"Well, Jason, he said some real nasty things to me. Said I didn't want to hear what he had to say!"
"Like what?"
Tommy gave in to his urge and threw the screwdriver across the garage as hard as he could. It bounced off something metal and fell to the floor. "I don't really want to tell you right now, okay?"
"You have to, Jason! It's important!" Jason stepped over to Tommy, shoved him hard against the workbench and stuck his finger in Tommy's face. "If Tim said anything to you, then you gotta tell me. He was my best friend!"
Tommy tried to push Jason back, but Jason grabbed his arms and held on, pinning Tommy against the bench. "Did he say a name?"
"A name?" Tommy struggled to free his arms from Jason's grip. The two wrestled. Jason demanded to know if he said a name. Any name. "He just said we knew nothing! That I knew nothing! You knew nothing! Nobody did! Fuck, Jason! Let me go!" He again tried to push Jason away, but Jason wasn't about to let up. The two wrestled against each other. "The only thing he said before he finally ran off was, well… he said that it was dad that beat him up yesterday!"
"What?" Jason replied confused. He relaxed his grip on Tommy. "I was with Tim when he was beat up, Tommy. He was beat up by Doogie, not dad. I was there. It was after the fight was over and Doogie and Willie took off that Tim finally broke down and told me what happened to him. He told me why he was upset. He even told me why he wanted to die. And it had nothing to do with getting beat up by Doogie."
"He never said anything like that to me. But he did say that dad did that to him," Tommy replied.
Jason hesitated and collected his thoughts before he spoke.
"Someone had been molesting him. He told me he had been buggered and that he didn't know what to do about it. He clammed up when I asked him who it was. He wouldn't tell me. I tried and tried to get him to tell me who it was, but he wouldn't say."
Tommy stared dumbfounded at Jason. It took only a moment, but he finally connected what Tim had been trying to tell him. Tommy never saw it. Neither did Jason. No one did. Tommy glanced to the door of his dad's physiotherapy room next to the garage, and he suddenly remembered all of the one-on-one sessions his father had with Tim in private to improve Tim's hockey performance. The new season had just started, and Tim was once again getting a lot of after school and late night, one-on-one practices with his dad these past few weeks. He received more private sessions than he normally did, it seemed, and definitely more than the other boys.
Tommy screamed like he had just died inside, and with a sudden furious explosion of rage, tossed Jason easily away from him onto the floor in a heap. He spotted an axe in the corner and rushed over, grabbed it and swung as hard as he could at his dad's BMW, crushing the right headlight in.
"What the hell!" Jason yelled as he lay on the floor of the garage. He watched confused as Tommy raised the axe for a second blow.
Tommy moved swiftly to the other side of the BMW, and swung deliberately and accurately as he grimaced hard and smashed out the other headlight. Another swing and the mirror dangled down at an odd angle; one more and the windshield was crushed.
"Tommy! Stop it!" Jason screamed. "What are you doing?"
"Don't you see it, Jason? It was..." Tommy stopped and pointed to the house. "It was..." He couldn't use the word dad. "Him!" He thrust his finger towards his dad's office, held it there and stared down at Jason.
Jason stared at Tommy in disbelief. "Dad? What...?" Then it clicked for Jason too.
Tommy turned and stomped out of the garage towards the house with the axe still in his hand. Jason stayed on the floor and cried. He now understood why Tim refused to tell him who did this to him.
CHAPTER 15
Tommy entered the house through the back door and stepped into the kitchen. He scanned the area for his dad but didn't see him anywhere. He checked the great room and the living room, but his father wasn’t there. "Of course," Tommy thought to himself. He knew where he would find the bastard.
He strode quietly down the hall to his dad's study and paused momentarily at the door. The axe hung down by his leg. His father spent a lot of time in the study when he was home, usually with the door closed. Today the door was slightly ajar. Tommy listened and could hear sounds from the other side like muffled voices as if a television set was on in the background.
Tommy took a deep breath and let the anger drive him on inside.
He took one step inside and looked around. The office was large, fronted by a beveled glass bow window covered in dark shears. A large river rock fireplace covered the entire wall at the back of the room opposite the window. His father's large maple office desk sat just in front of the fireplace facing out towards the window.
Tommy moved further inside and stopped in the centre of the room. He looked all around the room in search of his father and the sounds he heard. He looked towards his father's desk and the fireplace behind it. His jaw dropped open as he stared forward. The centre of the fireplace didn't look right. It was at an odd angle with the right side pushed backwards. He continued to stare at the fireplace and he suddenly realized there was a secret room hidden behind it. He listened, and once again heard the sound of voices. The sound came from within the darkened room behind the fireplace. His father was in there somewhere. He peered in from where he stood, but it was too dark to see anything clearly. There was only a bit of shifting light that emanated from within, but it wasn't enough to discern anything inside the room with clarity.
He crept slowly forward, the axe now clenched tightly in both his hands. He moved up to the fireplace hearth and prepared to step inside. He suddenly heard the voice of his dead friend, Tim, and he stepped back a few steps, startled by what he had heard. Tim's voice was soft, and he said things Tommy didn't want to hear. Disturbing words. Words that should never be uttered by anyone.
Tommy listened as Tim's voice continued to speak in a soft, delicate manner of horrid unimaginable things. Tommy's father suddenly burst forward from the darkness towards Tommy, and caused him to step back away from the hearth. His father stopped just inside the entrance and Tim's voice went silent with a click. His father emerged from the secret room, his ashen face contorted into a strange, horrible expression of anger mixed with surprise.
Tommy's mind began to spin away in manic chaos, and he knew he couldn’t stop himself after hearing Tim's voice inside that dark room uttering those sickening words. He knew what his father was doing in that room and it angered him to a level beyond his control. His father took another step from the hearth into the room, and Tommy poised himself to react.
It was his friend and teammate that his father had violated.
His father spotted the axe Tommy was holding. He raised his arms defensively into the air as shock stretched gruesomely across his face. He sputtered out some incoherent words, but Tommy couldn't hear them. He pleaded with Tommy to put the axe down, but Tommy only heard his friend's quiet cries as his thoughts continued to spin around in a furious confusion of anger and loss.
Tim would never speak again. Tim would never smile again.
His father stepped further into the room towards Tommy and paused. One tear fell down his right cheek, but Tommy only saw Tim's many tears.
Tommy didn't even know he was doing it until he saw the axe embed itself deep into his father's chest. His father fell first to his knees, and then he slumped onto his side facing Tommy. Tommy instinctively swung again. This time, the axe sliced even deeper. The blood spewed out and sprayed onto the camel-coloured area carpet and across the desk. It left an arc of blood drops across the papers set out on the surface.
Tommy continued to swing the axe over and over; his deep rage still was not satisfied. The blood sprayed and covered Tommy, the desk, the carpet and walls. It was everywhere.
Only Jason's voice finally made him stop swinging and turn around. He looked at Jason and then down on what he had done. Bloo
d covered his clothing, arms, trousers, and even his face. Jason ran over frantically to see for himself and then grabbed the axe away from Tommy, horrified. He stared at his father's mutilated body on the floor.
"I had to Jason," Tommy said weakly.
Jason continued looking down at his father and said nothing. Shock overwhelmed him and rendered him speechless.
Peter Oliver's chest was a mangled cavity, and his blood had already begun to pool and soak into the carpet.
"What did you do?" Jason suddenly screamed. "Tommy!" he shouted in disbelief and terror.
Tommy looked down at his father's body and shrugged.
"Tommy! You killed him!"
Jason began to pace around his father's body and he looked Tommy up and down. His mind was awash with anguish and fright. "Shit! Tommy! Holy shit! What the hell?" He ran one hand through his thick black hair in disbelief while still staring at his father's lifeless body. He began to tremble. He struggled to find some reason behind what his brother had done, but a new panic forced its way forward. "We can't stay here," he exclaimed in a shaking voice. Jason looked around quickly scanning the room and the windows and tried to comprehend the situation that now confronted them. He suddenly spotted the open cavity behind the fireplace.
"What is that?" Jason asked nervously and pointed toward the secret room.
"It's just a room. I will tell you about it later. Let's just get it closed for now."
Tommy had expelled an enormous amount of emotion and energy hacking his father to death, and a strange calmness overtook him. He moved up to the secret room and set one blood covered shoe inside the small room.
"C'mon," he said calmly. "Now."
Jason followed and stepped forward to help Tommy. Both boys grabbed onto the fireplace from the lip of the opening and pulled hard, which caused it to swing outward until it closed and latched in place, hiding the room once again. The bloody footprints of the two boys remained inside the room and on the hearth.
"Tommy, we gotta leave!" Jason shuffled over to the office doorway, still highly agitated and on edge. He began to bounce up and down and looked anxiously about the room. "Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" he shouted. He still didn't believe what he had just witnessed. The air was getting thin, and Jason struggled to keep it together.
"Not yet." Tommy moved around his father's body to the far side of the desk.
Jason continued to bounce up and down, and the dreadful panic etched itself deeper and deeper as he waited for Tommy to do something. Anything.
Suddenly there was a sharp creak from behind Jason. Jason recognized the sound immediately, having walked the hallway outside this room for many years. He looked up to Tommy and towards his father's body. He couldn't see the body behind the desk but the blood was clearly visible. The blood was everywhere. He wanted to say something to Tommy, but there was another yet louder creak, and then another. Somebody was only steps away from entering the room.
A shadow suddenly popped through the entrance of the doorway and crawled forward across his shoes from behind. Jason didn't know what else to do. He turned and swung the axe in the direction of the doorway as hard as could. He wasn't sure why. Years later, he would still wonder and often cry over why he responded in that way. Maybe it was from seeing his brother do the same just a few minutes before, or maybe it was just outright, bone-deep panic that held him.
The axe had not even hit its target before Jason wished the axe would stop. He saw who it was that had stumbled in. But the axe wouldn't stop. It carried forward on its arc. Jason opened his mouth to scream, but only air rushed out. He watched in horror as the axe he held onto tightly with both hands cut through the air and sliced through his mother's upheld hand. The momentum forced her hand along with the axe until it was pinned to her body. The axe carried on through her coat and dress and finally embedded itself deep into her heart. She turned to him. Her blue eyes were wide open and full of fear. Her mouth was agape in a silent scream.
Jason continued to hold the axe as his mother dropped to the floor, her eyes questioned "why" until she finally landed in the doorway with her gaze locked on Jason. He let go of the axe handle, stood up and quickly turned away from the gruesome sight of his mother on the floor with the axe embedded in her chest. He could hear the gurgle of her last breath behind him. The reality of what he had done shot another dose of adrenalin through his already energized veins.
"No! No! No!" he screamed in disbelief of what he had just done.
Jason didn't even hear his brother's screams and curses until Tommy began to beat Jason about the head from behind.
Jason turned around and the two boys faced each other, screamed, and cried while Tommy continued to beat Jason about the head. Tommy stared behind Jason at his dead mother and suddenly his punches lost their energy. The two boys collapsed into each other's arms and held each other crying and sobbing.
"I didn't know," Jason said. "Where did she come from?" Tommy hushed him and held him tight.
The boys stood there in each other's arms, neither sure how nor why it had come to this.
Jason let go of Tommy, turned to his mother, and dropped to his knees. "Oh mom. I'm sorry. I am so sorry," he cried. He buried his face into her bosom and hugged her, ignoring the blood as the last of it leaked out around her body. He cried and cried. "Why mom? Why did you have to come home? I am so sorry."
Tommy pulled Jason away from their mother after a few minutes and held him tight again. Both boys emitted body-wracking, ragged-breathed sobs. Jason pushed Tommy away and fell to his knees again. He started to retch as reality finally permeated and the seriousness of what had just happened sunk into his consciousness. He continued to retch until he brought nothing up. He glanced over repeatedly to his mother's lifeless body. He felt his heart snap inside, and he knew there was neither recourse nor reason for what he had done. He had no more words to speak and simply reached out for his brother. He was all he had left now. Tommy grabbed hold and led Jason away from their dead mother until they could no longer see her body broken in the doorway. The two stopped and stared down at their father's mutilated body. There was no happiness in what Tommy did to him, but there was neither guilt nor shame from either son.
Tommy stepped up to the desk, picked up the phone and looked at Jason.
Jason began to shake and cry. He shook his head hard, and then turned away from his father's body. His shoes tracked the blood away with each step. He pulled the axe from his mother's chest and carried the axe in both hands over to Tommy. Tears trickled out as he spoke. "Why did you do have to do this, Tommy? Why?"
Tommy wiped his eyes. "Because of Tim," he said. "I couldn't..." He looked over to the fireplace and recalled what he had seen and heard inside. He couldn't tell Jason about it. "I couldn't let him get away with it."
Jason looked down at his dead father. "He didn't," he replied simply. Jason continued to stare at the body and said suddenly, "We should leave."
"No! We can't run away. Where would we go?" Tommy still held the phone in his hand. He hoped Jason would see it was the only way.
"We'll go to jail if we stay here!" Jason cried. "I don't want to go to jail."
Tommy knew what every kid knew about the justice system in Canada. "We're both under eighteen. What can they do to us?"
"But Tommy..."
Tommy interrupted, "We're young offenders. They may lock us up for a bit, but it won't be a prison. That I know. We'll only be locked up for a while."
Jason listened to Tommy's words. He had heard about how young offenders can get away with murder and not do any time. Just a bit of lockup, and they would be free. "You sure about this?" he asked and attempted to dry his eyes.
Tommy shrugged. "It's just what I've heard." He looked down at the phone he held in his hand and then back to Jason. "And I really think it's best, don't you? I don't think running away will get us anywhere."
Jason's
suffering was intense and was etched in his grimace. He really wanted to believe Tommy. An overwhelming sense of loss washed over him. Both his parents lay dead on the floor by his and Tommy’s hands, and he had no idea what he should do. He nodded finally and committed himself to follow whatever Tommy suggested.
Tommy paced the room. Jason waited for Tommy to say something. The air in the room seemed to grow cold and the silence brought with it a truth and clarity that their lives were never going to be the same. There was no more happy family. There was no more future for the star hockey player. There was no more hockey of any kind. It was suddenly all gone. Erased.
After another few minutes, Tommy cradled the phone to get a dial tone and dialled 911 without saying a word.
While the two boys waited for the police and emergency crews to arrive, Tommy outlined exactly what they were going to say to the police. They agreed to admit to what occurred and then say no more. Tommy insisted it was important that they not say why this happened.
"Why not?" Jason asked. "Everyone should know why."
"Think about Tim. Think about our mother. Everyone thinks Tim killed himself because he was bullied. Let them think that. There is nothing to be gained by telling what our dad did to Tim. It would bring shame to Tim and shame on our family name. Just think about our mom!"
Jason tried not to look over to his mother's body, but couldn't help himself. "It doesn't seem right." He turned and looked at his father's body and began to cry again.
Tommy stared at the fireplace and remembered the words he heard coming from inside. "Trust me, Jason. And no one is to ever know about that room behind the fireplace."
Jason gazed at the fireplace and wiped the tears away. He was puzzled by Tommy's request to keep the small room a secret, but he nodded again. He squeezed the axe between his fingers and waited for the approach of the sirens.
CHAPTER 16
Gerald arrived home at his usual time, shortly after five o'clock. He was prepared for how it always went down after one of those crazy nights. Sarah would once again have dinner ready at the table, and he would arrive home on time. The meal would be perfect, hot and steaming. His cold beer would be set out with a glass this time, which he would use, but only as a gesture of apology. The house would be spotless, the floors and counters gleaming with a shine eliminating any evidence of the charade the night before. Gerald would set himself gently at the table across from Sarah. The conversation would remain light and stay clear of anything to do with the night before. It would only be after the table was cleared that Gerald would offer his version of the apology, promising that if she didn't provoke him so much he wouldn't have to hit her. She always agreed. The dance would be complete.