“Electronics are easy to fence, Evan. Surely you know that.”
“I’m surprised you know that, Frank.”
The older man sat down in a high-backed chair, turning it from the dining room table toward the living room to face his guest. “Like I said before, I know a thing or two about secrets. I can certainly tell you, as a lad who came from nothing, I couldn’t afford a ticket to America doing things solely on the up and up. And for certain the pawn brokers in my old neighborhood weren’t as fair as the ones you see now on the telly.”
“You were a thief?”
Frank raised his hands in a mock surrender. “I merely…borrowed. From some unsavory sorts. Nothing that was readily missed, but…”
Evan shook his head. “I never would have guessed.”
“My boy, why do you think I went into service shortly after I got my papers? Granted, the sixties wasn’t the best time to get patriotic, but it did pay for me to go to law school.” He sighed. “Do you think less of me, now that you know?”
“No. But I see why you value honesty so much.”
“There are times in life where the world needs to be in shades of gray. Even I know that. But, given today’s standards…honesty really is the best policy. Even if you lose some face or standing along the way.”
“You were right, you know.”
“About?”
Now it was Evan’s turn to sigh. “I did some things…before, when I was in college. I’m not proud of them, but I managed not to let them get worse. I made some enemies. When Remy said it was a Southern voice, taunting them that night, I started to wonder.”
“This is from home, then? Where you’re from?”
Evan snorted. “Carolina was never really home. Pretty place, nice weather, but not home.” He looked at the pile of luggage sitting nearby, articles tossed in whatever knapsack or duffel bag was available. “Here. Here is home. Otter Lake, Rachel’s place, being with her and the boys. That’s home.”
“Still, the question stands. This is from before?”
Evan nodded, a frown crossing a thin face. “I had a friend, grew up with him. He got into pills. Both ends, if you follow me. Made a pretty lucrative business out of selling secondhand.”
“Dangerous game, lad. Very dangerous.”
“I know. Well, let’s just say I ended up owing him. He thought a great way to cover my debt would be to help him with a ‘supply problem’ he had at the time.”
Green eyes narrowed. “You didn’t.”
“No. No, I did not. I brushed him off, tried to talk him out of it. For a while, I thought I did. Then one night I get a phone call telling me to be ready.”
“Evan, what did you do?”
“I ran. I got to the place he wanted to knock over, told them about it. I got lucky; they believed me. Cops were called, and my friend got busted. End of story.”
Frank gave his young friend the once over. “No. That’s not all, is it?”
Long fingers fidgeted with a loose tie dangling from the hooded jacket Evan wore. “No. I had to testify in court. My friend swore revenge on me. Usually, you laugh it off—I mean, in the end he was going to prison—but about three weeks later, my place was turned upside down and I was attacked.” Evan craned his neck to show a thin, faded scar running parallel with his jawline. “Another inch closer and I wouldn’t be here. I got in the truck and I ran.”
The pair sat a long while, taking in what Evan had said. “I haven’t told Rachel. Not yet.”
“Why not?”
A scoff shot through a button nose. “Can you imagine that conversation? ‘Oh, yeah, babe, by the way, I was popping pills in college to escape my miserable life, and then got caught up in a robbery scheme, and then helped put away an irate entitled bastard who had me nearly killed once he figured out he was going to prison?’ Sure, Frank, that’s a conversation that’s going to go over well once I give her the engagement ring.”
Frank’s eyes widened. “Engagement ring?”
“Yeah. Planning to ask her at Christmas.” Evan sighed. “She’s the one. I don’t care if I’m living in a shack on the lake or a coastal mansion on the Atlantic, if she’s not there, what’s the point?”
The old man stood from his chair. “Well, to that end, congratulations on your endeavor, lad. But still, if you think that old shadows are coming back to haunt you, you’d best speak up. Or else you might lose everything all over again. Trust me. When Lola found out about my not-so-stellar career as a youth, I nearly lost her.”
“What changed her mind?”
“She saw what I was…a decent lad who made mistakes, and learned from them. Do yourself a favor, lad, and learn from yours.”
Evan shrugged. “I’m hoping that it was just someone looking for quick cash. I’ve put a lot of distance between who I was and who I am now. It could just be a coincidence.”
The sound of the front door crashing open stopped Frank from arguing further. “Sorry,” Sam said, his cane swinging in front of him. “That lock is tough.”
“I think I have a can of WD-40 somewhere,” Evan said. “Left one here on purpose for that very reason.” He headed for the door, giving Rachel a kiss on the way out.
“Any luck?” Frank asked, giving each of his guests a hug.
“It looks like they made off with a lot of small electronics, all the kids’ mp3 players, and at least one of Sam’s laptops. Plus their cash is missing, and Josh and Remy are going to have to replace their flat screen and stereo, respectively.
“And our meds,” Remy said. “They’re gone too.”
The Englishman’s face pulled into a thoughtful frown. “Your medicines, you say?”
“Well, my Xanax, and Josh’s Adderall. There was some other stuff too, like Sam’s eye drops, but those were the important ones.”
“And they are a pain in the ass to refill,” Rachel said. “That’s what took us so long. Penny and Mark are still over at Hanover’s trying to get an emergency supply.”
“I don’t wanna think about Josh without meds,” Remy said, shuddering. “Seriously.”
“Well, you’re not sleeping either, Remy,” Rachel pointed out.
“I am too.”
“Don’t start with me. I heard you in with Sam last night, chatting like a couple of girls. Remember, I was a girl once.”
“Still are, last I looked.” Remy smiled, showing off even teeth and flashing his deep blue eyes.
“Smartass.”
“I know, I know.” Remy then went in to join Sam in the living room.
“How are they holding up?” their host asked as he motioned Rachel to take a seat in a dining room chair.
Rachel shrugged. “Josh is a giant ball of energy with no outlet—hence why his meds are so important. I think even his parents want to gag him, and they’re two of the most patient and easygoing parents I’ve ever met. I know Remy was up all the first night and part of last, but that’s the anxiety. Doesn’t help that his routine’s changed, and though he’s okay now, he doesn’t do change well. Or stress.”
“That sounds like autism,” Frank said. “My Lola would talk about her students sometimes.”
“Remy’s on the spectrum. Really high-functioning, intelligent, but socially he’s awkward. He’s doing better than most—he has friends, and you’ve seen him with Sam—but he still makes the wrong comment, or stresses about the wrong thing. Having to live with Cooper for four years didn’t help.”
“God, no. Right bastard, that man.” Short fingers rubbed a balding head. “You don’t think…”
“No, though I wouldn’t put it past him. Remy would’ve picked him out right off, even with all the other stuff going on that night. He’s terrified of the man. He puts on a hell of a front, but any encounter with him sends him from zero to…” Rachel pushed her fingertips outward from each other, mimicking an explosion while exhaling loudly. “Plus, he and Remy have kind of the same accent, and Remy swears it wasn’t Cooper’s voice he heard.”
“Well, that�
�s a relief. Do the police think they’ll find the ones responsible?”
“I doubt it. Probably kids looking for some quick cash. Still, why they’d go taunting the boys when they had them cornered?”
“More than likely, it was just someone on a…I think the correct term now is ‘power trip.’ In my day we would have called it showing off.”
Rachel sighed. “I hope so. No offense, but I’m ready to go home.”
“Surely you’ll stay for dinner, at least?” The front door slammed a few times as Evan worked with the lock, and the hiss of pressurized contents being released from a can floated through the dining room.
“Well, we did pick up a turkey. Usually I’d make dressing, but boxed stuff will have to do.”
“That’s fine, love. Why don’t you have those poor parents over as well? I’m sure it would be easier to pack all the lads back home at once than to do it in turns.”
Rachel grinned. “Especially since I told Remy and Sam cleaning out their rooms was a priority? I’ll say.” She pulled out her phone and pressed a number in speed dial. “Penny? Rachel. Listen, have you guys had dinner?”
Chapter 13
“Man, this sucks.”
“I’ll say,” Sam agreed as he reached for the overturned bookshelf. “Found it. Ready?”
“Ready. On the count of three. One, two, three!”
The six foot shelving unit slowly leaned upright, and soon it fell flush with the wall. “Done,” Remy said. “Now you just gotta put your stuff back in it.”
Sam sighed. The rest of his things were in a giant heap in the middle of his floor. “Great. Sorting.” He made a face.
“Hey, at least you didn’t have to trash your stereo,” Remy said, thinking longingly of his favorite stress reliever. “That belonged to my dad.”
“Sorry.”
“Wasn’t you that broke it.” Remy flopped onto Sam’s bed, jumping up slightly as his backside connected with something hard. “Ow!” he cried. “Sam!”
“Well, look where you’re sitting next time. I should be the one yelling. You didn’t bend my stick, did you?”
Remy handed over the object in question. “Phew,” Sam said, running his hands over his most prized possession.
“It’ll live to slay dragons another day?”
A smile grew over Sam’s face. “You want to come on Thursday?”
“Sure. Why not?” Remy agreed. “ Maybe even learn me a few moves…”
Sam’s hands glossed over the pile of objects in front of him. He picked up a large book covered in Braille and heaved it onto a low shelf. “One down…”
“…a hundred more to go. Here, let me help.” Remy leaned next to his friend and started putting away some of the smaller pieces, like his friend’s harmonica and miniature xylophone. One of the xylophone sticks was broken in two, but some duct tape could fix it until replacements could be gotten. The Perkins Brailler was set back onto a newly painted desk, and remnants of the old furniture were swept up with a noisy vacuum. “God, I hate those things,” Sam said, taking his fingers out of his ears once the noise died down.
“I know. But no one’s gonna pick splinters out of the carpet. Or your feet.” Remy looked around the room, eyes searching over what remained of Sam’s possessions. “What happened to your presents, Sam?”
Sam stopped. “My…oh.” He smiled. “Luckily, I mailed out my gift cards before we put up the Christmas tree. They’re okay.”
“How about your stuff for Evan and Miss Rachel, though?”
The smile faded on Sam’s face as he racked his brain. “Oh, yeah. I had Miss Rachel put it in their closet with the other presents. I didn’t think I’d remember where I put it, and I didn’t want to end up losing it. We had it wrapped at the store, so I wasn’t worried about someone peeking.”
Remy smiled in relief.
“How’s your room turning out?” Sam asked.
“Well, I’m in here. What does that tell you?”
“Either you’re avoiding the problem or it wasn’t that bad.”
Remy chuckled. “Try the former.”
Sam stood up. “Get in there and clean. This room’s almost done.”
“Make me.” The hint of joviality in Remy’s voice was hard to ignore.
The blind man walked toward the door. “Hey, Josh!” he called out.
“Yeah?” a loud voice called back from down the hall.
“Remy needs help getting his room in order. Wanna help me?”
There was silence. “So, how’s that working out for you?” Remy chortled. Sam just smiled. Soon footsteps crashed down against the thin rugs covering the hardwood floors.
“Man, Remy, did you even clean in here?” Josh cried. “Place looks like a trash heap!”
Remy glared at Sam, who merely smiled back at him. “You suck.”
“Give me a hand, Josh,” Sam replied, walking confidently toward the room he knew as well as his own. “I don’t wanna trip over whatever’s left in there.”
“All right, enough,” Remy said, his face sullen. Sam wisely stopped, but Josh kept going until he was near the bedroom window. Soon Sam heard the sound of things shuffling and clattering in Remy’s room, and quick-paced thuds signaling a one hundred forty pound man stopping short of running into his personal space. “Josh, enough!”
“But…Sam said he’d help…”
“Sam was teasing me,” Remy said. The irritation and anger in his voice was thick. “It wasn’t funny.”
“Well, do you want help?” Josh asked. “’Cause I could…”
“I’ll do it. Thanks.” Remy forced the last word out.
Josh slowly stepped out of the room, and as he did the door slammed with such force the walls shook. “Geez,” the younger man said. “What a grouch.”
“A grouch without meds. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Sam heaved a sigh. “How are you coming on your room?”
“Fine. It’s just a mess. Gotta reorganize it and everything.”
“Need help?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“But…?”
“How you gonna organize it, if you can’t see? I mean, certain things have to go certain places…”
Sam smiled while remembering Josh’s limitations. “Wanna find out?”
“Okay.”
Chapter 14
The next day at the school the break-in was all anyone could talk about. OLBC was a school of about two hundred students and fifty staff, and most all of them came from what was commonly referred to as the North Kingston metropolitan area. Otter Lake was the farthest to the east, followed by the titular city and Lakeside Heights to the west. The college town of Campbell lay to the south, just fifty miles away.
“I still can’t believe you guys weren’t hurt,” Remy’s girlfriend Libby said, racing over to him as fast as her limping gait would allow. Her thick glasses offset the wide smile and bright green eyes, and freckles that lightly dotted her angular face.
“Nah, never touched us.” Remy said. “Scared the crap out of us, though.”
Down the hall Sam was getting grilled by his friend Dave, who, like him, had a need for the program’s mobility services and education that OLBC offered. Unlike Sam, though, he had lost his eyes to cancer. “What do you mean, you didn’t hear them right off?” he cried, shocked. “Sam, you’re the first one to hear a pin drop in the middle of a crowded dance hall!”
“Josh was there first,” Sam explained. “Plus, I was asleep.”
In the rec hall, Josh’s friend Walter Longoria was animatedly telling everyone how Josh had single-handedly fended off the intruders. “It-it was…it was e-e-epic!” he said, his high voice grating on more than a few passersby. “Amazing! Y-you worked some m-magic, right there!”
“Not really. I was pretty scared. I got everyone up, though!”
“That’s what I’m-I’m saying! The im-im-important part!”
In the small staff lounge Rachel suddenly found herself the center of attention. “How bad wa
s it?” her friend Becka Ingham asked, worry coloring her normally pale face. “God, Eric and I were so worried.”
“I heard someone say there were some things missing?” Paul Robinson asked, his dark head tilting back from his favorite chair in the back.
“Do you guys need anything? Replacements or whatever?”
“I can get something going…” piped up little Diana Reed, her plump hands whirling faster than her words came out.
Rachel raised her long arms and called for silence. “We’re fine. The kids are fine, as most of you will see today. There are gonna be questions, so if no one minds, let the rest of the kids ask their questions, okay? Insurance will cover most of the stuff that went missing, and Evan’s already going out today to pick up the replacements. Diana, we could use some dinner, though. Lord knows the kids have been cleaning since Sunday and they’re about half done. Evan and I have been through the kitchen, and most of that’s a total loss. Suffice to say, we’re not doing any cooking for a while.”
“No one was hurt, though?” Paul asked.
“No, thank God. Remy’s gonna put up a front, Sam is still spooked and I’m sure Walter has been telling the story of how Josh is some sort of superhero all morning. Here are the facts as we know them: Josh heard something, got everyone up, Sam confirmed there were burglars, and Remy got everyone in my and Evan’s bedroom and locked the door. The police were called, and that was the end of that.”
“I heard there were three of them,” Becka said. “And that they were picking on the kids.”
Does no one in this town know how to keep their mouth shut? Rachel wondered. “From the sounds of things, yeah, that’s accurate. We still don’t know why, and we might never know.”
“Thank you, Rachel, for that summary,” a voice said from the staff room door. Everyone turned to see the short figure of Rosa Mills, the building principal. “And she’s right. Let the students ask questions. Know when to redirect back to the lesson. Most importantly, no one was hurt.”
A chorus of murmurs filled the room.
In the House On Lakeside Drive Page 7
