17

“Who’s there?”

Flip could hear Jason breathing like a locomotive. “Did I scare you?”

“Who is . . . ? Phil?”

“Yeah.” Flip settled onto the arm of the sofa. He twirled his penlight in his fingers. He wanted to switch it on to see the expression on Jason’s face, but he left it off. The darkness was better. It was always better.

“You break into my house? What’s the matter with you?”

“You don’t return my calls. Not very polite.”

Jason snorted. “You don’t know anything about polite. When did you get out?”

“A while ago.” Something Jason was holding gleamed momentarily in the faint light from outside. “What’s that you got there?”

Jason hefted it. He went to a lamp and felt around underneath the shade.

“It’s a bat, isn’t it? You got a baseball bat.” Flip wanted to laugh at him or take it from him.

Jason clicked the lamp switch, trying to get the bulb to light without electricity. “Did you mess around with my circuit breaker?” Then he froze. “Oh no. It was you.”

“What was?”

“Tell me you didn’t do it. Tell me you didn’t kill Greg.”

“Who’s Greg?”

“Tell me you didn’t break into Kathy’s house and kill her son.”

“All right.”

Behind Flip’s back, the battery-operated clock in the kitchen ticked. Jason’s heavy breathing was the only other sound in the house.

“I didn’t think even you could sink that low.” Jason’s voice sounded strained.

“Where’s Serena? You two getting along?”

“We’re not done with Greg yet.”

“Yes, we are.”

Jason stepped to him. Against the streetlights filtering through the curtains, he was a black silhouette. His shape reminded Flip of how it used to be between them, and all the old emotions began stirring heavier inside him, anger ahead of them all.

“I’ll turn you in.”

Flip laughed. It felt good, like an antidote to the fury. “No. You won’t do that.”

“I will. I swear it.”

“Sure. Think how much it will mean to your career.”

Jason was silent. Flip let his words take root.

“I was hoping Serena would be home. It’s been a long time.”

The grinding of Jason’s teeth sounded wooden in the darkness. “What do you want, Philip?”

Flip angled the penlight at him and turned it on.

Jason put a hand up to shield his eyes. “Turn that thing off.”

He did. “Just wanted to see your face. We don’t look like each other much anymore. Remember when we were little, how people used to say we could be twins?”

“We were never alike.”

“We were always alike. The only difference between us was I knew it and you didn’t.”

“No.”

Snickering sizzled out of Flip’s nostrils. “Still denying it. I figured maybe you’d understand things a little better after all these years.”

“I’m going to ask you again. What do you want?”

“How’s Dad? I haven’t been to see him yet.”

“Stay away from him.”

“How can I do that? Our dear papa. He must be worried sick about me.”

“He gave up on you a long time ago. Just like the rest of us did. Why did you come back? Why don’t you just go away forever and put us out of our misery?”

“No, you’re not getting rid of me that easy. You owe me, Jason.”

“I don’t owe you anything.”

Flip jumped off the sofa. Jason couldn’t back away fast enough. Flip grabbed fistfuls of Jason’s collar. “You owe me everything.”

The aluminum bat gonged against the carpet. Jason dug his nails into Flip’s wrists. “Let go of me, Phil.”

“Everything.” Flip smelled wine on Jason’s breath. He shoved him, releasing his collar.

Jason stumbled into a table.

Flip lifted the bat from the floor and ran his palm along the barrel. “If it wasn’t for you, I never would’ve done any of the things I’ve done.”

“You can’t blame me for that. I never wanted you to do any of it.”

“I do blame you for it. All of it.”

Jason came toward him. “Fine. Go ahead and blame me. I don’t care. Blame me for all the stupid things you did. It doesn’t make any difference. But stay away from me. Stay away from Serena. Stay away from Dad. Stay away from the people I work with, and stay away from their families.”

“Your family. It’s my family too.”

“Not anymore. And it’s too late to go back after what you’ve done. I can’t believe you could do that to Kathy. Now it’s too late, Phil.” The toes of his shoes tapped against Flip’s. His winy breath puffed against Flip’s cheeks. “I ever see you again, I ever hear you’ve gotten anyplace near my family or my friends, I’m going to blow the whistle. No matter what it does to my career.”

Jason’s eyes, even this close, were invisible in the darkness of his face with the lighted window behind him. It would be so easy to close those eyes for him, forever.

He clenched his fist and plunged it into Jason’s belly.

Jason doubled onto Flip’s arm. His knees gave out. Flip had him by the armpit and lowered him to the floor.

He bent over him, put his mouth to Jason’s ear. “I’m not going away, Jason. I’ll be right here, close.” He put the end of the bat against Jason’s cheek. “I might need something now and then. And you’ll give it to me.”

Without breath, Jason tried to speak. It sounded like he was trying to threaten Flip again.

“No, you won’t turn me in. It would destroy your precious career. You know it, and I know it. Big banker with a convict brother? Not to mention what I could tell them about you. You’d lose it all. The job, the wife, the house. You’d have nothing. Then you really would be like me.”

He shoved Jason’s face into the carpet and walked out.