“Oh my God.”

“I say there are three of you,” Jesse said. “You holding her

hands, somebody else taking the picture, and a third party, off camera, holding her feet.”

“I didn’t do nothing.”

“Do you know Bo Marino?” Jesse said.

Kevin nodded. He looked as if he might collapse in his chair.

“Did he take these pictures?”

“I don’t know.”

“We found them in his possession.”

“I don’t know.”

“Was someone holding her feet?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who was holding her feet.”

Kevin began to cry.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“I don’t know anything.”

“Don’t yell at him,” Mrs. Feeney

said. “Leave him

alone.”

Jesse nodded slowly.

“Okay,” he said. “Kevin Feeney,

you are under arrest for sexual

assault.”

“No,” Mr. Feeney said.

“You have the right to remain silent,”

Jesse said. “Anything you

say can be used against you in a court of law.”

“Wait a minute,” Mr. Feeney said.

“Wait.”

“You have the right to an attorney to assist you prior to

questioning and to be with you during questioning if you so desire.”

“Don’t arrest him,” Mrs. Feeney

said.

“There must be something we can work out,”

Mr. Feeney

said.

“If you cannot afford an attorney you have the right to have one

appointed for you prior to questioning.”

“I don’t know a lawyer,” Mr.

Feeney said.

“One will be appointed,” Jesse said.

“Do you understand these

rights, Kevin?”

Kevin was crying noisily.

“Am I going to jail,” he said.

“At least until a judge sets bail,” Jesse said.

“Mom,” Kevin said.

“Oh God, Kevin,” she said.

“If he tells you?” Mr. Feeney said.

“I might not arrest him.”

“Tell him, Kevin.”

“I can’t rat out my friends.”

“Do you want to go to jail?” Mr. Feeney said. “Tell him, for

crissake.”

“They’ll be pissed at me,” Kevin

said.

He was able to speak briefly, between sobs. Jesse picked up the

phone.

“Molly, you or Suit come back here.”

Almost at once, Simpson opened the door.

“Take Kevin down to a cell and lock him up,” Jesse said. “Then

call the public defender’s office, tell him the kid needs a lawyer.”

Simpson put a hand under Kevin’s arm.

He said, “Come on, kid.”

Kevin was crying loudly. Mrs. Feeney was crying just as loudly.

Kevin’s father stood and leaned over his son.

“Was it Bo Marino?” he shouted at him.

“Yes,” Kevin said.

Simpson paused and looked at Jesse. Jesse made a wait-a-minute gesture.

“Who else,” his father shouted at him.

“Troy.”

“Troy Drake?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe you’ll sleep at home

tonight,” Jesse said.

33

Kevin had stopped crying. He was drinking a Coke.

Jesse said, “Who’s the girl,

Kevin?”

“Candy Pennington,” Kevin said.

“You’d have found out

anyway.”

“What happened?” Jesse said.

Kevin looked at his mother. No one said anything.

“It was Bo, really,” Kevin said.

“Me and Troy just went

along.”

Jesse nodded and waited. Kevin looked around. No one said anything.

“She was such a freakin‘

brownnose,” Kevin said.

“Kevin!” his mother said.

He didn’t look at her.

“Well, she was,” he said. “She

was always sucking up to the

teachers. Always acting like she was better than anyone else.”

Jesse waited. Kevin drank his Coke and didn’t say anything more.

The room was still.

“So you thought you’d take her down a peg,” Jesse

said.

“Yeah. Exactly. Bo said we should take her out in the woods and

pull her pants down.”

“Oh, Kevin,” his mother said.

“Embarrass her, you know. Maybe take a picture of her.”

Mr. Feeney had his head tilted back against his chair. His eyes

were closed.

“My God, Kevin,” Mrs. Feeney said.

“You’re not helping, Mrs.

Feeney,” Jesse said. “Let him tell his story.”

Mrs. Feeney clenched her hands together and pressed them against

her mouth. Kevin wouldn’t look at her.

“Bo told her a bunch of us were hanging out there, partying, you

know. So she goes out there with us and we, you know, did it.”

“What was ‘it’?” Jesse

said.

Mrs. Feeney made a little moaning sound into her clenched hands.

“You know, had sex. I mean we wasn’t going to, we was going to

just, like, look at her. But then Bo said we’d gone this far and

what the hell. And then he got on top of her.”

“And had sex with her?”

“Yeah.”

“And you?”

“Yeah, I went second.”

Mrs. Feeney moaned again. She was rocking slowly in her chair.

Mr. Feeney neither moved nor opened his eyes.

“And Troy Drake?” Jesse said.

“He went after me.”

“He had sex with her?” Yes.

“And how did she feel about this?” Jesse said.

Kevin shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“How did she act,” Jesse said.

“She was crying,” Kevin said.

“When Bo did it she tried to push

him off, but she couldn’t.”

“Did she say no?”

“I guess so, she was yelling help and stuff.”

“And with you?” Jesse said.

“She just laid there,” Kevin said.

“Was she still crying?”

“Yes, but that’s all. It was like she decided to go along with

it.”

“She have any other options?” Jesse said.

“I don’t know.”

“So then what happened?”

“Troy did her. Then we held her down while Bo took her picture.

Bo told her if she said anything we’d show everybody in school the

pictures.”

Mrs. Feeney continued to moan and rock. Mr. Feeney continued to

sit immobile with his head back and his eyes closed.

“I’m really sorry,” Kevin said.

“Mom, I am. I’m

sorry.”

“I tried,” Mrs. Feeney said into her clenched hands. “I tried

and tried to teach you to respect women. Didn’t I?

Didn’t I drum

that into you since you were little. To disrespect one woman is to disrespect us all. In shaming that poor girl, you shamed me.”

Mr. Feeney opened his eyes, and without lifting it, he turned his head toward his wife.

“You know, Mira,” he said. “This

really is much more about Kevin

and that poor girl than it is about you.”

“Oh, God,” Mrs. Feeney said and pressed her hands to her face

again and began to cry.

Jesse reached over and shut off the tape recorder.

“I’m going to have that

transcribed,” Jesse said. “Then I will ask you to sign it.”

“Okay.”

“Mr. Feeney, you’ll need to sign it too, I think, since Kevin is

not of age.”

Feeney nodded.

“If he testifies against the other boys,”

Mr. Feeney said, “can

he get a break?”

“When you have a lawyer,” Jesse said,

“your lawyer and the DA

can negotiate that.”

“Will you put in a word for him?”

“Yes.”

“He’s never been in trouble

before,” Mrs. Feeney

said.

“And now he is,” Jesse said.

“But he won’t have to go to

jail?”

“Mrs. Feeney,” Jesse said. “He

participated in the gang rape of

a sixteen-year-old girl. He’ll have to answer for that.”

“Oh, my God,” she said and cried harder.

34

Jesse’s condo was only a block away from the Gray Gull, and they

walked to it after dinner. There was a hard wind off the harbor and Abby put her arm through Jesse’s and pressed against him.

Inside

the condo Jesse poured them each a Poire Williams and they stood at the glass slider and looked out past his deck at the dark harbor.