The Shards: A Novel

The next day, Bret drives Thom to Los Angeles International Airport, since Thom will spend a week in New York with his father. They listen to New Order and the Cure and discuss Thom’s plans to attend UCLA. Thom asks Bret to watch Susan while he’s gone, though Thom claims he’s not worried about Susan. Thom and Bret wonder if Robert is a “nice guy,” and Thom calls Robert an “actor.” Robert claims someone has been following him ever since he came to Los Angeles a year ago. Thom believes Robert might be gay.

In the Buckley library, Bret reads the Los Angeles Times, learning more details about the Trawler: He and his “friends,” find victims for “the God.” The bodies are “paradises” and the mutilations are “alterations.” The Trawler takes Polaroid pictures and records the screams of the victims. Bret goes home and learns that Susan and Robert are each spending the weekend in Palm Springs; to learn what’s going on, Bret stays at his aunt’s house in Palm Springs.

In Palm Springs, Susan’s BMW is parked in the driveway of her grandparents’ house, but so is Robert’s Porsche. Bret follows them to a popular Mexican restaurant, where Susan and Robert only seem to notice each other. Bret thinks Thom doesn’t deserve such treatment; then again, no one deserves anything.

Before Bret leaves, Susan confronts him. Bret reveals he promised Thom that he’d watch Susan. Bret also promises not to tell Thom about Susan and Robert. Bret repeats his suspicions of Robert, but Susan isn’t persuaded. She expresses her love for Bret. As Bret drives back to his aunt’s house, a beige van follows him. He connects the beige van to the one he saw at Buckley, at the Galleria, and in the alleyway.

Bret takes valium, falls asleep, and wakes to a crashing sound. Someone with a flashlight is outside the house. They come inside, and a shaking Bret drops to the floor and screams, “Robert!” The flashlight beams vanish, and Bret drives back to Los Angeles.

Bret returns home to an excited Shingy, the family dog, and masturbates to thoughts of Susan and Robert having sex. He finds a mixtape with his name misspelled—“Brett.” He hopes the tape is a gift from Ryan and the misspelling is a “private joke.” Bret listens to the tape on his Walkman. It features a “fake monster” and a “boy.” Bret hears the monster ordering the boy to “eat it.” The boy asks the monster to take off the mask, and the monster asks the boy if he liked “the cock.” Bret hears waves, wind, a crackling fire sound, and sounds of violence. He realizes the boy is Matt on Crystal Cove beach.

Bret neither burns the tape nor shows it to the police. He doesn’t want anyone else to listen to it. He’s confident that the monster is Robert and that Robert and Matt were involved in a “game” that got carried away. Debbie asks Bret about his weekend, and Bret lies, claiming he worked on his book and “got stoned.”

In gym, Ryan and Bret agree to be friends and see a movie together. Susan mentions Terry’s upcoming party and jokingly asks about Bret’s weekend. Bret asks Robert about his weekend. Bret says he called Robert’s aunt to invite Robert to see a movie, but Abigail said Robert was in Palm Springs. Bret concludes that Debbie knew that Susan and Robert were in Palm Springs together, but, presumably, neither Debbie nor Robert knew that Bret was in Palm Springs. After school, Bret follows Robert, who enters the Century Towers with a black duffel bag.

On the way home, a beige van follows Bret. At home, Bret arms himself with a butcher knife and notices that the garage door is half open. Shingy is missing and later reappears with a hurt paw. He receives silent phone calls in the night and takes a Quaalude to calm down.

Bret and Ryan see the British sports drama Chariots of Fire (1981), and Bret wants to touch Ryan’s penis. After the movie, Ryan invites Robert to dinner. Upset, Bret calls Robert “nuts” and claims that Robert won’t have sex with Ryan. Bret tells Ryan about the tape, but Ryan thinks Bret is “losing it.” Bret notices the beige van.

At the restaurant, Bret, Ryan, and Robert discuss the movie and Robert’s plans to take everyone out to dinner at Le Dome, a “fancy” restaurant, for his 18th birthday. Robert claims he didn’t see Susan in Palm Springs but was there with a family friend. Bret brings up Matt, and Robert says he’s spoken to Ronald, who said Matt was on his way to see Bret before vanishing. Robert admits that he gave Matt his private number but denies making any tapes with him. Robert concedes that he was at a psychiatric hospital. Unsure what to believe, Bret starts laughing. He claims he’s just “fucking around” with Robert.

Abigail contacts Bret, and they meet at La Scala Boutique—an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills. Abigail is the younger sister of Robert’s father, and Abigail and her husband are having a drawn-out divorce. Abigail tells Bret that Robert often mentions him, and Bret denies following Robert. They discuss Robert’s medication and his feelings for Susan.

Abigail has “heard things” relating to Robert’s mother’s death. The story is that she tripped over the upstairs banister and fell to her death, but the logistics suggest Robert was involved. Before his mother died, she thought Robert was responsible for the missing pets in the neighborhood. Robert also threatened a classmate and allegedly sexually abused his 12-year-old stepsister, Ashley. Robert denied Ashley’s accusations and attempted to die by suicide, which led to the psychiatric hospital.

Robert first visited Abigail in the spring of 1980. He was gone most nights and spent money on gas in “strange places.” Abigail confirms that Robert was at The Shining and that he was with Katherine Latchford, who told Robert about the person bothering her. After Katherine went missing, someone followed Robert and silently called him on his private line.

Abigail describes Robert as “sensitive.” She doesn’t think he would hurt anyone, but Bret believes the “timeline” makes Robert a credible suspect. Bret believes Robert tortured Matt in the house on Benedict Canyon. Abigail explains that the house belonged to her and her husband, who isn’t selling it because he doesn’t want Abigail to receive half of the profits. Abigail encourages Bret to be Robert’s friend, and Bret glibly agrees to “be nice.”

Bret vows to “fake it”: He’ll become Robert’s friend and, once again, play the role of Debbie’s loving boyfriend. He reminds Susan that he’ll always be there for her, and he blames his accusations against Robert on his “weird” humor. Bret sees Robert’s minimalist Century City condo for the first time before Terry’s party. In Robert’s room, a TV airs the horror movie Night of the Living Dead (1968), and Bret’s suspicions of Robert are renewed.

On the way to Terry’s party, Robert and Bret listen to Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend” and “Love Lies Bleeding” (1973). The party is at the Schaffer house. The staff consists of attractive males, and the guests include many famous people, including actors John Travolta and Diane Keaton. In Debbie’s room, Bret notices a new 5th Dimension poster; he answers her phone, but there’s only silence.

Robert plans to spend the night with Susan at his condo, but Bret won’t stay at the Schaffer home. He uses the bathroom, and Terry, who’s unusually high, follows him and tries to initiate sex. Terry then “gropes” Robert, who is angry and doesn’t normalize Terry’s conduct. Bret attributes Robert’s “overreaction” to anti-gay bias.

Susan and Bret discuss Thom and Robert until screams interrupt them. Terry fell from the second-story landing onto the tiled floor. Terry vomits, and Liz yells at him, referring to him as a “cokehead” and a “cocksucker.” Paramedics and the LAPD arrive. Robert doesn’t know what happened. Bret thinks about Robert and Susan having sex and links Robert’s mother’s “accident” to Terry’s fall.