“No, no. What you liked about it.”

Tesla glanced at Richardson and Leland.

“No, no, Felix,” Quillan said. “Over here. Tell me.”

“It was nice.”

“How nice?”

“Like a girl’s,” Tesla said.

“You mean soft?”

Tesla nodded.

“No, no, Felix. We always talk. We always say the words.”

“It was soft.”

“Louder.”

“It was soft!”

“Did you kiss him?”

“Y-yes.”

“You used to pretend he was a girl.”

Tesla nodded.

“Felix?”

“Yes.”

“What did you do with his pecker after you cut it off?”

“Nothing. I didn’t cut it off.”

“He used to tease you, didn’t he?”

“Yes.” When Leland had left, four hours ago, Tesla had not been willing to admit this.

“He used to call you names. What names?”

“Bull. Stud. Names like that.”

“He used to tease you in bed. Tell us how.”

Tesla shook his head.

“Now, Felix, we’re not going to have that.”

“He used to make me beg.”

“On your knees?”

“On my knees.”

“What else?”

“I had to kiss his foot.”

“You wanted to hit him.”

“Yes.”

Quillan scratched the back of his head, a signal. This was something new.

“You wanted to punish him.”

“Yes.”

“He used to tease you.”

“Yes.”

“He called you names.”

“Yes.”

“He thought you were stupid.”

“Yes.”

“And he laughed at you,” Quillan said.

“He called me names,” Tesla said.

“You hated him, didn’t you?” Quillan asked.

“I hated what he did to me. I wanted to hit him.”

“Now, that Friday night, what did you fight about?”

“He wanted me to leave. He didn’t want me living there anymore.”

“You wanted to stay.”

“Until I found a job,” Tesla pleaded. “But he wanted me out right away. I had those few dollars saved—I didn’t want to spend it. I didn’t have to, but he wanted me out.”

“So you went out.”

“To calm down. That’s right.”

“And when you came back later, the argument started again, he was just as insistent as before, and he called you names again. He went too far this time, and you hit him.”

Tesla stared at him. He began to bang his fists together furiously.

“He teased you,” Quillan said, leaning forward. “He teased you and called you names. He teased you and you hit him. You hit him on the head until you killed him.”

Tesla moaned. His eyes closed, but before they did, Leland could see the pupils roll back.

“You killed him, Felix. You cut him with a knife and threw the knife and his fingers off the Harbor Bridge. That’s really what you did, isn’t it? You did the killing, Felix. You smashed in his skull. How many times? How many times did you keep hitting him?”

Tesla nodded.

“Say it, Felix!” Quillan screamed.

It came out, hardly audible.

“Louder!”

“I killed him,” Tesla said softly.

“And you threw the knife off Harbor Bridge?”

“Yes!” And he bent forward and vomited.