Authors: Etienne
“Let me take care of that, George,” Martha said. “I’ll take a look at him to make sure I get the right sizes.”
“Great,” I said. “I don’t want to leave right now in case he wakes up. He got really panicky every time I tried to leave the room.”
“I noticed that,” Doc Jenkins said. “That boy has somehow bonded with you.”
“George and Mike have a way with kids,” Lucinda said. “Zeb and Zeke look on them as fathers, and deservedly so.”
“Where are the twins, anyway?” Doc Jenkins said.
“They drove down to Jacksonville as soon as their classes finished,” I said, “and they’re either on the beach or working at McDonald’s as we speak. I’ve never seen two boys so crazy about the ocean.”
“So you’re the guys they told me about working for,” he said. “I gave both of them a checkup before they started community college, and they talked my ears off about the beach and you and your friend.”
“That would be us,” I said. “Those two boys are hard workers. They’ve painted houses, done yard work, and anything else that can earn them a buck.”
•
3 •
M
IKE
and Bob came back into the kitchen carrying a handful of clothes. “Evidently, Robbie brought some of his clothes with him and stashed them in the shed,” Mike said. “They’re not very clean, but we can wash them.”
“Good,” I said. “I have to ask you one question, Martha.”
“What’s that?” she said.
“You’ve told me about this state in general. What do you think the reaction of the local courts will be when two gay men try to adopt a five-year-old boy?”
“That will depend on the judge. I can think of one who would want to shoot you for even asking, at least one who would have no problem, and the rest of them are somewhere in between.”
“I need to make a call,” I said. “Mike, why don’t you offer these folks something to drink.”
I went to the master bedroom, fished Charles Barnett’s card out of my wallet, and called him. Luck was with me, and he was home. I explained what was going on and asked him how we should proceed. He thought about what I had told him for a full two minutes and then gave me some very precise instructions.
“Thanks, Charles,” I said. “We’ll give it a shot.”
“Call me if you need me, George. This is the sort of thing Philip and I feel very strongly about.”
“Will do.”
I went back to the kitchen, where our guests were sipping iced tea. “I just had a conversation with a friend of ours in Atlanta,” I said. “He’s an attorney, and he’s licensed to practice in Georgia, Florida, and both of the Carolinas. His best advice is that we try to get the surviving grandparent to sign off on a private adoption. That will be ten times easier than anything else. He also said that if at all possible, we should try to avoid having Robbie formally made a ward of the state, because that will complicate things beyond belief.”
“That squares with the sort of thing I’ve dealt with all my working life,” Martha said. “I’ll approach it from that angle.”
“When you’re ready,” Lucinda said, “I’ll talk to Robbie’s grandmother. She and I have been friends for years.”
“Thank you,” I said, and I took Lucinda’s hand and kissed it.
“George, after all you and Mike have done for my boys, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do for you in return.”
“I forgot to ask, Doc,” I said. “How long do you think Robbie will be out cold?”
“Until morning, I should think. He looked tired and worn out, and that old saying about sleep being the best medicine has a lot of basis in truth.”
“How can we arrange his surgery?” I said. “There’s no one available to sign an authorization.”
“Son,” Doc Jenkins said, “if I declare it to be a medical necessity, nobody will question it. Besides, Lucinda should be able to get the grandmother’s okay.”
“That I can do,” Lucinda said.
“We should wait a couple of days and see how the infection responds to the antibiotics I gave him,” Doc Jenkins said, “and then we can set a date.”
“How long will he have to be in the hospital?” I said.
“It can be done as an outpatient procedure, but I’d like him to be in the hospital overnight for observation.”
“This is a huge responsibility you and Mike are contemplating, George,” Bob said. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything,” I said. “That little boy needs someone to love him unconditionally, and I think Mike and I qualify.”
“What he said,” Mike said. “Besides, at this point, you’d have to drag him away from George, literally kicking and screaming.”
“At some point, the sheriff’s department is going to want to ask him what, if anything, he knows about what happened to his mother,” I said. “How do you think they’ll handle that, Bob?”
“Dan has a couple of experienced female deputies,” Bob said. “My guess is that he will send one or both of them around to ask the necessary questions, but not until the boy is ready to talk.”
“What about his father?” Mike said.
“If, and when, they catch that guy,” Bob said, “I suspect he’ll be in jail for a long time—if he manages to escape the death penalty. I don’t think we have to worry about him.”
“What happened to Thor, Mike?” I said. “He seems to have disappeared.”
“He went down the hall,” Mike said. “Didn’t you see him when you went back there to call Charles?”
“No, I didn’t.”
I got up, walked down the hall, peeked in the guest room, and hurried back to the kitchen. “I think Robbie has found himself a guardian,” I said. “Thor is curled up on the corner of the bed looking protective.”
Lucinda and Martha had to go down the hall and take a look. When they came back, Martha said, “I think you’re right, George. I took one step into the room, and Thor didn’t actually growl at me, but he managed to convey displeasure, even though he knows me. Let’s have a look at those clothes you found, Bob. It’ll give me an idea of what to shop for.”
Bob handed her a bundle of boy’s clothing, and she sorted through it, looking at the labels. “Most of these things are in pretty bad shape,” she said, “but I can get an idea about his sizes, and they’ll probably look better after they’ve been laundered.”
I dug out my wallet and handed Martha some twenties. “Get whatever you think Robbie needs, Martha,” I said. “I can find an ATM tomorrow, if you need more.”
“It’s been a few years since I bought clothing for little boys, but I think this should be enough to get him started.”
“If you and Mike manage to adopt Robbie,” Lucinda said, “are there schools near you?”
“We’ll get him into St. Mark’s Episcopal Day School to start,” I said, “and after that, Episcopal High School is the best school in the city.”
“Can I use your phone, George?” Bob said. “I need to bring Dan into this situation.”
“Need you ask? Help yourself.”
“I think I’ll run on home,” Doc Jenkins said, “but I’d like to look in on the boy first. Can one of you tell the dog I’m one of the good guys?”
“Sure,” Mike said. “Follow me.”
They returned a few minutes later. “You weren’t kidding, Martha,” Mike said. “Thor definitely didn’t want the doc anywhere near Robbie until I told him it was okay.”
“I’ll stop by and check on my patient in the morning,” Doc Jenkins said.
I walked to the door with him. “How much do we owe you?” I said.
“It looks like you just gave Martha most of your cash,” he said. “We can settle up after you find that ATM. In any case, it won’t be much.”
“Thank you so much. One of us will be here all day tomorrow.”
“My pleasure.”
I went back to the kitchen and pulled one of the bar stools over to the table. “This has been quite an afternoon,” I said.
“Man, you got that right,” Mike said.
“I wonder if that little boy actually witnessed his mother being killed?” Lucinda said.
“It stands to reason,” I said. “Why else would he have run?”
“True,” Mike said, “but he didn’t grab all those clothes on the spur of the moment. I’m guessing he went back to his house at some point and got the clothes. Maybe even some food. There were empty cracker boxes and things like that in the shed.”
“Poor little guy,” Martha said. “Imagine having to deal with all that at his age.”
“I know,” I said. “Hopefully, those days are behind him.”
“What can you tell us about his mother, Lucinda?” Mike said.
“She was an educated woman,” Lucinda said. “She won a scholarship to a state university, and after she graduated, she got a job as a schoolteacher somewhere over near Charlotte. I think she was there for about ten years, then she moved back here to take care of her mother and taught at the elementary school in Maggie Valley. After she’d been home for a while, she married a man she had known in high school, and didn’t discover until it was too late that he’d turned into a bum. I’m pretty sure she’s taught Robbie how to read and some other things.”
“How in the world did a woman like that wind up with a man who was capable of beating her to death?” I said.
“You’re a cop, George,” Bob said. “Surely you’ve been around enough to know how often that sort of thing happens.”
“Yeah, that was a dumb question, wasn’t it? Consider it withdrawn.”
Dan Sutton, Sheriff of Haywood County, showed up about ten minutes after the doc left. Bob filled him in on what had happened, and Mike and I answered the few questions he asked, then he said, “It hasn’t been made public yet, but the boy’s father is dead.”
“How?” Bob said.
“In a rather stupid and pointless exchange of gunfire with some deputies in another county about a hundred miles east of here.”
“Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that he killed the boy’s mother?” I said.
“None whatsoever, but that doesn’t mean we won’t want to ask the boy some questions. Can I see him?”
“Sure. I’ll take you down the hall, but I have to warn you, our dog has decided to become his guardian.”
“Let’s go,” he said.
We walked back to the guest bedroom, and I looked in the room. Thor perked up when he saw me but bared his teeth at the sheriff.
“It’s okay, Thor,” I said, walking over to the bed and petting him. “Sheriff Sutton is one of the good guys. Come on in, Dan,” I said, “but don’t make any sudden moves, please.”
“Trust me, George, I won’t. I remember who caught that serial killer by the arm when he was about to shoot you.” He walked over to the bed and looked down at Robbie. “Poor little tyke,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine him going through what he has, and at his age.”
“I know,” I said, still stroking Thor reassuringly.
“Okay,” Dan said, “I’ve seen enough for the moment.”
He left the room, and I gave Thor a hug. “Good boy,” I said. He put his head back down, and I left the room.
Back in the kitchen, Dan said, “Damn, George, that is one protective dog you’ve got there.”
“I know. I’ve never seen him quite like this.”
“So, what are your plans?” Dan said.
We told him, in no uncertain terms, including the fact that we had a high-powered Atlanta attorney ready and willing to go to bat for us and Robbie.
“I don’t think it will come to that,” he said, “not with all these folks on your side.”
“I certainly hope not, Dan, because we really like this kid, and we want to take care of him. More to the point, as these folks will tell you, he seems to have attached himself to us.”
“More power to you,” he said. “You may not know this, but my good friend in Jacksonville, your sheriff, has kept me abreast of your career and accomplishments. You have more friends than you know.”
“That’s good to know, and rest assured, I’ll milk the friendships dry if that’s what it takes to get to take this kid home with us.”
“I’ve no doubt that you will. I’ll call you in a couple of days so we can arrange to have a female deputy question the boy about what happened in that house. With his father dead, it will be only a formality, but as you know, we have to dot our
i
’s and cross our
t
’s.”
“It may be more than a couple of days. Doc Jenkins says he needs some minor surgery in a couple of days.”
“What kind of surgery?”
I told him what the doc had said.
“No problem. As soon as the boy is able, give me a call.”
“Will do,” I said.
“Dan,” Bob said.
“What?”
“I wonder if it might be possible for George and Mike to take Robbie to his house in a day or so, so he can select a few things he might want to keep. You know, like a picture of his mother, or a favorite toy, or whatever.”
“Go right ahead whenever you’re ready. Now that the father is dead, our interest in preserving the house as a crime scene is virtually at an end.”
We spent another twenty minutes talking things over, and after our visitors left, I gave the last car time to clear the driveway, then pushed the button to close the gate.
“Alone at last,” I said.
“What a day,” Mike said.
“No shit, Sherlock. Any regrets?”
“Not on your life. That kid is going to be ours, no matter what.”
“Absolutely. Which reminds me, I need to call Charles back and fill him in on the details. While I’m doing that, why don’t you find a bottle of wine to open? I need a drink.”
Without waiting for him to respond, I walked down the hallway and peeked in the guestroom. Thor was still on guard, but I think he knew we were alone, and he didn’t stir. I went back to the master bedroom, lay back on the bed, and picked up the telephone. Charles answered on the first ring, and I filled him in on what had happened since we last talked.
“I think you have things well in hand,” he said, “but if you need me, I can be there in three or four hours, more or less.”
“Let’s hope it won’t come to that.”
“Indeed, but what are friends for? Besides, as I told you, this is the sort of thing in which Philip and I are especially interested. We told you about the Integrity Foundation, didn’t we?”
“That you did, but I never thought we would be in a position to possibly need its services.”
“From all you’ve told me, you probably won’t. To recap, you’re well acquainted with the woman who is in charge of Social Services in that county. In addition, you’re acquainted with the sheriff of the county and a captain with the Waynesville police department, not to mention a woman who can attest to all the things you’ve done for her sons. I don’t want you to get overconfident by any means, but it’s looking good at this point.”