My Name Is Venus Black(84)
“So why should we believe that you were going to turn yourself in now?” asks Cunningham. “After almost six years?”
He is a heavyset man with rosy cheeks. He looks like you’d expect a cop to look.
Tony is irritated by the “turn yourself in” phrasing. “Like I told you,” he says, “I was planning to turn over Leo. I was only waiting until he could perform a solo in a concert at school. It was a big deal. I wanted him to have that before I—”
“So you want us to believe that after almost six years you were just going to give the kid back to his mother?”
“It’s the absolute truth. You can believe what you want.”
“Tell us again about this Phil Brown fellow you say is the boy’s uncle.”
“He went by Phil Brown, but I’ve since learned that he sometimes goes by Tinker. I think Thomas Miller is his real name. Like I said, all I knew was what he put on his rental application and what he told me. He said he was the kid’s dad. He claimed the mom didn’t want him.”
“Did he appear to be abusing the boy? Sexually?”
Tony shakes his head. “God, I hope not. I didn’t see anything to make me think that. I think he cared about Leo, at least enough to try. But Leo was maybe too much for him, too hard to care for. So he dumped him, I guess.”
“He just left one day, drove off? No notice?”
“No notice. I think he knew that we’d take care of Leo.”
“So this Tinker could tell you wanted the boy.”
Tony’s anger flares. “I didn’t want him. My daughter befriended Leo. She kept an eye out for him. But it wasn’t like we wanted Leo.”
“But you didn’t hesitate to take him?”
“Of course we hesitated—”
A door opens and a woman peeks in. “Mr. Herrera’s lawyer is here.”
* * *
—
TESSA STAYS AT Marco and Maureen’s house that night. Maureen is making her something to eat. Tessa thinks of her lasagna noodles floating in water on a cold burner at home. She doesn’t know who turned off the stove, but someone did. She checked.
Tessa, along with Marco, was allowed to stay at the house until a man and a woman from children’s services arrived to take Leo. The whole time, Leo was in the corner, yelling at the top of his lungs.
What happened next…she can’t get the images out of her head. Leo being dragged from his room, wailing, “No touching! No touching!”
“It’s okay, Leo. It’s okay, Leo,” she told him over and over.
The man and woman put Leo in a cream-colored sedan, trying to be gentle, but it was way too late for that.
Back inside, the woman put her arm around Tessa. “He’s upset now, honey. But we’ll be able to help him calm down. He’s not the first mentally challenged child we’ve dealt with.”
Tessa didn’t want the woman’s arm on her shoulders, but she was too polite to resist. The woman insisted on staying until Maureen arrived to be with Tessa. She was annoyed to be treated like a kid but didn’t fight it. Where else would she go but M and M’s?
It was bad enough watching Leo be taken, but seeing her dad led away in handcuffs…She can’t stop blaming herself. All of this is my fault. I was the one who begged my dad to keep Leo. I am the one who should be in jail.
“How do you feel about potpies?” asks Maureen. Tessa is sitting on Maureen’s gold velour couch, hugging a tapestried pillow. She’s stopped crying for now. “That’s fine,” she says. “But I’m not hungry.”
Maureen puts her hand on top of Tessa’s head. Tessa wonders where she’d be if it weren’t for M and M. Would they have taken her away, too—even though she’s seventeen?
“Marco found a good lawyer for your dad, sweetie.”
“That fast?”
“Well, he knew a guy who knew a guy.”
“Is he going to jail?”
“I don’t know, Tessa. Maybe for just one or two nights. But when they figure all this out, he won’t stay in jail, at least not for too long. They’ll have to set bail and then we’ll pay to get him out.”
When Maureen brings Tessa a potpie on a TV tray, Tessa tries to eat it but can’t get down more than a couple of bites. It’s chicken with peas and carrots. Leo would never eat it, because the peas should not be mixed with anything else.
* * *
—
BACK AT THE police station, I want to call Inez and tell her the good news first. But it turns out she already knows what is going on. After the Oakland PD had contacted the Everett PD and verified Leo’s missing status, they’d called Inez to confirm.
“Oh my God!” she screeches into the phone. “You found him, Venus! You found our boy! Oh, I just…I just can’t believe it. My Leo is coming home! Have you seen him? What does he look like? How is he, Venus? Did they hurt him?”
“He looks like Leo turned into a teenaged boy with longish blond hair. Skinny, still on the small side.”
“He’s not hurt or anything?”
“No, Inez. Actually, it looks like they were taking good care of him. A man and his daughter. Leo was even in school. Shit. He was carrying a large musical instrument case when I saw him. Can you imagine Leo playing an instrument?”