Billy Bingo: The Forgotten Past
Chapter 6
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The trip back to Georgia was uneventful. When Billy unpacks his suitcase he finds the sketch that Tommy Harris had done of him. Tommy knew he had driven the car that killed George Destone. That realization bothers Billy. He considers destroying the sketch but he can’t bring himself to do it. He tucks the sketch beneath some old magazines in the bottom of a chest drawer.
Billy takes a shower and changes into some clean clothes. He sits down at the computer and sees if he can access the library news archive in Rockdale. He manages to pull up information on Tommy Harris’ death. Billy figures that Tommy killed himself or was murdered around 6 weeks after the death of George Destone. Tommy had time to go to the police but he didn’t.
Billy turns off his computer and lays down in his bed. It is good to be back in his own bed. Billy closes his eyes and quickly falls asleep. He begins to dream.
Billy is at Jimmy’s in the dream. They are playing with skateboards on a cement patio. Tommy walks out to the patio where they are playing. Tommy tells Billy, “I don’t want you playing with Jimmy any more. Don’t come back here.” Jimmy pitches a fit with his brother, telling him that he can’t tell him who he can and can’t invite over. Jimmy runs in to ask his parents to tell Tommy to leave Billy alone. In the dream Tommy yanks Billy up. “I don’t care what my parents say. You stay away from my brother.”
The dream changes. The door to Tommy’s bedroom is partially opened and Billy peeps in. Tommy is in his bedroom looking at a video. The video is of Billy’s mother being forced to have sex with George Destone and Ralph Shath in the abandoned garage.
Billy tosses and turns. “Stop hurting her. Please stop hurting my mother.” Billy realizes he is having a dream. “I don’t want to dream this. Please stop this.” Billy pictures himself as a ten year old. In the dream he has dissociated himself and it is as though he is watching a third person as he dreams of himself running into Tommy’s bedroom. He watches the ten year old boy jump on top of Tommy and start pounding him with his fist. “Why are you watching that? Stop watching that.”
The dream changes and again Tommy is telling him to stay away from his brother Jimmy. “Stay away from my brother. Stay away. Stay away.” The words keep repeating.
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Billy continues dreaming and sees himself Billy sitting alone and staring at the old car in the garage. Billy searches the garage for a gas can and hose to siphon gas with. Billy finds a can and hose and sneaks to Jimmy’s home. He sucks the gas out of Tommy’s car into the gas can. He takes the can back to the garage to put the gas in the old car. He finds the key to the car and cranks the car.
Billy wakes up. “Did Tommy have a video of mom being raped? Was that real? Did that happen?” Billy realizes how little he does remember. Mostly what he has remembered through the years is driving the car when he runs over Ralph Shath and George Destone. The rest has been hazy memories of spying on his mother and Bess. It is not something he has particularly much wanted to think about. If he had run into Tommy’s room and attacked him because of his watching the video, what happened next. Something had to have happened. If the incident was real, did it happen before or after Tommy told him to stay away from Jimmy.
Billy stands up. “The past is the past. There is nothing that can be gained by thinking about it and conjuring up old memories.” Billy finds that easier said than done.
Billy goes into the kitchen and gets himself a soft drink. He goes into the living room and sits with his mother. “Mom, Tommy Harris had a sketch of me driving the car that run over George Destone and Ralph Shath.”
Maureen Bingo isn’t sure how to respond or what to say. “I don’t understand.”
“I found the sketch among Clarices things when Bess and I were at the Cassidy home. I tore the sketch out of the pad. Tommy killed himself or was murdered 6 weeks after I killed George Destone. I just had a dream. In that dream Tommy Harris had a video of where George Destone and Ralph Shath raped you.”
“How would he have such a tape? They would not have given him the tape. He had to have stolen the tape.”
“It could just be a dream. I don’t remember seeing the tape like in a memory. It could just be a dream.”
“I know we haven’t much discussed what happened. Both of us have wanted to put it out of our mind. Still, I know you didn’t just wake up one morning and realize what was happening and decide to kill George Destone and Ralph Shath. I haven’t wanted to consider how you knew what was happening.”
“I have vague memories of sneaking back home and spying on you. I have a vague memory of going to the gas station which is where, in the dream, the tape was made. I don’t really remember that with Tommy but the dream makes me wonder.” Billy hesitates. “In the dream Tommy wanted me to stay away from Jimmy. I don’t know if that happened or when that might have happened.” Billy pulls out his cellphone. He calls Jimmy Harris. “Jimmy, are you busy or can you talk?” … “Steak. That sounds like some good eating. Look. I know this is going to sound weird to you but I had a dream and in that dream Tommy was in it.” … “Did Tommy ever tell me to stop coming over to your house and stop playing with you?” … “He did. Do you remember what that was about?” … “Even if he was just being an asshole there must have been something that triggered it.” … “He had helped me with a school project. I don’t remember that.” … “I made him angry when we were working together. Was that project something you and I were working on together? … “Your father was helping you with your project. I don’t remember it. It is strange.” … “Well, thanks Jimmy. I am sorry for interrupting your meal.” … “Yeah. I hope to come back to New York sometime soon as well. Bye.”
Billy stands up. “Do you remember me being helped on a project by Tommy Harris?”
Maureen thinks. “Yes. Now that you mention it. He helped you construct a volcano. Jimmy’s father was helping him and you didn’t have anyone helping you and it was Jimmy’s father who suggested that Tommy help you.”
“A volcano?”
“You made an A+”
“I don’t remember. Jimmy said that Tommy and I had some kind of fight while he was helping me to work on it.”
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“I don’t know anything about that.”
Billy calls Rachel. “Are you busy?” … “Would you mind going with me to visit some places around Rockdale?” … “I want to visit an old garage. I want to drive by where George Destone lived and Ralph Shath lived. I want to drive by where the Harris family lived.” … “There are some things I may have blocked out of my mind and I want to try to remember.” … “Sure. Dirk can come with us.” Billy hopes he does not sound jealous. … “I will see you and Dirk in the morning then.”
Maureen sighs. “Be careful dredging all of this up.”
“The dream I had bugs me.” Billy doesn’t tell his mother about what Hutch had told him about the Leg Man. Billy finishes his soft drink in a final gulp. “Still, I agree. Bringing people’s attention back to the deaths of George Destone and Tommy Harris will do no one any good.” Billy closes his eyes. “Still, there is something that makes me feel that I owe Tommy. He knew I killed George Destone but he did not go to the police.” Billy opens his eyes and looks at his mother.
Maureen nods.
* * *
Billy, Dirk, and Rachel go the the old garage where his mother had been forced to have sex with George Destone and Ralph Shath. It has been turned back into a working garage or something to appear so by George’s cousin Olivia Destone. At the moment the garage doesn’t seem much of a business.
Billy remembers following Kane Bishop and Sylvia Trundle to the garage from the parking lot of the Apartment where he lives. Then there they were at the Way Party.
Rachel points to a woman that is approaching them just inside of the garage. “That is Olivia Destone. She is older than me or Bess but I remember her.”
Dirk whispers to Billy. “I saw her at the Way Party.”
Pale as though she has just seen a ghost, with suspicion, thirty year old Olivia walks up to Billy. She is a tough looking woman. The slur in her speech suggest she has been drinking. “Can I help you with something?”
“Just revisiting the past.” Billy bites his lip as he looks around the garage.
There is an uneasy, but still a teasing sound, in Olivia’s voice. “You aren’t one of those who believes the garage is haunted, are you?” Olivia looks down and up almost simultaneously as she cocks her head to the side. There is now a sour tone in her voice. “Those stories don’t help business.”
“I’d never heard that it is haunted.” Billy looks around. “Who do people think is haunting the garage?”
Olivia straightens her head and looks Billy straight in the eyes. Olivia ask with a puzzled and disbelieving look. “Are you teasing me?”
Billy shrugs. He isn’t sure what to say.
“This is where Tommy Harris was found hanging some years ago.” Olivia scratches her head. She watches for Billy’s reaction but there isn’t much of one. She wonders if Billy is playing a game with her. She thinks she will play along. “Do you know the name?”
Billy remembers that Hutch has said that Olivia Destone is one of the people who know who the Leg Man is. If Clarice was able to recognize and realize that Billy is the Leg Man then it would follow that Olivia should also recognize him. “I do know the name. I recently went to his sister’s funeral. I didn’t realize this is where his body was found.”
“I read about Clarice.”
Rachel had been unable to find any local news stories on Clarice’s murder. Rachel ask, “What newspaper?”
Olivia looks distant. She ignores Rachel. “I am the one who found the body of her brother Tommy. The police ruled it a suicide but there was no suicide note. I’ve never been sure it was a suicide.” Olivia rubs her forehead and can’t decide whether she wishes she weren’t drunk or whether she wishes she had a bottle to get more drunk.
“Who do you think killed him?”
Olivia shrugs. Then she cringes. She is silent.
“You don’t have any theory on what happened?” Feeling deafened by Olivia’s silence, Billy ask another question. “What did you think of Tommy Harris?”
There are more moments of silence and then Olivia’s face brightens up with a smile. “I was older.” Olivia does something similar to a ballerina curtsy. “The older woman, Tommy would tease.” Olivia whirls around and then her face darkens. “Tommy was just seventeen. When I saw him hanging there with his neck broken and his tongue hanging out, it was the worse day of my life.”
“What about when your cousin George died.”
“Shit. I fucking hated George. He may have been blood but that boy was evil. Unlike George, Tommy didn’t come from a rich family. George got Tommy all messed up on drugs that he didn’t have the money to pay for so he’d do stuff. George once took him to a motorcycle club where horny riders hung out. Tommy was stoned out of his mind.”
A hammer falls off the wall for no reason and Olivia looks scared. “Why am I telling you this shit.”
“Tommy wasn’t always drugged out.” Rachel speaks up. “He run with a tough and somewhat odd crowd but I remember he usually did good in school.”
Olivia glares at Rachel. “You were friends with that crazy girl who dated George. Yeah, I remember you. Little snotty bitches; the both of you.” Olivia spits at Rachel. “Yeah, that other crazy girl came around here asking questions. I didn’t tell that bitch anything.” Olivia stomps her foot. “Oh God. You are doing research for her damned play. Shit. If I had known that I would not have been talking with you.” Olivia runs her hands through her hair. She spits at Billy. “You get out of here. Get the fuck out of here. All of you, leave!”
Dirk and Rachel start out of the garage. Then they stop when they see that Billy is not following. “Bess is my sister.” Billy shakes his head. “But I am not doing research for Bess. I know things I’ve never told Bess and that I will never tell Bess. Not because she is a bitch but because she is my sister and I do love her. Bess does not know George was evil but I do know.”
“Wait. Fuck. Shit.” Olivia scratches her head. “What is this game?” Her voice is loud and her words are slurred. Olivia grabs Billy’s hair and pulls it back from his face. She stares at his face. “You were always so pretty. Bess’ little brother.” Olivia drops her hands away from Billy’s face and whirls around and giggles. “Little Billy Bingo isn’t so little now but then the Leg Man never was. Yeah, first you stepped into this garage, I recognized you.”
Dirk speaks, “I recognize you. You were at the Way Party.”
“Me in New York. No.”
Rachel repeats what Olivia has said, “Little Billy Bingo isn’t so little now but then the Leg Man never was.” Rachel’s mouth falls open. “Oh, my God.”
Dirk ask, “What?”
Olivia winks at Rachel and then glares at Dirk and then looks back at Billy. She cocks her head. “Didn’t I tell you all to leave?”
Billy knows what Hutch has told him. “Olivia, were you and I friends? I don’t remember.”
Olivia doesn’t answer. She stands in silence.
Billy considers that people change but he doesn’t remember Olivia Destone. Hutch had mentioned her but Billy doesn’t remember her. Billy decides to start out of the garage.
“You know, I was stoned out of my mind when I got you to smoke that joint. Tommy was so mad at me when he walked in and there you were with that joint and high as a kite. High as kite!” Olivia runs and touches Billy’s face. “You would make a pretty kite.” Olivia winks and curls the corner of her lower lip up in an almost comical expression. “Now that you are grown we might could fly our kites together and by fly our kites together I do mean rub our nasties together.” Olivia laughs. “I am such a silly drunk.” Then Olivia frowns. Olivia moves her arm as though tossing an imaginary bottle as she screams, “You don’t even remember me.” Olivia takes hold of Billy’s shirt and pulls him close. Her voice is now soft. “You once told me that you would grow up and save me from this town.” Olivia lets go of Billy’s shirt and turns away from him. “You don’t remember when I was so afraid. In fear I did things and you don’t even remember me.” Tears stream down Olivia’s face as she turns back toward Billy. “Plain Olivia. No one remembers plain Olivia. No one wants to do business with plain Olivia.” Olivia screams. “I will not hate myself!” Olivia stomps her foot. “I will not kill myself. No one is going to find me with my neck broken and my tongue hanging out of my mouth.”
Billy touches Olivia’s face. “You are not plain. There is a beauty about you. You are a kind soul.”
“You remember those words you spoke to me. Of course you were jail bait and I am not a weirdo. You know. Still, the crush you had on me meant something.”
“I can’t remember. That is the trouble. It is not just you. I have hazy memories of some things but there are other things I don’t remember. Did I share things with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did I ever confide in you about things?”
Olivia looks at Dirk and Rachel. She then looks at Billy. “There is nothing worth remembering about those days. You don’t want to end up dead like Tommy or a drunk like me.” Then Olivia closes her eyes. “You were at the funeral of Clarice?”
“Yes.”
“These days, do you know Hutch Cassidy?”
“Not really. I met him but I don’t know him. Not really.”
Olivia grabs Billy and hugs him. “But you do know him and he knows you. Don’t trust him. Be afraid of him. Be very afraid of him. He plays the respectable man very well but he is not respectable.” Olivia pulls back away from Billy.
“Explain.”
“No. I told Tommy and Tommy is now dead. I am not going to tell you. It is enough that I’ve warned you.”
Billy changes the subject. “I remember Tommy being angry with me. Why was he angry with me? Do you know?”
“I don’t know,” is what Olivia says but her look suggest that she does know and is just not telling.
Even though Olivia is messed up, Dirk feels he might can help her. “I am going to come back here and if you are sober I am going to give you some work. If you stay sober I am going to give you lots of work.”
“Yeah, right.”
Billy takes Olivia’s hand and hold’s it. He wishes he could remember her, but he doesn’t. “I can’t help you but Dirk can. He is serious.”
Rachel opens her purse and pulls out pen and pad. “Make an appointment to see this doctor. Tell him that you are being sponsored by the Jenkins’ Foundation. He will help you get sober and it will not cost you anything.”
“What? You all just waltz in here. I am supposed to believe that you two don’t have some ulterior motive.”
Rachel smiles. “We do have a motive. We help you and you help Billy.”
“My helping Billy Bingo could get Billy Bingo killed.”
“I may not remember everything but I know I was a tough ten year old and I am an even tougher twenty year old.” Billy shakes his head. “But my friends will help you no matter whether you help me or not. It is not a condition. You just concentrate on getting sober and getting this business going right. Understood.”
“Understood. Thank you.”
Dirk, Rachel, and Billy leave Olivia’s Garage. Billy then directs Dirk to drive where the Harris family lived. The house is UN-lived in and the yard is grown up. The house still contains many of the belongings of the Harris family. Billy looks through the window but they don’t try to enter the house. They walk around to the cement patio where Billy and Jimmy used to play with their skate boards. “God, Jimmy and I used to have so much fun back here doing stunts with our boards.” Billy looks down to a window to the basement.
Dirk questions Billy. “Were you any good with the skate board?”
“I thought I was. Jimmy was better. He could do stunts that I could not quite master though I did fall on my butt quite a bit trying.”
Rachel ask, “Any other memories coming back.”
“I remember playing with Jimmy. Those memories were hazy. I mean, I remembered the childhood friend but I did not remember Tommy or Clarice. I remember playing. I remember laughing.”
Dirk smiles. “Those are good memories to have. Maybe the rest is best not remembered.”
“The past can’t be changed. That is true.”
They walk back to the car. As they are driving back to Dekalb they are all quiet. Then Rachel looks at Billy. “Bess and I were in our own little world. We had no idea what was going on around us. Billy, I am sorry. I had no idea that you are the Leg Man.”
Dirk glances at Rachel. He understands what she has just said but does not comment. The Leg Man’s reputation extended beyond just Rockdale to even the school he attended in Dekalb.
“There is no reason to be sorry. I did what I had to do. Whatever else was going on with me I did what I had to do. I will never believe differently. George Destone was evil. I had to save my mother and my sister.”
Dirk drops Billy off back home and he and Rachel drive off. Billy watches the car leave him behind. He thinks back to when Dirk had broken up with Rachel. Billy wants to be glad that they are back together and happy. “I can’t feel jealous. Dirk is a friend.”
Billy walks around for a bit and then goes in where his mother is waiting. “Did the trip help?”
“Do you remember a girl by the name of Olivia Destone?”
“Vaguely. She was a wild girl. Bess didn’t like her. Bess mainly didn’t like her because she totally hated George Destone.”
“I apparently was friends with her and Tommy. When I was ten I did drugs with her and I don’t remember. I think I should not want to remember, but it scares me that I don’t remember.” Billy paces in front of his mother. “I hope Bess doesn’t become more involved with Hutch Cassidy. Olivia warned me not to trust him. Do you remember him from around Rockdale?”
“Not really. I will call Mary Aghar and see what she says.” Maureen calls Mary Aghar. “Hey honey.” … “Look. Do you remember Hutch Cassidy from the Rockdale days?” … “Yes. Bess and Billy went to Clarise’s funeral.” … “So you only know him from New York. He apparently was around Rockdale back in the days of when you know what all was going on.” … “I don’t know if there is a connection between him and Ralph Shath and George Destone or not.” … “What about Olivia Destone? Did you know her?” … “I don’t know. I will talk to you later. Bye.”
“Rachel and Dirk just walked in. I guess they will fill her in about your day.”
“It is early but I am going to bed. Goodnight.”
Maureen watches Billy go to bed at 7:00 PM. She is worried about her son but she does not know what to do. This day she had made her own trip to Rockdale. She had gone to Rockdale to find the grave of Tommy Harris. She found the grave all grown up and she had spent the day pulling up weeds and picking out flowers to put on the grave. The boy had known what Billy had done but had not turned Billy in. She felt gratitude toward this boy that she had not known. The only way she knew to thank Tommy Harris was to tend to his grave.
Maureen goes to the kitchen to fix herself a sandwich. She considers that Billy probably hasn’t eaten anything but she does not go to wake and nag him about not eating. Suddenly she feels a chill. A knife she has laid down slides off the counter and on to the floor. She now seriously wants to get Billy back out of bed but not for his sake but because she is spooked. She shakes her head and laughs at herself as she bends down to pick up the knife. Picking the knife up she sees a reflection in the metal of the knife. She sees someone standing behind her and she feels a hand on her shoulder. She quickly straightens up and turns around but no one is there.
Maureen screams, “Billy!”
Billy jumps out of bed and grabs a baseball bat as he goes to check on his mother. He thinks there might be a burglar in the house. Running into the kitchen, Billy sees his mother is as pale as a ghost. Maureen tells Billy, “There was a spook in this kitchen.
There was a haunt. I am not crazy. I saw the reflection of a ghost in the knife.”
Billy feels a chill at his mother’s words. Billy changes the subject. “I think I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Billy puts the bat aside.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“Doesn’t matter. I mean what are you going to do? Call ghost busters.”
Maureen slaps at Billy and laughs. She gets a drink and takes her sandwich to the living room to eat. Billy fixes himself a sandwich and joins his mother in the living room.
“I went to Tommy Harris’ grave today. It was all grown up. It was a mess. I cleaned it up and put flowers on it.”
“Good. I am glad you thought to do that. So neither Clarice nor Jimmy were going to their brother’s grave. That is sad.”
“They were Catholic. Because he killed himself he was not buried on consecrated grounds.” Maureen thinks a second and adds, “He was buried with us sinful Baptist.”
“That isn’t really an excuse for them not maintaining his grave.”
“No. Course, Clarice is now also dead. That is a pretty good excuse.”
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