“Doesn’t it? Do you think Dad would stay in a pissy Travelodge for days for a kid he was turfing back into the system?”
“He’s neverturfedanyone anywhere.”
“Exactly. So why are you doubting him now? He’s only ever let kids go who he can’t help. Whowecan’t help. Leo’s no different.”
Charlie scowled, because Andy was wrong about that. Leowasdifferent. “What about the police?”
Andy shrugged and poured boiling water into the chipped teapot. “The school reported the incident, so police will want to talk to Leo, but whether he’s charged or not, depends on the kid.”
“On Darren bloody Stroud?”
“If that’s the name of the kid whose ribs Leo kicked in, yes. If he presses charges, then Leo’s in a lot of trouble, even with Dad arguing for diminished responsibility.”
“What does that mean?”
“That Leo isn’t—or wasn’t, at the time—mentally well enough to know what he was doing. It’s a long shot, but given his history, it’s pretty plausible.”
“Darren Stroud doesn’t deserve any sympathy. He booted seven bells of shite out of a year nine last term.”
Andy sighed. “That doesn’t make what Leo did okay. Besides, Leo has to live with what he’s done, and he might find that easier if he’s properly punished. Do you really want to add a shedload of guilt onto all the crap he’s already carrying?”
Charlie knew that Andy was right. Darren Stroud was a prat who had no business chucking eggs at teachers’ cars, looking up girls’ skirts, and offering idiots like Charlie pills in the local park, but what Leo had done to him had hurt everyone—and perhaps hurt Leo most of all. “Do you think they’ll let him come home?”
“Who? Ma and Pa, or social services?”
“Everyone, I guess.”
“I honestly don’t know, mate. It’s not just Leo they have to consider—there’s you, and Lila, and any other kid they might take in the future.”
“They can’t separate Leo and Lila.”
“Can so, especially if they think that he’s dangerous . . . that she’d be better off without him.”
Charlie took Andy’s words like a punch to the gut. “You don’t think that, do you?”
Andy dumped sugar into a stained Mr. Men mug and mechanically stirred his tea. Then he sighed again. “I want to believe the worst, because then the answer is obvious—he’s gotta go. But I can’t bring myself to think that way, because the Leo I see with that little girl upstairs isn’t the boy battering kids in the playground.”
“He’s not a monster.”
“I know, so that’s exactly what I’m going to say when Ma and Pa come home. They’ve probably made up their minds already, but we can still speak for Leo, eh? Seeing as he’s not here to speak for himself.”
The reminder of Leo’s absence lanced Charlie’s heart, but as far as the family meeting was concerned, he was glad of it. There was nothing worse than hashing out the future of a messed-up kid all the while aware that they were likely camped on the stairs, listening to every word.
A car pulled up on the drive. Charlie’s stomach flip-flopped as the unmistakable sound of Kate crunching the gearbox reached him.
It’s time.
Reg and Kate came inside, Reg heading straight for the table, Kate to the kitchen, no doubt to rustle up something sweet to soften the blow of whatever she had to say.
But no amount of her signature chocolate shortbread would lessen the pain of losing Leo. And it was Lila who danced through Charlie’s mind as he took his seat. She needed Leo more than anyone, and Charlie wasn’t going to let anyone take him from her.
Not even Leo.
Kate breezed into the room and set a plate on the table just as Fliss appeared with Lila in tow. Kate knelt in front of Lila and signed, “iPad?I have milk and biscuits for you.”
Lila stopped in the doorway, scanning the room. “Where’s Leo?”
“Hospital.”
