Darlene Graham - An Accidental Family

“Rainey Chapman. Jake Gifford. My partner.” Seth’s tone was long-suffering.

“So I gathered.” Rainey favored the man with a flat smile and a cool look that caused his leering expression to dry up. She’d been dealing with goatish men all her life.

“Shut the doors,” Seth ordered as he propped a boot on the metal step and hoisted himself inside.

“Think I’ll wait out in the cruiser,” the heavyset cop said. “It’s getting kinda crowded in here.”

With the three boys and a female paramedic, it was actually more than crowded inside the ambulance.

Maddy lay with a cold pack pressed to the side of his head. He looked pathetically thin, with his oversize, white-stockinged feet sticking up at the end of the stretcher.

While Seth had a mumbled exchange with the paramedic, Rainey dropped to her knees beside the child, brushing back his wavy hair to cup one palm on his forehead, signing frantically with her other hand. Maddy signed back.

“What’re they saying?” Seth asked Dillon, who was squeezed onto a narrow bench next to the stony, silent Aaron.

Dillon held up palms with pink-tinged dressings taped on them. “Beats me,” he lied.

Rainey heard Seth unzipping his bulletproof vest. “Ms. Chapman told me you can read sign.”

Dillon shrugged. “Okay. He’s telling her about the two big dudes. How we ran from that cave and all.”

Rainey could only peripherally note what was taking place around her. Her focus was on Maddy, the most vulnerable of her charges. Unlike the other two, Maddy didn’t have his anger to shield him. When she heard how one of the men had struck him with a shovel, she pressed shaky fingers to her lips, feeling unbearable guilt.

Seth took off his hat and squatted beside her. Rainey noticed he winced as he arranged his legs, knees spread wide, around the foot of the stretcher. He was a massive man, but he moved with such grace that his bulk didn’t seem overpowering unless he was actually in your space, as he was in Rainey’s now. He tilted his huge shoulders and an involuntary image erupted in her mind: herself clinging to those shoulders. Feeling guilty for even thinking such thoughts at a time like this, she snapped her gaze back to Maddy.

“Maddy’s okay,” Seth reassured her quietly as he touched a warm palm to her shoulder. “The paramedic said the bump’s not a concussion or anything serious. His pupils are reacting normally.”

Rainey nodded and turned to concentrate on Dillon now. “Let me see.” Gingerly, she lifted the dressings on Dillon’s hands to have a look.

Seth eyed the back of Rainey Chapman’s tangled blond hair, wondering what had come over the woman just now. Her lightly freckled cheeks had turned as red as a rodeo clown’s, and as she replaced the dressing, he noticed her fingers were trembling. Maybe the gravity of the situation was sinking in afresh now that she’d seen the boys.

“Did they bleed much?” she asked Dillon.

“Yeah. All over the place.” Dillon seemed proud of that fact.

“Did they give you something for the pain?”

“Nah. It don’t hurt.”

“I offered him some Tylenol.” The paramedic spoke up from where she wrote on her chart.

Seth watched the boy. His body language said he was a little sidewinder. For instance, right now he was unnecessarily swiping at his nose. And why did the kid feel the need to gain more of Rainey’s sympathy? Were the other boys getting too much of her attention or something? No. It was more likely that he was hiding something. Seth eyed the huge pockets of the boy’s baggy shorts. Another knife, maybe?

Rainey turned her attention to Aaron. “And are you okay?” she asked.

Seth studied the third boy in this trio of misfits, trying to figure out what made this kid tick. The redheaded child looked as if he liked his groceries a little too much. His freckled face was about as expressive as a fence post, though he showed some responsiveness to Rainey. When she ruffled his hair, he gave her the barest, most pathetic smile, a mixture of adoration and trust.

“Can he write down his version of things?” Seth asked Rainey.

“He can hear you, Sheriff,” Dillon interjected sarcastically.

“I’m a cop,” Seth clarified. “Not a sheriff.”

“Whatever,” Dillon said. “I already told you what happened. Those two guys was aiming to kill us.”

Seth turned calmly to the boy. “And I won’t let that happen. So now I want you to be quiet unless I ask you a question.”

“You think I’m lying, don’t you? Well, I’m not!” Dillon jumped up, suddenly agitated. “Let us out of here! We ain’t done nothing wrong!”

“Nobody said you lied,” Seth said, though now he was pretty sure the boy had, somewhere along the way. “Sit down.” He kept his tone quiet, but firm. “Now.”

Dillon sat and slouched back against the bench, crossing his arms over his chest in a gesture of defiance.

Rainey leaned around Seth’s shoulder. “Dillon, it’s not that we don’t believe you. Officer Whitman just needs to know the other boys’ version of things. They may have noticed something you didn’t.”

“They didn’t see nothing,” Dillon muttered.

Seth let out a pressured breath and scrubbed a hand over his face. This was going to be, as his uncle Tack would say, like herding squirrels. Seth was suddenly grateful for his experience with kids. Volunteer coaching. Junior Rodeo. Boy Scouts. Only these kids weren’t exactly Boy Scouts. “Okay, Ms. Chapman. Ask Maddy where they were and exactly what happened when they first saw the two men.”

As Rainey’s delicate hands signed the question, Seth couldn’t help but note the absence of rings on her fingers. He was already hoping she was unattached.

Before Maddy answered he shot Dillon a secretive look, then his hands started reluctantly moving. After Maddy had finished gesturing, Rainey said, “They were up on the old railroad bridge again. This time they were planning to tie a rope off of it so they could swing down into the river.”

“And?”

“And…” Rainey watched Maddy’s hands “…they saw lights up in that hollow area of the mountain where the cliffs and caves are. Dillon switched off their own flashlights and led them up.”

“I already told all of this to your partner!” Dillon interjected.

“Quiet,” Seth warned again. “Could they tell what the men were doing?” he asked Rainey.

“I said they were rappelling down the cliffs!” Dillon jumped up, practically shouting in Seth’s ear. “And they took some tools into the cave.”

Seth struggled to keep his patience. “Son, sit down before you make your hands start bleeding again.”

Dillon did so, but with a defiant thrust of his shoulder in Seth’s direction.

“What else does Maddy have to say?” Seth urged.

Rainey spoke as she watched the child’s hands. “They made their way to the opening of the cave and Dillon sneaked inside, but Maddy and Aaron hung back at the entrance.”

“They never went inside,” Dillon claimed. “And I didn’t go very far. I stopped when I saw the men digging back in there.”

Maddy started to sign something else, but Dillon’s hand flashed and the deaf child’s abruptly halted.

“What did Dillon say to him?” Seth’s gaze shot to Rainey.

“I have no idea. I wasn’t watching his hands. Dillon, don’t play games. This is serious.”

“I didn’t say nothing,” Dillon lied.

“Ask Maddy to repeat it.” Seth wanted to stay on point.

But Maddy wouldn’t answer. After looking at Dillon with trepidation, he shook his head. But his darting brown eyes betrayed him.

“See?” Dillon shouted. “They didn’t see nothing.” He leaped up in the confined space of the ambulance again, this time bumping his head against a low cabinet. Rainey jumped up, trying to examine the injury, but the boy jerked away from her and turned his angry countenance on Seth.