Chapter 13 peanuts

After dinner they stopped me on the street in front of the restaurant.I thought it was the time they found out I opened the door this morning and let go of the hounds behind Mr. Jackson's house. But they didn't ask about that. During the short drive from the restaurant to the police station, they didn't speak a word. When I entered the police station and came to a room, I saw Officer Nixon sitting at his desk, and some other police officers, but they looked at me very strangely, and I was a little uneasy. Officer Nixon said: "Hey, Peanut, sit down, we want to talk to you." I could only sit down cautiously, feeling agitated, waiting for a conversation that I don't know whether it will be a blessing or a curse.

He seemed a little unhappy: "Peanut, where are you this afternoon?" My name is William, but people in town call me "Peanuts" because I love peanuts, so that's my nickname. I thought about the officer's question, thinking he'd ask me about Mr. Jackson's hounds, or about the two white rabbits I'd let go from the penny shop cage down the street two days earlier. I replied, "I'll be in the room first, and then I'll go for a walk." "Place?" I recalled it hard until I remembered it clearly.I told him, "I'll walk around the center of the town first, then follow Taiyi Village Road to the river...and then walk along the riverbed from there."

"why?" I shook my head, not sure what he was referring to. "Why did you go to the river?" the police officer continued. "It's cool there, and the scenery is nice." I replied honestly. "You're there to see people you're interested in," interposed another policeman, in disgust, "like young girls swimming or something." Officer Nixon stopped him, then went on to ask me, "What are you doing by the river?" I closed my eyes to try to recall more carefully. It was a small river, flowing peacefully between the green banks, the sun was above the hills in the distance, and the birds were singing happily and flying freely around.I liked the view, but the officer didn't ask me about it.

I said, "I walked south along the river bank for a while, stopping occasionally, but mostly I just kept going and kept coming back to town." "Did you see anyone there?" "I see." "Who do you see? What are they doing?" "I saw some children, swimming happily in the river above the small dam. Boys and girls." I stopped. The officer said, "Go ahead, Peanuts." I didn't know what he meant and didn't speak. A policeman behind me said in disgust, "Give me this brute and I'll make him talk." "You know very well," Officer Nixon told him.

"You probably didn't take a good look at that girl when she was sent to the morgue. The way she was cut open..." "Shut up," the officer cut him off. Everyone fell silent, but without exception they all stared at me fiercely.I'm a bit confused, what's going on here? Every time I was brought into the police station, everyone was very friendly, always laughed and said that I was an extraordinary person, but the release of all kinds of small animals that I saw had to stop.But this time the atmosphere seemed very different. I didn't understand, so I just sat there and waited for someone to explain it to me.

Officer Nixon finally spoke. He continued, "You saw the boy and the girl swimming? No one else?" "That's right, I only saw Mary, the little girl from the Lowy family, and Dr. Willie's son, Jimmy, I remember." "What were they doing?" "They were standing on the bank of the river in their bathing suits and they looked at each other. Then they yelled that they were leaving and left there and walked into the woods." "Where are you now?" "A walk along the river bank." The police officer sighed: "That's right, according to other children's reports, when Jimmy and Mary left, you happened to pass by. You didn't say a word, just lowered your head and walked slowly. But as soon as some of them saw you passing, they changed direction , followed Jimmy and Mary into the woods, didn't you?"

"Yes." I said. "Why are you following them?" I blinked, "No reason." "Then why did you go that way?" "I want to take the trail through the woods and take the road back to town," I said.Someone behind me scoffed. The officer then asked, "Did you see Mary and Jimmy afterward?" "Saw." "What are they doing?" "They were standing next to a car parked on a dirt road and talking." I didn't stop on purpose, because I didn't know they were there until I heard their voices.I saw them both start to take off their bathing suits from behind the bushes, and I couldn't go through at this time, so I just stayed quietly in the woods.

"What are they talking about?" the officer asked. "It seemed like she was fighting. Mary kept saying that it was Jimmy's fault and asked him to find a way. Jimmy kept saying that it was not his fault and told her not to talk nonsense." The police officer's expression suddenly changed, and his voice trembled slightly: "Are you sure you heard right?" "yes." "They were arguing about something that seemed to be Jimmy's fault. What was it?" the officer continued, his tone urgent. "I don't know, the girl says he's bad, keeps complaining about Jimmy, I don't know what she means."

There was a little commotion in the room, someone was muttering to himself, but I was still confused. "Okay," said the officer, "what next? What happened?" "Oh, they changed their clothes..." "What? Oh, you mean they change out of their bathing suits and put on drysuits. Can they see each other while they're changing?" I frowned and said, "I think so—they were standing pretty close, maybe a meter apart." "Well, what were you doing when they were fighting?" Actually I didn't want to hear them arguing, and I didn't want to see the girl naked - that's not right - so I left and walked through the woods.

I told the officer, "I took a detour and followed the trail back to town." "The two of them didn't find you?" "No." "We found a pile of peanut shells behind the tree where you were standing looking at them, were Mary and Jimmy still there when you left?" the officer said. "yes." "Did you hear them say anything else?" I closed my eyes tightly and continued to think hard. I had just finished a walk by the river and it was too hot to be comfortable in the woods and I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

"I heard Mary yelling, telling him she had a baby - his child - in her belly, and..." I paused, not wanting to recall Jimmy's swear words at the girl, but Officer Nixon pressed on. "And then? What else did they say?" he asked. "Uh... the boy said some nasty things. He said that if she didn't shut up, he'd make her look good, so she wouldn't have to worry about the baby anymore. That's all." The police officer stared at me sternly for a while, then said to me in a slow and heavy voice, "Peanut, you have never lied to me, what about this time? Have you lied?" I shook my head quickly: "Absolutely not, sir." "Did you see anything else when you got on the dirt road?" "I saw a car go past me, it was going very fast and it seemed to be Jimmy." "Just Jimmy in the car?" "yes." Officer Nixon murmured while leaning back in his chair, thinking for a moment.Then he looked at the policeman behind me and said, "It looks like it did, but it would be funny when Jimmy said he barely knew the girl and gave her a ride back to town." "You trust this fool, officer?" said one of the officers. "You don't believe it?" the officer asked back. The man pondered for a while, and then said, "I believe it, because he doesn't have the mind to make up stories." "I also don't believe that Peanuts will make a sex crime case." Another person laughed. I was still in the fog, and could only wait awkwardly for the news to come down. At last the inspector nodded as if determined, and said, "Go and bring that little bastard. His story is full of holes." A few policemen got out immediately, and the other officers softened their attitude towards me.One of them even offered me a cigarette, but I don't smoke.Just quietly waiting for the hair to fall. After a while, Officer Nixon said to me, "Peanut, you stay in the other room, wait a minute, we want you to repeat what you just told us, and sign it. Don't worry, no one will hurt you, We will protect you." I obeyed. While I was sitting there eating peanuts by myself, two policemen walked in with Jimmy between them.He was trembling, apparently frightened. Jimmy was led into the sheriff's office, and the door was shut behind him.I'm still waiting. Then I thought of something else that had happened that afternoon—the girl's words were still in my head as I walked along the path.Then, behind me, I saw Mary walking down the road by herself, very angry.She seemed overwhelmed with rage, ignoring me and walking past me.I watched her walk past.My mind was in a mess at the time, and a mission-like idea gradually became clear, yes, I must do something. I took out my table knife, I didn't mean to hurt anyone - but the baby can't be closed in her belly, the baby must be free, I tried to complete this mission of liberation, but unfortunately, in the process of trying Something went wrong. I'm not going to hide it, but Officer Nixon didn't ask that, and I don't know what they want to know.