“Please! Someone help my friend!” Eyes wide in terror, he cast his gaze helplessly around. Several of the town’s firemen were there, and they hurried after the boy as he went back behind the amusement rides.
Worried, I raced after them.
When I pushed through the crowd, I saw several of them working on another boy. CPR in progress, they had serious expressions on their faces. “Someone call 911!” one of them shouted.
“On it!” I yelled, my phone was already ringing through. When the 911 operator answered, the older fireman started to shout out information to me that I relayed to the dispatcher. Within seconds, I heard sirens drawing near.
The paramedics pushed through the crowd to take over. The firemen were filling them in as they continued to give alternating compressions and bag the unresponsive boy. Not stopping, they loaded him up in the ambulance.
I glanced around for Luke. No matter how tough I liked to think I was and no matter that I’d pushed him away, I needed him.
I pulled out my phone and called him.
“Hailey,” he said, and I questioned whether he sounded happy to hear from me.
“Are you busy?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
He hesitated, and I almost hung up.
“A little. Can I meet you later at your place?”
I almost told him never mind, but my mouth and my brain weren’t in sync. “Yes.”
“Okay, see you as soon as I can get away.”
“Sure,” I said quietly and ended the call.
Glancing around, I felt my heart sink.
The mood had gone from jovial gaiety to somber silence in the blink of an eye. People started to quietly disperse, and most were leaving. Though the event had been close to wrapping up, I hated that it had ended this way. I was sick to my stomach for that kid. I dropped to a picnic table and held my head.
“Ms. Monroe?” a soft voice said, and I looked up. It was Gemma, one of the kids from our facility. Lynn, the tech assigned to the few kids who were at a point in their therapy where they had limited outings, was standing behind her. She whispered in Gemma’s ear to encourage her to talk.
“What’s wrong, Gemma?” I asked.
She bit her lip, gave a nervous glance to Lynn, then looked back at me.
“I overheard those boys talking when I was doing the ring toss.” She swallowed hard. “They were talking about using something.”
“Something?” I questioned cautiously.
“A special drug they had picked up,” she admitted with worry in her eyes.
“Shit,” I heard and whipped my attention to where the voice had come from. Luke pulled out his phone and walked off talking.
Needing to assure Gemma she wasn’t in trouble, I dismissed Luke from my thoughts for the moment and got up to walk around the table. I crouched in front of her to look her in the eye. “Did you have anything to do with them?”
Frantically, she shook her head. “No, ma’am! I swear!”
“Easy, I wasn’t accusing you, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You have nothing to worry about if you weren’t involved, but the police may want to talk to you about what you overheard.”
Tears welled in her eyes before spilling over when she blinked. With a sniffle, she nodded.
“Was there anyone else who was with you when you heard the boys talking?”
She nodded, then said it was two of the boys in her group.
“Lynn, could I please talk to them?”
She motioned over her shoulder to the rest of the kids from her group. They all stepped forward.
“Which one of you overheard those boys talking?” They all fidgeted nervously, but no one spoke up. Finally, Tommy, a boy with shaggy blond hair, nudged Julius, who glared at Tommy, then his shoulders slumped.
“I did,” Julius admitted. “And so did Jose.”
The volunteers were closing up and tearing down the various booths as the colored lights of the Ferris wheel blinked brightly. Knowing I should have them talk to the police, I pulled out my phone and the business card to call the officer who had arrived with the ambulance.
“What are you doing?” Julius asked with wide eyes.
“I’m calling the police officer so you can tell them what you know.”
“No! No way! I ain’t talkin’ to no cops, Ms. Monroe. I didn’t hear nothin’ at all,” he belligerently said with a defiant lift of his chin.
Frustrated, I set my phone down. “Okay, will you boys tell me what you saw or heard?”
They exchanged a glance, then met my gaze and reluctantly nodded.
I made sure the volunteers and the staff that were helping with teardown were okay, and I returned to the Leon to see what the boys had to say.
They spilled what they knew, and after puking in my trashcan, I sat there stunned long after they returned to their rooms for bed.
12
Snow
“Hush”—HELLYEAH
All day I’d been agitated. Hailey hadn’t called me last night, nor had she called at all today. I’d thought about going to talk to her at the fundraiser, but she always had someone with her. Then I stubbornly reminded myself that I told her we were better off calling it quits. No way would I be the first to cave.
I didn’t need her.
But fuck if I didn’t want her.
Though I knew I needed to call things off and she’d offered me the perfect opportunity to do so, I’d been on the verge of dragging her off somewhere quiet. At least until Sonja had come up begging me to win her a stuffed bear or some shit. By the time I pawned her off on one of the other brothers, Hailey was talking with Polly.
Then I’d been stopped by a guy wanting to talk about bringing his classic Mustang in for a bunch of custom work. I’d barely finished talking to him when the kid had come running for help.
Shit had gone downhill from there.
By the time the paramedics drove off, everything had essentially ground to a halt, and I couldn’t see Hailey anywhere.
When she
