We all knew what had happened. Even though the paper didn’t name the rape victim. Everybody knew Brian was crazy jealous of Dean, and they’d all been seen together that night at the Wooden Nickel. The victim had a record, for criminal impersonation. The paper said Brian and Jimmy had been questioned in the case, and then released and were not suspects at this moment.
We had left him there alone in the parking lot with Brian and Jimmy. I’d wanted to take him home with me, but he wouldn’t go. Was afraid of leaving his truck there. His truck was all he had in the world. I wanted to get out of there. The violence of what they were doing to him frightened me, and Melanie’s anger. I was afraid she’d attack Brian physically and then get herself killed.
A few days after the item in the paper, Brian and Jimmy appeared again at the Wooden Nickel, Brian edgy and overfriendly suddenly, as if he knew he had almost been caught, eyes darting nervously about the room all the time, as if he was looking for someone, as if he was waiting for Dean to arrive. But he was defiant too, he knew he’d gotten away with it.
He disgusted me. I knew what he had done. He was the same as a killer almost. And I kept away from him. Brian was sickness and evil walking among us.
But most people seemed to tolerate Brian. They figured Dean had asked for it, taunting people with his disguise. Dean had challenged everyone, held himself up as a target. He had fucked with Brian. They figured Dean must have wanted it somehow. He was a weirdo, a freak, not subject to ordinary protections.
Meanwhile, Dean had completely disappeared this time. No one had seen him in days. And I knew, watching Brian and Jimmy, that they were uneasy about his absence, and perpetually on the lookout for him.