DEAD CONNECTION : a novel by Charlie Price

« JANOCHEK

DEPUTY ROMAN GATES

My son might have wound up fried like the Compton kid, but that’s a hell of a lot better than winding up dead. Compton’s— excuse me, Mr. Robert Barry Compton— is a strange kid but he’s a good kid. Wants to do the right thing most of the time. Wants to make it on his own. I admire that. I’d have wanted my son to have those qualities. I think my gambling and losing everything, and his mom leaving us, I think that was a little too much for my boy to handle. Maybe if I’d been a better parent when he was younger. Paid more attention. Made him feel more loved, more listened to, more special, he wouldn’t have to have fallen over the edge with the drugs. I wasn’t there for him like I should have been and he got careless, probably because life didn’t seem that valuable. If his parents were an example of what was going to happen when you grow up, why bother? God, I’d give anything to have another chance at his childhood. But life doesn’t work that way. So what I can’t give to him anymore, maybe I can give to someone else.
Maybe down the line I can give something to Peggy, too. I sure like her. She’s fun, and sharp, and . . . Well, we’ll see.
And this Kiefer boy. Hoowee, what a strange duck! I’m a hundred percent sure he didn’t kill her. He wouldn’t have been around the high school at that time, doesn’t have a car, and so on, but I’m not sure he didn’t see her get buried. Talk to the dead! I just can’t get my mind around that, no matter what Janochek says. There’s got to be some other explanation. You know what really truly pisses me off? Lately I’ll be driving and I’ll start thinking about taking Kiefer over to my son’s grave and asking him to try to talk with him. There are so many things I’d like to know. I do know one thing. Drum’s right. Some part of me has gone right around the bend.

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