Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (11 page)

The loft was empty.

Jeraine had left her.

Again.

And her mother kept talking.

“
Mom? Mom.” Tanesha’s
voice cut into her mother’s happy tale about how her father had met
a guy who got them into a
private
part of a famous museum somewhere in the Paris
suburbs.

“
Yes Tanni?”

“
I’ve got to go,” Tanesha
said. “I just got home and I’ve got to go.”

“
Okay sweetie,” Yvonne
said. “I’ll send today’s pictures. Are you all right?”

“
Just had a long day,”
Tanesha said.

“
My medical student.”
Tanesha could hear her mother’s smile in her voice. “Love you
Tanni.”

“
Love you too,” Tanesha
said.

She tapped the phone against her jeans, and
looked around. The loft was still, silent, and empty. Even the rugs
were gone.

Of course, it was still dirty. He probably
expected her to clean it up before the IRS came. She made a sour
face and went into her bedroom.

“
Ah great,” Tanesha
said.

Her clothing was gone. That jerk even took
her clothes. She wondered if he had thrown it off the balcony like
he did a few years back after she caught him with some girl in
their bed.

“
Probably was stolen,”
Tanesha said. “Shit.”

Not sure of what else to do, she went out to
the living room and lay down on the hardwood floor. She wanted to
cry, but she was simply too exhausted.

“
God, if you are
listening, I promise to never go through this again with that man,”
Tanesha said. “Never again.”

She gave the floor a firm pat to emphasize
her commitment to being done with Jeraine forever. Mostly, her hand
fell to the floor.

And then she remembered her tea. He’d never
taken her tea before. Even if she had to use hot water from the
faucet, a cup of tea would be really nice. She rolled to her side
and went to the kitchen.

No tea.

That man was going to fry.

She stormed out of the kitchen to get on
with her life. She slid down the wall to put her boots back on.
Reaching for her boot, she saw an envelope on the floor.

She scowled and muttered to herself, “More
of that boy’s bull.” She put on her left boot before picking up the
note.

“
Let’s see. Is it ‘My
music is important and you can wait,’ or ‘I gots to go,’ or ‘See
you later, baby,’ or ‘You just ain’t got it for me anymore,’
or . . .”

She ripped open the envelope.

Inside was a key. She pulled the card out of
the envelope.

I’m waiting for
you.

She scowled. What was this? She looked at
the key. The address to the yellow house was written on the
side.

She blinked. Picking up her backpack, she
hobbled to the elevator before realizing she wasn’t wearing her
right boot. She went back and put on the boot. She leaned against
the wall. All she wanted to do was sit there and sleep. She closed
her eyes.

Her phone rang. She looked down at it.

Jeraine.

She clicked the phone on to take the call
but didn’t say anything.

“
Are you coming home?”
Jeraine asked. “I have the night off. Dinner is warm.”

“
Just so tired. Don’t want
to move.”

“
Should I come there?” he
asked. “We could picnic . . .”

“
Wait, where are you?”
Tanesha jolted fully awake. “Are you in my house?”

“
Yes ma’am.”

Tanesha clicked off the phone and got in the
elevator. She wasn’t sure how she made it to the little yellow
house, but the next thing she knew, she was there. Jeraine had the
front light on.

The front picket fence stood erect around
the edges and was painted a perfect white. The house was an
impeccable yellow with white faux shutters and window boxes filled
with pansies under the front windows. The garden wasn’t all the way
in but the brick path didn’t have the big dip in it. A couple of
wooden chairs and a little table sat on the porch next to the
redwood porch swing. Behind the storm door, the front door was
gorgeous antique oak with a lovely stained glass pane where the
broken window had been.

She was about to use her key when Jeraine
jerked the door open.

In a breath, she was in his arms. Tears
streamed down her face.

“
Is it all perfect like
this?” Tanesha asked.

Jeraine nodded.

“
I want to see
everything,” she said.

Her dream had come true and they went
inside.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday early-morning—12:39 a.m.

“
Charlie,” Sissy
whispered.

Sound asleep on his futon, Charlie stirred
but didn’t wake. Sissy pushed on his leg with her foot and jumped
back. Like he always did when he was awoken at night, he came up
swinging.

“
What?” He growled at
her.

She gestured for him to come with her.

“
Why?”

She gave him the evil “Do what I’m telling
you to do” sister look and he got out of bed. She crept down the
hall to her and Noelle’s room. She waved him into the room. Charlie
groaned.

“
Shh,” Sissy said. She
glanced down the hallway toward Sandy and Aden’s room. “Come
on.”

Charlie stumbled after her. Stepping through
the threshold, he saw that Nash and Teddy were waiting with Noelle.
He looked at Sissy.

“
Teddy rode his bike over
to help,” Sissy whispered.

She softly closed the door.

“
What’s going on?” Charlie
asked.

“
Shhhh,” Sissy said.
“Whisper.”

“
Ok,” Charlie glared at
her and whispered, “What’s going on?”

“
We have a plan,” Nash
said.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Twenty-Eight
If you do this
thing

Tuesday morning—7:56 a.m.

Handcuffed, Charlie nodded good-bye to his
family. Nash and Teddy gave him a two-fingered salute off the nose.
Charlie smiled, and got in the back of a Denver police cruiser. The
officer closed the door.

“
Bye Charlie!” Noelle
yelled at the top of her lungs.

The officer looked at her and got in the
car. They were already on Colfax when the officer cleared his
throat.

“
You’re Mitch’s son?” the
officer asked.

“
So?” Charlie
asked.

“
He’s the reason I became
a cop,” the officer said. “He and O’Malley came to talk to my
senior class after one of our classmates was killed.”

The officer glanced at Charlie in the
rearview mirror.

“
And that made you want to
be a cop?” Charlie asked.

“
I guess it sounds pretty
dumb,” the officer said. “But yeah. Your Dad was
so . . . cool, smart . . . such a
man. My dad was a real tool. He left us when I was about ten, and I
only saw him on the weekends because we had to. He moved away when
I was thirteen. Never saw him again. But Delgado, man, he was
so . . . tough and responsible.”

“
He was mostly sick when I
knew him,” Charlie said.

“
Nah, that’s not true,”
the officer said. “He used to bring you and your sister around.
Man, he loved you guys. Sandy too.”

They pulled to a stop at the light on
Pennsylvania. The officer turned around to look at Charlie.

“
What I’m trying to say is
that I know you’re a great person because your father was a great
person,” the officer said.

“
He’s dead and my mom’s a
psycho. They kind of cancel each other out.”

“
When I heard that you
were this Pan everybody’s been looking for?” The officer turned
back around and drove through the intersection. “I thought, ‘Of
course he is.’ So what I’m trying to say is that you have your
father inside you, and you have a lot of people rooting for you
because your dad rooted for us.”

The officer turned the cruiser left onto
Broadway toward the downtown police station. They were in the
downtown garage when the officer cleared his throat again.

“
Don’t feel like you’re
alone,” the officer said. “There are lots of people around to help
you, even me. You have a nice family and a lot of people who’d do
anything to help.”

“
What are you
saying?”

The officer shook his head as if he’d said
too much. He came around to get Charlie from the back. Walking him
into the station, the officer stuffed something into Charlie’s back
pockets.

“
My number,” the officer
said in a low tone. “I’ll come with an army if you need it. Any
time. Any place. You’re doing a really good thing, an important
thing. You don’t have to do it alone.”

The officer gave Charlie a rough shake and
pushed him into the station. As planned, Charlie howled and the
officer dragged him into booking. Another uniformed officer grabbed
Charlie’s other arm. They dragged him kicking and screaming into an
interview room where Detective Red Bear and Sergeant Aziz waited.
Charlie stood in the doorway for a moment before Samantha
Hargreaves came in behind him. A uniformed guard unlocked his
handcuffs.

“
Let’s go over this
again,” Detective Red Bear said.

There was a tap on the door and a man in a
suit came in.

“
Deputy DA Consuelo,” the
young man said.

He held out his hand to Samantha; she
dismissed him with a nod.

“
You’re Pan?” the deputy
DA asked. “We’ve been looking for you for a long, long
time.”

Before Charlie could say anything, Samantha
gestured to the document on the table. The Deputy DA nodded and
took a seat at the table.

“
My client agrees to wear
an ankle monitoring device,” Samantha said. “He agrees to check in
every day with a designated parole officer who will do a urine and
breath test on him.”

“
Your client agrees to
provide us intel on his basketball team,” Detective Red Bear said.
“He agrees to keep track of names, times of day, attempt to
determine who purchases this crap from these monsters.”

“
He agrees to testify to
all his knowledge regarding each of these cases,” the deputy DA
said.

“
Pardon me,” Samantha gave
the men across the table a kind of scary sneer. The men leaned back
a tiny bit. “It is still not clear what my client gets for all of
the risk he and his family are taking.”

“
Attorney fees,” the
deputy DA said.

“
Which he would not have
pay if he wasn’t helping you,” Samantha said.

“
He gets to participate in
the justice system,” Sergeant Aziz said.

“
Lucky Charlie,” Samantha
said. “Come on, Charlie. These guys are jerking us
around.”

Charlie stood up when she did, and followed
her out of the room. Samantha took his arm and they marched down
the hallway. Charlie would have freaked out if she hadn’t told him
she was going to do this when they met earlier this morning.

They were almost to the door when the deputy
DA caught up with them. They walked back down the hallway to the
room.

“
I guess we’re unclear on
what exactly Mr. Delgado wants,” Detective Red Bear
said.

“
Shall I go over the email
I sent you?” Samantha gave the man a smile that indicated just
exactly how stupid she thought he was. He swallowed
hard.

“
For the record, Ms.
Hargreaves,” the deputy DA said. “Can you repeat your
request?”

“
All pending charges on
all of the children are removed. All prior judgments, including Mr.
Delgado’s, are vacated. Mental health support for the victims
should be given prior to deposition, during the case, and
continuing until they are able to resolve their issues. This
includes the two girls currently in inpatient treatment,” Samantha
said. “Salary for the time my client spends working for you to be
held in a fund available to my client when the case is
resolved.”

“
Too steep,” Detective Red
Bear said.

“
Too bad,” Samantha got up
to leave again. “If you’re trying to play hardball, I can assure
you that my client’s demands will only increase. He is a
sixteen-years-old child who is risking his life and well-being for
this case. His family is also at risk due to their involvement in
this case. That’s not to mention the effect on the girls who you’d
like to testify and . . .”

“
Justice is always a
sacrifice,” Detective Red Bear said.

“
You can spare the canned
speech about justice,” Samantha said. “You’re talking about kids
who lived on the streets for years. You remember that a good half
of these kids were toyed with by Saint Jude, as well as raped and
tortured by these boys. They know more about justice, and who gets
justice, than you ever could.”

“
In this economy, no one
can afford these demands,” Sergeant Aziz said.

“
Fair enough,” Samantha
said. “Here’s my card. Call me when you change your
mind.”

Charlie stood up and followed her out the
door. This time they made it to her car. When they reached the
guard station, the guard gave Samantha a phone. Charlie heard a
man’s voice through the phone.

“
Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t
tell you our new requirements,” Samantha glanced at
Charlie.