The Homecoming (22 page)

“Then I mean it, Nick. Call him. Get him down here. Please. Send a cruiser if you have to.”

“Now?” said Nick.

“Now,” said Boonie, and then he rammed the tray back into the freezer and slammed the door.

After lunch with the family—neither Rainey nor Axel got a mimosa—Reed went back to his apartment to wait for a verdict on his career that might take weeks to come down.

Although Beth had intended to go with Kate and the boys to Regiopolis, there had been a cancellation at Hannah’s audiologist—the wait times for appointments were very long—so Beth was taking Hannah for a hearing-aid fitting, apparently a long and complicated business. So Kate drove Axel and Rainey to Regiopolis Prep in time for the boys to catch the rest of their Thursday afternoon classes.

Kate stopped the Envoy a short distance past the iron gates and shut the engine off. On the far side of the black spear-tipped wrought-iron fence that enclosed the grounds, the school loomed through the willows and oaks that dominated the lawns and gardens, a sprawling red sandstone castle built in the Romanesque style. Boys were lying around on the lawns and under the trees, and a game of flag football was under way on the playing field.

Rainey and Axel sat in the rear seat and looked out at the school grounds, their faces pale and worried. They made no move to get out.

“Look, boys, maybe now is the time for us to go in and talk to Father Casey?”

Rainey, his head down, his long hair hiding his face, shook his head emphatically.

“No, Kate. Please.”

Axel was silent.

Both of them seemed oppressed and frightened.

Axel was staring out the window at some boys playing in the park. She saw a tall red-haired kid running with the ball, chased by a pack of boys. The sound of their shouts and laughter came across the lawn.

“That’s Coleman playing football, isn’t it?”

Both boys jumped at the name.

“Yes,” said Axel. “They don’t have Latin until two forty-five.”

“Wait here,” said Kate, and she popped the door. Rainey was objecting—shouting at her—and Axel looked worried, almost guilty.

She closed the door anyway, and stalked through the gates, headed for the football field, weaving through the kids lying around on the lawn, her eye fixed on that tall redheaded kid. Somewhere behind her she could hear Rainey and Axel calling her name, faint and far off.

But she went straight on.

When she was within ten yards, she called out, in what Nick had described as her Addressing the Jury voice.

“Coleman. Coleman Mauldar.”

The game came to a ragged halt as the boys turned to look at her. She saw that Jay Dials and Owen Coors were there as well, both boys lean and strong, clear-eyed and long-haired, as most of the Regiopolis kids were.

The secret to happiness?

Old Money, Good Genes, and Dumb Luck.

Coleman tossed the football to Jay Dials, said something in a low
voice, and then came across the field to the towering willow where Kate was waiting.

The rest of the boys went back to their game, running on the wide-open space, shirttails flying, their voices shrill and wild on the wind.

In the afternoon light Coleman’s astonishing good looks were impossible to miss, his light green eyes and that cascade of rich red hair, his white shirt open to reveal a taut, tanned chest that rippled with muscle, his easy smile, only slightly wary.

“Miz Kavanaugh. Hello. How are you?”

“Coleman, can you answer a question for me?”

“I can try,” he said, his smile faltering.

“How much bigger are you than me?”

He didn’t like the question at all.

“Than you? I don’t know, exactly.”

“I’m five four and I weigh a hundred and fourteen pounds. How much credit would you get from those kids over there if you were to knock me down?”

“Knock you down?” he said, stepping back, his smile gone. “Ma’am, I would never hit a gir—a woman.”

“Never?”

His face was hardening up.

“No. Never.”

“Why?”

“Why?”

“Yes. Why wouldn’t you ever hit a woman?”

They were both speaking softly, and the wind in the trees was loud enough that their conversation wasn’t carrying beyond the arc of the willow they were standing under. Overhead the branches were hissing and sighing as the wind moved through them. The air smelled of green leaves and cut grass.

“It’s not … right. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“Why not?”

“Because … you just never do it. There’s never a good reason to hit a woman. And because I’m bigger and stronger than you. Besides, all the guys would … they’d think I was a …”

“Jerk?”

Coleman was quiet for a bit.

“Look, Miz Kavanaugh, I think I know what this is about. It’s about Rainey and Axel, right?”

“You know what they’ve been through, don’t you? Rainey lost both his parents, he was abducted by strangers, he was in the hospital for a year. As for Axel, I’m sure you know the news—his father is a bad man, and now he’s out there somewhere, doing God knows what. Axel’s terrified of him, has been all his life. The last thing Axel needs is another big strong male beating the crap out of him. But you got into a fistfight with Rainey last week and another one with Axel yesterday—beat him up, right over there by the chapel doors.”

Coleman rose up at that.

“Miz Kavanaugh … Axel came at me. He was going all ape on me … all I did was stop him—”

Kate was holding up a hand, palm out, her face white with anger.

“Coleman, we both know what’s going on with you and those boys. You can’t seem to find it in your heart to give them a break. You and Owen and Jay have names for them—”

“Names?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Coleman. Rainey is Crypt Boy and Axel is Cop Killer’s Kid, or something like that—”

Coleman’s face was going through a number of alterations, and getting redder.

“Ma’am, I truly have no idea what you’re talking about. Owen and Jay and I—we never called those kids anything like that—”

“Where were you yesterday afternoon?”

Coleman’s expression cleared.

“Yesterday afternoon … around when, ma’am?”

“Wednesday. Yesterday. After school.”

“Ma’am, after school yesterday we had football practice. The Blue Knights are playing Sacred Heart Falcons on Sunday. They killed us last week. So Father Robert is making us run their playbook—”

“You never followed them home from school, calling them names?”

“No ma’am. We didn’t.”

“You deny it?”

“Look, Miz Kavanaugh … this is crazy. None of this is right. I mean, you’ve got it all crazy.”

“You’re saying you didn’t follow them home yesterday? You and Owen and Jay?”

“That’s right.”

“Can you prove it?”

Coleman started to bristle.

“Yes, I can prove it. Every practice they do roll call. Like in the Army. We were all there. Owen and Jay. And me. It’ll be on Father Robert’s attendance sheet. We can go get him right now. He’s in his office.”

He turned and started across the lawn, stiff and angry. Kate called to him.

“No … wait.”

Coleman stopped, looked back at her, visibly angry but controlling it.

She walked up to him.

“You’re telling me the truth, aren’t you?”

“Blood of the Holy Virgin. Honest.”

Kate didn’t want to start deconstructing Axel and Rainey’s allegations in front of this boy.

But the lawyer in her was persuaded that this witness was telling the truth.

“Then I apologize. I’m truly sorry I accused you.”

Coleman cooled down as she spoke.

“Rainey says he and Axel were followed home yesterday? By Regiopolis kids?”

“Axel said so.”

“Then I’ll ask around. Because if they did that to them, that’s not right. No. It’s not right.”

“You don’t deny teasing them? Getting into fights with them? Making fun of them?”

Coleman shook his head.

“No. I guess I don’t. You get together with the guys, it starts out sorta fun. But then it … it gets nasty. Mainly Rainey. Axel, he just sorta goes along, and he’ll stick up for Rainey. Most of the guys kinda admire Axel for that. He’s a fighter. But Rainey … he knows how to get under your skin. He’s good at that. He knows right where to stick you. He told me that this was the best I was ever going to be, a dumb jock in a jerkwater school in Crackerville, and that I’d grow up to be a loser car salesman who drinks too—”

Coleman cut that off, and hardened up.

“Like I said. Rainey knows where to stick it.”

“I know he’s difficult. He has lots of reasons to be difficult. So does Axel. And you’re a school leader. You should be … helping them both … and Owen and Jay. They need good role models, boys their age. Loyalty to each other, that’s what this school is all about. Instead you’re letting yourself down, and them, and the school.”

She was losing force and conviction with every word. Doubt was flooding through her.

“Look, Coleman, now that we’ve talked I think I may have been wrong about you.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry I got hot. My dad is always asking me to prove I’m not … Look, are you taking this to my dad? Because these days he’s got a real bad temper. He won’t say why, but I don’t like to cross him when he’s like that.”

“No. If I can’t get to you right now, right here, then no one ever will. I’m not going to talk about this to anyone.”

Coleman was looking at her, a number of emotions playing on his face, and Kate began to think there might be hope for him after all. It was Rainey and Axel she was worried about now.

“Is Nick angry? Is he going to come after me?”

That stopped her.

“Of course not. God no. He doesn’t even know I’m here, and he won’t ever know. Anyway, he wouldn’t come after you even if he did. He thinks this is between you and the boys. It’s for you all to settle it fairly.”

Coleman stared back at her, his face solemn.

“Okay,” he said, after a long time.

“Okay what?”

“Okay. I’ll try to help them. Both of them.”

“You’ll try?”

She looked into his eyes and her heart went out to him. Having Little Rock Mauldar as a father … She knew the man pretty well and most of what she knew she didn’t like.

“You’ll really try to be kinder?”

“Yes. I will. I mean, I have tried, and Axel’s okay—especially when he’s not around Rainey—Rainey, he’s a hard kid to like, Miz Kavanaugh. Like I said, he’s got a mean mouth—he can be pretty harsh, the kind of things he says, and he’s not all that nice to the Green Jackets—the juniors and the newbies—he picks on them—and sometimes he says really weird things. But you’re right. Those two have been through a lot. Father Casey says we should cut them some slack. So I’ll try harder, Miz Kavanaugh, I promise you that. And if I change, about Rainey, then Owen and Jay and the rest of guys will go along. They already like Axel a lot.”

She looked at him for a while longer, and was suddenly afraid she was going to cry.

“You know, I believe you. And I thank you.”

He smiled at her, and put out his hand, and she shook it, smiling back, feeling her heart lighten as she did so.

Coleman waved and ran off to his game. She stood and watched the boys play for a while, wishing that this was Rainey’s life.

He’s not all that nice to the Green Jackets
.

He’s got a mean mouth
.

He’s a hard kid to like
.

Liking Rainey hadn’t come easily to Kate either.

Maybe there was more to this than she thought. Maybe she and the boys could have a talk about this. Go somewhere right now where they could all have a heart-to-heart. But when she got back to the SUV, the boys were gone.

After a long and increasingly frustrating search of the Regiopolis grounds, Kate went inside to the clerical office to see if Alice Bayer was around, but the woman behind the glass wasn’t Alice.

The woman said no, she hadn’t seen Rainey or Axel come in at all today. She added that both boys had taken to leaving early a couple of days a week. But that was okay because they had brought in a note.

A note?

Kate asked to see the note.

After sniffing at Kate for a moment, and pursing her mouth, the woman opened a file and riffled through it, retrieving a piece of paper and handing it through the slot in the glass partition.

It was a handwritten note, done in green ink, with a fountain pen, on linen card stock, a soft cream color.

Kate stared at the note. She knew this writing well. It was Sylvia Teague’s hand, as clear and crisp as always, and she wrote in green ink, with a Montblanc that had been willed to her by Johnny Mercer, a distant relative.

She pulled herself together.

“Has Father Casey seen this note?”

The secretary shook her head.

“I don’t think so. I mean, I didn’t see the need. It’s routine attendance stuff. That’s our job here. Attendance and Records. And after all, the note
is
from his mother.”

“It’s not from Axel’s mother. Axel’s mother is Beth Walker, my sister. Why are you letting Axel miss classes as well?”

The woman got distinctly chillier.

Kate was surprised that ice didn’t form on the glass panel between them.

“Axel told us his mother works in Cap City, with the FBI down there. I asked for some kind of confirmation from her by phone or e-mail. The next day I got an e-mail directly from her, giving us permission to release Axel as long as he was going to be with Rainey. I have it … wait a bit … here it is.”

She had riffled through a file folder marked
PERMISSIONS LIST
. She held the paper up for Kate to read through the glass.