Page 21 of Delivering David

CHAPTER 16

That evening

“When can I go home?”David sobbed. “I want to go home.”

Man, this is a bigger mess than I thought.T.J. had checked on David three times today to be sure he was okay. Sometimes he was asleep, and other times T.J. found him playing video games.

But he certainly hadn’t counted on the kid getting so bored he’d switch on the TV and find a local station to learn that his mom was dead, and he was ‘missing.’ T.J. knew the cops would have had to let everyone know that, but it was still a crappy way for the kid to find out.

“You knew, didn’t you?” David kept crying. His face in the soft light of T.J.’s flashlight was tear streaked. “You knew today she was dead and didn’t tell me!”

“Look, little dude, I didn’t know if those people I talked to were being straight up,” T.J. argued. “I’d never seen them around here before, so who knows who they were?” He’d decided not to tell David one of those people was Suzanne Bennett because he’d want to go to her straight away. He’d called her ‘Suze’ earlier, which meant they were probably tight. And he did remember seeing her with Mercy at the ‘Greet, Meet and Eat,” thing. And who knew about Army Dude? He might be a cop in disguise.

“They might have been with Child Protection,” T.J. told the boy. “And they’ll slap you in foster care or protective custody or whatever before you can take your next breath. I need to find some place for you to hide you until we can figure out how to find your grandparents.”

“‘kay,” David choked, rubbing his nose on his sleeve. “What are we going to do?”

“I’m working on it,” T.J. said.We.Damn, this is what happens when you care about people. Army Dude had called T.J. selfish, but when you’d been moved six or seven times around the system after your parents get busted for making and passing counterfeit money and their parents didn’t want you and you wound up in state custody, you stopped caring about anyone but yourself. Survival, Army Dude. That’s what it was all about. You should know that.

“Are you gonna get me some clothes before we move?” Tears welled up in David’s eyes again. “I don’t want to keep wearing my pajamas all the time. I mean, if you can use those pick things to get in here, can’t you use them to get in my house and get me some clothes?”

T.J. stared at the boy. “What?”

“Why can’t you break into my house and get my–”

“Hold up!” T.J. ordered, searching his memory. “That might work. Gimme a minute to think. You have a downstairs den, right?”

“Yeah,” David confirmed. “It’s humungous, takes up the whole downstairs with a bathroom and a kitchen, sorta like an apartment. Mom said we could turn it into my man-cave.

If the cops are gone from there, I could sneak David back into his house, and he could hide in the den. No killer is gonna be dumb enough to return to the scene of the crime, right? He could stay in the den and if he keeps those heavy drapes–what did Mercy call ‘em–black out drapes–closed he can turn on the lights. There are no houses behind his, so no one will be able to see him. Brilliant!

“David, I think that’s a good idea. No, it’s great!” T.J. slipped his arm around the boy’s still shaking shoulders. “But I gotta be sure the cops aren’t still at your place, so it might be way after dark, maybe kinda late before I can take you there. Can you hang tough for a couple hours?”

“Whatcha you gonna do?” David wiped his face on his sleeve again.

“Go back to my house and talk to my foster parents,” T.J. said. “They’ll be getting ready to go to work, but they may have been talking to the neighbors about what happened. I’ll ask them if the cops are still there and tell ‘em I’ve been going around looking for you. They’ll believe that.”

“You won’t tell anyone, will ya?” Fear chased the color from David’s face. “That I’m gonna be there?”

“Nope,” T.J. said. “Look, while I’m gone, can you clean up this place? We don’t want anyone to know we’ve been here.”

“I can do that,” David said eagerly. "Do you really think we can go tonight?”

T.J. made a quick decision. “Yeah,” he said. “I need to go now. Like I said, my text to the Johnsons said I was looking for you, but you never know with grownups, you know?”

David’s sudden giggle brought T.J. a small measure of relief. “‘kay”, the younger boy agreed. “Promise you’ll come back and tell me?”

“Promise.” T.J. echoed, giving him a quick salute. “Better go.”

He cautiously opened the door and stepped outside. After determining none of the neighbors’ back porch lights were on, he pushed through the hedge and into the alley. Then he jogged down the alley to the street, mounted his skateboard and headed for the Johnsons.

CHAPTER 17

Saturday Morning

The smell of coffee,frying bacon and biscuits teased Suzanne awake. The old-fashioned school-house clock on her bedroom wall showed seven o’clock. “Mmm,” she murmured, stretching her arms wide. “Breakfast food for dinner. Yummy. But why is it still so light outside when it should be dark?”

Wait. Seven o’clock? She grabbed her phone from the nightstand. 7:00amSaturdaymorning. December 28th. She’d slept since yesterday afternoon and all through the night.

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