Code of Silence: Living a Lie Comes With a Price
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Authors: Tim Shoemaker
OF
SILENCE
Tim Shoemaker
Dedicated to my sons and daughters-in-law
Andy & Laura, Mark & Sarah, and Luke
… and to the generation to come.
Special thanks to …
Nancy Rue … who mentored and encouraged
Kathleen Kerr … who championed the manuscript
Kim Childress … who helped make it stronger
Marlene Bagnull … who invested in me from the very beginning
Terry Burns … who believed this story
needed to be published
Cheryl Shoemaker … who loved and supported me
“Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days,
keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies.”
Psalm 34:12–13
CHAPTER 64: EPILOGUE One Week Later
A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR: Code of
Truth
1
C
ooper’s leering opponent inched closer, fists raised and ready to strike.
“He’s moving in for the kill, Coop,” Gordy said.
Cooper didn’t budge.
C’mon, you big moron.
He tapped the joystick.
One more step.
The muscled fighter advanced. Swinging the control stick, Cooper drummed the punch and kick buttons on the arcade video game.
“Yes!” Gordy thumped Cooper on the back. “Nice move!”
Staggering backwards, the hulking villain wobbled and teetered.
With a whir of the forward control knob, Cooper smacked the buttons in a memorized sequence. “Say bye-bye, big guy.” The stunned champion dropped face-down.
“How do you
do
that?” Gordy said, clamping both hands on Cooper’s shoulders and giving him a little shake. “You’ve got all these secret moves and combinations.”
Wiping slick hands on his cargo shorts, Cooper turned to face his cousin and smiled.
“I wish I could do that!” Gordy jumped and casually slapped the “Order Here” sign hanging from the ceiling.
Cooper glanced up at the swinging sign.
And I wish I could do that.
Dozens of finger smudges bordered the bottom edge—but none of them belonged to Cooper. Not that he hadn’t tried when he thought nobody was looking.
Gordy brushed past him and tapped the joystick. “Just once I’d like to drop that thug.”
Cooper looked up at him and smiled. “Drop a quarter in the slot, and I’ll teach you.”
Hiroko Yakimoto stood from the table next to them and closed her English book. “It looks like we won’t get back to studying anymore tonight. Time for me to go.” She slid her books into her backpack and wiped the table with a napkin. “I don’t see why you two love playing that stupid old game every time we come here.”
“Stupid?” Cooper stepped over to the table and picked up his monster shake. “The game is a classic.”
“Classic waste of time.” She smiled slightly and raised one eyebrow. “You’re both thirteen years old, right?”
Cooper clutched at his chest. “Ow, owwww, Hiro, that really hurt.”
“It’s nothing but pointless violence.”
Cooper acted like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Pointless?” Lifting the plastic lid off the quart-sized cup, Cooper stirred the chocolate shake. “If you’d ever make the effort to check this out, you’d see this game is all about the forces of good fighting the forces of evil in mortal combat.” He pulled the straw out, slid it across his tongue, and stuck it back in the cup. “If you think about it, the Bible is full of this kind of stuff.”
Hiro tossed her dark braid over one shoulder. “Oh, I get it now. Gee, maybe they should buy a few of these games for church.”
Gordy snickered and grabbed a handful of fries.
Frank Mustacci shuffled around the corner from the ordering counter. Something about the owner of Frank ‘n Stein’s Diner always made Cooper smile. If Frank grew a white beard to match the hair rimming his balding head, he could get a job as a Santa in any mall. “Don’t let these boys give you a hard time, Hiro. And
tell your mom she can have her old job back any time she wants. I miss her around here.”
Hiro smiled and nodded. Sometimes Cooper thought Frank treated Hiro like she was his own granddaughter.
“I ever show you this?” Frank held out a worn 4” x 6” photo with half a dozen tack holes at the top.
A glance confirmed exactly what Cooper expected. The picture taken nearly two years ago at Frank ‘n Stein’s Halloween party. And yes, he had shown it before.
Frank stood front and center wearing his white apron over a cheap Santa suit. Hiro’s mom stood to his right, dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono. Hiro stood in front of Frank, swimming in her dad’s leather Chicago Police jacket … her rich black hair woven into a single braid. Her smile lit up the entire picture—even though it had been the roughest year of her life.
Gordy stood to Frank’s left. His white-blonde hair got washed out by the flash and was way shorter than he wore it now. Cooper stood next to him, hands tucked in his jeans. Both of them too cool for costumes. Except for Cooper’s darker hair, they could have passed for brothers. Same lean build. Same height. Dead even. Eye-to-eye.
But that was before Gordy’s growth spurt. Cooper was still waiting for his, which is why Cooper wouldn’t mind so much if that picture accidentally fell into the fryer someday.
Frank tried to get a group photo at the last Halloween party. Thankfully Cooper avoided getting in the picture by being the designated photographer. He didn’t want to look like Gordy’s
little
brother.
“I love that picture, Frank,” Hiro said.
“Me too.” He slid the picture in his pocket. “You kids stay and finish your game.” He held up a ring of keys and shook it like sleigh bells. “I just gotta lock the front door while I clean up.”
“Coop.” Hiro stepped into Cooper’s line of sight. “I think we should leave.”
Her playful teasing look had disappeared. Something else seeped into its place. Cooper stared, trying to figure her out. Sometimes her mood could swing faster than a punch from the fighter on the video game.
“Frank needs us out of here,” she said. She nodded her head toward the door. Her eyes pleaded.
Frank wiped a greasy handprint off the front door glass. “Nonsense. You won’t be in my way. I like a little company. You know that. And I have to put up Halloween decorations anyway.” Frank turned the key in the lock and dropped the keys in his pocket. “Mind if I hit some of the lights?” He doused the lights to the eating area without waiting for an answer. “Otherwise somebody’s liable to pull up to the drive-thru.” He flipped over the CLOSED sign next to the door and nodded toward the windows. “The neon gives plenty of light.”
BURGERS, FRIES, HOTDOGS, ITALIAN SAUSAGE & BEEF, and MONSTER SHAKES. Every window featured a different illuminated sign. Together they splashed enough colored light around the room to see clearly.
Frank opened a trash receptacle, pulled out the plastic liner, and twisted its neck as if it were a chicken headed for the broiler. “I’ll be cleaning up in the kitchen. Call me when you’re ready to go.” He grinned at Gordy. “Or if you need more fries.” Trash bag in tow, Frank squeezed through a narrow pass-thru in the front counter and lowered the hinged counter top back in place before he disappeared into the kitchen.
Hiro stepped closer. “Can I borrow your cell? Mine’s dead.”
He didn’t have to check his pocket. He knew exactly where he’d left it. “Sorry. It’s at home.”
Gordy slapped a quarter on the table and slid several fries into his mouth. “I’m ready to learn those secret moves.”
Drawing a cool mouthful of the chocolate shake through the straw, Cooper glanced at Hiro.
“Let’s go.” Hiro looked at Cooper and mouthed the words. “Please.” Her eyes added the exclamation point.
Cooper set the cup on the table. “Why the big rush?”
Hiro folded her arms across her chest. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Gordy laughed and half choked on the fries. Doubling over, he coughed hard to clear his throat.
Hiro glared at him. Her mouth formed into a tiny line so tight her lips nearly disappeared.
Still wheezing a bit, Gordy dipped a fry into the ketchup and used it like a brush, painting a face on a napkin.
Cooper studied Hiro’s face in the candied light of the neon signs. “Try me.”
Hiro pulled a white sweatshirt over her head. “I got a bad feeling. Like we should go.”
“Ahhh,” Gordy winked at Cooper. “One of those ‘women’s intermission’ things.”
“
Intuition
, Gordy,” Cooper said. “Women’s
intuition.
” He felt the hairs prickle on his arms. She’d had feelings like this before. He didn’t understand it, but he wasn’t about to underestimate it either.
Hiro slung her backpack over one shoulder. She strode to the front door, rattled it, and turned toward the ordering counter. “Frank?”
Gordy straightened up and cleared his throat. “What are you doing?”
“Leaving.” Hiro didn’t even turn to look his way. “You two can save the world from the forces of evil.”
“It seems to me,” Gordy flipped his napkin upside-down and carefully peeled back the paper, leaving a twin ketchup face imprint on the surface of the tabletop, “someone is acting like a little kid here.”
Hiro glanced at the smiling ketchup face and nodded. “Exactly.”
Gordy shrugged, mounted the stool in front of the arcade game, and dropped the quarter in the slot.
“Forget it, Gordy,” Cooper said. “I’m not letting her bike home alone in the dark.”
“What about my quarter?”
Cooper hustled toward Hiro. “Stay and play if you want. I’ll teach you the moves next time.”
Hiro glanced up at him, but didn’t say a word. Standing directly below a poster-sized picture of Frank ‘n’ Stein’s two owners, Frank Mustacci and Joseph Stein, she rubbed her hands up and down her arms.
“Hey, Frank. We’re all done,” Cooper called, peering into the fully lit kitchen. A wheeled metal bucket with a mop propped in it stood to one side of the preparation table, the floor all around it glossy with water. The stainless steel flat-top grill, fryer, and steam table gleamed in the overhead lights. From where he stood, Cooper could see through the kitchen to the back stairs leading to the second floor.