I held her when she cried over her dad one minute and listened when she raged against him the next for the way he’d destroyed their lives. She was happy he was being punished one second and scared of what was to become of her the next. That’s where her family came in, but I still couldn’t just walk away. I’m afraid I’m always going to find an excuse to stay in her life unless I make a clean break soon.
Now that her family has things under control and has taken the reins, I no longer feel as guilty as I did before. I know she’ll be taken care of. I still have eyes and ears in parts of the Fontane residence, so I’ve heard enough to know that she’s genuinely loved. I wasn’t about to leave that up to chance after all.
She’d taken her mother’s portrait back home, and her grandmother had assured her that I’d sent the rest of her mom’s stuff to Virginia before we left. When that bit of news seemed to puzzle her, I had a ready excuse. I simply said I didn’t trust Becky or her daughter not to do something stupid, and wasn’t it great that I’d had that kind of foresight because look what she’d tried to do.
I’d made the lawyer wait a little before sharing that news with Felix. Now he knows that he’d killed the witch for the one thing she hadn’t done. Now he can live with the guilt of sitting on his hands all the times he should’ve acted. Pathetic! Maybe seven years behind bars, which is what the lawyer thinks he might get, will make him face the light.
We threw the ball around for a good hour, neither of us really saying anything, but I knew I needed to put his mind at ease as well. He’s not as bad as Pop, but not far from it. “Hey, have you heard back from the force about the program? You haven’t said anything about it since we got back. Are you sure you don’t want to come with me? You’ve got the grades.”
“I should come with you and keep you out of trouble, but nah, you know I’ve always wanted to be a cop.”
“No reason you can’t study criminal justice there and join up later.”
“Nah, this way is simpler. I get hands-on training, and it cost way less.”
“Don’t be an ass. Pop’s had your five-two-nine set up for about as long as we’ve known you.”
“I know, but you know how guilty I am about that. I didn’t become your friend to mooch.”
“Yo, what the fuck? Where’s this coming from?” I know Lancelot, and he’s off, way off. “Did something happen?”
The fact that he looked deflated and wouldn’t look me in the eye told me that I was onto something. What could it be? It wasn’t about me, or grandpa or any of it. “Is something wrong with Unc?”
“No, it’s nothing like that.
“Then what is it?” He did that thing where you put on a bright fake smile and pretend that all is well like that’s gonna work. “Lance!”
“Stop being such a worrier; it’s nothing. I’m just decompressing from our trip, I guess. I’ll be back to normal by tomorrow; pass the ball.” I didn’t push because I knew he wouldn’t budge until he was ready to. But I have other ways of getting answers.
He left to go home a little while later, and I headed up to my room. I’d removed Pop’s bells and whistles from my home PC and added some extra security. He had no reason to spy on me now since my search for grandpa was out in the open. If he said anything, then he’d have to admit to not trusting me, and the deal has always been no more spying after I reached eighteen. Not that I expect him to stick to that, but it’ll buy me some time in the meantime.
I went to my computer to check the progress of the search I’d left running before picking up the phone to call Unc. He answered on the third ring. “Hey, Unc. How are you? Did you like the gifts?”
“Loved them. I plan to come by tomorrow to meet your grandpa; sorry, I’ve been too busy all week to come by.”
“That’s okay. Listen, I want to do something special for Lance. Have you heard anything about his placement in the special program on the force?”
“Oh, that, well, funny, you should ask. I don’t know what to tell you. He got a call as soon as he came back. He seemed pretty excited about it even went to meet someone; I have the name written down somewhere. Anyway, I don’t know how things went, but when he got back home, he didn’t seem as excited. In fact, he seemed upset, but he wouldn’t say what happened, just that he’s not interested in joining the force anymore. Didn’t he tell you about it? That’s surprising.”
“Maybe he forgot to mention it with everything else that’s been going on around here. Thanks for telling me. I guess I’ll see you soon.” We exchanged some more small talk before I rang off. What the hell happened? Did something this mystery person said scare him off? It can’t be.
Lance has always known that joining the force was a fool’s errand. That he’d put in all the work, put his life on the line, and get nothing for it in return but underpay and complaints. If it was something like that, he would’ve told me, but instead, he’d lashed out. Why?
Well, hell, I can’t very well work on my shit if he’s in this type of mood. I picked up the phone again and called him. “Where are you?”
“Just pulling into my driveway. Why?”
“Meet me at the ice cream place; I need to get Gianna her nightly fix.”
“Didn’t I just leave you?”
“I know where you live, punk, be there in ten.”
I hung up and headed for the door.
He was there waiting when I pulled into the parking lot, and we headed inside. I worked my magic until he broke, and ten minutes later, I was peeling into the driveway madder than hell with him speeding to catch up. “Pop, Pop.” I walked through the door, yelling for him.
“Gabe, chill, don’t… Oh, hi Unc, sorry.”
“Lancelot? I thought you left; what’s up? What’s all the yelling about?”
“Tell him, or I will. Better yet, I’ll handle it myself.”
“Tell me what? What’s going on? Why are you so upset, Gabriel?” I just looked at Lance to start talking.
“I met with one of the recruiters today. He uh, dammit.”
“Just spit it out, son; what happened?”
“He said he wanted to use my connection with you…. Ah, crap. He said if I wanted to join the force, I have to give you up.”
“Come again!”
“Yeah, he said something about no one being able to get anything on you and some other things that made no sense. I told him to… I told him I wasn’t interested. I’ll just go to college, I guess.”
“What’s his name?”
“Dempsey.”
“Gabe, take Lance upstairs, call your dad and tell him you’re spending the night. You boys don’t worry about a thing you hear me?”
“Yes, sir.” I wanted to punch the wall at his hangdog look. I’m going to leave this hump whoever he is to Pop, for now. “Come on, let’s go watch some crappy shows.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“What?” He pointed to the ice cream I was still carrying.
“Dammit, I’ll be right back.”