Page 9 of Just for Him
“He was hanging around Slash and his miscreants last night behind Manetti’s,” I volunteered.
Hannibal nodded as if that wasn’t a big reveal. “Not surprising. Slash targets kids like him.”
I stiffened. “What do you mean, kids like him?”
“Lost boys. Those on the fringes, without good parental role models. The ones looking to feel like they belong to something.”
“No parents in the picture?”
“Father’s MIA, and the mother’s a piece of work. According to the school, the sister petitioned for and obtained legal guardianship about six months ago.”
Which explained why Haven had been the one to come for her brother.
I must have scowled or given some other tell, because Hannibal narrowed his eyes and demonstrated what made him such a good detective. “You know the sister?”
“She’s a waitress at Lindelman’s. Works the night shift.”
“Hmmm,” he hummed, zeroing in on what I’d just inadvertently revealed. “So, the kid’s unsupervised from eleven to seven?”
Well, hell.
***
Later that night, Isat in my car, watching Haven’s apartment building. It hadn’t taken much to convince Hannibal and Lecter to let me do some off-duty surveillance before they filed an official request. None of us liked the extra paperwork that sort of thing entailed.
Haven’s neighborhood was part of my usual beat, and I wasn’t in any particular hurry to go back to my empty place. Besides, I liked Haven. Even if I hadn’t acted on my desire to ask her out, I valued her friendship. If there was some way to help her out within the law, I would.
I’d parked across the street and about halfway down the block. I was there in time to see Haven step out the front of the building and start walking toward Lindelman’s.
I frowned. Her head was down and her hands were in her pockets. She seemed preoccupied instead of alert, which was not how a woman was supposed to be when walking the streets alone at night. Muggers, and worse, looked for targets like her, women who were distracted and unlikely to put up a hassle. My brother Nick’s woman discovered that the hard way a couple of weeks earlier. I had found her knocked down in a puddle in an alley not too far from here and had taken her to the ER. Her attacker, unfortunately, was still on the loose and had mugged another woman just last week. I didn’t want his next victim to be Haven.
I warred with myself. Did I follow along behind her and ensure her safety as my conscience urged, or did I sit here and watch for the brother? It was a tough decision, but ultimately, I stayed in the car. Haven had gotten along fine this long without me hovering around behind her, playing guardian angel. She was no more my responsibility than any other citizen I’d sworn to serve and protect.
My inner voice called bullshit. Havenwasn’tjust any other citizen. Right or wrong, I felt more protective of her than most. Denials wrapped in rationalizations wouldn’t help ease the guilt I would feel if something happened to her tonight.
I was still waging an internal debate when I saw the kid slip out a few minutes later. He was dressed in dark clothes, allowing him to blend right in with the shadows. After looking left and right, he took off in the opposite direction of Lindelman’s.
Suddenly, I was faced with another decision. Did I simply follow him and see what happened? If anything went down, I was duty-bound to report it. My other choice was to follow my gut and run an interception. Prevention was the better option, I reasoned.
Decision made, I drove around and parked a couple blocks down, then got out of my car and started walking north. When I saw him approaching, I moved into the shadows and waited.
“Nice night for a walk.” I stepped out and began walking beside him.
Startled, he flinched and moved away. His surprise then changed to annoyance when he recognized me.
“What do you want?”
“I want to know what brought you and your sister to my precinct today.”
He stopped dead and glared at me. “What do you know about my sister?”
“I know she deserves better than cleaning up her brother’s messes.”
“You don’t know jack shit.” He started walking again. So did I. We made it another block before he turned around and said, “What is your deal, man? Are you into harassment or something?”
“No, I’m hungry. What do you say you and I grab a bite to eat, and you can tell me what’s going on? Or, I can take you back to the station for breaking town curfew. We can call Haven to come get you ... again, and I can get the story from her instead of you.”
His eyes flashed. “You leave her out of it.”
