Hudson didn’t know whether to yell some more or cry. Had they done this? Him and Lucinda. Had they been such crappy parents, so wrapped up in their marriage problems, that they hadn’t seen their son navigating towards other students at the school who thought things like hoax calls were a way to pass the time, fun, a joke?
Conrad told Hudson, ‘Whether this is taken further hasn’t been decided. There are ways around it, maybe.’ But he toldBeau matter-of-factly, ‘Hoax calls to the emergency services are a criminal offence. You could face up to six months in jail, a five-thousand-pound fine.’ Conrad’s chest expanded. Both Beau and Hudson were at his mercy now. ‘But… I’m human.’ He nudged Beau as if they were mates. ‘I know we dick around when we’re in our teens, boys will be boys and all that, and we make mistakes.’
Hudson wasn’t sure whetherdickwas the sort of word a police detective should be using and he hated the way Conrad saidboys will be boysas if they were all in a club together. He was acting as if he knew Beau personally too, which was odd. Come to think of it, so was Conrad letting anyone off rather than punishing them to the full extent of the law.
‘Your mum will be upset about this,’ Conrad went on, again to Beau. Hudson wanted to point out that it wasn’t his place to be commenting on their family, but he didn’t want Conrad to rescind the offer of perhaps sorting this out without it going further.
Conrad addressed Hudson. ‘I have a son too. If this were Isaac, I’d want him to have a chance to redeem himself.’
It was a first to have Conrad being understanding. He couldn’t wait to tell Maya that one, although then he’d have to tell her what his son had done. Oh hell, everyone would have to know; he couldn’t keep this from them.
‘How can I do that?’ Beau pleaded. ‘I’ll do anything; I don’t want to go to jail.’
‘What do you suggest?’ Hudson prompted Conrad, putting the police detective firmly in the driving seat on this one. It wasn’t like he had much choice.
‘Whatever I suggest might not matter if the official body of the air ambulance decide to press charges. That’s out of my hands. But we can take steps to maybe prevent that from happening, if we’re smart. Like I said, I’ve got a son too; I’dwant him to have the chance.’ He patted Beau on the back reassuringly. That definitely wasn’t his place but again, Hudson stayed quiet; he didn’t want anything to trigger this police detective into making a different decision entirely.
Hudson suspected the only reason Conrad was really doing this was to get in Maya’s good graces. Maybe he was so deluded that he thought she’d hear about what he’d done for Beau and she would go back to him eventually. Some men just never took no for an answer.
‘I would suggest a very sincere written apology from Beau here,’ said Conrad.
‘Done.’ Hudson would agree to pretty much anything to help Beau out of this mess. And hopefully, he’d learn from his mistake; the fact that he was here with a police detective had to be scary enough to make him think twice about ever pulling something like this again.
‘I could have a word with Maya,’ said Conrad. ‘I’m sure she’d be open to having help cleaning the helicopter; that’s a big job.’
‘There are plenty of jobs around here that Beau can do,’ said Hudson, ‘including cleaning the helicopter. Why don’t you let me take it from here? I’ll ask Maya or Vik; I know how busy you are in your job.’ He’d inflate the guy’s ego a bit, anything to make sure he wasn’t hanging around any more than he needed to.
Beau’s dirty trainers scuffed on the floor as he sat up taller. ‘Everyone will hate me here for what I did.’
Hudson was inclined to agree. ‘Maybe they will. Go wait in the office for me.’
Beau went off without a word while Hudson stood to see Conrad out of the building.
‘He’ll hate being here under my watch, believe me,’ said Hudson. ‘But thank you for bringing him in, for making me a part of the decision about his punishment. You didn’t have to do that and I appreciate it.’ Why had he done it, really?
‘Like I said, boys get in trouble; I certainly did at that age.’ Conrad looked over Hudson’s shoulder. ‘Is Maya around?’
‘She’s out on a job. Do you need me to pass on a message?’
‘No worries, I’ll send her a text. We’re having dinner.’
Hudson didn’t respond to that. They had a son together and now Hudson wasn’t with Lucinda, he got it; sometimes, you had to be together for the kids, whether you wanted to share your time or not.
He took a deep breath after he showed Conrad out the door and made his way to the office, where he found Beau, feet up on the desk and lolling in a chair. ‘Are you serious?’
Beau had the good grace to sit up properly and remove his feet from the desktop. Just when he thought the kid might be having regrets about what he’d done, he showed the arrogance of someone who clearly wasn’t all that sorry.
‘Go get a cloth from the kitchen, the disinfectant spray, and clean that surface.’
Beau did it without any backchat, without even looking at his dad again.
Hudson waited, stared out of the window. He stayed there the whole time his son was cleaning the desk surface behind him.
‘What’s next?’ Beau asked with more than a hint of the sulks. ‘Seeing as I’m your slave for the next God knows how many days.’
‘You can lose the attitude right now.’ He sat down. ‘Do you realise how lucky you are to have a second chance? How lucky you are that this wasn’t any worse?’
Beau slumped down in the chair next to Hudson and this time, kept his feet firmly on the floor.
