Tony Demarco

Murder at Any Age: a Boy in an Orphanage Disappears; All but One Think He Ran Away... Tony Demarco

Alex Fazio lost his mother when he was eight. He and his sisters are split up and passed among various relatives and finally sent to a boarding school?a convent known as the orphanage; where the nuns' primary concerns were did you say your prayers, did you brush your teeth and were you relatively quiet most of the time; and where he was introduced to entirely new experiences: confinement, group living, slavishness, coming of age...and bullying by Sr. Saint John, the tallest nun and Robert Steeter, the oldest boy in the orphanage. When Robert shows up missing, the nuns, as well as Robert's sister Maureen, assumed he has run away and little more thought is given to him. Years later, circumstances arise where there is a chance Robert will be found?at the same time that Alex's sister Maria becomes terminally ill. If she dies without telling what she knows of the past, no one will believe what actually happened. Alex is terrified and must decide what to do. Meanwhile, to complicate matters, Alex and Maureen have maintained a life-long illicit relationship. Now Alex is faced with confessing what he knows before Maureen finds out, but is afraid. He finds his cowardice, as well as his dual life with her loathsome and it severely debilitates him.