Post by CHASE BUCKLEY on Oct 28, 2024 19:49:35 GMT
”Don’t look, ‘k buddy? Just focus on me and we’ll get out of here.” Like telling the kid to close his eyes now was gonna erase the image of what was in his mama’s bedroom.
The kid had clung onto him until they’d reached the car. Dark eyes wide and occasionally flitting to the other cops traipsing in and out of the crime scene, but each time they’d returned to him. Attempts to get the kid to talk had gotten him nothing but head shakes at first. The appearance of a chocolate bar out of the glove compartment had earned him a small smile though and a conspiratorial ’my mom doesn’t let me have candy’. He’d been about to whisper that it’d be their secret, his mom didn’t have to know, but the words dried up in Chase’s throat. She wouldn’t know because she’d been dead at least two hours already.
Dispatch had taken the call at eight that morning. A neighbour had reported seeing a man in blood stained clothing leaving the apartment. The man was a stranger, the mom and son lived there alone, keeping to themselves. Once the deputies had arrived to find the apartment door unlocked and smeared with blood the neighbour had gotten real chatty about the whole thing. There’s no father around, a young girl like that, she probably got herself in trouble looking for a new baby daddy. The woman was lucky it had been a deputy taking that first statement, he wouldn’t have been able to bite his tongue around the old bitch.
Parker had whispered she always has to know everybody’s business when he’d finally asked the kid about the neighbour. Apparently his mom had bitched about her from time to time, trying to stay out of the old lady’s way as much as possible. She’d told him he had to play quiet too, just in case she complained about the noise and they got kicked out. If there’d been any noise this time, both him and Mrs Rodriguez had missed it. He thought he mighta heard his mama get up in the night, but then he’d gone back to sleep. When he woke up the cops had been standing there in the doorway of his bedroom and his mom was nowhere in sight. The deputies had said the kid had been upset when they wouldn’t let him out of the bedroom, trying to fight his way past their legs to get to his mom. One had teeth marks in his wrist from where Parker had tried to make a real fight out of it.
Mrs Rodriguez had been wrong about Parker’s dad. If he’d lived anywhere in the area suspicion might’ve fallen on him for the death of his wife, but Parker’s dad wasn’t a deadbeat – the guy had died when Parker was two, or three – when he was too little to remember much, at least. The only family he’d really had around was his mom and his uncle Teo, who was apparently his dad’s brother and lived in Chicago with his own kids.
Breaking the news was never easy, but when you had to do it with a freshly orphaned kid sitting right outside your office, watching through the window, it broke your fucking heart. Teo – Mateo Rivera, his dad’s brother – had promised to be there as soon as he could to take responsibility for Parker, as his only living relative, but he was a single father himself and had to find child care for his three kids. Tomorrow morning was the earliest he thought he’d make it, the day after at a push. That was all Forbes had needed to spot in his report to start talking about bring in CPS. The words ’he’s my only real witness, I’ll take him’ had been out of his mouth before he could bite them back. What the hell did he know about taking care of kids? His own childhood had ended way too early after the Agnellis had gotten involved in Mikey’s life.
Still, Chase told himself as he lifted Parker out of the car, swinging the kid down to the parking lot blacktop, he had to learn sometime, and it was probably better doing that before his own kids came along – even if this situation came with a hell of a lot issues. He took Parker’s hand, leading the kid towards the building. ”Maybe we can order some pizza,” he murmured to the kid, earning another of those shy smiles. ”If Roxxi hasn’t cooked. She likes being in the kitchen and she makes the best food. If we’re real good she might make pizza for us. Gotta be on our best behaviour though.” There was a mock seriousness to his voice that broke off with a grin, but it wasn’t all a joke. He’d made a call while Parker had napped on the couch in the breakroom, asking if she could come by his place tonight. The kid had been great all afternoon, but who knew what it was gonna be like when he realised he wasn’t gonna go back to his old apartment, that his mom really was gone.
Winking at Parker, Chase slid his key into his apartment door once they were upstairs. This was the first night of the kid’s life without his mom in it and his throat already ached for him. ”Hey baby, you here?” Chase called out, almost feeling the warmth of Roxxi in the apartment as he swept Parker up onto his hip and carried him into the apartment. The corner of his mouth hitched up as he spotted her in the living room. ”Parker, this is Roxxi, my girlfriend … and this is Parker, he’s … uh … he’s gonna stay with us for a night or two.” While he tracked down the son of a bitch who’d killed a young mom and left her son parentless.
Tagged: ROXANNE BRASCHI * Word Count: 986
