Page 59 of Peak Suspicion
“Nobody wants to help me.”
“There’s a whole crowd of people here tonight who say different.”
“You’re here because it’s your job.”
“We’re here because we care. We care about you. I care. You’ve been dealt a really rough hand but you’re still here. Tackling some big obstacles. That takes guts.”
Silence. Carter held his breath. Had he said the wrong thing? He looked toward the end of the bridge, where Danny and Declan stood watching.
“If I wanted to get down from here, I’m gonna need some help,” Craig said.
Carter’s legs almost gave out. He put one hand on the concrete railing beside him, steadying himself, then switched on the radio. “We can help,” he said. “Look up and to your right.”
A light shone on the bridge, where the climbers were staged. “When you’re ready, they’ll come down and help you out,” Carter said.
“I’m not going to be arrested, am I?” Craig asked.
The radio crackled. “No arrest,” Declan said.
“You heard the man,” Carter said. “And we won’t just leave you on the street, either. We’re going to do what we can to make things better.” His mother would take the boy in, if no one else would.
“All right,” Craig said. “They can come down. It’s getting cold down here.”
Carter moved aside as Ryan and the rest of the team on the bridge went to work. They reached Craig quickly and helped him into a safety harness and helmet, then guided him as he climbed up onto the bridge, offering plenty of praise and encouragement. One of them gave the boy his jacket and someone else handed him a cup of hot chocolate from someone’s thermos.
Carter walked up and embraced the boy. Craig looked as if he was trying not to cry, and Carter’s own eyes burned.
A motherly-looking woman with short brown hair and kind eyes approached. “I’m Jess Babcock,” she said. “I’m going to take you to a place you can stay for a while. We’ll talk about what you want to do next.”
Danny and Declan joined the small group, and Carter asked Ms. Babcock, “What will happen to him now?”
“We’ll contact his parents and assess the situation there. But if it’s true they kicked him out, we have a couple of foster parents who are willing to take him in. We’ll also get him with some mental health professionals. There’s a couple of outdoor programs he could be eligible for this summer, if he’s interested.”
“We talked about climbing,” Carter said. “And search and rescue work. He seemed interested.”
She nodded and led the boy away.
“I’d like to stay in touch with him,” Carter told Danny when Jess and Craig were gone. “Or is that not a good idea?”
“I think it would be a good idea,” Danny said.
“I’ll give you Jess’s card,” Declan said. “You can talk to her about it.”
The three of them walked down the length of the bridge, where a small crowd had gathered. Mira broke off from a group of women she had been talking to and hurried to embrace Carter. “What are you doing here?” he asked, one arm around her.
“Craig is one of my students. A colleague sent a text alerting me and some of us decided to come down here to the bridge, in case we could help.” She rested her palm on his chest. “What did you say to him?”
“I mostly listened. He said his parents kicked him out and he didn’t have any friends. That’s a tough position to be in and Iwanted to let him know there were people who cared, even if he didn’t know us.”
“You saved his life,” she said.
Was it too much to think that Craig had changed Carter’s life, too? “He really made me appreciate all the good things in my own life,” he said. He pulled her closer. “Like you.”
“Let’s go home,” she said.
Did she mean his place or hers? Or his parents’ house? All those were home in one way or another—places where he was welcome and even loved. He ought never to complain about his life again. Though he knew he would. It was human nature to never be satisfied. But he would be more careful before he dismissed what he had as not enough.
Dalton found Carterthe next morning, as he was preparing for his first tour of the day. “I wanted to let you know what I found out about George Suarez,” he said.
