The Axeman's Jazz

Would that work for Missy?
    Missy nodded as if hypnotized. Robson also nodded. Skip was ready to try anything.
    But as they turned and started to leave, Sonny spoke for the first time except to say no. “Missy! Missy, I want to talk to you!”
    Stunned, Missy turned toward him. “Sonny!”
    Not the most brilliant comeback of the century, but Skip winced at the raw emotion of it. It was in her eyes too. She loved him. Even knowing what she knew, she loved him.
    “I want to tell you what happened. Nobody ever believed me. I want to tell you. I want to tell everybody here. Is everybody listening?”
    Missy said, “I’m listening, Sonny.”
    Other than that, the quiet was impenetrable.
    “Gan-Gan told me I was the only one who could save him. He said he was going to die if he didn’t get the medicine. He said all the doctors were wrong—he was the only one who knew what could save him and they wouldn’t give him enough of the medicine. But if I gave it to him, he’d get well.”
    At Skip’s ear, his dad said, “Bullshit!”
    She said, “What really happened?”
    “The boy was just careless, that’s all. He gave his granddad his medication—that was one of his jobs. It was how we got him to learn how to tell time. He’d wait for the time for the medicine, and get it, and give the dose, and then take it back.”
    “Pretty big responsibility for a little kid.”
    “He comes from a medical family, Officer.”
    “Well, I still don’t understand what happened.”
    “It’s obvious, isn’t it? He forgot to put it back; the next time my father was in pain, he got confused and took too many. That’s why we never left it near him.”
    “He was in very bad pain?”
    “Terrible. Nobody should ever have to see their father suffer the way I saw mine suffer.”
    “How do you know he didn’t say that to the boy? That he’d be cured if he took it all?”
    Robson answered angrily, a doctor snapping at a stupid nurse, “Because he wouldn’t, that’s why.”
    Skip’s guts twisted.
If I feel like this, how could Missy feel?
    Uneasily, she looked to see how Missy was, and was later grateful for the instinct that made her do it. “Sonny! Oh, Sonny!” Missy started to run toward him.
    Skip grabbed her around the waist. “No, Missy.”
    Sonny shouted, “Stay where you are, Missy! You can’t help me and you can’t help Alex. I just wanted you to know. I know what my father told you.”
    Skip still held her, and she was shaking now, her body about to crumple. “Missy, try to hold it together, okay? Can you stand up by yourself? Try.”
    Obediently, Missy pulled her body up. “Shall I let you go?” Missy nodded.
    “Cindy Lou, what if she talks to him, tells him to let Alex go, that we’ll give him some help—stuff like that?”
    She shrugged. “It’s worth a try.”
    “Lieutenant?”
    “Sure,” said Joe.
    “Missy, are you willing?”
    Missy looked unhappy. “But you won’t get him help, will you? You’ll send him to the electric chair.”
    “The law’s not going to change for him. He’ll have to stand trial and he may or may not be convicted, but that’ll happen in any case—whether he kills Alex or not. Do you really want him to have another death on his conscience?” She felt a little twinge for manipulating her, but decided to ignore it. She could worry about that later; the point now was to save Alex’s life.
    Missy nodded, not in answer to the question but in assent. “You’re right.”
    “Sonny!” she yelled. “Sonny, I love you and I want to help you.”
    Sonny didn’t answer.
    “Sonny, you have to let Alex go. It won’t solve anything to hurt Alex.”
    Alex jumped and emitted a little cry. A trickle of blood ran down his neck.
    Skip hadn’t seen Sonny move. From the gasps around her, she gathered no one else had either.
    “Oh, God!” said Missy.
    “Let’s go in,” said Cindy Lou. “Let’s go in right now. We’ve got to talk.”
    As Skip and Missy turned to join her, she said to Robson, “You too.”
    Missy, even in her despair, went automatically to get them some iced tea, and Skip was glad to have her out of the room. She had a feeling Cindy Lou wanted to get into some things with Robson that wouldn’t hurt Missy not to know about.
    She said what was plaguing Skip as well. “Dr. Gerard, somehow I don’t think Sonny’s told us the whole story, because I don’t think he knows it. Or at least he doesn’t know why it’s important. What I’m wondering is what