Pumpkin Eater. Jeffrey Round

you still in the private investigation business?” Domingo asked Dan.

      “More or less. I’ve been on my own for the past year, though. It’s been tough.”

      Donny looked over. “But not so tough that he would ever reconsider the offer to go back to his old firm.”

      Dan shook his head. “It was time for me to get out. As for the sort of cases I’m handling now, you don’t want to know.”

      “Why is that?” Domingo asked.

      Dan shrugged. “It’s mostly a lot of chasing down child support evaders.”

      Trevor shot Dan a look to say he was being needlessly disingenuous, but he was not going to spill his secrets for him.

      Donny caught the look passing between them. “Tell,” he said. “You are doing something besides chasing deadbeats. What is it now? Chimney sweep? Rat catcher?”

      “Nothing so innocuous,” Dan said. “In fact, the opposite.”

      He told them briefly about his unsuccessful attempt at tracking down Darryl Hillary.

      “He was sent to jail eleven years ago for dating a fourteen-year-old girl. He was nineteen at the time. They were serious about each other, apparently, till his father turned him in for statutory rape. He ended up doing two years in jail.”

      “And now he’s dead,” Domingo said.

      Donny shook his head. “Seems a bit harsh when you consider Michael Jackson dated a fourteen-year-old boy and didn’t do any time at all. But maybe boys don’t count.”

      “I agree with you,” Domingo said. “It’s reverse discrimination. Had it been a fourteen-year-old girl sitting on Jackson’s lap, he would have ended up in jail on charges sooner. But because boys are supposed to be tougher than girls, people weren’t freaking out as much, especially not in the arts community, where homosexuality is taken as a matter of course.”

      “It’s true,” Dan said. “But the issue here is whether it’s immoral for two people who want to have sex to do so no matter what their ages.”

      Donny nodded. “I always wonder if Liz Taylor knew. She defended Jackson to the ends of the earth. I can’t believe she’s naïve about such things. All those rumours about child molestation can’t have passed her by.”

      “She’s a smart woman and apparently they’re very close,” Trevor said. “Remember how she went to Singapore to bring him back to the States after the charges were laid?”

      “I think she believed they were in love,” Domingo said. “And that they were entitled to it.”

      The others turned to look at her.

      She shrugged. “After all, the boy was an adolescent, not a child. Jackson might like ’em young, but that doesn’t make him a child molester.”

      “I agree,” Dan said. “I don’t think he’s a child molester. Not in the way we think of it. He was dating a younger man, not unlike what happened to my client and his girlfriend. If it were such a dirty secret, Jackson wouldn’t have dated the boy in public. He even brought him to the music awards. He just misjudged the public’s ability to tolerate such things.”

      Donny nodded. “Jerry Lee Lewis married his thirteen-year-old cousin, for god’s sake!”

      “What did that make him?” Dan asked.

      “A pariah. It pretty much ended his recording career for nearly a decade. He also claims to have been fourteen when he married his first wife, who was seventeen. They just did it young down there.”

      Dan whistled. “Hey! How come you know so much about Lewis? He’s not a jazz artist.”

      Donny raised a finger in warning. “Jerry Lee Lewis is a very cool guy and don’t give me any grief over it.”

      “I was thirteen when I had sex with my first boyfriend,” Domingo said. “He was in his twenties.”

      “It’s an island thing,” Donny said.

      “That’s right.” Domingo smiled. “The women came later.”

      Donny turned to Dan. “How old were you when you first had sex with another man?”

      “Twelve.”

      “And he was older, yes? I seem to recall something you told me about your youthful proclivities.”

      “Yes, he was probably in his thirties.”

      “And was it willing on your part?”

      “Totally. I went after him.”

      “So who does that make a pervert, you or him?”

      Dan shrugged. “Neither, in my estimation. I knew what I wanted and I knew where and how to get it.”

      “Exactly!” Donny exclaimed. “So why should Michael Jackson be treated any differently? Or Darryl Hillary or anyone else? If we lived in Holland, where the age of consent is twelve, none of this would matter.

       Your client’s brother could have been ninety years old, and the worst he’d have to contend with would be societal opinion, which is often harsh, but seldom murderous. Why are we letting the wrong people set these legal parameters?”

      “Well, the law is a set of conventions that changes over time,” Domingo said. “But we shouldn’t underestimate a young person’s sexual urges.”

      “I draw the line at child prostitution, though,” Trevor said.

      “So do I,” Donny agreed. “Money has no conscience. It’s one of the reasons I agreed to rescue Lester when Dan brought him here last year. No kid should be forced to have sex with someone just to avoid his parents. End of story.”

      A moment of silence descended on the room. The conversation had circled back around to its beginning.

      “Come on out here and see my view,” Donny said to Trevor, who took the hint and followed him onto the balcony.

      Dan and Domingo sat in silence for a moment.

      “That poor man,” Domingo said. “Your client, I mean.”

      “Yes, it’s sad,” Dan agreed.

      She looked off in the distance, her eyes misty and diffuse. “It’s not over yet,” she said. “For you, I mean. But you know that already, don’t you?”

      Dan turned slowly to look at her. He shook his head. “No, I don’t know anything like that. He’s dead. What else is there to say? The police may have more questions to ask me, but as far as I’m concerned my part in it is over.”

      She smiled sadly, as though she knew him to be a pathetic liar. “No. It’s got a long way to go and you’re going to get wrapped up in it. You can feel it,” she said then shook her head. “Sorry. I know you hate it when I do this. Let’s not go there.”

      They soon heard Donny and Trevor returning. Domingo stood abruptly.

      “Donny?”

      “Yes, ma’am?”

      “It’s been a great pleasure, as always. Don’t worry about the boy. Sunshine after rain, that sort of thing. He’ll be fine. He’s going to make you very proud of him.” She shook her head as though she’d spoken out of turn.

       She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “Never mind my nonsense. I don’t know what I’m saying half the time.” She turned to Dan. “And Daniel, you are still a delight. One of the kind and caring folk who make this world a better place to live. Please — let’s keep in touch. But remember, it’s not over yet. You need to be prepared for it.” Another kiss. “Say a very warm ‘hello’ to Ked for me. I hope he remembers his Auntie Domingo.”

      “I’m sure he does. I’ll tell him you sent greetings.”

      She