Holiday Spirits Read online

  I stared at her, unable to take in what she was saying. My son was a vandal—and a thief. “Crap. What is it?” I stopped as I noticed her shaking her head.

  “There’s more, Em. It gets even worse. According to Kip—and according to Myrna—Sly pulled a gun on her.”

  I felt my heart stop. Literally, I went cold and felt ready to pass out.

  Murray tapped her pen on the desk. “Take a deep breath, Em, and let it out slowly. While it sounds really bad, and it is, the facts are that Kip actually stopped Sly from hurting Myrna and she’s attesting to that. Sly was shaking, waving the gun around. Kip begged him to leave and not do something he’d regret. Sly actually did slip and got one bullet off, but it went through her front window and broke it. Luckily, the bullet lodged into one of the porch railings instead of a person. Sly took off with the gun in hand. He tried to bully Kip into coming with him, but Kip refused. Myrna called us. When we got there, Kip was waiting for us and admitted to everything he and Sly did.”

  I let out a moan. A gun? Sly had been packing. He and my son had gotten themselves involved in something I had feared might happen.

  Anger welled up. “Where is the little freak? I’ll beat his ass till it’s black and blue.” I was so furious, I wanted to turn Sly over my knee and give him the whipping of his life. “He’s always been messed up. I’ll grant you, his mother is directly responsible, but this—this is too much, Murray. I don’t want him anywhere near my house, my family, or Kip again.”

  “We caught him, Em. Ron called me when I was on the way in. He found Sly and is bringing him in.”

  “Do not let him talk to Kip. That friendship is so over.” I paused. “What happens now? I take it Myrna will be charging the boys. As well she should. Don’t hold back. Tell me. You might as well pull the bandage off with one quick yank.”

  She set aside the paper she was holding. “Kip will be charged with vandalism and breaking and entering. Myrna refuses to press assault charges against Kip. That one’s on Sly and Sly alone. Especially given that Kip tried to stop him and then waited for the police to turn himself in.”

  “What do you think will happen?”

  “Obviously, I’m not the judge and I can’t give you a clear answer, but it’s likely that Kip—or rather you, as his parent—will be fined. That could run up to a thousand dollars or more. There will be an order of restitution and that’s likely to be split between you and Sly’s family. Or rather his mother, given his father took off a few years ago and abandoned them. There was a lot of damage. There’s no way to guesstimate a final amount until Myrna submits the bills, but I’d be prepared to shell out another thousand on top of that fine. Maybe it won’t run that high, but I wouldn’t be surprised.”

  I swallowed hard. We had the savings, but to be forced to spend it on paying for Kip’s crime spree wasn’t exactly endearing my son to me at this moment. “What about detention time? Any chance he’ll get off without serving time in juvie? I don’t want him in there, learning new tricks from older, more seasoned kids.”

  She shrugged. “This is his first real offense. He stayed behind and waited for the police instead of running. He tried to stop Sly from shooting Myrna. I’m going to hazard that there’s a good chance he’ll get off with probation and community service. He’s a lucky boy, Em. If Myrna wanted to, she could slap Kip up there on that assault charge right alongside Sly.”

  At that moment, Ron—a seasoned officer who was Murray’s second in command—entered the room with Sly in tow. The sight of the boy in handcuffs drained some of my anger. Sly’s mother had done absolutely nothing to prevent this slide, and while Sly had to bear the responsibility for his actions, I felt a wash of sorrow for the child.

  He glanced over at me, and for a moment I thought I saw a glimmer of tears, but then he looked away as Ron led him toward the back of the station. Kip straightened as Sly passed by, and for a moment he looked like he was going to say something, but Sly turned his head, ignoring my son. The next moment, he was out of sight.

  I glanced at Murray. An impassive look on her face, she softly said, “I know, Em. I know.”

  “What next? Can I take Kip home?”

  She held up her hand as the phone rang, and motioned for me to go wait near Kip. Covering the receiver, she whispered, “Don’t tell him what I said about what’s likely to happen. I can’t be certain and there are no guarantees.”

  With a nod, I walked over to greet my son.

  KIP LOOKED LIKE a terrified rabbit. He bit his lip as I stared down at him, trying to figure out what to say. How was I going to do this? He’d been in trouble before but never anything like this. Finally, I sat down beside him.

  “Kip, you listen to me and listen carefully. All right?”

  A nod, but he was watching me.

  “First, I love you. I want you to know that. No matter what happens, I love you. But I swear, I’m ten seconds away from locking you in your room until you’re eighteen. You’ve pulled some silly stunts in your life but this goes beyond stupid. Do you realize how much damage you caused? Not only did you ruin Mrs. Standers’s Christmas and destroy her things, you and Sly traumatized her. How would you feel if you walked into our house and found someone destroying your things? How could you possibly be cruel enough to do this to someone who never caused you any harm?” I shook my head, my mood sinking faster than the Titanic. “I’m so disappointed in you, Kip. I hoped that I raised you better than this, but you’ve proved that I’m not a very good mom.”

  He burst out into angry tears. “Mom…don’t…I didn’t mean to—it was—”

  I dashed aside my own tears. “Don’t you dare blame this on Sly. You chose to join him. You decided that yes, you would like to trash a nice old lady’s house.” I paused, watching him start to sob in earnest. Good. He needed to feel sorry, and not just for himself. “Do you understand what I’m saying here?”

  He bit his lip, not even bothering to brush away the tears. After a moment of silence, he let out a stuttering, “Y—yeah…I do. I messed up big time. Am I going to jail, Mom?”

  The fear that came through those six words ripped my heart into shreds. I wanted to gather him in my arms and reassure him, but this wasn’t a skinned knee or a ghost that I could make disappear. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and kissed him lightly on the head.

  “I can’t answer that, Kip. That’s up to the judge, not to me. But I hope not. You did the right thing by not taking off with Sly, and by talking him out of hurting Myrna. You’d be in so much more trouble if you had egged him on. And you were right to wait for the police. Those actions should help. But we’re going to owe a lot of money, no matter what. We have to pay for everything you destroyed.”

  Kip began to cry in earnest. After a while, Murray had me sign some papers. Kip had been assigned a formal hearing Monday morning. I’d have to leave the store in Lana’s hands. Lana was my only employee and during the Christmas rush, we were hard pressed to handle the clientele with the two of us, but I had no choice.

  As I gathered Kip’s coat and things, he glanced over at Murray. She was staring at him, her arms folded across her chest, a frown on her face. I knew that he hated disappointing her. Both of my children looked up to Anna.

  “I’m sorry,” he blurted out. “I want to tell Mrs. Standers how sorry I am.”

  She gave him a crisp nod. “You’ll have your chance in court on Monday morning. Kip, I want you to listen to me, and listen good. I never want to see you dragged through those doors again. At least not as a prisoner. Do you hear me? I never want to have to write you up again. If you were a member of my tribe, you’d be punished by the elders as well as legal punishment, so count yourself lucky. You have to start accepting responsibility for your actions. You’re a young man now, not a hooligan. It’s time you started acting like it. Do you understand?”

  He paled, nodding.

  As she handed me the papers I would need in court, I asked her, “Should we get a la
wyer?”

  “It probably would be a good idea.” She waved at me. “Tell Jimbo if he needs to stay to help you and Joe tonight, just give me a call. I’m going to finish up the paperwork on this and then go deal with Sly. That’s another ball of wax.”

  As we headed back to the car, Kip asked, “What did she mean, ‘Help with Joe’?”

  “While you were out rampaging through Mrs. Standers’s house, Joe took a tumble in the basement and broke his ankle. We were at the hospital for several hours. When I called home to tell you, you weren’t there. So I had to leave Joe at home with Jimbo and Miranda and go looking for you.”

  As understanding washed over his face, Kip let out another little moan. “I’m sorry, Mom. I’m so sorry.”

  “Save it. You won’t be going anywhere for a long time, and you’ll have plenty of time to show me just how sorry you are.” And leaving that dire threat hanging in the air, I turned the ignition and we headed for home.

  JOE TOOK ONE look at my face and then at Kip’s face as we entered the room. He cleared his throat. That alone was enough to send Kip into another round of tears. Apparently, Murray had called to tell them what happened so I wouldn’t have to.

  “Mom, what’s going on?” Randa frowned.

  “I didn’t say anything,” Joe said. “I thought I’d leave that up to you.”

  “What the heck is wrong?” She stopped as Kip let out a giant burp of tears.

  “Later, Randa. For now, will you please go to your room? We have some things to discuss.” I gave her a warning shake of the head and, still frowning, she silently headed toward the stairs. She looked irritated, but she didn’t push it.

  “Are you hungry?” I turned to Kip.

  He blinked, biting his lip. Finally, he nodded. “Yeah.”

  “I’ll make him a sandwich,” Jimbo said. “That will give you and Joe a chance to talk, and Kip and I can have ourselves a biker-to-boy chat. Come on, kiddo.” He steered Kip toward the kitchen.

  “What the hell happened? Murray gave us the heads up that you were on the way home with Kip and that he had gotten himself in some serious trouble but she didn’t elaborate.” Joe patted the chair beside him. His eyes looked glazed from the pain pills, but he was trying to focus.

  I gave him a quick rundown of what we were facing. “I have to go to court with him on Monday. If we’re lucky, it will just cost us a couple thousand and Kip will get probation.”

  “Hell. I can’t believe he put you through that. What’s up with that kid?” Joe seldom complained about the kids, but he looked ready to hobble into the kitchen and read Kip the riot act.

  “He’s eleven going on thirteen. Preteen drama. Preteen rebellion. Damn it. I knew Sly was going to drag him into something really stupid one of these days, but I felt bad about breaking up his friendship. The pair have been best buddies for years, but damn it! Now I wish I had sent his little ass packing. It’s over, though. Regardless of what happens to Sly, that kid’s never setting foot in this house again.” My phone rang and I glanced at it. Murray. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Em, I thought you’d want to know that we finally located Katherine. She was strung out on crack at some party. She’s too fucked up to make decisions, so we’ve turned Sly over to Child Protection Services and CPS is in the process of finding another relative to take over guardianship. Katherine’s cooling it in jail. The gun that Sly had was hers, but it’s also unlicensed. Not to mention, Katherine isn’t supposed to be in possession of one since she’s still on parole from a felony a couple years ago.”

  This was all news to me. I knew the woman was messed up but I had no clue it was that bad. “What a clusterf—” I stopped. I tried not to swear too much since I didn’t want the kids picking it up.

  “It gets worse. When Ron found Sly, the kid was hiding at home. Rob searched the house for the gun. He found it, but he also found a small meth lab in the shed. Em, I hate to even suggest this, but you might want to have a chat with Kip to see if he knew anything about it.” She didn’t have to add, to see if he had tried the crap. My gut told me no, but right now I wasn’t sure that I could trust my instincts.

  “Today just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it? I’ll let you know what he says.” I added a quiet good night. Then, setting my phone down, I called out to the kitchen, “Kip, I need to talk to you.”

  Kip edged into the room, carrying a sandwich. Jimbo followed him. “Yes, Mom?”

  “I’m going to ask you something and I want an honest answer. Do not lie to me. You know that I can always tell when you’re lying. Just tell me the truth, regardless of what it is.”

  Kip gave me a solemn nod. Jimbo was eyeing me quizzically, as was Joe.

  “Sit down, honey.” I patted the sofa beside me. Kip hesitantly took a seat.

  “Am I in worse trouble?”

  I wanted to say no, but right now, again, I couldn’t make promises that I might not be able to keep. “I don’t think so, but you need to be honest with me. Okay?”

  “All right.”

  “When you have been hanging out at Sly’s lately… Well, there’s no good way to say this, so I’ll just come right out. Did you know that Sly’s mom was making illegal drugs in the shed out back?” I motioned for both Joe and Jimbo to keep quiet.

  Kip frowned, cocking his head. “Do you mean like growing pot? I know she has a lot of different plants in her house.”

  “No, and pot’s legal, though I still don’t want you smoking it till you’re eighteen. Capiche?”

  He bobbed his head again. “Yeah. But if you’re not talking about marijuana, then I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

  “Did you ever go out to her shed?” I prayed for a “No” and for once, things went right.

  “No, she told me and Sly never to go in there or she’d smack us. She meant it, too. I just figured she had something out there we could break. Sly tried to get me to sneak in with him, but I told him no.” He paused. “Sly did, though. A few weeks ago. He went in there, and after about half an hour waiting for him to come out, I got bored and came home. Mom, Sly’s in real trouble, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah, kiddo. And so are you, but not as much as he is. Did you notice a difference in Sly’s behavior since he started hanging out in the shed?” I dreaded the answer, because I knew it was going to be a “Yes.” Again, I was right. I told Kip to wait and called Murray back.

  “Kip never went out in the shed and I believe him. But Sly did. Kip saw him go out there a few weeks ago and apparently, Sly’s behavior started changing after that. Kip tells me Sly became more reckless, and the pranks turned into crap like what they pulled tonight.” I paused as Murray jotted down the info. “Murray, I’ll lay odds that Sly’s addicted. You should have him checked out at the hospital.”

  “I could beat the hide off parents like Katherine. But she’s going through her own hell right now. I doubt if she even knows what’s going on and frankly, I doubt if she’d give a damn.” The sound of papers shuffling muffled Murray’s voice, then she added, “All right. I’ll drop over tomorrow and we’ll go over everything again. I’d also like to talk to Kip about Sly and that shed, if you’ll let me.”

  As much as I hated having my kid entangled in a drug case, I reluctantly murmured an assent and we said good night. I turned back to the others.

  “Is Sly okay, Mom?” Kip’s voice was strained, and he looked about as pale as I had ever seen him.

  “I don’t think so, sweetie. We suspect that he might have a drug problem. His mom does, that’s for sure.” I glanced at the clock. “Kip, I want you to go upstairs and go to bed. It’s late, and we’re all exhausted. But I’m going to tell you something right now.”

  He straightened his shoulders, waiting.

  “Whatever happens to Sly, you will never be allowed to go over to his house or hang out with him again. Do you understand? Tonight was the last straw. It’s over. Get used to the idea.”

  Kip’s eyelashes flu
ttered and I could tell he was fighting the tears and fatigue and fear.

  “You don’t have to say anything, but if you ever try to sneak around behind my back on this, there will be hell to pay. Do you understand?”

  He slowly nodded, then stood. “Can I go to bed now?”

  “Go ahead. I’ll peek in on you in a few minutes.”

  For once, he didn’t argue that he was too old for me to tuck him in.

  Ten minutes later, I found my son snoring loudly, curled up in his bed. I made sure the windows were locked, and that he was covered up, then went back downstairs. Joe slept in the recliner with his leg up. I erected a simple set of wards in front of the basement door to keep the ghosts from popping up top, but since they hadn’t shown up on the main floor yet, I proceeded on the hope that we’d be all right.

  I curled up on the sofa while Jimbo hunkered down in a sleeping bag on the living room floor in case I needed any help during the night. Within minutes of the lights going out, we were all asleep, off in our own private dreamlands.

  Chapter 4

  MORNING HIT ALL too quickly. But the storm from the night before had let up and sunlight glared off the blanket of white, splashing through the living room window. I shaded my eyes as the unexpected brilliance washed across my face. As I threw off the afghan and struggled to sit up, I saw that Joe wasn’t in the recliner and Jimbo had already rolled up the sleeping bag.

  Yawning, I rubbed my eyes and blinked again, suddenly remembering everything that had gone on the night before. I groaned.

  “You okay, Mom?” Randa was sitting at my desk, poring over a college catalog.

  “It’s not fair. We should get a grace period in the morning before we have to remember the crap that went on the day before. Right?”