The Truth of Yesterday

by Josh Aterovis

  “It's just dish soap and water,” he explained, more to me than Micah, whose eyes were still squeezed shut in agony as tears streamed down his cheeks. He began carefully dabbing at Micah's red face. “Can you get me fresh water?” he asked me. “I need it to rinse his eyes and get this soap off his skin.”

  I ran from the room and filled a clean-looking glass in the draining board with tap water. “Will this stop the pain?” I asked as I handed it to the detective.

  “It won't stop it completely, but it'll help ease it some,” he said without looking up.

  Meanwhile, Louis had called an ambulance, which arrived in what I thought was a surprisingly fast response time. Micah was handed over to the paramedics for treatment for the pepper spray and the blow to the head, which I now noticed was bleeding slightly at his temple. They insisted I go too, since the inside of my mouth was still bleeding and the cut on my cheek looked pretty nasty. Someone suggested I might need stitches. Miraculously, Tad was still around at that point, arriving on the scene with the paramedics when they'd come up. I'd been half afraid he'd run, but he was determined to make sure we were ok. I told the officers that he was with me and insisted that he come to the hospital with us. It was allowed with a minimum of questions.

  “So what now?” he asked a few hours later as we sat in the waiting room of the hospital we'd been taken to. Appropriately enough, we were waiting; Micah was still in an examination room. The inside of my cheek hadn't required stitches; something for which I was very grateful, but they had bandaged the outside with some gauze and white surgical tape.

  “I guess next I'll have to talk to the police,” I said wearily. “I'm sure they didn't get all their questions answered yet. I sure I wasn't very articulate at the apartment.”

  “That's not what I meant,” he said softly. “I mean what happens to me now? But since you brought it up, will I have to talk to the police again?”

  I looked over at him. He looked more like a lost little kid than I'd ever seen him.

  “What did you tell them before?”

  “Well, they were a little busy with everything else so they really weren't paying much attention to me. When they arrived, I just told them I knew you'd gone up to talk to Razi and you hadn't come back. They took off like a light. Later, this guy asked my name and my address and wrote it down and said they'd be in touch with me later.”

  “Did you tell them?”

  “My name and address you mean? Not exactly. I said I was Tad Young and gave them the address of another apartment in the building.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Probably not the smartest thing in the world.”

  He shrugged. “I was scared.”

  “I'll talk to Detective Evans and straighten it out.”

  “Will he make me go back to my dad?”

  “I don't know. I'll try to get him to let you go home with me.”

  I watched his eyes skitter towards the door and knew he was thinking about running.

  “Don't,” I said.

  “Don't what?”

  “Don't run. I'm not going to abandon you, I promise. No matter what happens, I'll be there with you.”

  He bit down on his lip and nodded.

  “So what's your real name?”

  For a several long seconds I thought he would refuse to answer. But then he drew a deep breath and told me. “Tad Yoder. Thaddeus.”

  I smiled at him and held out my hand. “Nice to meet you, Thaddeus Yoder,” I said.

  He gave me a small smile back and shook my hand. “Likewise I'm sure,” he responded.

  “Thank you,” I added, knowing how much trust it took for him to tell me that.

  He left his hand in mine and we waited a bit longer in companionable silence. Finally, Micah came out from the double doors, followed closely by an attractive woman in a white doctor's coat and a stethoscope around her neck. His face was still red and a little blotchy, his eyes bloodshot, and he wore a small bandage much like my own on his temple, but other than that, he looked little worse for wear.

  “They say I'll live,” he reported cheerfully. A bit too cheerfully for someone who been thwacked in the head and sprayed with pepper spray just a short time before, I thought.

  “Luckily, he has a hard head,” his doctor tacked on. She gave us all a warm smile.

  “I could have told you that,” I said dryly.

  Detective Evans walked into the waiting room just then, trailed by another young officer. “Good, I see you're all here,” he said to us. He turned to the doctor. “If you're all done with them, I think it's my turn.”

  “Their all yours,” she said and excused herself with a little half-bow.

  “Lucky me,” he muttered under his breath, and then louder, “Alright kids, we're moving this party down to the station. Officer Barnes here will escort you since your car remains parked at Mr. Akiba's apartment building. I'll meet you there.”

  “Wait,” I said and looked over at Tad. He nodded slightly. “Before we do, you need to know that Tad gave you a false name when he was questioned back at the building.”

  Evans gave me a surprised look. “Is that true?” he asked Tad.

  “Yes sir,” Tad answered in a low voice. “My real name is Thaddeus Yoder, not Young.”

  “Why would you lie about that?”

  Tad threw me a desperate look and I stepped in to explain. “His father abused him so he ran away. Razi took him in off the streets but he was abusing him too. He's scared you'll send him back to his father.”

  Evans frowned. “Well, by law we have to report this to social services. They'll step in and do an investigation to see if there was abuse. Then he'll be placed in foster care.”

  Tad took on a stricken expression.

  “Isn't there any way around that?” I asked. “He can stay with me.”

  “It's not that easy,” he said.

  “What if we talk to his dad and he gives permission.”

  The detective looked at me curiously. “And by-pass social services?”

  “Can we do that?” He looked unsure, so I threw in a final plea. “Please? He's already been through so much.”

  He sighed. “Let me think about it. For now, this will stay between us.” He gave Officer Barnes a meaningful look. “Let's go.”

  Officer Barnes chauffeured us to the police station and then led us to a holding room. One by one, he took us to an interrogation room where Detective Evans sat waiting. I was last. After I gave my statement, which took the better part of an hour with all his questions, the detective shut off the tape recorder.

  “Well, Kendall, I have to say, you did a top-notch job with this investigation. Not that you didn't screw up a few times along the way. Your visit to Fenton Black's estate and this mess with Razi Akiba were both dangerous and risky. I hope you learned from your mistakes, but you can't argue with the results.”

  “So what's going to happen to Razi now?”

  He chuckled. “The bastard is going away for a long, long time. He's admitted to everything. Your statements are just icing on the cake.”

  “He's admitted to it?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Singing like a canary. He's hoping it'll make things go easier for him.”

  “Will it?”

  “Not a chance, but nobody's telling him that.”

  I laughed.

  “You've cleared up quite a few loose ends. Not only do we now have all the answers about the deaths of Paul Flynn, Fenton Black and his bodyguards, but we also can close the books on that nasty business from a few years ago. Of course, the man's family won't be notified of all the details, just that his killer was finally caught.”

  “What about his sources? It sounded to me like there was a leak in the police department.”

  His face darkened. “We're working on that,” was all he would say. I took the hint.

  “And Tad? Have you had a chance to think about that?”

  His expression lightened some. It was still burdened, but for a different reason now
. “Yeah, I have. So far, he's flying under the radar. No one has paid any attention to him. That makes this a lot easier. After all you've done, I'm going to do you a big favor. I've decided to look the other way.”

  “What?” I gasped.

  “I'm taking a risk here, but I don't want to see the kid stuck in foster care. There are some good people out there who open their homes, but it's a rough life for a kid his age. He'll be better off with you. Just…make sure you handle things correctly, ok? Go through the right legal channels. Don't let this come back to bite me in the ass.”

  “I won't,” I promised. “I know a lawyer who specializes in situations like this, she does family law.”

  He nodded. “The father will need to be contacted.”

  “I know.”

  Evans shook his head. “You're a remarkable young man, Mr. Kendall. I said once before that I would be proud to have you on my force. The truth is, I'd be proud to have you as my son.” He stood up and held out his hand for me to shake. I jumped to my feet and took his rough hand in mine.

  “Take care, Kendall.”

  “I will. Thank you, Detective Evans. For everything.”

  He nodded and led me out to the waiting room. Micah and Tad stood up, Tad looking very nervous.

  “Let's go,” I said brightly.

  Tad's eyes darted between the detective and me. “I can go?” he asked hopefully.

  “You can go,” Evans said.

  The smile that slowly spread across Tad's face was like the sun rising over the horizon after a long, harrowing night. I slipped my arm through his and tugged gently.

  “Come on,” I said. “Let's go home

  Chapter 33

  The drive home from DC was very quiet for the most part. Since Micah had suffered a slight head wound, I was doing the driving. Tad sat in the back seat, silently staring out the window. I kept checking on him in the rear view mirror, just to make sure he was still back there. He dozed off after we'd crossed the bridge back to the Shore.

  “He's awful quiet,” I commented softly to Micah.

  Micah twisted stiffly around to look back at the sleeping boy. He looked even younger in sleep than he did awake. “He's been through a lot,” he said.

  “I hate it that it has to be like that,” I said, emotion thickening my voice.

  Micah glanced over at me. “It's hitting close to home, huh?”

  I nodded. I tried to speak but my throat was suddenly too tight to force the words though. I took a few deep breaths and tried again. “It could have been me. If Adam hadn't been there for me, it could have been me on the streets like that.”

  Micah reached over and squeezed my leg. “But it wasn't you.”

  We rode on a bit longer in silence, Micah's hand resting on my leg, then he spoke up again. “Are you sure this is a good idea, Kill?”

  “What do you mean? Is what a good idea?”

  “Taking Tad home like this.”

  I frowned. “Why wouldn't it be?”

  “You haven't even talked to Adam and Steve about this.”

  “There wasn't time. Besides, I'm sure they'll be fine with it.”

  “I think that's assuming a lot, don't you? I mean you show up with a kid and just expect them to take him in? They don't even know him.”

  “Adam took me in.”

  “That was different. He knew you; you were friends with his son. And they have a lot going on right now, with the B&B and trying to work out their living situation. And Kane graduates next year; maybe they won't want to be tied down for a few more years with another kid.”

  “So what was I supposed to do? Just leave him there to either be taken back to his father so he could abused some more? Or maybe let them throw him into the foster care system? How long do you think he'd last in either one of those situations? You know he'd run away again and just end up right back on the street.”

  “I'm just saying that maybe you shouldn't be expecting Adam and Steve to be overly thrilled about this.”

  The silence between us now was suddenly filled with tension. After a minute, Micah sighed. “Killian, you can't save everyone.”

  “Does that mean I should stop trying?” I snapped. “Should I just give up and not try to make a difference?”

  He looked over at me, studying me. “No, I don't think you should ever stop trying to make a difference. It's one of the things I love most about you. You care about people; you want to make a difference. That's great, but you need to understand that you can't personally save everyone you come across.”

  “Maybe I can't save everyone,” I said quietly, “but maybe I can save a few.” And then under my breath, “Maybe I can save Tad.”

  The rest of the drive home was tense and not much effort was made at conversation. I found myself becoming more and more nervous about my decision to bring Tad home. Micah was right; I hadn't given any thought to Adam and Steve's reaction. Knowing Adam as well as I did, I couldn't see him turning Tad back out on the street, but that didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

  Tad woke up when we turned off the main highway and onto the twisty back roads.

  “Where are we?” he asked groggily.

  “Almost to Chicone,” I told him.

  “Is that where you live?”

  “Part of the time. Remember how I told you how my friend's dad took me in after my dad threw me out?”

  “Yeah.”

  “His name is Adam. He and his partner Steve bought an old house just outside Chicone and turned it into a bed and breakfast. Adam still has his beach house in Ocean City too though and we kind of go back and forth between them. He has an emotional attachment to the beach house.”

  “Wow, you guys sound rich.”

  “Not really. I guess Steve used to be fairly well-off, but he's spent a small fortune on the B&B.”

  “Where do you live?” he asked Micah.

  “I have an apartment in Salisbury, not far from here,” he answered.

  “You guys are dating, right?”

  “Yeah,” Micah answered for both of us.

  “For how long?”

  “A few months now.”

  Tad watched the scenery for a few minutes before commenting, “It's really flat here. I've never been on the Shore before. Is it all this flat?”

  “You've never been on the Shore?” Micah asked in surprise.

  “Nope.”

  “Not even to Ocean City?”

  “Going to the beach was never a high priority for my dad,” he said acidly.

  “To answer your question,” I said quickly, “yes, most of the Shore is this flat.”

  “Have you both always lived here?” Now that he was awake, Tad seemed to be full of questions, but I guess that was pretty natural really. Here he was coming to stay with people who were practically strangers. It was to be expected that he'd be curious about us.

  I answered first, “I've lived here all my life. I grew up in a small town near Ocean City.”

  “I'm from Prince George's County, right outside DC,” Micah told him. “I moved here after I graduated from college and got a job with the newspaper.”

  “What was it like growing up here?” Tad asked me.

  “You're from a rural area, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Probably not so different than it was for you then. I never knew anyone who was gay growing up. If I had bothered to think about it, I guess everyone I knew seemed to be pretty homophobic. But I never really thought about it at all until Adam's son Seth moved here and started going to my school. He helped me figure out that I was gay.”

  “He's the one who was killed?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was he your boyfriend?”

  “No, I wasn't at that point yet. We were just friends.”

  “How was he killed?”

  I didn't answer for a moment. “I'll tell you some other time, ok?” I said finally. I thought I did a pretty good job of keeping my voice steady.

  “I'm sorry,” Tad said i
mmediately. “I shouldn't be so nosy. It's none of my damn business.”

  “No, it's ok. Don't apologize. You're just getting to know us better. You can ask questions if you want...I just might not answer all of them right now.”