It was in a way virtually hard to listen to. It was a torrent of information and emotions, just GUSHING out of him like a pent-up river suddenly free to start moving again. It was really easy to see this had been building up in him for a long time.
Marcus (a bit breathless after a long pause):
"The day Rick got here, he came here to the house and virtually never left. He and Frankie just circled the wagons and shut me and everyone else out. I thought at the time it was really weird, but they seemed not to care or even be aware of others or what we thought or anything.
"I could tell something was wrong but never could figure out what, but there was something wrong and it was very obvious. They would be whispering and then if I came up they would quickly shut up. It was just kinda nutty."
"Not even your brother ever told you what was going on?"
"Nope. Not then, never. I knew it must be something big but they wouldn't say what it was."
We began looking at each other.
"Hawney," Feelie asked him...
"Was there anyone else around them besides you?"
"Yeh, couple of the guys."
"Who Hawney? Donnie? Jimmy? Billy Wilder?"
Marcus seemed a bit stunned that we would know those names but continued unflustered.
"Yeh, sometimes. Donnie wasn't around much. He had his business to run I guess, but Billy and Jimmy were both here quite a bit."
"None of the other guys told you anything?"
"Nope. Guess they all thought I was too young or something."
"Do you know if any of them ever confided in anyone else besides your brother Frankie?"
"Sorry, no...and to be honest, I doubt it. They were a pretty tight-knit group. Always had been."
"So," Kip asked, "where is your brother now?"
I noticed a distinct hesitance, and a gulp, and a fidget.
Hmmm.
"I'm not really sure right now."
"Thanks Marcus. We'll be in touch," Kip told him and with that we left...and our leaving was pretty quiet. For us at least. Seems the more we delve the stranger this all gets...and more complicated to boot.
We had decided before we went to the Giordano house that after that we would try to find Donnie Brent, and we went to the service station Anna said he owns, but he wasn't there and nobody seemed to know where he was or when he would be back. I looked at Kip and Rose and could tell they too thought the guy we talked to seemed a bit odd.
Yeh, odd, but...
We then called Billy Wilder's father but again no answer and no clue when or where or if...
We headed back to the house to re-group.
CHAPTER XXV:
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