Part 25 (2/2)
He laughed-”Yeah”-but then his smile faded and he got serious again. ”I love you,” he said. ”I don't tell you that enough. I should've mentioned it, right before the whole, you know, marry me. marry me.”
Typical Navy SEAL behavior-refusing to give up, hoping to change her mind. Even though what he'd actually said was marry me anyway marry me anyway. Kind of the way his I love you I love you actually translated to actually translated to I love you enough to try to make this work I love you enough to try to make this work.
Jenn held up her phone because Maria's line was ringing. ”I gotta...” she said, and she turned away to leave a voice mail as Dan finally did give up and head inside.
”So here's the deal.” Officer Kellen sat down on the hard waiting-room seats, across from Izzy and Eden. Danny-Danny-bo-banny was coming in from his private conference with the impossibly patient Jennilyn, and he hustled over to hear what the police officer had to say. ”There's no way I'm letting the kid go home with the stepfather.”
”Oh, thank G.o.d,” Eden said in a rush of air as she released the breath that she must've been holding. ”Thank you so much.”
”But I'm kind of stuck,” he said, ”because if I send Ben home with you, and this Crossroads place turns out to be considered by law to be a private school, then, yeah, Ben's parents have the right to send him there, and we're all screwed. Including me. Child services can't get involved every time some kid doesn't like the education choices his or her parents make.”
”This is different,” Eden said.
”Yeah,” Kellen said ruefully. ”It's a political issue, the gay thing.”
”It's a civil rights issue,” Dan corrected him.
”That local and state politicians are going to jump all over,” Kellen said as he looked from Eden to Izzy to Dan and then up at Jenn, who'd come back inside. ”And that church the stepfather belongs to-they can get loud and ugly. You really want Ben in the middle of that?”
”I don't see that we have a choice,” Dan said.
”Maybe you do,” Kellen said. ”Still no luck reaching the boy's mother, right?”
”She hasn't called back,” Dan said, checking his phone again.
”So let's buy some time,” Kellen said. ”The hospital wants to keep Ben overnight, for observation. So let's keep him here tonight.”
”His insurance won't cover-” Danny started.
Eden cut him off. ”It's a good idea and I have money. I'll pay for it.”
He looked at her. ”It's hundreds of dollars.”
”It gives us time for you to find Ivette,” Eden countered.
”Who always does what Greg says,” he pointed out, ”which brings us right back here, except now we're out hundreds of dollars.”
”Overnight means Ben'll be released in the morning,” Izzy argued. ”Into our our custody, because I'm willing to bet that Greg won't be getting up before noon.” custody, because I'm willing to bet that Greg won't be getting up before noon.”
It was a good point, but Danny wasn't buying it. ”You know who wins in this scenario?” He was p.i.s.sed. ”Officer Kellen wins.”
”Danny,” Eden said as Jenn provided a descant, ”That's not true.”
But it was was true, and Kellen knew it and was embarra.s.sed. ”I have a two-month-old daughter,” he said quietly. ”If I lose my job...” true, and Kellen knew it and was embarra.s.sed. ”I have a two-month-old daughter,” he said quietly. ”If I lose my job...”
”We appreciate all you've done,” Jenn said, her hands on Dan's shoulders as she stood behind him.
”I just think you stand a better shot,” Kellen said, ”keeping this out of the system.” He stood up. ”I'll go tell the stepfather that Ben's staying overnight.” He forced a smile. ”Maybe he'll do us all a favor and get violent. If I have to arrest him, that's going to reflect poorly if you do need to get CPS involved.”
Eden stood up, too. ”Can we see Ben now?”
Kellen nodded. ”Go on in.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
The mall closed in fifteen minutes. Eden scanned the empty food court, looking for the girl named Neesha whom she'd met in her own living room.
”She's tiny,” she told Izzy now. ”Chinese-gymnast tiny, except she's not Chinese, she's...I don't know really. Asian, but not completely. Kind of like...if anime came to life. Huge brown eyes, straight black hair. When I saw her she was wearing these dorky black pants and a white blouse, like she was playing dress-up secretary.”
”Okay,” Izzy said evenly, even though she knew what he was thinking. This was supposed to be a pretend errand. They were supposed to be parked along some dark deserted street right this minute, blowing each other's mind.
But back in the hospital, she'd promised Ben she'd look for the girl. He hadn't wanted to stay there overnight because of his concern for his new friend. ”I need to warn her about the cops at the mall-if those men even were were cops,” Ben had told Eden. cops,” Ben had told Eden.
And although he didn't say it-and she didn't, either-Eden knew her little brother was thinking about Deshawndra, his best friend back in New Orleans. About the way they hadn't stopped and hammered on her grandmother's door after they'd left their home, with Katrina's winds rising. About the way they'd just let Deshawndra stay behind-and die.
In talking-just very briefly, when the nurses had been out of the room-they'd discovered that the police detectives who'd stopped Ben in the mall certainly seemed to be the same two men who'd come to the house and talked to Greg while Eden and Izzy had watched. And combined with the fact that the so-called detectives hadn't hadn't shown up at the police station after Ben had been Tasered, and that all of the questions about Neesha had vanished once Ben was in the uniformed officers' custody... shown up at the police station after Ben had been Tasered, and that all of the questions about Neesha had vanished once Ben was in the uniformed officers' custody...
It was weird enough for Eden actually to want want to go out looking for the girl. to go out looking for the girl.
Besides, she'd promised Ben.
So here they were. At the mall, minutes before closing.
”Apparently she eats other people's trash,” she told Izzy, and he picked up a french fry from a tray that had been abandoned on a table and ate it. ”Oh, yuck.”
”I've eaten way worse,” he said. ”Out in the world. Bugs, for example.”
”Well, okay,” Eden said, laughing-because it was hard not to laugh when Izzy was grinning at her like that. ”In the bugs-versus-cold-french-fries contest, the cold fries win. But still, yuck.” She headed for the restrooms. ”I'm going to check the ladies' room.”
”Hey, you want an ice cream?” Izzy called after her, taking out his wallet and ordering himself a cone from the half-asleep girl behind the Haagen-Dazs counter. ”Can you make it half raspberry, half vanilla?” He glanced back at Eden. ”Sweetheart...?”
”No, I'm good, thanks,” Eden called back.
”Huh, that's weird,” Izzy said as he frowned and flipped through his wallet, before finally taking out a bill and handing it to the girl in exchange for his cone. As Eden turned the corner, she heard him ask, ”Have you happened to see a small Asian girl, around twelve years old? Well, she looks twelve, but she's more like sixteen. She hangs out here and...”
The hallway to the bathroom was brightly lit and tiled and endlessly long, as if the department of health decided this was their best shot at having the people of Las Vegas get some desperately needed exercise. There was a water fountain cut into the wall, but it wore an ”Out of Order” sign-no big surprise there. Half of the stores in this mall had gone out of business, their windows boarded up with big ”Coming Soon” signs. But that's all they said; COMING SOON COMING SOON, and then a big empty nothing.
The women's-room door had the standard silhouette of a lady in a dress, along with some graffiti. Apparently Naomi was a ho and Hector had a tiny wiener and Eden was willing to bet that neither of those things was quite true.
She was just about to push open the door and look inside, when the men's-room door opened. And who should come out, but one of the two men who'd questioned Greg while Eden and Izzy sat watching from the street.
It was the bald man with the mangina, and from up close, Eden could see that his baldness wasn't completely by choice. He had the equivalent of a five o'clock shadow, but only on part of his head-on the sides and the back. He was older than she'd thought as she'd watched him from the car, with skin like her father's-her real father's-that was toughened from the sun.
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