My Sister's Keeper

Chapter 42

42

MARTHA QUERIED AN ON-LINE phone directory for the Methodist Home for Boys in Yonkers, dialed the number it gave her, and asked to speak to someone about a former student. After several minutes, a deep, gravelly voice came on the line.

"This is Geoffrey Lord. How can I help you?"

"Mr. Lord, my name is Martha Baimbridge. I'm looking for a former resident of the home who was there back in the 1980s. A man named Dane Bonner?"

The man remained silent for a moment. "From where are you calling?"

"North Carolina."

"So Dane Bonner still lives."

"Then, you do remember him."

"Miss, I remember every kid that passes through here. Especially the troublemakers. Bonner came with a lot of baggage and left with a lot of baggage. Probably the most emotionally crippled child to ever leave here. Killed his own father when he was nine. Hacked him up with a Cub Scout hatchet because he took away his marijuana. I figured he'd be in prison by now. Or dead. It's scary to think he's still alive."

"I believe he might be."

"You don't sound very sure."

"The name came up in an investigation."

"You're with the police?"

"I'm—working with the police on this particular case."

"What's he done?"

Martha picked her words carefully. She knew the next few sentences would determine whether or not she got his help. "We think he may be involved in a recent murder here. Perhaps more than one."

"I figured it was something like that. And the last we heard he was in North Carolina."

"So he keeps in touch with you?"

"Oh, no. We haven't actually heard from him since the day of the accident."

"The accident?"

"When Dane first arrived, an honors student by the name of Bob McGillikin was assigned to him as his big brother, to help Dane assimilate into the system here. But Dane was a deeply troubled, violent young man, and was more than Bob could handle on his own. So another resident was also assigned to Dane. But Dane saw that as a weakness in Bob and taunted him even more for it until Bob finally graduated and went off to college."

"Where'd he go?"

"He did his undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina and received a full scholarship to Wake Forest Law School."

"Smart fellow."

"Yes, he was. He was valedictorian at his high school and at the top of his class at Carolina. He wanted to dedicate his life to taking care of the legal needs of orphaned kids. Bob even wrote an important paper on it while at UNC that is still the legal standard for protecting the rights and properties of children whose parents have passed on."

"You said there was an accident?"

"Yes. After graduating from UNC, Bob came back for a visit. And once again, Dane latched on to him. Bob again felt sorry for Dane and thought he could help him to see that you can't just go around bullying people and taking what you want. That there are other ways to get the things you want in life. And, for the first time since he'd been here, it looked like somebody might finally be getting through to Dane. Bob noticed it, too, and tried to do even more for him. He started taking him off campus, bought him clothes and things, and the second week he was here there was some kind of freak accident and Bob was killed."