Confessions of a Murder Suspect

46

After Hugo was shipped out for his draconian punishment, I interrogated Maud, and she finally relented and told me about Camp Kokopoki. After Hugo came home, he filled in the gaps between what Maud had said and the truth.

The camp was situated in the dead center of Maui, between ranches and rain forests, at the blackened base of a volcano. It was an army-style boot camp for out-of-control kids with a punishing regimen of predawn six-mile runs, grueling calisthenics, tasteless food, and big, bullying boys. And there were no phones, TVs, books, or iPads—none of the comforts that most of us take for granted these days.

When he wasn’t doing paramilitary drills, Hugo was attached to a farm detail, where he worked among prickly pineapple plants, weeding and harvesting in the broiling heat of the Hawaiian sun. He cut his hands, got a scalding sunburn, and acquired colonies of blisters.

Have I mentioned that he was only nine?

Our parents knew what Hugo would go through there, and they approved. They wanted him to learn about the rule of law and to appreciate the soft life he had in New York City. I wonder if they ever considered that forced obedience just might make Hugo murderous.…

I scrolled to Hugo’s first journal entry—made when he got home from Maui. He had written:

I hate Malkim and Mud. I want them to dye.

They would totally deserve it.

I had to read the sentence a few times to make sure that I’d read it right, and when I did a search for the words dye, dyed, and dead, I found that Hugo had wished for our parents’ deaths several times:

I wouldn’t care if they dyed.

They should be dead.

Malkim and Mud are monsters, human monsters. Dye monsters, dye.

I took a deep breath. After reading Hugo’s journal, it wasn’t so hard for me to imagine him mixing up a poison and giving it to our parents to drink before bed. They might have humored him, thinking they were making peace with their little boy.

I wanted to see him. To look into his eyes. To ask him to tell me that he hadn’t killed Malkim ’n’ Mud.

If he told me he was innocent, would I believe him?