He took bites of his cake, concentrating on that, but some trick of the acoustics of their small house seemed to bring the quiet conversation right to his ears.
“What’s going on, Heather?” Jeanetta asked, worry obvious in her voice.
“Um . . . I know I need to tell you something, but it’s very hard,” answered Heather.
“Go ahead, Heather,” came Jake’s voice. “No matter what it is, you can tell us.”
There was a sound like Heather taking a deep breath. “I lied to you about the movies.” There was a slight pause. “Jillian and I went to a dance club instead.”
“Dance club?” repeated Jeanetta. “What are you talking about?”
“We went to the Harvest Club. It’s a new dance club, so we went there instead.”
“But . . . but,” stammered Jake, “how could you get in there? Don’t they sell alcohol?” There was another pause. Heather must have been nodding her head.
“Well, I’m very glad you told us,” Jeanetta’s voice replied gravely. “You do know that we love you no matter what.”
Kevin could barely hear Heather whisper, “Yes.”
“You probably also know that you’re grounded,” Jake said solemnly. “I don’t know for how long because your mother and I are going to have to pray about it and come to a decision together.”
Kevin marveled. If it had been Pete, he would have blown his top completely, blasting Pete for lying, and probably would have automatically assumed that he was guilty of all kinds of other things. Lynn, on the other hand, would have made light of it, saying that kids are kids and will do what they want anyway. In fact, their totally opposite ways of handling Pete was much of what fueled their own relationship problems. But here, Jeanetta and Jake were obviously hurt, yet responding patiently . . . and they weren’t dismissing it either. Kevin found himself wistfully wishing that he was more like them.
“There’s more,” Heather said. “I . . . something happened. Jillian’s brother, Rich, showed up. He tried to make us leave, but the guy who got us into the club, his name is Gage, he . . . went off with Jillian. To a private room or something like that. Rich went to find them, and I followed him. Then . . . when he did. . . .” Heather’s voice began to waver; she sounded as though she was struggling to say the words. “He went into the room that Jillian and Gage were in. . . . I was outside the door. I think . . . I think that Gage killed him.”
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