Part 17 (1/2)
”Fact: I should have called the police, instead I called Danny, and while I was talking to him, my cell phone battery died. There's something wrong with it. I should've taken it back to the store weeks ago, but I didn't.” Eden was brutal when it came to self-recrimination.
”What did you do after the battery died?” Izzy asked.
”I ran to the convenience store,” she told him. ”The closest one burned down, so I had to go almost all the way to the mall, to the Sh.e.l.l Station. They sell things like power cords and chargers that work in a car? It was insanely expensive, and they wouldn't even let me open it to see if it was going to fit my phone. But I bought it anyway, and ran back. I was gone maybe twenty minutes, but when I got here, there was already a car out front, like Greg had called someone to come get Ben.”
”And you think, whoever they are, they're from one of these places where they try to convince kids that they're not really gay?”
Eden nodded, her eyes filling with tears that she fiercely blinked back. ”They knocked him out. I don't know if they drugged him or hit him, but they carried him to the car-the two men did. There were two men and a woman. And he was all floppy. He wouldn't've gone with them. Not willingly. G.o.d, he could be anywhere by now...”
”But the people who took him,” Izzy pointed out, ”are probably from somewhere nearby. They got here pretty quickly. Did they say anything to you?”
She shook her head no. ”They just put Ben in their car and left. I couldn't stop them.”
”And Greg's still inside?” Izzy asked.
She nodded, a murderous light in her eyes. ”He knows where Ben is.”
”He's also armed and probably drunk. Not a good combination. I mean, armed and an a.s.shole is bad enough.”
”I don't care. I want Ben back.”
”We'll get him back,” Izzy promised her. ”Let's just do it without Greg shooting you, okay?”
”I don't care if he shoots me,” Eden said, and this time she couldn't fight back and her tears overflowed. ”I want Ben back, and I want him safe, and I want it now. now.”
This was about more than Ben, who was a smart, resilient kid, and Izzy didn't know what to say, what to do. But he did know what not not to do-as in help Eden commit the crime of home invasion and risk arrest-a.s.suming they survived Greg's legally allowed self-defense of his property. to do-as in help Eden commit the crime of home invasion and risk arrest-a.s.suming they survived Greg's legally allowed self-defense of his property.
Instead, he put his arms around Eden, held her tightly, and just let her cry.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
NEW Y YORK C CITY.
WEDNESDAY, 6 M MAY 2009.
He got there, Eden's safe,” Dan reported to Jenn as he hung up from Izzy's very brief phone call.
”Thank G.o.d,” she said, glancing up from the laptop where she was writing letters to help a local veterans' homeless shelter find the funding it needed to reopen after a fire. ”You okay?”
He shook his head. ”I don't know. I guess. I'm just...I'm starting to think it might be better for me to go to Vegas by myself. I mean, you're busy. It's been weeks since you've been home...”
”I can take the time,” she told him.
”I hate that I'm pulling you away from things like the shelter. It's important. More important than holding my hand through the relentless and endless bulls.h.i.+t that is my life.”
Jenn closed her computer, setting it aside and giving him her full attention. She didn't say anything, she just gazed at him until he shrugged.
”It is,” he insisted.
”What do you think is going to happen,” she asked, ”that I haven't seen before in my own dysfunctional family?”
And Jesus, she'd hit the nail directly on the head, so Dan stopped pretending. ”Believe me, my family makes your your family look like the Brady Bunch.” family look like the Brady Bunch.”
”You don't know that,” Jenn pointed out. ”You can't can't know that.” know that.”
”Yeah, I can. It's going to get ugly,” he admitted. ”And now that Greg owns a gun...? How do I know, even if I gain possession of his weapon, which I will d.a.m.n sure do before entering that house-but even then, how do I know he's only got the one? And that's that's just the firearms violence factor-which is a new one for us. Or an old one-I thought it went away when my father moved out. Jenni, I don't want you near that, and yeah, there's more. I'm...embarra.s.sed that you're going to see...” Jesus, this was hard to say. ”Me,” he managed. ”Saying and doing things that...Will make you think less of me.” just the firearms violence factor-which is a new one for us. Or an old one-I thought it went away when my father moved out. Jenni, I don't want you near that, and yeah, there's more. I'm...embarra.s.sed that you're going to see...” Jesus, this was hard to say. ”Me,” he managed. ”Saying and doing things that...Will make you think less of me.”
”That's not going to happen,” she said.
”I can't spend any time with them without thinking considerably less of myself,” Dan confessed. ”When you meet Ivette...You're going to look at her and think, s.h.i.+t, Danny left his sister and brother with s.h.i.+t, Danny left his sister and brother with this this nightmare nightmare? And I did. I abandoned them. I just walked away.”
”You were, what? Seventeen when you left to join the Navy?” Jenn asked. ”Give yourself a break. And you might want to look up the definition for abandon abandon-I'm pretty sure it doesn't involve sending money home every month or flying to Las Vegas on a moment's notice because your brother and sister need you.”
She was absolute in her support of him.
”It feels like it's too little, too late,” Dan confessed.
”It's not,” she told him.
And when she leaned in to kiss him, he could almost believe her.
LAS V VEGAS.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2009.
The plan was to wait for Eden's mother to get home.
There was no point in talking to Greg without Ivette on the premises, so the plan was to sit in Izzy's rental car and watch the house until she returned from work.
Wherever that was.
Eden honestly didn't know. But even if she had had known, she could well have not actually known-because Ivette got fired as quickly as she got hired with her still-pretty face and Grand Canyon cleavage. known, she could well have not actually known-because Ivette got fired as quickly as she got hired with her still-pretty face and Grand Canyon cleavage.
This way, though, they didn't have to hunt her down. This way, they'd be watching and waiting for her to return.
”What if they don't tell us?” Eden asked as they sat in front of the neighbor's house so as to be not quite so obvious, the motor running to power the air-conditioning. She looked at Izzy. ”You know. Where Ben is.”
He looked back at her, his dark eyes colorless in the deepening twilight. ”Our Plan B is to call Greg's church tomorrow.” He put his hand to his ear in the international symbol for talking on a cell phone, and said in voice that sounded a lot like Stewie from Family Guy Family Guy, ”h.e.l.lo, is this the Church of Hatred and Intolerance? Yes, my name is Bob Muncher and I think I've come to the right place for this kind of help. Our son, d.i.c.kie, has been singing Elton John songs, in French, in the shower, and everyone everyone knows that means he's in there having gay s.e.x with himself, so if you could recommend one of those places where we could send him so that we don't have to face any actual scientific and medical truths about h.o.m.os.e.xuality...” knows that means he's in there having gay s.e.x with himself, so if you could recommend one of those places where we could send him so that we don't have to face any actual scientific and medical truths about h.o.m.os.e.xuality...”
Eden had to laugh, but it came out sounding more like a sob. ”I want him back tonight. I don't want to have to wait until tomorrow.”
”I know,” Izzy said quietly as a car slowly drove past them. But it went past Greg and Ivette's house, too, turning the corner at the end of the street. ”But, Eed, he'll be okay. He's a pretty tough kid. Wherever he is right now, he knows you're looking for him. He knows you'll find him and get him out of there as soon as you can.”
She wasn't so sure about that. Ben knew, firsthand, that she was a screwup when it came to saving the day.
”And he also knows that you've been talking to Dan,” Izzy pointed out. ”And that the cavalry's on its way.” He cleared his throat. ”What time are he and Jenn getting in tomorrow?”