Fort Lupton (11 page)

Tanesha saw that Fin was waiting for her at
the end of the hallway. She glanced back at the reporter and then
at Fin.

“
Shit,” the reporter
said.

Tanesha reached Fin before she turned to
look. The reporter yelped and dropped his smoking video camera. She
gave the reporter a little wave. She and Fin jogged down a flight
of stairs to their next class.

“
How’d it go?” Fin asked
when they were seated.

“
They were at the
airport,” Tanesha said. “Jabari looked healthy, strong. I think it
was a good piece for Jeraine too.
But . . .”

Their professor asked for their
attention.

“
But?” Fin
asked.

Tanesha leaned in.

“
I didn’t see Abi,”
Tanesha said.

Fin grinned.

“
She’s with Jabari, isn’t
she?” Tanesha asked.

Fin’s head went up and down in a nod.

“
Good,” Tanesha
said.

Their class started.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday afternoon — 2:10 p.m.

“
The police want to talk
to you, Charlie,” Honey said.

He opened his eyes at her voice. For the
intensity of the beating, Charlie had managed to protect most of
his face. While his eyes and mouth were swollen and bruised from
the injury to his head, the rest of his face was remarkably
unaffected. Honey wheeled to the bed. She picked his hand up from
the bed.

“
Now?” Charlie
whispered.

“
They want to find out
what happened,” Honey said. She leaned in close to his head. “This
sucks the most.”

Charlie eyes flicked across Honey’s
face.

“
I had to do it too,”
Honey nodded. “They want to talk to you as soon as possible so they
can build their case. They only have a little bit of time or they
have to release the guys.”

“
A-den,” Charlie
said.

“
They’re holding them on
assaulting Aden,” Honey said. “But Aden admits to attacking them
first.”

“
S-aa-v-d me,” Charlie
said.

Honey nodded. She leaned in again.

“
We’ll be strong
together,” Honey said.

Charlie’s eyes flicked to where the
detectives were standing. The nurse was standing in front of them.
She was giving the detectives the ultimatum — make the boy upset
and they will leave. The detectives nodded at the nurse as if
they’d heard it before. The nurse shook her head at them and
stepped aside.

“
Charlie.”

The detective pulled a chair near the bed.
Charlie was surprised to see that it was the policeman who’d driven
him around when this whole thing started. The detective nodded to
Charlie’s recognition.

“
Do you remember me?” the
detective asked.

Charlie nodded. He glanced at Honey.

“
I don’t think he knows
your name,” Honey said.

“
I didn’t give it.” The
detective smiled at Honey. “I’m Reed — Reed Wood. I just made
detective.”

The young man grinned at Charlie.

“
You may call me
‘Detective,’” he said.

Charlie coughed a kind of laugh, and the
detective smiled.

“
They assigned me because
I drove you around that day,” Detective Wood said. “The day it
started. This is my partner, Detective Allan Straus.”

“
Charlie,” Detective
Straus said. He nodded to Charlie. “I knew your dad. Worked with
Magic . . .”

“
He means O’Malley,” the
apparition of Mitch Delgado, Charlie’s father, appeared next to
Charlie’s bed.

“
I thought your father was
a son-of-a-bitch,” Detective Straus said. “But I respected
him.”

“
That’s the truth,” Mitch
said.

“
If you can, Charlie,”
Detective Wood said. “Could you run through what
happened?”

Detective Wood held his phone to Charlie’s
mouth.

“
I’m going to tape it,”
Detective Wood said.

“
Sammmm,” Charlie
said.

Detective Wood looked up at Honey.

“
He’s asking for his
attorney,” Honey said. “After everything that’s happened, you can
imagine why.”

“
What . . .?” Detective Wood
started.

“
This is exactly what
Samantha was afraid of,” Honey said. “She was afraid that Charlie
would be injured or murdered simply because he was trying to get
these rapists off the streets. You can see why he’d want her help
now.”

Detective Wood nodded.

“
How ’bout we give her a
call?” Detective Strauss said.

“
We’re not going
anywhere,” Honey said.

The detectives left the small space around
Charlie’s bed in the ICU. Charlie sighed with relief.

“
They’ll be back,” Honey
said.

Charlie closed his eyes and hoped the
detectives would never come back.

Shield

Thursday afternoon — 2:40 p.m.

“
Charlie.”

Charlie opened his eyes and looked into
Samantha Hargreaves’ baby blue eyes. She was so lovely that he
tried to smile like he’d always done. He managed a groan, and she
smiled. He felt the heat and spasms coming off her body. His eyes
asked the question and she gave a quick nod. She was in early
labor.

“
Baby,” Charlie
said.

“
That’s why I wasn’t here
earlier,” Samantha said. “Let’s get this done so I can have the
baby.”

“’
S okay,” Charlie said.
“You can . . .”

“
Not a chance,” Samantha
said.

Samantha kissed his cheek. She flipped
around to face someone standing further away from the bed. Charlie
felt someone pick up his hand. He found Aden sitting on the other
side of him.

“
Do what you can,” Aden
said with a nod.

Aden’s eyes were kind. Charlie felt relieved
that Aden didn’t think he had to fix everything. Charlie looked
away from Aden as the men came close to the bed again.

“
Gentlemen, you have this
single chance to speak with my client,” Samantha said. “Otherwise,
you
will
have to
wait at least another week.”

“
Can you tell us what
happened, Charlie?” the once uniformed police officer now,
Detective Wood asked.

“
I stayed late
and . . .” Charlie licked his lips.

“
Did you hear what he
said?” Aden asked.

Detective Wood shook his head. Charlie saw
the detective’s phone come close to Charlie’s mouth.

“
If you could repeat
that,” Detective Wood said.

“
Stayed late,” Charlie
said in what he thought was a louder voice.

He glanced at Aden, who looked at the
detective. The detective shook his head.

“
Okay,
gentlemen . . .” Samantha started.

“
We have you on the
traffic cams,” Detective Strauss said. His voice was forceful and
loud. He looked down at a notepad in his hands. “We can see you
walking up 15
^th
Street. Why did you stop at Glenarm?”

“
Tink,” Charlie said. “I
wanted . . . something . . .
Tink.”

“
Charlie’s girlfriend,
Tink, has been having a rough time,” Aden said. “He had permission
to get her something at the Pavilions on his way home.”

“
They would have been
closed at that time,” Detective Strauss said.

Charlie tried to nod. The detective looked
confused.

“
Is that why you didn’t go
in?” Detective Wood asked.

Charlie tried to nod again.

“
Went . . .” Charlie tried to lift his hand to
show that he went on. His movement came with a jolt of pain and
Charlie cried out.

“
It’s okay,” Aden squeezed
Charlie’s hand.

“
We have you and the
suspects on the traffic cam just after you leave that
girl . . .”

“
Sofff . . .” Charlie said.

“
Right Sophia, the
waitress,” Detective Strauss said. “She your girl?”

Charlie gave a slight shake of his head.

“
You want her to be your
girl?” Detective Strauss asked.

Charlie gave a slight shake of his head.

“
Good,” Detective Strauss
said. “That’s what she says too.”

Charlie tried to nod again but couldn’t. He
realized he was wearing a neck brace.

“
You run into some guys
after you leave the girl,” Detective Wood said. “Do you
remember?”

Charlie gave a slight shake of his head.

“
They say you called them
names,” Detective Strauss said. “Told them you were going to kick
their asses and arranged to meet them in the park.”

Charlie looked confused. He glanced at
Samantha.

“
The assailants claim that
you provoked them,” Samantha said. “My brother found a tape of the
incident from a surveillance camera in the parking. You were
looking in your backpack?”

“
Hat,” Charlie said.
“Gloves. Cold. Sandy . . .”

The sounds of his sister’s name brought a
wave of sorrow. Charlie sputtered.

“
Felt loved,” Charlie said
as tears fell down his face. “Sandy . . . put
gloves . . . hat . . . in
bag . . . for me to find. Not angry,
loved.”

“
You claim you didn’t
provoke them,” Detective Strauss said.

“
No,” Charlie said. Tears
continued to flow from his eyes. He felt the gauze on his face get
wet. “No.”

“
We’ve spoken with the
bellman at the Hyatt Regency,” Samantha said. “He’s willing to
testify to the fact that he saw the men come up behind you. He
thought they were going to rob you. He also said you didn’t seem to
notice them. We’re of the opinion that they were trying to be
certain of your identity before they attacked.”

Charlie couldn’t seem to stop crying. He
heard Samantha’s words but he couldn’t understand why anyone would
think he started the fight.

“
Why did you take off
running at the parking structure?” Detective Wood asked.

“
Bat,” Charlie
said.

“
The men say you provoked
them and then ran off,” Detective Strauss said. “They figured you
were going to rob them in some dark area.”

“
Bat,” Charlie said.
“Tackle in park.”

“
What?” Detective Strauss
asked.

“
He said ‘Tackle in
park,’” Aden said.

“
Tackled,” Charlie said.
“Me.”

“
Do you have that tape?”
Detective Strauss asked Samantha.

“
For the park?” Samantha
asked. “Not yet. As you know the video surveillance for the parking
garage was disabled, as were the lights.”

“
They say the kid did
that,” Detective Strauss said.

“
Me?” Charlie started to
sob. “Me?”

“
Okay,” Aden stood up.
“That’s enough.”

“
Just one more thing,”
Detective Strauss gave Aden the evil eye. Aden shook his head. “Did
you plan with your step-dad to beat up these guys? A little
vendetta.”

“
No!” Charlie spit out.
“No! They beat
me
, were going to kill ME. I . . .”

The monitors started to scream. Charlie
tried to say something else, but nothing came out. Charlie heard
the sound of running feet.

Aden came into his view. Aden’s mouth was
moving. What was he saying? Charlie couldn’t hear him. He couldn’t
hear anything.

Suddenly, the sound came back.

“
Love you, Charlie,” Aden
said.

Samantha Hargreaves’ face appeared in front
of him. She gave him a beautiful smile.

Charlie tried to smile back, but everything
went black.

Charlie was terrified of the dark. He tried
to say something, but no words came out. He tried to move, but
nothing happened. He was trapped in the pitch black silence.

The warm love that he’d
felt since being on 15
^th
Street was gone. Just gone. It had completely
evaporated in the face of the detective’s belief that Charlie was
responsible for the beating he’d received.

Defeat overwhelmed him.

Everyone believed that Charlie had caused
everything. He’d made the boys rape those girls. He’d made their
brothers beat him to death. He’d made his mother lose her mind.
He’d killed his father. He’d caused his sister to starve herself
almost to death. He’d gotten Noelle beaten up and
Nash . . .

It was all his fault.

All of it!

The dark seeped into his mind. His veins
filled with shadow until his heart pumped only darkness. The night
clung to his skin.

Charlie Delgado was in the dark without his
shield of love.

Alone.

Without warning, he was walking along the
Cherry Creek Path. The river was placid and the day warm. The
sunlight was glorious and golden. The dark was no match for the
simple beauty of this day and this place. Charlie shook himself
like a dog. He let out a breath and watched the grey hopelessness
leave his lungs.

His father appeared and grabbed Charlie in a
tight hug. Mitch only let go after the last of the dark slipped
away. Charlie looked into Mitch’s face, and his father grinned.
They started walking along the path. Charlie closed his eyes to
soak up the golden light.