Chapter One-Hundred and Twenty
Clarissa looked at the mug shots that Asher had found of John and Dominic, noticing that they couldn't have been more than fourteen. "They were so young…" She took another photo from the man, able to see that John had a black eye and was missing a few of his baby teeth after a fight when he was in elementary school.
Asher nodded, holding out a criminal report on John when he'd gotten caught spray painting the words 'fuck life' on the side of the bank. "Reminds me of their father's. Those two were the bad ones out of us three… when I was in my room studying engineering, they were out doing things a lot like this."
Clarissa looked at the reports and photo's that Asher had shown her, shaking her head with the idea of what the boys had done. "They've come a long way…" She met Asher's dark gaze, seeing just a hint of John in his eyes. "Was Jacob always like that… I mean-"
Asher shook his head, lacing his fingers and leaning his elbows on his knees. "No… when we were in high school, he and Rueben were in a bad car wreck with a semi and they ended up in intensive care for about ten months and were in PT for another year… they were never the same after that…" He remembered the night that Beverly had shown up at his house, bloody and bruised. "Jake and Bev were already married by senior year… and after the wreck… Jake just wasn't right… Bev started sleeping around, and that was when something snapped. She tried to sleep with me a few times, but I never let her. Jake changed and since he was the oldest of us, Rueben followed in his steps. He thought that Juanita would start cheating on him like Bev, so he locked her up until he was able to get her knocked up with Dominic… after that she developed some kind of mental disorder and she just… let him do whatever he wanted to her." He touched one of the lines in his wrist and Clarissa could see a small birthmark in the shape of Europe. "They both changed… and after a while, I decided I couldn't stay there. I would have taken John and Dom with me… but I thought for sure that they would die… if I'd known that they would survive even to be a year old…" He hung his head, thinking about how horrible it must've been for the boys. "I never would have left them…"
Clarissa touched his hands, trying to comfort the man before her. "You didn't know." She looked at an old yellowed photo of John and Dominic, knowing that behind their bright smiles, they were hiding an overwhelming amount of pain that no child should ever have to feel. "They'll come around… they just need time…" She remembered Dominic's behavior when John had popped his stitches after surgery, how he hadn't let anyone but those he knew could help near his cousin. "John's just going through a lot right now… and Dominic thinks it's his job to protect him. Those boys are so used to leaning on each other, that they don't know how to let other people in and let them help. But they'll come around soon enough."
Asher nodded, taking a drink of his soda before he continued to share what he'd found out on his trip. "Apparently, John also has a link with a murder case… but they were never quite able to tie it up to him." He showed her a photo of the man who'd been killed less than a mile from John's home. "His feet were sliced and he had broken ribs, and the back of his skull was fractured." He pointed to the image of the man's blood covered feet. "This move was used by a lot of people in that neighborhood. It's used as a protection move, it's to keep the victim from going to the cops. I doubt that John would have known how to cause this damage when he was this age… but from what I've gauged about the boys, it's entirely possible that they could have known something about the idea of it."
Clarissa nodded, remembering what John had told her about the burns on his feet and legs. "John knew about it." She met Asher's gaze, praying that John would forgive her for what she said next. "When he was in the middle of his freshman year, he was jumped by a gang… they burned his legs and feet so he couldn't run to the cops."
Asher's eyes widened, realizing what those scars had been from for the first time. "Who found him?"
Clarissa gave a sad smile. "He went to Dominic's house and he and a couple friends cleaned him up… but he doesn't remember much of it." She wiped a tear from her eye, noticing that Asher seemed to be going into his shell, much like John did when he was hit with something suddenly. "He doesn't like people to know about his scars… so, if you wouldn't tell him what I said…"
Asher nodded, remembering the image of John's scarred back and the line through his eyebrow. "Your secret's safe with me."