Albert shook his head slowly. “It’ll be okay. Brian was in the hospital all through the time that Frommer was missing. He has witnesses. It will be okay.” He paused. Worry crept across his face. “Unless . . .”

“Unless what?”

Albert rose and left the room without saying anything else. He went upstairs and lightly rapped on the door to his son’s room.

“Yes?”

He pushed the door open. Brian was in bed, his head on the pillow. He had his bedside lamp on and was reading a Sin City graphic novel.

“Got a sec?” Albert asked.

Brian put his book face down on the covers. “Sure.”

Albert came in and sat on the edge of the bed. “It’s good to have you home.”

“It’s good to be here. I think I might give up my apartment.”

“Well, get yourself well and then you can think about that. It might be the right thing to do.”

“The hospital gave me some pills. They’re kind of helping with the pain.”

“Good. That’s good. Look, there’s something we need to discuss.”

“Okay.”

“When I was driving around and found you, you told me about Ron Frommer, what he did to you.”

Brian nodded.

“Who else did you tell?”

“I didn’t tell anyone. Remember, I was afraid of getting him in trouble, in case he took it out on Jessica.”

“That’s right. So you didn’t tell them at the hospital?”

“No.”

“You didn’t tell the police?”

“No.”

Albert nodded. “Okay. It’s possible, there’s a chance, that the police might want to talk to you about him.”

“Did you tell them? Dad, I told you not to.”

“No, no, I didn’t do that. But if Jessica were to tell them about the two of you, then the police might come talk to you.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess. But only if she told them. Why would she do that? She’s not going to want to get him into trouble.”

“Well, she might,” Albert said. “You see, if anything were to happen to Ron, they’d want to talk to anyone who’d gotten into an argument with him in the last few days.”

Brian looked puzzled. “I don’t understand. Am I in trouble?”

“No. How could you be? You were in the hospital. If something happened to Ron, well, you couldn’t have had anything to do with it.” He paused. “But there’s one thing I need you to remember, in case anyone ever asks you any questions about him.”

“What’s that?”

“You never, ever told me his name. You never, ever told me where he lived.”

Brian’s look of puzzlement grew. “But I did.”

“No,” his father said firmly. “You did not.”

Brian let this sink in for a few moments. “Okay,” he said, finally. “I never did.”