Jubilee's Journey (Wyattsville #2)(71)
“Get back! Get back!” the officer screamed. In three long strides he closed the gap and leaned over the shooter.
“Why’d you do that, Daddy?” Hurt moaned. “Why, Daddy? Why”
Those were the last words Hurt ever spoke. He was gone before the ambulance even arrived.
Two days later Hurt was identified through his fingerprints, but it was another week before Detective Kurtzman was looking through the pile of APBs and came across the one on Hurt McAdams.
“I’ll be damned,” he said. “This is the shooter from the racetrack.”
That afternoon Tom Wilson received a message saying his APB suspect was now in the Miami morgue.
Three weeks passed and no one claimed Hurt McAdams’ body, so he was eventually given a number and buried in the Florida state cemetery.
Visiting Anita
Mahoney waited until Friday before he called Olivia and asked to pick up Jubilee for a visit with the elusive aunt. “I think once Anita meets her,” he explained, “she’ll feel differently about having the child.”
That was exactly what Olivia was hoping wouldn’t happen. Once her days with Jubilee were numbered she wanted to stretch them out, make them into more than they were and shove the inevitable into the distant future. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the way it was destined to be. After losing Charlie as she had, Olivia knew that closing your eyes to reality didn’t make it disappear. Whether or not you looked it square in the face it was there, waiting to rip loose the comfort you thought you had. After several minutes of trying to persuade Mahoney that Monday, Tuesday, or even some time next fall would be better, she gave in.
“You can come by about three-thirty,” she said. “Ethan Allen will be home from school by then.”
“It’s got to be earlier. Anita goes away most weekends. I don’t want to chance that she’ll leave early and we’ll miss her.”
“Ethan doesn’t get home from school until after three.”
“That’s okay,” Mahoney said. “I think it’s better for Jubilee to go alone.”
“Alone?” Olivia gasped. The thought of sending a seven-year-old child off to face the unknown was horrifying. She said so and argued the point for a full five minutes. Weary of listening, Mahoney finally agreed that Olivia could come if she was willing to wait in the car while he took Jubilee inside to meet Anita. The time was set for one o’clock.
While the children were eating breakfast, Olivia sat across from them at the kitchen table. She tried to picture Anita, but the image was always contorted: angry eyes, a sharp nose, a mouth set straight and rigid. Try as she might, she could not conjure up the picture of a plump rosy-cheeked aunt who would hug Jubilee to her generous bosom. With a long face and heavy heart she finally said, “Jubilee, that phone call was from Detective Mahoney. He’s going to take you to visit your Aunt Anita today.”
“Paul too?” Jubilee asked warily.
“No.” Olivia let her gaze drift to the salt shaker sitting at the end of the table. It was an insignificant thing, like a dish towel or a can of beans, just something that enabled her to avoid looking directly into the child’s eyes. “Paul can’t come this time.”
“Why not?”
Believing the truth of Paul’s situation would be too painful for a child to hear, Olivia mumbled something about the probability that he might not be well enough.
Tears welled in Jubilee’s eyes. “I don’t wanna go without Paul. I’m afraid.”
Trying to sound convincing, Olivia told her, “There’s nothing to be afraid of. Anita’s your aunt. She’ll love you because you’re family.”
“No, she won’t!” Jubilee’s face folded into a grimace. Then a stream of tears started rolling down her face. “I don’t wanna go. Please don’t make me, please.”
“Grandma, you ain’t really gonna make her go, are you?” Ethan Allen argued.
“I’m not the one making her,” Olivia replied defensively. “Detective Mahoney said it’s his duty to uphold the law.”
Ethan scrunched his eyebrows together in a dubious frown. “What kind of law says a kid’s gotta talk to somebody she don’t even know?” His words had the sound of challenge packaged inside a wrapper of doubt.
Olivia explained that only a family member could claim ownership of a child without parents, but when it came time to describe the alternative words failed her. She stuttered and stammered over an explanation that said nothing. By then Jubilee was sobbing hysterically, and Ethan Allen had an angry look of defiance stretched across his face.
Before her words cleared the air, Ethan Allen snapped, “That’s a stupid law! Just ‘cause a kid’s got no mama or daddy, they’ve got no say over where they live?”
Were it not such a sorrowful situation Olivia would have pointed out that it wasn’t all that different from the circumstance he’d been in, but since he was already upset and ready to pounce on anything she let it pass.
“Let’s not worry about this until it actually happens,” she said. “I’ve got a feeling that time will set things straight.”
“I don’t wanna live with Aunt Anita!” Jubilee wailed.