“He can’t take this right now, Sean.” More firm: “We can’t tell him.”
Sean agreed with her that a death on a teenager’s conscience was too much to bear. He knew that more than anyone. And something about Emily wanting so desperately to keep the secret to protect Ryan reaffirmed his own decision to keep Japan from her. But he wasn’t sure how they could prevent Ryan from finding out.
“What if he sees the news or hears about it? It will be better coming from us,” Sean said.
“He doesn’t read the newspaper,” Emily said. “And there are murders all the time in D.C. I don’t think the kids notice anything outside their own little worlds.”
“But this one was here, in Bethesda. And it happened at a school.” Sean thought about Chipotle Man’s face, how it went blank and he collapsed when Ryan hit him. But when Sean had gone back for the gun, he was breathing. He was alive. Sean had a sinking feeling that the man might still be alive if Sean had called for help.
It was then he realized a way for it to work. Sean had gone back to get the gun while Ryan waited near the woods. He looked at Emily who was massaging her temples. “For tonight I’m okay if we don’t tell him,” Sean said. “But this isn’t the end of the discussion, Em. For now, if he finds out on his own, we say that when I went back to get the gun, Brice attacked me again and I hit him. I delivered the fatal blow.”
Emily held his gaze for a moment, then nodded. She called for their son, who thundered down the stairs. She told him to listen carefully. She told him about the officer returning the bike. And she told him that it would get his father in trouble if anyone found out about the fight with Chipotle Man. If anyone asked to talk to Ryan about what happened that night, he wasn’t there and didn’t know anything about any of it. If they pressed him, he was not to say a single word and direct them to his parents.
“If you weren’t at the school, there’s no reason the police will need to speak with you,” Emily said. “And there’s no reason for you to say anything. But if you tell anyone—I mean, anyone about what happened—it could have serious consequences for Dad.”
“But why can’t we just tell the truth, that I was just helping Dad? The guy’s okay and he hit Dad first.”
Emily’s lips tightened and she and Sean shared a glance, silently acknowledging that the course they had chosen was contrary to everything they had ever taught their children about morality, about life. Emily put a hand on Ryan’s shoulders and fixed her eyes on his.
“Dad and I just need some time to think about this. Dad made a mistake bringing the gun, and the police won’t understand. So for now, we need to keep this to ourselves. Can we count on you?”
“Yes,” Ryan said, unenthusiastically.
“I mean it, can we trust you?”
“Yes,” he said, this time with conviction. “What about my bike? What do we say?”
“It was stolen. We don’t know when. Keep it simple.”
Ryan managed a nod.
“Tomorrow you’re going to school like any other day. We need to show the world we’re getting back to our routine. That means no more secret outings with your father.” Her gaze flicked to Sean, then back to Ryan. “And not one mention of Chipotle Man. As far as you’re concerned, he never existed. He’s an urban legend you’d heard about in the halls at school, the man in red.”
Sean: “And what do you do if the police approach you and want to talk?”
“I say I want to call my parents who are lawyers.”
“Exactly. I’m sorry to put this burden on you, son.”
Ryan nodded, seeming no worse for the wear. Sean imagined that for Ryan, there was something exciting about it all, something satisfying about him having to clean up after Sean for a change.
Emily kissed her son on the forehead. She offered to make him dinner, but he said he wasn’t hungry and he went up to bed.
Sean gave his wife an admiring once-over. He could swear that her face had more color and her eyes more light than just an hour ago. After another long silence, he said, “You said there were three things we need to do.” Her eyes met his. “What’s the third thing?”
Emily walked to the living room and peered out the window. “As soon as the reporters are gone, we’re going to go find the metal pole that Ryan used on Billy Brice.”
CHAPTER 43
Sean and Emily pushed through the branches and brush in the woods that bordered Bethesda–Chevy Chase High School. The moon broke through gaps in the canopy of trees like white laser beams. Emily guided their way with the flashlight app on her iPhone, clicking it off periodically when she heard a car on the street nearby or rustling in the trees. The ground was soft, a mix of twigs and leaves. It was hardly a perfect grid search, but they tried to methodically work their way across the area.
They stepped carefully, their eyes sweeping across the terrain searching for the rod of steel that Ryan used to protect his father.