Curtain Call (The Jewel Project #7)

40. All Hell

"I'm sure you are by now aware of the Saint Agnes fire," Snitch Gravel said after what felt like a too-long pause. "It was on the news a few years ago, and after what happened to your father..." He paused and clenched his fists. "I'll be getting to that as well."

"We know you didn't kill him, if that's what you mean," Sam said. 

The way the story was going intrigued and frustrated him at the same time. On one hand, he wanted every detail, on the other, he wanted to get to the point faster, to the other parts of the reason they'd been hunted down and stalked for their entire lives.

Sam's affirmation had Snitch Gravel freezing and looking at them suspiciously. "Who told you that?"

"Our mother," Jerry said. "Isn't it true?"

"I think that's something that should be left for later as well."

"You sure do keep putting a lot of things off," Angie observed. "Why are you still hiding things now when you want to lay them out?"

"Because spitting out secrets isn't all fun and games," Snitch Gravel said, his tone filled with snark. "Just like taking off a mask you've worn for thirty years isn't easy either," he added, much more subdued. "Which brings us back to December 1992."

"Were you really responsible for the fire?" Kay asked since Snitch Gravel seemed to have decided to keep quiet.

"I wasn't even there," he whispered, then looked up to them again. "That's the thing, really. A week prior, I'd gotten a call from Harvard and one from Princeton to go for interviews. Even if I was late, my applications were impressive enough to warrant going to the next step. I didn't tell anyone about this. I wanted it to be a surprise.

"My mysterious attitude didn't sit well with Millie. She already didn't like that I kept the Snitch Gravel aspects of my life from her. She assumed it was bad news again and got upset with me. When I left, I assured her that it would all be fine. She didn't believe me. I could see it in the way she huffed and looked in the opposite direction as I walked away.

"I didn't mind. She'd been really moody lately, nagging me more than ever about the whole Snitch Gravel thing, but I was sure she'd sing a different tune once I returned with the news that I was admitted into an Ivy League School. It would be the basis of our new life together.

"The fire, the riots and the mayhem happened while I was away." He paused for a moment as if to collect his thoughts. "By the time I came back, Von Crooken had already claimed the merits for the trampling, the looting, even the fire. Maybe I was wrong to leave when tensions were high, when Millie was obviously upset and vulnerable. Maybe..." His voice faded.

"Is this the moment you lost her?" Kyle asked.

Snitch Gravel nodded. "My Millie disappeared in that fire, and I never truly learned how. I didn't know it at the time, though. I still had hope for us, that she would believe I was innocent. I didn't see her then and in all the aftermath didn't have time to seek her out. This wasn't some shady back alley dealing of drugs, done by other men. This was arson, organized crime. Manslaughter. I was definitely looking at jail if anyone outed me as Snitch Gravel."

"Is this what our father did?" Jerry asked. "Did he out you?"

"Not exactly." Snitch Gravel rubbed his forehead, his eyes hazy and unfocused, as if he was still lost in the past. "My relationship with your father has always been complicated. Even if we couldn't really see eye to eye on anything, Ron bound us in ways that went beyond our feud. He was eight years older than me and the only slightly adult figure I had  after my father died. He also knew I was Snitch Gravel. So..." He groaned. "I went to him for advice."