A Crack In The Sidewalk

by Michael Biehl

About the Author: Michael Biehl is the Washington Post best-selling author of the critically acclaimed Karen Hayes Mystery Series, and of the legal suspense novels Seven Mile Bridge, and A Thoroughly Bad Individual.

Excerpt

It was because of the Willevers, who lived across the street from my family in 1963, that I learned at the age of ten just how unstable and twisted adult life can be. It was because of them that I knew that even in a seemingly safe, affluent, all-American suburb, outwardly normal families sometimes teeter on the precipice of self-inflicted calamity. Because of them, I found out at an early age what a dead body looked like. A fresh one.

My home town of Oak Hills, Minnesota boasted a new village park with a swimming pool, tennis courts, and most importantly by far, two baseball diamonds. For me and my buddies, summer vacation and baseball were synonymous. We didn't much care for Little League, with all of the pressure and self-consciousness inflicted on us by adult managers, umpires, and parents constantly monitoring and fussing, taking all of the fun out of it.

"Grown-ups are stupid," said my best friend, Jeremy. "They ruin everything."

It was thanks to Jeremy that we did not need grown-ups to organize baseball games that were infinitely more fun than Little League. A precocious, self-reliant, red-headed Wunderkind who was never more serious than when he played ball, Jeremy got on the phone and pulled us all together at the village park three afternoons a week. He and I tossed a bat, hands-upped with no topsies, chose sides, took the field, and played all afternoon, razzing and ribbing each other the whole time. We took occasional breaks to wrestle, throw water balloons, or chase down the ice cream truck.

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