راز وحشتناک

Chapter one

A Terrible Secret

School was finished and Mark had four cigarettes in his pocket. Other bays drank beer, and some tried drugs, but Mark just liked cigarettes. Now his little brother Ricky wanted his first smoke, and Mark felt terrible.

The boys walked down a narrow path into the trees behind their home. Home was a trailer in a trailer park in Memphis, Tennessee. Mom wasn’t back from work yet. Dad wasn’t there either. Mom left him five years ago because he was always drunk and often violent. Now Mark seemed like Ricky’s father. An eleven-year-old father. He taught Ricky to play football, to ride a bike, and everything he knew about sex, but he didn’t want to teach him to smoke.

‘Sit there,’ said Mark, when they reached his secret hiding place. ‘And let’s hear the rules again.’

Ricky knew them both. ‘If I tell anyone, you’ll hit me.’

‘That’s right.’

‘And I can smoke only one a day.’

‘That’s right. If I catch you smoking more, or if you start drinking beer.’

‘You’ll hit me harder.’

‘Right,’ said Mark. ‘Now watch me. It’s really easy.’

Ricky was soon busy blowing smoke like a man. Mark sat next to him and lit another cigarette. ‘I was nine when I started,’ he said. ‘You’re only eight. You’re too young.’

Ricky didn’t answer. He was listening to something. Then Mark heard it too, and they stopped smoking. ‘Just sit still,’ Mark said softly.

Through the trees they could see an old road, which nobody used any more. A long, black car appeared on the road and came slowly across the rough ground. It made a circle, then stopped. Soon the engine stopped too.

Hidden in the long grass behind the car, the boys watched the car. After a few minutes a fat man got out.

‘What’s he doing’ Ricky whispered. The man had a rubber tube. He put one end into the tail pipe of the car, and the other end through a window. He got into the car, closed the window as tight as he could and started the engine again.

‘He’s trying to kill himself,’ said Mark. ‘I saw a man do it like this in a film once.’

‘How long does it take?’

‘Not very long,’ said Mark, ‘but I’m going to stop him.’

Mark crawled to the car, pulled away the tube and crawled back. ‘Quick, let’s get out of here,’ said Ricky.

Suddenly the man got out of the car again. He had a bottle of whisky and a gun, and he was crying. ‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Ricky again, urgently.

Mark watched quietly. The man looked at the tube, he looked around, then he put the tube back into the tail pipe. He got back into the car with his whisky.

‘Mark, please, let’s go,’ said Ricky, and began to cry.

‘I’ll try one more time,’ said Mark.

Ricky watched his brother crawl forward again, and then the man saw Mark. He fell out of the car and grabbed him. ‘You little,’ he shouted, as he hit Mark. ‘Get into the car.’ Ricky, in shock and fear, wet himself.

The man pushed Mark into the car and hit him again. Then he laughed. ‘My name’s Jerome Clifford - Romey to my friends. What’s yours?’

‘Mark,’ said Mark.

Romey laughed. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘Take the whisky, son. Let’s die together.’

Mark took the bottle and pretended to drink. He smelled gas. He looked at the gun on the seat.

‘We’ll be dead in five minutes,’ said the man.

Mark looked in the mirror and saw Ricky crawling towards the back of the car. ‘Why are you doing this’ he asked.

‘Give me the whisky,’ said the man.

Mark looked at the man. If he gets drunk he might go to sleep, he thought. He passed the whisky.

‘It’s because of the body,’ said the man. ‘It’s at my house. I’m a lawyer. My client killed a senator. The FBI is looking everywhere for his body and my client hid it in my garage. Can you believe it? Right there, under my boat!’

Mark smelled the air again. No gas now, thanks to Ricky. ‘Who’s your client, Romey’ he asked.

‘Barry the Blade,’ said Romey. ‘He’s a member of the Mafia in New Orleans. Now he wants to kill me because I know about the body. But he can’t because the gas will kill us first.’ He laughed, and drank more whisky.

Soon he was drunk and asleep. Mark gently opened the car door and ran to where Ricky was hiding. ‘I pulled the tube out,’ said Ricky in a high voice.

Mark lit a cigarette and watched the car. Suddenly the door fell open and the lawyer came out with the gun in his hand. He saw the tube and started screaming. His wild red eyes looked round for Mark, but Mark was well hidden in the long grass. Then he stood still, put the gun in his mouth, closed his eyes and fired.

Ricky made a low noise, like an animal in pain, and ran.

Mark looked at the dead man and thought, ‘Here’s trouble.’ He followed Ricky home. When he got there he called 911 for the police. He knew that every 911 call was recorded.

‘There’s a body on the old road behind Tucker Trailer Park on Highway 17,’ he said.

‘We need your name, son.’

Mark said nothing, and put the phone down.