9. A Good Man Would Act

Missing Julian (9 of 13)

Feb 06, 2026

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-9:02

(Maria came back to find Julian, among other reasons. Many people are looking for Julian. Every man makes a presence, and their absence leaves a hole. This is the second to last section of Milestone.)

On their way back up Barrett Farm Road, they came across a pickup truck parked two hundred yards away from the road in the shadow and lee of four tallish pines.

Rick DeSalvo sat in the front seat.

Coffin put his hand on his partner. Danny braked the squad car. The Inspector had his door open before the car stopped. He passed in front of the pickup, put his foot in a puddle, and knocked on the driver’s side window.

“Good evening, Rick.”

“Inspector.” The carpenter had his head against the back of the chair.

“What brings you out here?”

“Is it illegal?”

“Nope.”

“I came out for the air.”

“Funny how you closed your windows.”

He nodded. On the passenger seat was a bottle of Jack Daniels and a claw hammer.

“Why don’t you let us give you a ride home?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Yes. But I’m fine.”

“Come on. We’ll bring you back to your bed. You can get your truck tomorrow.”

“That’s not what I should do.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No.” He shook his head. “No. A good man would not let it stand. A good man would act.”

“No, he wouldn’t.”

“You don’t know.”

“About this? Maybe not,” Coffin allowed. “I have seen my share. And then some.”

“You don’t know.”

“You have three people in your life who need you every single day. They don’t need you in jail. They don’t need you in a courtroom. They don’t need you in a grave. They need you in your life.”

“I’m not a good man.”

“You are.”

“A good man acts,” The carpenter picked up his claw hammer. Sergeant Abraham saw that and opened his door.

“Now, you are getting Danny excited.”

“Sorry, Henry.”

“It’s good,” Coffin said. “Come with us.”

Rick nodded and climbed down from his truck.

He left the Jack Daniels but brought his claw hammer.

In the back of the police car, he dropped the hammer and offered a scratch to the good boy.

In fifteen minutes, they stood in the driveway of his house, in the shadow of the windmill. In the cool of the Canadian air, the stars looked down without blinking. Orion had risen and was making slow progress across the now moonless sky.

The kitchen light snapped on, and Rosie stood. She was wearing her dirty bathrobe and was not in the mood or mind for guests. But that was when the Inspector always came.

She opened the door and stood in it.

Henry walked the younger man up the stairs.

“I found something of yours.”

“You should have left him where he was.”

“He was getting damp.”

Rosie stood next to her husband and sniffed. “Is that what you are calling it these days?”

Rosie and Henry brought Rick into the TV room and dropped him on the sofa.

Danny stood outside. When Rosie came back, he handed her the claw hammer.

“Where was he, Danny?”

“Off Barrett Farm Road.”

Rosie didn’t understand for a moment, and the police officer didn’t offer any help.

“He was in the middle of the moors?”

“Yes.”

“What was he doing there?”

“You’d have to ask him.”

“You’re not helping.” She shook the hammer at him, lightly.

Coffin emerged from the house.

“So?” She said. “Barrett Farm Road?”

“Down near the end.”

“The beach end?”

“Yes.”

“They are having a beach party, aren’t they?”

Danny retreated to the car. He didn’t need to know what was going to be said.

“Yes. Danny and I broke it up.”

She looked at the claw hammer.

“So this was his solution?”

“Jack Daniels got him to reconsider.”

“Well, that’s a shame.”

She banged the hammer against her left hand. She considered the head of it.

“You don’t want that problem.”

“I don’t?”

“Not at all.”

She turned and looked at the windmill.

“Henry,” she said. “Answer me something.”

“Sure.”

“How is it that these kids can just do this shit?” She asked. “How many girls have had “Remember” written on their asses?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t think they started with Maria?”

“Well,” he said. “No. But I think that they got more bold as the months wore on.”

“So how many girls have woken up naked on a beach?”

“No idea.”

“I am going to guess a dozen.”

“A dozen girls?”

“Just a guess,” she said. “They have a system. They figured it out somehow. The girls don’t talk about it.”

“It’s possible.”

“How does this happen?”

“They have a lot of accomplices. Not all of them are young and male.”

“Dads.”

“Yeah, and the families like you.”

Rosie looked at him. She respected his candor, but it hurt.

“Because we won’t go public?”

“You won’t press charges. You are already public.”

“Not really public.”

“That’s the thing. It isn’t public so that everyone has to acknowledge it. It is public enough so that you hope it might go away. If you pressed charges, it won’t go away.”

“It’s never going away.”

“No, but everyone can pretend and look the other way and let these Good Island Boys get high-spirited and maybe things went out of control, but they are good boys. You know the patter. Ask yourself this. How many years has this been going on, with different boys? And those boys are still here, working away.”

“Do you think that, Henry?”

“I do. I don’t think there is much new under the sun. Boys and girls at parties in the woods. I think Jack and Billy are more brazen, and they have better technology, but I bet if I knew the father, Bill Trotter, back when he was playing football and driving on the beach, I bet I could find a few rape stories.”

“I should kill them.”

“You can’t just kill two kids.”

They both sipped the night air.

“Rick could do it.”

“No, he couldn’t.”

“If he had the balls, he would.”

“Living with compromise is a lot harder than dying with honor.”

“Really?”

“Sure.”

She looked at the Inspector and wondered exactly how much of an expert he was on living with compromise.

“I would do it.”

“How would you be able to live with it later?”

“No problems.”

“Sure about that?”

“Ever had an abortion?”

“Can’t say that I have.”

“Ever had a still birth?”

“No.”

“If I can live with that blood, I can live with the blood of those two idiots.”

“But now you have told me. You would be a suspect.”

“I have,” she said. “And if I killed them, I wouldn’t be hard to find. I might be sitting next to the bodies, eating their hearts.”

Coffin smiled.

She shrugged.

“What are you going to do?”

“About?”

“About Maria.”

“We’ll leave.”

Coffin was surprised. “Where?”

“I don’t know. Someplace therapeutic.”

There was no need to tell him the other news. Families keep those secrets.

“You could come back.”

“She can’t.”

“She could.”

“No, Henry. No, she can’t. Those pictures aren’t going away. They all knew. Not a mystery. Just silence and shame.”

Henry thought up words about acceptance and support and community, but they weren’t the words for right now.

“She didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“It should. It will.”

“No, it won’t,” Rosie said. “And you know it. The island doesn’t think, it doesn’t pause, and it doesn’t forget.”She said. “That’s one thing those fucking boys got right. The island remembers.”

“It is her home.”

“Everybody has to leave home. Sooner or later.”