[From Chapter 1]
“Callie and I headed straight for the ice cream freezer, and we’d just reached it when the yelling began. We whipped around.
“It was the barrel-shaped man and the little kid. The man had grabbed the boy by the upper arms and yanked him into the air. He was screaming into his face while the kid’s legs dangled: ‘What did you just do?’
“The little kid was clutching a package of Reese’s Pieces and he started keening, his voice a long, terrified wail, his small body rigid.
“The big man–his father?–shook him hard, and kept doing it.
” ‘I’ll teach you to take things without permission! Spend my money without asking!’
“And then the other man, the one I later knew was called Murdoch, was between the father and son. Murdoch snatched the little kid away from his father and put the kid down behind him. Then Murdoch swiveled back.
“Emmy, I like to freeze the memory in my mind and just look at Murdoch. He was a medium kind of man. Medium height, medium build, hair shaved close to the skull. You wouldn’t look twice–until you have looked twice.
“He wasn’t afraid. I noticed that right away about him. Here was this huge enraged man, facing him. But this other man, Murdoch, was calm. At the same time, there was this sort of tension coiling off him.
“Callie and I were behind Murdoch and to the left, so we had only a partial view of his face and expression. But we had a full-on view of the little kid, who was so shocked that he stopped crying and just stared up at Murdoch’s back with his mouth open.
“Meanwhile, Murdoch said, quietly but audibly, ‘If you want to hurt somebody, you can hurt me. Go on. Hit me. I won’t hit back. You can do it until you’re not angry anymore. I’ll let you.’
“There was an endless, oh, five seconds. The father’s eyes bulged. His fists were clenched. He drew one arm back. But Murdoch was still looking straight at him, and I knew–you could feel it vibrating in the air–that even though Murdoch had said he wouldn’t hit him, he wanted to. He wanted to hurt him.
“I liked him for that. No, Emmy, I loved him for that. Immediately.”