The Last Handful of Clover - Book 2: Gifts Both Light and Dark

2.03 Honesty

June 8, 6:00 pm

Keith wondered, as they pulled into the parking lot at Trolley Square, if his mind had blocked out much of what happened at the hearing, or whether it had simply been too confusing for his brain to take it in. In those final, chaotic seconds, he had been struggling to keep his mind focused on what the judge was saying, even though all he really wanted to do was to stare at the man who had killed Richard.

That's him, he had been thinking. That's the man that stood on our porch, looked in the window at the two of us, and then fired a bullet through Richard's skull. Why? Why would this shy-looking boy do something so horrible?

He had been in the midst of those thoughts when the hearing room exploded all around him.

All he could recall clearly now was Howard Gunderson leaping over the red railing and landing in the aisle in a crouch, his left hand on the floor, and his right holding a blue ballpoint pen that he gripped like a knife. And then their eyes had locked, and the man was coming at him like a freight train. Keith was frozen, and for a fraction of a second, he thought for sure he was about to die.

So he wanted us both, he thought, and wondered if it would be his last.

He hadn't seen Pil strike the blow in the center of the boy's chest. But he saw Gunderson knocked back with such force that he wondered if he would have broken ribs. The blow severed their eye contact, and Keith was able to shake his head and remember where he was...

And then he was being picked up and hustled out of the courtroom, amid a lot of other screaming and flailing bodies. He didn't remember getting his feet under him, and he didn't remember telling his body to run. But he found himself supported between Michelle and Pil, sprinting out of the hearing room and heading toward the front exits of the Matheson Court House. Within thirty seconds of Pil landing that blow on Howard Gunderson's chest, the trio had burst into the sunlight and were circling the building, heading toward Big Bird in the parking lot behind the building. None of them spoke a word as they ran.

Fumbling for her keys and still shaking, Michelle started the SUV and tore out of the Matheson Court House parking lot. She ripped down Main, and then took a left through a yellow light onto 6th South, where she finally took the pressure off of the accelerator. They drove in silence for several blocks, until Michelle turned slowly onto 7th East, and then parked the SUV in the lot of Trolley Square, right under the old water tower.

They all let out a breath of relief when she put Big Bird in park and turned off the engine.

They sat silently for a long time, just listening to the engine tick as it cooled. Eventually, Keith opened his window and hung his head out like a dog, trying to get air.

Finally, Michelle broke the silence, looking at Pil in the rear-view mirror.

"How did you know to get us out of there so fast?" Michelle asked her husband.

Pil rolled down his own window, the sun pouring in on him in the back seat. His knuckles were white where he gripped the door of the car, and beads of perspiration stood out on his broad forehead. "I don't know," he said, taking a deep breath of the warm summer air. "But I figured they'd lock the place down once they got their wits about them. I didn't want us stuck in there and getting interrogated, either by the cops or the reporters. I thought the best thing to do was just get us out."

Keith turned in his seat to look at the big man behind him with gratitude. "Thank you, Beastie. I don't think I could have dealt with more questions."

"They may still call and want an interview or something," Michelle said with a sigh. She had calmed her trembling, and her voice had become steady.