Chapter Twelve
April entered the NOPD’s seventh precinct on Dwyer Road, her heart beating as wildly as it had when she first received the call from the arresting officer. She walked up to the service counter.
“I’m here to see Officer Pickney,” she said in a breathless voice.
“Are you April Knight?” came a voice just beyond her shoulder.
April turned to find a middle-aged officer with a full beard and a gleaming bald head.
“I am,” she answered. She reached her hand out to shake his hand. “Are you Officer Pickney?”
He nodded.
“Thank you so much for calling me,” she said.
“Thank you for coming.” He gestured for her to follow him. “They’re in here.”
April followed him into a small room. Linsey and another girl, one April had seen around the neighborhood but whom she’d never met, sat at a plain wooden table.
April wasn’t sure she could feel any more dismayed after her argument with Damien, but she’d been wrong.
Disappointment pummeled her as she looked down on Linsey’s bent head.
“They were caught stuffing various items down their shirts. The convenience store has them on surveillance tape. When we asked her who we could call, she gave us your name and number.”
April nodded. “Have they been charged?”
“The owner of the store is still in with another of the deputies. He hasn’t decided yet if he’s going to bring charges.”
“Linsey,” April called, but the girl refused to look at her. “So, you had me come all the way over here, but you’re not going to speak to me?” April asked her.
“I didn’t want my mom here,” the girl finally murmured, her eyes still focused on the table.
“And who is this?” April asked, gesturing to the other girl who’d also decided that being mute was the way to go.
“Erica,” Linsey said.
Finally, Linsey looked up at her. Her bottom lip trembled.
“You know what will happen to you if the owner of that store decides to press charges, don’t you?” April asked.
She nodded, and then burst out crying.
As Linsey’s shoulders shook with her sobs, April wanted to feel sorry for her, but that wall of disappointment and anger still blocked all other emotions.
Between the vandalism, Damien’s betrayal and now Linsey’s arrest, it was just too much for one day.
It felt as if everything she’d worked for over these past two years meant nothing. Had she made one bit of difference?
When she’d first started at A Fresh Start, April knew it would be impossible to prevent every kid from going down the wrong path.
But she thought she was on the right track with Linsey.
She’d seen something in the young teen, and had worked so hard to cultivate it, hoping the music would be her saving grace in the same way it had saved April.
Yet, look where they were. Linsey sure as hell couldn’t practice the cello in jail.
“We’re going to have to call your mother,” April said.
“I know,” Linsey replied in a small voice. She hiccupped and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
Such a childlike gesture.
She was a child. But she would learn a very adult lesson today. Linsey would have to learn that actions had consequences.
April released a tired breath. She was suddenly exhausted.
“I’ll go get Officer Pickney. He’ll need to call both of your parents.”
She turned for the door, but was stopped by Linsey’s soft-spoken voice.
“Ms. April?” the girl called.
April turned around.
“I’m sorry.”
Emotion welled up in her throat, making it hard to swallow. April knew speaking was out of the question. Instead, she nodded and left the room.
She found Officer Pickney at the coffee station, adding an enormous amount of sugar to a small foam cup. He spotted her and gestured his cup toward the room.
“The store owner decided not to press charges,” the officer said.
The tension that had built up in April’s shoulders released in a wave of relief. “Thank goodness,” she said. “I don’t know the other girl, but Linsey is a good kid.”
The officer shrugged. “I could tell. She didn’t mouth off like some of them do. Probably just got caught up in the moment. You know how kids are.”
“You’re being very understanding. I appreciate that.”
“The store owner wants to speak to you. He needed to get back to work, but said he’d like to talk about maybe partnering with the youth center.
Said maybe if he gives the kids jobs, they wouldn’t turn to stealing.
” Officer Pickney smiled. “I’ve known Mr. Johnson for a long time.
Before, he would have had those girls face a judge.
I’d say what you all are doing over at A Fresh Start is having an impact on attitudes throughout the entire community. ” He winked. “Good job.”
The knot returned to April’s throat. She managed to give him a small smile, but as she left the police precinct she still couldn’t shake the awful feeling that hit her the moment she saw Linsey sitting at that scarred wooden table.
She got into her car and gripped the wheel, but she didn’t start it. Instead, she looked out at the police cars lining the street outside the building, imagining other kids from A Fresh Start in the backseat. Did she have what it took to prevent that? Or was she wasting her time?
Just as April reached to start the ignition, her phone rang. It was her agent, Carlos.
There was an uptick in her heartbeat as she stared at the phone. Carlos usually texted her. He only called when he wanted to hear her reaction.
“Hello?” April finally answered.
She listened to Carlos’s excited voice on the other end of the line. She was certain that he was disappointed in her reaction. Instead of a scream of delight, April groaned at the news Carlos had just imparted.
Just like that, life had thrown her another curveball. And she had no idea what she was going to do with it.
* * *
April pulled into a parking spot less than a block away from her house. As she trudged along the sidewalk, it felt as if her legs were filled with lead. The weight of everything that had transpired over the course of today was just too much to handle.
On top of the vandalism, Damien’s revelation about what the McGowan Group wanted to do to the youth center and Linsey’s arrests, April found out on her return to A Fresh Start that Nicole had just accepted a new job in Tampa, and would be leaving at the end of the month.
It made the decision April faced even harder.
Her steps faltered when she came upon her house.
Damien sat on the steps leading up to her porch, his knees braced apart, his elbows resting on his thighs. He clutched his hands together as if in prayer.
When he noticed her, he remained silent, his eyes tracking her steps.
April walked up to him and took a seat beside him on the porch steps. They both looked straight ahead, not saying anything for several minutes.
“How’s it going?” Damien finally asked.
“I’ve had better days,” she answered.
She spent the next ten minutes explaining the situation with Linsey. It was the phone call from the police precinct that had cut their conversation short this morning.
“I don’t know why I’m even doing this, Damien. I thought I was making a difference, but I don’t know anymore.”
“How can you say that?” he asked. “I’ve seen you with those kids, April. More important, I’ve seen how the kids are when they’re with you. You make them want to be better people, the same way you did with me.”
She looked over at him, wanting to believe him.
“Don’t give up on them,” Damien said. “You are making a difference.”
“But is it enough? I don’t know if I’m really cut out for this. Maybe I should just go back to touring. That’s what I’m good at.”
“Where is this coming from, April?”
April covered her face with both palms. “My agent called this afternoon. I’ve been granted an audition with the Boston Pops.”
She heard Damien release a low whistle. “Wow,” he said. “That’s the one, isn’t it? The one you’ve wanted.”
“Ever since I was ten years old,” she said.
“You have to do it.”
She spread her fingers wide enough to peer at him.
“You have to,” Damien said again. “This is your dream.”
“But what about A Fresh Start? How can I just bail on them?”
“You’re not bailing on them, and you’re definitely not going to bail on Linsey.
” Damien captured her wrists and gently tugged her hands from her face.
“You can make this work. Even if you have to teach your music class via the web. We’re going to figure out a way for you to do both, April.
Call your agent and accept that audition. ”
“Does it even matter?” she asked. “If the McGowan Group is going to come in and bulldoze over A Fresh Start, what does it matter?”
“They won’t,” Damien said. “Well, the building may not stand, but A Fresh Start will.”
April’s heart started to pound with anticipation. “What do you mean by that?”
“After I left you this morning, I went over to Kurt’s and he chewed my ass out.”
“As all big brothers have the right to do,” April interjected.
“I don’t know if I agree with that,” Damien said. “But, this time, he was right. He gave me a lot to think about. When I left Kurt’s, I went back to see Michael Berger and I laid down a set of conditions.
“The McGowan Group and Alexander Properties are now in a formal partnership to develop both upscale and affordable housing in the Ninth Ward. The land that I purchased is going to be the home to A Fresh Start’s new state-of-the-art facility.”
April’s hands flew to her mouth in shock. “What?”
“The McGowan Group has agreed to build you all a new facility. You can forget about that grant you all are trying to get, as well. They’re signing on as A Fresh Start’s official corporate sponsor.
You’ll have the funds you need to turn it into a year-round program, and hire more staff so that you can offer a wider range of activities for the kids. ”
“Oh, my God,” April breathed. “How did you do this?”
“I appealed to their more charitable side,” Damien said. “I also explained that the residents of the Ninth Ward would probably be more welcoming if the McGowan Group showed that they are willing to work with them and not against them. They agreed.”
April was so filled with emotion she could barely speak.
Damien turned to her. Once again, he took her hands away from her face, this time encapsulating them between his own.
“You opened my eyes to things I refused to see for so long, April. Because of you, I see our old neighborhood for what it is now, not for what it used to be.” He pressed a kiss to her fingers.
“But, more important, because of you, I now see how much brighter my future will be if I get to share it with the woman I love.
“I love you, April. It took me a while to see it, but I do see it now. I see how good we are together. I never want to be without you again.”
“What if I go to Boston?”
“That’s what airplanes and four-day workweeks are for,” Damien said with a grin. “We’ll make it work. We have to, because I refuse to go back to what we were a month ago.”
He caressed her jaw. “I love you. I’ve always loved you as a friend, but you’re so much more than that, April. You’re the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
Her eyes fell shut as a wave of longing and contentment washed over her.
“I’ve wanted that for so long,” April finally admitted. She opened her eyes. “Does this really happen? Do people really get to live out their fairy tale? Can I truly have you, A Fresh Start and the Boston Pops?”
Damien leaned in close and brushed his lips against hers.
“You deserve to have it all,” he said. “And if you’ll let me, I want to be the one who gives it to you.”