Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Case
The kid, Jimmy Nobbes, now fourteen, sits slumped in the plastic chair. When I saw him last time on the courthouse steps, his hair was long, messy and in need of a wash. His face, too much like Slash’s, was pale and gaunt. Now, he had a good haircut, although it could still use a wash. He looked healthier, too—wore better clothes and shoes. I couldn’t remember much about the kid, other than his mother was Slash’s sister and she loved crack more than anything else in the world, but it seemed by the look of the kid, he’d been doing better.
I stepped out of the observation room, not wanting to hear the details of his confession, knowing it would likely give me nightmares. He’d already confessed he’d been watching me for a month, that he’d been trying to exact revenge for his uncle dying in prison. I hadn’t even known Slash had died.
Looking down the hall at the coffee machine, I see a familiar face nodding at me.
“Gardner?”
The RCMP officer that was my contact while I was undercover is standing at the coffee station, putting a pod in the machine.
“Callen,” he greets with an apologetic smile. “Sorry I haven’t been in touch.”
“How’d this kid slip by?” Gardner had promised he’d keep an eye on everyone involved to give me a chance once I retired. He was supposed to keep me informed. Then again, I had been so caught up in my own shit, I hadn’t contacted him either.
Gardner shakes his balding head gathering a breath. “We’d been watching his uncle’s mail in and out, but he’d had no contact with the kid since he’d gone in. Then when the Ransom finally caught up to both Slash and Preacher, we stopped watching him. Slash and Preacher had rolled over and squealed like pigs for lesser sentences and…” He shrugs. “You know how it goes.”
“How’d they get them?”
“Slash on the way to court to testify. Took down the van, left the corrections officers unharmed, slit Slash’s throat. Poetic if you ask me.” He presses the button on the coffee machine, and it hisses as it starts up. “Got Preacher in the hospital. Took a shiv in the pen. Went for medical, came out dead. Must’ve been dressed as a nurse. Found a bible on his chest with a bullet hole through it and him.”
I cross my arms, looking down at the coffee now streaming out of the machine. “Kid was working alone?”
“He was fine, in school, not doing great but improving, and showing up every day. He’d been put in foster care when his mom was arrested on drug charges. He had a good foster family. We thought he’d make it.”
“Slash’s death sent him over the edge?”
Gardner shrugged. “His mom got sentenced last month, and it was… harsh. She took the fall for her boyfriend dealer and got ten years. Guess both things pushed him over the edge. We didn’t realize the kid was even a problem until we got the alert on his name after he robbed a convenience store in New Brunswick. Caught a clear shot of his face on the camera. He’d stolen his foster father’s van, and the guy didn’t report it. Wanted to give the kid a chance. The kid got to you before we could grab him.”
“Fuck.”
“Those left in the Ransom are serving multiple sentences—they won’t get out, and intel says as far as they’re concerned, they’ve taken down who they believe betrayed them. Mack might be another story, but you can stop looking behind your back. They don’t give a shit about you.”
“Hey!”
I turn to see the lead detective calling me.
“The kid broke down. Wants to talk to you.” He shrugs as if he doesn’t care either way.
I nod, annoyed no one will call him by his name. Jimmy’s fourteen, just a kid, yeah, but he’s more than that. He’s a human being. A messed-up one, who’d been given a raw deal from the start.
I think of Tessa and how badly her parents messed her up. And how even though her grandmother gave her a second chance and fought like hell to show her not all people were bad, Tessa still couldn’t trust. First sign of trouble, she believed I’d betrayed her.
That kind of baggage was hell on a relationship. Took work, real work and patience to overcome. Did I even have that in me? I swallow. I had my own baggage. And a lot of it.
Perhaps our relationship was doomed before we even got a chance to start.
Jimmy had bawled like a three-year-old when he saw me. But he wasn’t crying because he was caught and faced juvie. No, until the detective told him how he could have killed my five-year-old daughter, he’d maintained his sullen silence.
“I’ve got a sister. Dana. She’s two,” he croaks, pulling himself together well enough to stop crying. He’s caught somewhere between man and child.
“She’s the sweetest kid.” He swallows hard, swiping at the wetness on his cheeks. His awkward teen body folds in as he continues. “We were separated. They didn’t have a home willing to take us together.” Leaning back, he wraps his arms around his middle. “I have no idea where she is. How she is. Or if she’s in one of the so-called good homes. She doesn’t talk. Even if I could call her, she doesn’t talk.” His eyes start to well again before he catches himself.
“Sorry, that’s not your problem,” he says, and surprisingly it doesn’t sound bitter. He leans forward again, forearms on the table. One of his wrists is still cuffed, the other bears angry red lines.
“I was mad at the world, and I snapped. I didn’t see you as a person. You were just the pig that screwed up my life.” He lowers his gaze to the table, where he picked at a crack in the melamine top.
I nod, not interrupting him, knowing he needs to get this off his chest.
“Now that I’m here, I see how stupid that was. Blaming you for what my mom and uncle did is dumb. But you gotta believe me…” He looks up, locking eyes with me. “I had no idea you had a daughter. A daughter with… no mom.”
My fists tighten beneath the table and my jaw aches from clenching. The detective used my daughter’s story to get a confession from Jimmy and it pisses me off.
“I’d watched you for a while and never saw a kid.” His eyes fill and tears spill over his lids again. “I would never have started that fire if I’d known I could hurt your little girl. I’m truly sorry.” His apology comes out broken with emotion and I can’t help but feel it to my core.
I rise, heading to the door. Jimmy lowers his face to the table, his sobs like blades to my heart. This wasn’t a bad kid. A screwed-up kid, yes, but not a bad one.
I step outside the small holding room and pull out my cell phone. I make three calls. And wait for one return call.
Opening the door to the holding room, I hold out a palm to the cop waiting there. “Key.”
I’ll be working here soon. This cop will be under my orders on the regular and it shows in the way he looks at me. There’s a respect in his expression that I hadn’t thought I deserved until right now.
Taking the key, I walk back to the kid and remove the cuff holding him to the table. I watch as he rubs away the bite. Sitting my hip on the table, I tower over the kid. I’m a big man and it’s clear he’s afraid.
Reaching out I put a hand on his shoulder.
“Listen, I’m not RCMP anymore, but I’m still a cop. In fact, this precinct is going to be home soon.” I look around as if I can see more than just three walls and a mirror. “I’ve got friends, Jimmy and they’ve agreed to help me help you.”
Jimmy’s brows crunch together, and he looks at me in confusion. It’s like a punch in the gut. Had no one ever offered this kid a helping hand before?
“How?”
“Well, first. I had a friend find out where your sister is. And had her promise she was going to arrange some visitation for you two. I also talked to the Crown Attorney about your mom’s case. And she’s going to investigate it a bit more, no promises there, but she’ll try. And finally, I’ve gotten you a good lawyer. I’ll talk to the Crown here too, but for now, I want you to know I’m going to try to get you help rather than punishment.”
“But why?”
“Because yeah, you did a piece of shit thing, but it doesn’t make you a piece of shit.”
He may as well have swallowed a bowling ball with the way his throat works at my words.
“I think you’re a good kid who was given a bullshit start in life. But this is it, kid. This is your one chance. Fuck this up and no one’s going to care where you end up. You’ve got four years to get your head on straight, work hard, and get your shit together, then you can get custody of that little girl you love so much. Can you do it? Can you be the best man for her?”
Again, he swallows what looks like a bowling ball of emotion. “I… can… try.”
“There’s no trying, Jimmy. There’s doing it, or not doing it. Nothing in between.”
“I’ll do it. I’ll become the kind of man my sister can depend on and trust to take care of her.” He rises to his feet, lunging into my arms like a child. “And I’ll tell her you’re the one that gave me the chance to become that man.”