What is it, Jimmy? What are you hiding?
“No,” I said. “I just don’t want you to keep anything from me because, say, you’re trying to spare my feelings.”
He relaxed a little. “Well, it was hard. I don’t like thinking about that time. He was my friend, the best of them.”
“I know that, Jimmy.”
He nodded. “Your father asked for help, and I made a call in return. Francis stayed with you and your mother. I was in the city, but I thought, you know, I can’t stay here when something bad might be happening. By the time I got to Pearl River, tho B al River, se two kids were dead and your father was already being questioned. They wouldn’t let me talk to him. I tried, but Internal Affairs, they were tight around him. I went to the house and talked to your mother. You were asleep, I think. After that, I only saw him alive one other time. I picked him up after they’d finished the interview. We went for breakfast, but he didn’t talk much. He just wanted to collect himself before he went home.”
“And he didn’t tell you why he’d just killed two people? Come on, Jimmy. You were close. If he was going to talk to anyone, it would have been you.”
“He told me what he told IAD, and whoever else was in the room with him. The kid kept pretending to reach inside his jacket, taunting Will, as if he had a gun there. He’d go so far, then pull back. Will said that, the final time, he went for it. His hand disappeared, and Will fired. The girl screamed and started pulling at the body. Will warned her before he shot her too. He said something snapped inside him when that kid started yanking his chain. Maybe it did. Those were different times, violent times. It never paid to take chances. We’d all known guys who’d taken one on the streets.
“The next time I saw Will, he was under a sheet, and there was a hole in the back of his head that they were going to have to pack before the funeral. Is that what you wanted to know, Charlie? Do you want to hear how I cried over him, about how I felt because I wasn’t there for him, about how I’ve felt all these years? Is that what you’re looking for: someone to blame for what happened that night?”
His voice was raised. I could see the anger in him, but I couldn’t understand its source. It seemed manufactured. No, that wasn’t true. His sadness and rage were genuine, but they were being used to some other end: a smoke screen, a means of hiding something from both me, and himself.
“No, that’s not what I’m looking for, Jimmy.”
There was a weariness, and a kind of desperation, to what he said next.
“Then what do you want?”
“I want to know why.”
“There is no ‘why.’ Can’t you get that into your head? People have been asking ‘why?’ for twenty-five years. I’ve been asking why, and there’s no answer. Whatever the reason was, it died when your father died.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“You’ve got to let it go, Charlie. No good can come of this. Let them rest in peace, both of them, your father and your mother. This is all over.”
“You see, that’s the problem. I can’t let them rest.”
“Why not?”
“Because one, or both, of them was not blood to me.”
It was as if someone had taken a pin and punctured Jimmy Gallagher from behind. His back arched, and some of his bulk seemed to dissipate. He slumped back in the chair.
“What?” he whispered. “What kind of talk is that?”
“It’s the blood types: they don’t match. I’m type B. My father was type B aer was tyA, my mother type O. There’s no way that parents with those two blood types could produce a child with type B blood. It’s just not possible.”
“But who told you this?”
“I spoke to our family doctor. He’s retired now, and old, but he’s kept his records. He had them checked, and sent me copies of two blood tests from my father and my mother. That confirmed it for me. It’s possible that I’m my father’s son, but not my mother’s.”
“This is madness,” said Jimmy.
“You were closer to my father than any of his other friends. If he had told anyone about it, he would have told you.”
“Told me what? That there was a cuckoo in the nest?” He stood up. “I can’t listen to this. I won’t listen to it. You’re mistaken. You must be.”
He picked up the coffee cups and emptied their contents into the sink, then left them there. His back was to me, but I could see that his hands were shaking.
“I’m not,” I said. “It’s the truth.”
Jimmy spun around suddenly and moved toward me. I felt sure that he was going to take a swing at me. I stood and kicked the kitchen chair away, tensing for the blow, waiting to block it if I had time to see it, but it did not come. Instead, Jimmy spoke calmly and deliberately.
“Then it’s a truth that they didn’t want you to know, and one that can’t help you. They loved you, both of them. Whatever this is, whatever you think you’ve discovered, leave it alone. It’s only going to hurt you if you keep searching.”
“You seem very sure of that, Jimmy.”
He swallowed hard.
“Fuck you, Charlie. You need to go now. I have things to do.”
He waved a hand in dismissal and turned his back on me once more.
“I’ll be seeing you, Jimmy,” I said, and I knew that he heard the warning in my voice, but he said nothing. I let myself out and walked back to the subway.
Later I would learn that Jimmy Gallagher waited only until he was certain that I would not return before making the call. It was a number that he had not dialed in many years, not since the day after my father’s death. He was surprised when the man answered the phone himself, almost as surprised as he was to discover that he was still alive.
“It’s Jimmy Gallagher.”
“I remember,” said the voice. “It’s been a long time.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but not long enough.”
He thought he heard something that might have been a laugh. “Well, what can I do for you, Mr. Gallagher?”
“Charlie Parker was just here. He’s asking questions about his parents. He said something about blood types. He knows about his mother.”
There was silence on the other end of the line, th B athe line,en: “It was always going to happen. Eventually, he had to find out.”
“I didn’t tell him anything.”
“I’m sure that you didn’t, but he’ll come back. He’s too good at what he does not to discover that you’ve lied to him.”
“And then?”
The answer, when it came, gave Jimmy his final surprise on a day already filled with unwanted surprises.
“Then you might want to tell him the truth.”