He continued, “I was supposed to graduate from high school when I was fifteen. I should have been halfway through college by now. But whoever put me in this wheelchair took all that away. And they took my father.”
“Everybody says it was an accident.”
“Everybody’s wrong. Somebody tampered with the brakes.”
“Warrensburg,” I said, “you’ve already told me that your dad left you out here in the car. Who was it? Who tampered with the brakes?”
He hung his head and mumbled, “I fell asleep.”
“What?” I heard him; I just wanted to make him say it again. And he did.
“I fell asleep.”
“You didn’t see anything? You didn’t hear anything?”
He lifted his head, took a deep breath, looked at me and said, “No. No, I didn’t see anything. No, I didn’t hear anything. But don’t you imply it didn’t happen. Somebody tampered with those brakes.”
“The police inspected the car?” I asked.
“Car was too mangled,” he replied.
“So how do you know . . .”
“Because,” he said, “I know. I just know.”
In Stephen Warrensburg’s universe two plus two can equal whatever he wants it to.
11
It should have ended right there.
There in the overflow parking lot before we ever made the turn down toward the observatory, it should have ended. I should have walked away. Never should have said another word to Stephen A. Warrensburg.
Maybe one day I’ll learn to keep my mouth shut.
Maybe not.
“Warrensburg,” I said, “I’m going to give you a break, because I can’t imagine what it must be like . . .”
“Don’t feel sorry for me, Caldwell,” he cut me off. “I don’t need your pity.”
“All right, then. Let me tell it to you like it is. If you’re half the genius you claim to be, you know you need evidence before you can just know something.”
“Oh, yeah, then how do you just know that your dad was not involved in all this?”
“Involved in all of what?” I shouted. “You’ve thrown wild accusations at all of your dad’s closest friends, including your own mother, and you’ve got no reason, got no facts, you just know.”
“Yeah? I’ll tell you what I just know. I just know that my mother and your father are lovers.”
I hit him right smack in the nose.
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