I haven’t murdered any women. And I didn’t attack Elizabeth Line. I just wish I’d stayed here so that you could be sure of that.”
    Caleb tried to think of something, anything, to make her believe. But he’d already exhausted his resources in gaining her tenuous trust. There wasn’t anything he could say or do. It was a wonder she wasn’t already screaming.
    In desperation, Caleb said, “Tie me up.”
    “What?”
    “You’re ready to call the police, and I don’t blame you. So tie me up for a few hours. That way you’ll know I can’t be a threat to you or anyone else.”
    Now she was looking at him. “Tie you?”
    “Or lock me up, or cage me, or do whatever it takes to give you peace of mind. I don’t know why, or even if, Elizabeth identified me as her attacker. I only know I didn’t do it, and she can tell you that same thing.”
    He put his hands together and held them out, not to beseech but to be tied.
    “That’s not necessary,” Lola said.
    But both of them knew that it was.
    Caleb sat trussed up on the sofa. Lola had used duct tape to secure his hands and feet. While she was binding him, they didn’t speak, but Caleb had trembled uncontrollably. Lola had put a comforter over him, but it hadn’t helped. Caleb’s claustrophobia made being bound a torture.
    Together they watched the local news, and Caleb saw his greatest fears being played out in front of him. His nightmare worsened when he saw the trailer on national news. If he hadn’t been tied up, Caleb would have run out of the room, out of the house. The anchor said, “Like father, like son, the Shame murders past and present,” and then Caleb saw a face from the past. “Why’s everyone so surprised he’s a killer? Over twenty years ago he tried to kill me, and I told everyone it was just a matter of time before he started murdering people just like his daddy.”
    “I know her,” Caleb said. Even through her overly generous use of makeup, and the passage of years, he recognized Earlene Crosby.
    “Who is she?”
    “A girl from high school.”
    Not just any girl. Earlene’s folks had owned one of the biggest ranches in the county. And she’d been pretty, Texas pretty. Along with her looks, Earlene had been the class sprite, the provocateur; the boys had all wanted to please her, had achedto do her bidding. In many ways it had been easier for Caleb to face up to his male classmates. With the boys it was mostly a physical thing. They were happy with beating him up. But the girls were more dangerous. To them he’d been a curiosity, a regular novelty, and Earlene Crosby had been the most curious of all. Caleb had been afraid of her interest and at the same time desperate for it. Earlene had a car, and when they were both seventeen, she had coaxed Caleb into going with her on a private (“Just our secret, Cal”) picnic out to O. C. Fisher Lake.
    “When Mr. Toad said that the warriors in that religion used to drink bull’s wee-wee,” Earlene said, “I just about lost it.”
    Mr. Toad was the name for Mr. Joad, Caleb and Earlene’s world history teacher. The previous week they’d been studying religions of the world.
    “Now what religion was that?” Earlene asked.
    “Zoroastrianism,” he said.
    “Zor-ro? I can’t even say it. How are you supposed to practice a religion you can’t even pronounce?”
    “It’s not widely practiced anymore. People found something else to worship.”
    “Well, I shouldn’t wonder, what with their men having to drink that you know what.”
    “Makes Sunday communion look wonderful in comparison, doesn’t it?”
    She started laughing. “Stop it, Cal, ’fore I split a gut.”
    Caleb couldn’t believe he was making Earlene laugh, couldn’t believe that she was there with him. Girls like Earlene were in another class, like that other religion they had studied, Hinduism. She was a Brahmin. And he was an Untouchable. Definitely an Untouchable. Lower than low. That she had arranged for their being together was a miracle. Cal had been suspicious about that. He had figured she was somehow setting him up. But to be with Earlene, he had been willing to take that chance.
    And maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t some trick. Earlene was daring