Chapter 11 #3
“DADDY,” GRANT said as he and April come in from the backyard. They’d had a tea party on the patio, and April was happily carrying her dolls. “Kevin is sleeping.” He sat at the coffee table with all the blocks in a huge pile, making something with great concentration. “I was being quiet.”
“That’s awesome. Thank you,” Willy said and let Grant play. He wondered if Kevin was playing possum, but he went over and straightened the blanket. Sleep was the best thing for him, and Grant was playing fine on his own. Willy motioned Grant over. “What do you want for lunch?”
“Cheesy sandwiches,” Grant said, and April nodded her agreement, so grilled cheese it was.
“Go ask Kevin if he wants one too. But do it quietly.”
Grant was so serious. Willy peeked as Grant went in and right up to the sofa.
“Uncle Kevin, Daddy wants to know if you want cheesy sammiches. And he says to be quiet.” Of course he talked at his normal tone, which was loud enough to wake the dead.
Willy went back into the kitchen so he didn’t laugh in front of Grant.
“Tell your daddy that I would like one, please,” Kevin said.
“Daddy, Uncle Kevin wants a sammich,” Grant called before sitting back down and returning his attention to his blocks as though he hadn’t just yelled through the entire apartment.
“I tried,” Willy told himself and got out the bread, butter, and cheese. He also got some fruit and began cutting it up for a side dish.
A knock sounded on the front door.
“I’ll get it,” Kevin called, and he went to the door. “What the hell do you want?”
“He said a swear,” Grant called, already racing for the container.
“I know. Just stay here,” Willy said, holding Grant as Kevin let loose a few more choice words.
“You think we can’t kick your ass into the middle of next week like we did the last time you showed up here?
Making threats is a criminal offense. I’ll call the police and make sure they have your description.
Then you can deal with them.” Kevin closed the door hard and whipped out his phone, coughing.
“What’s going on?” Willy asked.
“Our friend paid you a visit. Apparently, getting his nuts handed to him wasn’t enough.” Kevin coughed some more before speaking to the police. “They’re sending someone over.”
“What did he want?” Willy asked, returning to the kitchen. No matter what drama was going on, he still had to feed the kids.
“Not sure. It’s intimidation, but I have no idea what they think they can gain by this.” Kevin sat at the kitchen table with a sigh. He coughed again, and Grant got up and began patting him on the back.
“Feel better?” he checked, and Kevin smiled at him and nodded.
“Much better. Thank you.”
Willy got him a glass of water and placed it in front of him.
“I hate this cough.”
“It’s your body trying to get the gunk out,” Willy said gently, then let Kevin relax. “What did the police say?”
The doorbell rang.
“I think I just got my answer.” Willy answered the door and let in two officers, one familiar, and the other with a beard that partially hid the scar on his face.
“Hey, Willy,” Carter said and shook his hand. “This is my partner, Red.” Willy shook his hand as well. The guy was huge and would be intimidating without his smile.
“Kevin is in the kitchen.” He led them through, and Grant hurried over to him, half hiding behind his leg as Willy lifted April into his arms.
“Are you a real policeman?” Grant asked. “Are you going to arrest Daddy?” He held him tighter.
“No. We’re here to help your daddy,” Red said. “And yes, we’re real policemen. We help people when they need it. I promise.”
“Let me get these two settled and we can talk.” He got the kids on the sofa, the dogs surrounding them.
Then he put on a movie. “I’ll bring in your lunch.
” He was in the middle of way too many things.
Once the movie was going, he returned to the kitchen to find Carter at the stove, flipping the sandwiches.
“I’ve made tons of these for Alex over the years,” Carter said. He cut the sandwiches into quarters and put them on plates to cool a little.
“Is this some sort of full-service police force?” Willy asked, teasing.
Red sat down, and Willy joined him and Kevin. “What happened?”
“We’ve been visited twice by a man trying to intimidate us.
The first time he threatened Willy, Willy laid him out on the sidewalk and left him singing soprano for a while.
But the guy was back this morning. We don’t know what he wants exactly, but his message was pretty consistent: leave things alone as far as Kraft and Hobson is concerned. ”
Carter brought over two plates for the kids and another with multiple sandwiches that he set on the table.
Willy took the kids theirs, along with covered cups of milk.
After making sure they were okay, he rejoined the others at the table.
“Those sandwiches are for you, not the dogs,” he called behind him, knowing exactly what was about to happen.
“Can you bring us up to date on the situation?” Carter asked, and Kevin provided background detail on the fires and the construction company.
“The thing is that Kraft and Hobson did shoddy work and likely defrauded their clients and the borough codes office. But that was over ten years ago. There isn’t a lot anyone can do to them unless someone were to die. And so far no one has,” Kevin said.
Carter made notes, and Willy grabbed half a sandwich and took a bite.
“What I don’t get is, why make threats at all?
It’s just going to get us to dig in. If they kept quiet, we wouldn’t be here talking to you.
I would have moved on, and the fire department would have done their job.
Yeah, maybe Kraft and Hobson would have gotten some bad publicity, but it would have been minimal.
There aren’t real news sources any longer.
The local papers don’t get much circulation, so this is something that’s going to go away very quickly for the most part. ”
“Exactly,” Willy said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Can you give me a description of the man?” Red asked.
Willy nodded. “Black hair, scruffy, just below the ears, brown eyes, fake-tanned skin, dark stubble. This is a guy with constant five-o’clock shadow.
He has a triangular-shaped face, and his nose was broken at some point.
Maybe six foot or six-one. He’s of decent build, but not bulky or too thin.
His clothes were recent, not fancy but not too old either. ”
Red looked up from his notes. “Can I have you at all my crime scenes? Not that I want you to be a victim of a crime, but damn, if I got descriptions like this all the time, our jobs would be a lot easier.”
Kevin placed his hand on Willy’s. “I don’t have anything to add after that. How did you get to be so observant?”
“I have two kids. How else can I keep my head above water and a step ahead of them?” He smiled.
“When I was in high school, I wanted to be a police officer, so I watched every television cop show, and they all stressed how important it was to watch things. So I started playing games with my friends. We’d each write down questions, and at the end of the day, we’d answer them.
It was a weird game. If the teachers had ever found our questions, they’d have been appalled.
How big were Coach Johnson’s pit stains after third period—stuff like that.
We used to laugh over them, but I always won because I could recall just about everything during the day. ”
“And you did all that because you thought you might become a police officer?” Carter asked.
Willy chuckled. “Mostly because it was a fun away to get through the day. But good observation got me through college with top grades. What I really learned was to see what was there rather than what I expected to see.”
Red nodded, and Kevin slipped his arm around Willy’s waist. “What do you remember about when you first met me?”
Willy felt his cheeks color. “That you had your hand on my ass as you carried me.”
“Daddy, you said a swear,” Grant said as he ran in, the dogs behind him. He went to the counter and brought Willy the container. Willy got out his wallet and put in a dollar. Grant stretched to put the container back and returned to what he was watching.
“Okay, that was adorable,” Carter said. “Alex used to do things like that when he was younger.” He looked every bit the proud parent.
“Did you and your partner have him together?” Willy asked.
Carter shook his head. “Alex brought Donald and me together. We’d gotten off on bad footing. Donald works for Child Services and had a real reputation—”
“Because he will do just about anything to help the kids in his care,” Red put in.
“Yeah. Red and I found Alex in an abusive situation. We rescued him, and caring for Alex was the catalyst for Donald and me. Alex is almost eleven now, and he remembers almost nothing from that time in his life. After Donald and I got married, we adopted Alex as our son. It was the best decision we ever made.”
Willy nodded. “I don’t know what I’d do without these two. Probably sleep more.”
“But your life and your heart would be empty,” Kevin said. “I know that.” He took another half sandwich, and Willy did the same. The buttery cheesiness was amazing. American cheese was the worst, but in a grilled cheese, it was so good.
“So where do we go from here?” Willy asked. “I’m afraid for the kids. I have special instructions at the daycare that if anyone even asks after the kids, they are to call me. I don’t want anyone to get to them.”
“Carter here is great with computers. He’ll use your description and a program we have to create a face. We’ll send it to you so you can tell us how close we are, and once we have an image, we’ll see if we can match it to anyone. The process can take a little time.”
“Whatever I can do to support you,” Willy said.
“I want to get to the bottom of this. We’ve already lost our home and everything we had.
The kids have been uprooted. The only good thing has been that we met Kevin in the deal.
But putting everything back together….” He turned to Kevin.
“I just want to feel safe again. I know it sounds dumb, but every time I hear a siren, I tense. I burned a piece of toast and nearly had a panic attack. I know it’s going to take time for all that to pass.
But… with all of it… it feels like it’s just hanging on. ”
“We’ll do everything we can,” Carter said. “If he shows up again, call 911 and get through to the department. Say that this is a repeat attempt at intimidation and that you need someone right away. Use our names. But get someone here. Maybe we can catch him in the act.”
“Yes, of course. We want that too,” Kevin said.
“Are you living here now?” Red asked.
Kevin took Willy’s hand. “I got caught in a fire, so Willy and the kids are looking after me. The hospital said they didn’t want me to be alone.” His smile told more of the story than Kevin provided.
Red nodded slowly. “Carter and I need to get going.”
“Yes. I have plenty to do,” Carter agreed. They both stood. “Expect an image later today.”
“I’ll watch for it,” Willy said and showed both of them to the door. Once he saw them out, he checked around out of habit before closing and locking the door.
“Can we go to the park?” Grant asked.
“I don’t think so. It looks like rain. But you can play here in the house. Go get your toys and play for a while.” He figured April would be ready for a nap in an hour or so, and if he was lucky, he’d get Grant to be quiet for a while.
“I’m tired,” Kevin said, yawning.
“Then go on in and get some rest.” Willy would see to the kids and the dogs.
“Can we watch Encanto?” Grant asked, and Willy put the movie on.
If Grant wanted to watch it again, then he could suffer through it, and Grant would stay glued to the movie until it was over.
He got Grant settled on his pillow and sat on the sofa with April in his arms. She watched for a little while but got sleepy, and after maybe half an hour, he took her to her room and settled her in bed.
Now it was just Grant and him. Willy checked on Kevin, who was sound asleep with two of the dogs curled around him.
Willy wished he could join him. The bed looked comfortable, and he wanted to slip in next to Kevin and hold him, but Grant needed him.
He closed the door most of the way and found Grant in the living room, still glued to the movie.
“Come sit here with me,” Willy said, and Grant climbed onto the sofa next to him. Willy turned the movie down, and Grant continued watching, but soon enough, he was asleep, and Willy took him in to bed as well.
A few minutes all to himself—that was a rare treat.
He had plenty of chores to do, but he lay on the sofa instead, figuring he’d close his eyes for a few minutes.
But soon his exhaustion caught up with him and he drifted off, only to wake quickly for no apparent reason.
The house was quiet, the kids still asleep, the dogs all set, and even Kevin was snoring loudly enough to wake the dead.
Maybe everything was okay… at least for now.
He’d been in crisis mode for too long, and it seemed strange not to have a million things pulling him in different directions.
He sat on the sofa again, picked up his book from the table, and opened it.
He tried to concentrate but put the book down again and just sat in his chair, staring at the wall.
Willy knew something was going to happen—the man who threatened them would see to that. He just wished he knew what.