Jubilee's Journey (Wyattsville #2)(53)
Shortly after nine, Hector Gomez walked into the room. “What the hell do you call this?” he asked angrily. Before he could say anything more Mahoney pulled him out the door, leaving Jubilee alone with her brother. When Olivia turned to see what Mahoney was doing, Ethan scooted past them and into the room.
“This is the boy,” Jubilee said. “Ethan Allen. He’s the one what found me.”
Paul gave a half-smile and a nod. “Thanks,” he said. It was a single word rich with the sound of sincerity.
Ethan returned the smile, then went on to say how Jubie was settling in real good and could stay as long as she’d a mind to. “Seeing as how she’s none too anxious to go live with your Aunt Anita, maybe you ought to tell Detective Mahoney to not bother with looking anymore.”
“Aunt Anita?” Paul repeated, and the look of puzzlement returned to his face.
Gomez sputtered and stammered as Mahoney filled him in on what he’d learned.
“You couldn’t call me?” he argued. “It’s my case, but you come up with something big and don’t bother with even a phone call? One minute, that’s what it would have taken. One minute!”
“As I said, I didn’t know it would turn out to be anything.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
“It’s true. My missing person case being tied to the Klaussner shooting is a fluke. I was checking out a lead on the girl’s aunt and ended up here.” Mahoney went on to explain that as it turned out the John Doe was Paul Jones, Jubilee’s brother.
“They’re two kids from West Virginia. Both parents are dead so they came to Wyattsville looking for an aunt, somebody they could possibly live with.”
“That’s what the kid told you?”
“No, he didn’t tell me anything. He doesn’t remember any of it.”
“That is such a load of—”
“No, it isn’t,” Mahoney said. “The morning of the Klaussner shooting, those two kids were fresh off the bus. I doubt the boy had any intent of committing crime; he was just looking for their aunt.”
“Believe what you want to believe, but back off and let me get this case to the DA.”
“Why the DA?” Mahoney questioned. “Don’t you think there’s a good possibility the kid is innocent?”
A cannon firing next to Gomez’s ear would have gotten less reaction.
“You’ve got to be kidding! First you screw me over on the Doyle case, now this? No way!”
“This isn’t about you or me,” Mahoney said. “It’s about determining guilt or innocence.”
“Don’t give me that crap. This is about you wanting another hero button to pin on your chest. Well, this time you’re not getting it! The kid had Klaussner’s bullet in his head, and as far as I’m concerned that’s proof enough!”
Gomez turned and stomped into Paul’s room. He gave Jubilee and Ethan a menacing look and said, “Scram, visiting hours are over.”
Jubilee lingered a minute, promised she’d be back, then followed Ethan out of the room.
Before they left the intensive care unit, Mahoney informed the nursing supervisor John Doe now had a name. It was Paul Jones.
When the foursome turned and left the ICU, no one notice the angry-faced woman watching from afar. With her husband still in a coma Carmella Klaussner had for the past week sat silently by Sid’s side, praying perhaps, but also gathering up her anger and hatred toward the boy who had caused this to happen. When she heard the raised voices of Gomez and Mahoney, she stepped out of the room and listened. As she watched Mahoney’s back disappearing down the corridor, her resentment came to a full boil.
“He won’t get away with this,” she muttered, then went in search of Detective Gomez.
Jack Mahoney
A cardinal rule in this business is never get emotionally involved, but dammit I am. How can I not be? I look at that little girl and think that, but for the grace of God, it could be one of my kids. I can’t do anything about her parents dying, but I can sure as hell do something about helping her brother.
If I turn my head and look the other way, that kid is going to get railroaded. Gomez isn’t interested in justice. He’s interested in making a name for himself. Yeah, there’s a chance the kid is guilty, but I’m just not convinced. I watched the boy reach out for his sister, and you can see the love there. If you love somebody you don’t put them in harm’s way.
Say Gomez is right, and the kid did plan to rob the store. Then he wouldn’t have parked his sister right across the street. At the bus station maybe, but not across the street. And how did a kid from a coal mining town get hooked up with a street thug like McAdams? Too many missing pieces. I keep asking myself, why now and why here? None of it makes sense.
Gomez claims because Paul was shot with Klaussner’s gun, he’s guilty. With no eye witnesses, that could be enough to pin it on him. At least Gomez has something. All I’ve got is a gut feeling the boy is innocent. The shit-kicker is that with no memory, he can’t even tell us what happened. And the same thing can happen with Klaussner. It’s not uncommon for trauma victims to blot out the memory of something terrible. When Mack Wilson got hit by lightning, he was in a coma for nearly a month. When he finally came out of it, he remembered reading the newspaper that morning but couldn’t remember stepping foot outside of the house. Trauma, that’s why.