Page 67 of The Significance of Moving On

“Are you saying it isn’t out of the ordinary for him to show up at most of these locations?” the officer asks.

“Well no,” Casey answers, holding my hand he squeezes it gently. “But a couple of weeks ago me and my foster brother Demetrius made it clear he wasn’t welcome at either of our houses anymore.”

“Couldn’t he be attempting to set things straight?” The sergeant asks. We have gone over this. The officer may be hearing our words but he’s certainly not listening very well.

“Daniel doesn’t atone,” I tell him. “Besides, he came to my school and threatened me.”

“Are there any witnesses?”

“My friend Able Mackey.”

“And this Able Mackey will come in and give a statement that he saw Daniel harassing you?”

“Well he wouldn’t have heard what Daniel said to me, but he’d seen him hanging around the past couple of days and could tell how uncomfortable I was when he walked up.”

“I’m sorry, there’s just not enough here. I can file the complaint against him for yesterday, but that’s really the most we can do right now.”

“Then we have to wait until he hurts her?” Casey’s words sound louder than they should, almost shouting as he moves to the edge of his seat. Getting this agitated around a police officer won’t help our cause.

“Not until he hurts her.” The sergeant cuts in. “But if he calls or emails, or does something we can log to show a pattern of harassment, then we can move forward.”

The officer stands extending his hand which as everyone knows is the international code for ‘we’re done here’ which means we have no choice but to follow suit, both of us shaking his hand.

“Sorry we couldn’t do more today, but I’ll file the paperwork and we’ll see how things go.”

Spring

Casey

Chapter Thirty-One

Tal looked nervous all the way home from the police station that day. I held her hand to comfort her, but D and I were going to visit Daniel. Mess with me, that’s one thing, but the man didn’t take the enormous flashing warning I’d dropped in his lap at Jesse’s wedding to leave her alone. Why didn’t he ever listen? He was told to back off Luke, told to back off Tally.

All that pent-up anger went unrequited because we couldn’t find him anywhere. Daniel bailed, coward that he is. But at the same time, Tal was safe, still is, although he’d spooked her enough to still keep her peeking over her shoulder. She thinks she’s being discrete, not ever, not with me.

Several different Daniel related scenarios cross my mind when I walk into the house after work. She sits on the couch with a crumpled piece of paper sticking out the top and bottom of her hand. It takes a beat or two before she even sees me, only then acknowledging me with the quickest dash of a look.

I’m at her side in two steps, dropping down at her side, she leans into my shoulder. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? Talk to me.”

She hands off the paper with stiff movements. It could only mean really bad news.

After two long breaths and my shoulders squared, I smooth out the paper. It’s a letter from a collection agency attempting to collect on a debt that I know Tally never took on.

Tom.I’d bet my left nut.

“We’ll make some calls but I don’t know there’s much we can do about it.”

“I don’t have a job. How am I supposed to pay this off?”

“Well,” I say. “There’s always bankruptcy.”

“Bankruptcy? That stays on your record for almost a decade.”

I shrug. “Like I said, we’ll make some calls but it might be your only option.”

“I have to find a job. Make payments.”

Her voice rises, she’s on the verge of a major freak out. I lift her and slide into the spot then set her back down, only on my lap. Gently I brush the hair off her cheek. “What you have to do is finish school. We’ll figure the rest out, okay?”

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