“I often leave my backpack open and lose things. Mother says I’m careless.”
Instinctively Andi stepped closer to Tyler. He could not only hear the hurt in the boy’s words, he understood it better than he liked. It was his own pain, inflicted by a mother who cared little and a father who abhorred him for hisgeschenk.
“Your carelessness is what’s going to save my and George’s asses, so I fully approve.”
Tyler beamed. “Izzy says you could say that you went up the hill to get a better view and assumed I had gone into the copse because of the rain.”
George smiled even if it was a bit strained. “Tell Izzy she’s a genius.”
“She can hear you.” Tyler shrugged, while George shivered. Andi thought he was holding himself together very well, down here in a creepy bunker with a mass grave and two freaks.
“Detective Donovan?” Gelman’s voice was muted through the earth and the boulder above them but recognizable all the same.
“We’re coming!” George shouted back, motioning for them to start moving. Tyler picked up his backpack, leaving it open.
“Why did you run away, Tyler? Officially?” Andi thought they needed to hear it at least once, in case there were questions.
Tyler stared at the concrete ground for a moment. “I’m fourteen. I guess I could get away with saying I wanted to have an adventure? Like in the books I read?”
“Sounds perfectly reasonable. You went on your adventure, packed your bag, forgot to close it, lost the lunchbox in the swamp, where I spotted it coincidentally when I left the car. We reached it, saw the hill, thought we would have a better view from there, spotted the copse, remembered it had rained last night, not that we could forget, wet as everything is, went down there, found the boulder and the opening, perfect to seek shelter, and there was the trapdoor. Good story. Better than some I’ve had to concoct before.”
“Yeah. As stories go, this one’s no too shabby.” George sighed. “Let’s hope it’s enough.”
“Andi?” They had started going in the direction of the trapdoor, George in the lead. Tyler held on to the sleeve of Andi’s loose sweater, appearing more like a lost child than a boy on the brink of fifteen.
“Yes, Tyler?”
“I know I’m going to be in trouble over this, but when things have calmed down, can I visit you? Or just call?”
Andi felt his insides going tense. What was he supposed to say now? His own inner kid, the boy who knew exactly what Tyler was going through, wanted to reach out to him, tell him he could come or call whenever he wanted, whenever he needed it. The part of him that kept most people at arm’s length to protect himself was recoiling, yelling at him that this was a responsibility he didn’t need, didn’t want, something with the potential for disaster, because this was the chief’s son, after all, the same chief he hated with a passion. But there was so much hope in Tyler’s eyes, a desperate kind of hope, speaking of all the times he had been disappointed, and knowing what lay ahead of the boy, the loneliness he would taste for all of his life, Andi just couldn’t turn his back on him.
“Your mother and I are not on the best of terms, but I’ll give you my number, and you can call me anytime. Even visit, if we can manage.”
It was as if the sun was dawning on Tyler’s face, and Andi just couldn’t bring himself to regret letting him into his life. George was the first on the wooden steps, which were illuminated by daylight, no doubt because somebody was holding the trapdoor open. Tyler followed, and Andi heard the chief’s voice, sharp and biting, and the voice of a man, softer, full of relief.
“What did you think you were doing?”
“Tyler, I’m so glad you’re okay. Come here, champ.”
Andi reached the trapdoor last, held open by Gelman, who stared at him wide-eyed, with a speculative expression Andi didn’t like. He left through the narrow opening, stepped into the clearing in front of the boulder. The chief was there, glaring at what Andi assumed was her husband, who was hugging Tyler while murmuring with his lips on the boy’s head. Two officers he recognized as belonging to the precinct were standing at the edge of the clearing, looking both relieved and uncomfortable, which probably had a lot to do with the chief, who now turned to him and George, her eyes angry slits.
“You found my son.” It didn’t sound as if she were very grateful.
George nodded. “We did.”
“You were quite fast.” The suspicion in her voice was blaringly obvious to anybody listening. If Andi hadn’t still been too caught up in the feeding frenzy going on in the bunker, he would have given her a piece of his mind. As it was, he left the talking to George.
“I’m sure Detectives Hayes and Donovan have a reasonable explanation as to how they were able to find Tyler so swiftly.” Gelman, smooth like a snake, trying to distract the chief.
“We have indeed a reasonable explanation. Unfortunately, Tyler isn’t the only one we found in that bunker.” George was all detective, serious and respectable, while letting the bomb drop, effectively making their quick finding of Tyler the least interesting piece of information. Smart man. “When we were down there in the main room with Tyler, we spotted a shelf that was slightly off the wall, which struck us as strange. Upon closer inspection, we found it was a concealed door. Of course we opened it and immediately smelled rotting flesh. Plus, the ground was crawling with insects, bugs and maggots. We didn’t look further as to not destroy possible evidence, and it could be just some animal carcass rotting underground, though why somebody would bury one inside a prepper bunker is a mystery to me. To be on the safe side, we suggest getting Dr. Melcourt and CSI here to determine if this is a crime scene or not.”
The chief stared at them, obviously thinking very hard what her next step should be. The tension was rising until Gelman whipped out his cell. “I’m going to call the precinct and arrange for Dr. Melcourt to come. Detective Hayes, how stable do you think the bunker is? Do we need supports?”
Andi turned to Gelman. He still didn’t know what to make of the man. So far, he hadn’t been as helpful as Andi had hoped but hadn’t proven himself completely useless either. He wasn’t sure how much longer they should give him to get things with the chief resolved. The situation was putting too much stress on them at a time when they were trying to find their footing in working with hisgeschenk. So far the progress they’d made was good, but Andi knew it would be much better if George didn’t have to worry about shielding him from the chief all the time.
“The bunker looked solid enough to me, but the room with the insects isn’t fortified like the rest. It seemed like a later addition. I’d say some supports aren’t a bad idea.”
“I’ll tell them that. You’re staying here till they arrive?”
