Red Clover Read Free

want to tattle on Nelson. “I just found it.”
    “You have to tell me the truth. You didn’t just find it. Where did you get it?”
    He didn’t respond.
    “From another boy?”
    Lee remained silent.
    “You’re making this harder than it has to be.” She paused. “If you don’t tell me, I’m sure your father will get to the bottom of it. Now tell me where you got it.”
    “In Nelson’s room.”
    “Don’t lie to me. He would never have such a thing in his room.”
    “Okay. Don’t believe me. I don’t care. It wasn’t what I was looking for in the first place. I just ran across it in a drawer. It was just there, so I looked at it. I think I must have fallen asleep ‘cause when I woke up, I saw all the police cars out front.”
    “But we searched that room.”
    “There’s a space in the closet, behind the brown dresser, by the window. I was back there.”
    “Good heavens. Do you have any idea how we worried when we couldn’t find you?”
    “No.”
    “We didn’t know if you had run off, were kidnapped, or what.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    His mother heaved a sigh and turned toward the door. “Someone will be in to check on you a little later. Try to get some rest.”
    “Mother?”
    “What is it?”
    “Who’s turn was it to watch me today?”
    “Apparently there was a scheduling misunderstanding with Kate.”
    “Is she here now?”
    “Kate is no longer with us. Your father took care of that.”
    Lee waited for the maid to check in on him before climbing out of bed and tiptoeing down the stairs to the second-floor landing. He positioned himself behind the tall potted plant where he knew he could hear what was going on in the front foyer without being seen. His parents’ voices were low but audible.
    “...and I’ll say it again,” his father was saying. “There’s something wrong with that boy, and the sooner you take care of it, the better off we’ll all be.”
    “And I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,” his mother responded. “It’s not that easy. He hasn’t been seeing Dr. Jerry for that long, and I think he’s making headway. I just wish you'd be more—”
    “The boy doesn’t need some fancy shrink to see what’s wrong with him. Send him off to Hampshire like I suggested a year ago. They specialize in kids like him. It’s not that far from the New York apartment. You could stay there and be near him.”
    “First of all, it’s more than two hundred miles from our apartment, and secondly, I am not sending him off to some boarding school. That’s not the answer.”
    “Well, he doesn’t fit in here, and if you’d like me to go into the reasons why, just let me know. And this last incident is just—”
    “This may come as a shock to you, but that Playboy magazine came out of Nelson’s room.”
    “I suppose he told you that. And, of course, you believed him.”
    “I believe him.”
    “Don’t be so naive. He’s lying, and that makes the whole situation worse. Now we can’t trust him. Look, you’re ultimately responsible for half of Evanston’s police force on our doorstep looking for that kid. It’s a good thing they don’t charge for their services. Would you like me to calculate just how much that would cost?”
    “You’re all about money.”
    “You bet I am. And you can also bet our two sons will take after me.”
    Lee heard footsteps and got ready to flee.
    “Do what you want. I don’t care,” his father said.
    A door slammed.
    Lee huddled behind the planter, ready to run to his room if he heard his mother coming up the stairs. Instead, he heard her crying.
    He couldn’t bear to hear her sobs and wanted to run to her and tell her everything would be all right. He forced back his own tears. He needed to be strong.
    On the way back to his bedroom, Lee went to Nelson’s room and slipped the Swiss Army knife into his brother’s desk drawer. Back in his own bed, he replayed his parents’ conversation in his head.
    So many of the things his father