Fire and Rain (9 page)

When Isaac crawled into Jos’s lap and curled next to him later in the afternoon, Kip wondered if something was wrong, but Isaac just rested his head on Jos’s shoulder and dozed off.

“Kip,” Jos whispered after a while. “I have to go inside. Would you please…?” He stood and gently transferred Isaac. Kip expected Isaac to wake, but he remained asleep and curled against Kip, barely stirring. Jos put Pistachio to Isaac’s arm, and he curled it close. “I’ll be right back.”

Kip nodded and looked at the small body and angelic face resting on his lap, Isaac’s usual quiet energy banked for later use. Kip stroked a stray lock of Isaac’s hair from his forehead and just watched him sleep. When Jos returned, Kip asked if he wanted him back and was exceedingly happy when Jos shook his head and stretched out on the wicker love seat. “Go ahead and close your eyes if you want. He and I will be fine.”

Kip tried to remember the last time he’d spent an afternoon doing nothing. Even when he wasn’t at work, he was almost always doing something. The house always needed some kind of attention, and while he sat, he ran though the list of things he should be doing. When he was with Jeffrey, that list of items always seemed so important, but right now, it was secondary to enjoying the peace and quiet of one of those warm fall days that could be the last of the year.

“No!” Jos mumbled and stirred, groaning and then whimpering softly. Kip reached over and gently put his hand on Jos’s back and held it there, letting him know he wasn’t alone. Jos mumbled some more and then settled quietly once again.

A few minutes later, Isaac woke with a start, whining the way his brother had. “It’s okay. It’s just Kip.” He picked up Pistachio from where he’d tumbled out of Isaac’s arms and continued holding him for a few minutes until Isaac squirmed to be let down. “You have to play quietly.”

Isaac nodded and put a finger up to his lips, making a “shhh” sound to Pistachio before going to the other end of the porch and the chaise longue corral.

“Where’s Isaac?” Jos asked with a start, sitting straight up.

“He’s playing with his horse,” Kip said levelly, and Jos sighed and turned so his feet were on the floor. “God…. I dreamed someone had taken him, and when I went to get him back, he was gone and I couldn’t find him. Faceless people kept saying that he was better off, and after a while I began to believe it, and—”

“It was just a dream. Isaac is right there, and he’s fine,” Kip said lightly. “None of that is going to happen.”

“How do you know?” Jos asked. “I know you bent the rules last night when you didn’t call child services when you found us in the doorway. Why do you think I had to get away as fast as I could? I won’t let anyone take Isaac away. We’re the only family we’ve got, and I can’t leave him alone, not after what happened to Mom.”

“Donald and I aren’t going to let it happen.” Why he was so vehement in his conviction and so trusting of Jos was beyond him. He was a police officer; he should know better than to trust a stranger. He saw things every day that told him he needed to be much more careful, and yet Jos had gotten past his defenses and under his cynical police nature without him even realizing it.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. Kip read the message, then said, “Aaron got the warrant, and they’re going over now. He said to come by in half an hour and we should be able to have a look around.”

Jos seemed nervous and turned away. Instantly the suspicions he’d just been admonishing himself for pushing aside came rushing forward. “Is there something there that you don’t want them to see?”

Jos turned back to him. “How would you like other people going through your stuff?”

“They aren’t going to. Aaron got a warrant because there was stolen property on the premises. Yours. He’s claiming that in kicking you out illegally, Powers in effect stole your property from you. Hopefully it will stick in court, but Powers will have a bunch of lawyers with a million explanations.” Kip’s phone buzzed again. “We need to go,” he said and got to his feet. “Get Isaac in the car. Powers was already in the process of tearing down the building.”

Kip called Aaron. “How could that happen so fast?” he asked when Aaron answered.

“I have someone checking, but it looks like the permit came through today so he wasn’t wasting any time. We stopped the work, but the bulldozers have already demolished half the building.” Kip pulled open the door to his car and started the engine. As soon as Jos had Isaac in his seat and the doors closed, he zoomed to the other side of town.

“STAY HERE,”
Kip said. He lowered the windows, then got out and walked to where Aaron was standing. One side wall of the brick structure was gone. “Jesus.”

“Tell me about it. That was Josten’s apartment,” Aaron said, pointing to the undamaged side of the building.

“What do we do?”

“It seems undamaged, and I have them stopped for now.”

“Has anyone else complained?” Kip asked.

Aaron nodded. “The units seem mostly empty. When I looked into the ones with the missing wall there were a few pieces of old furniture, but most everything was gone. I haven’t been able to look in the unit above, but I’m starting to think that Josten may have been the lone holdout.”

“Do you think Jos was lying?”

Aaron shook his head. “I think Powers was. He comes here making a show of force complete with a police officer to make it look really good. He tells everyone in the building that they’re being evicted and to get the hell out. The few others get their stuff once the show is over and clear out. Josten doesn’t know it’s a show, and he has no other place to go, so he grabs what he can and heads to a shelter.”

“Son of a bitch,” Kip swore.

“The guy is slime. Hell, he’s shit in slime. But he got what he wanted. The building is empty and there are no leases, and no one complains because they’re scared shitless. He gets a permit, and the building comes down…. Everything is gone, and he can go through with his sale of the land.”

“So what do we do?”

“The demolition has stopped, but the building is going to be unstable.”

“Can we go inside?”

“Red is already there. He wanted to look around,” Aaron explained. Kip turned to the doorway, and Red came out and walked over to them.

“This side of the building seems good for now. The walls and ceiling are intact, and there aren’t any cracks. These places were built pretty solidly. I’d say give the tenant an hour to take what’s vital, and then we need to condemn the place and let them take it down for safety. I took pictures inside in case the complainant wants to press charges. But the place is now a hazard and the door wasn’t locked when I got here, so I’m afraid anything of value has been removed.”

Kip sighed.
Another injury to someone who’s been kicked around way too much.
“I’ll get Jos, and he can decide what he wants to do,” Kip said and hurried back to the car. “You can go in and get what’s important. The place seems stable for now. I’ll stay with Isaac.” Kip opened the trunk. “Load up the trunk with whatever you can get.”

“Can I use the grocery bags?” Jos asked.

“Whatever you need,” Kip said as he saw Red coming over.

“I can help you,” Red offered.

“Jos, this is Red. He’s an officer and a personal friend.”

“Thanks,” Jos whispered, clearly overwhelmed. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Pictures, papers—whatever is most important to you and Isaac,” Kip said, wishing he could help him. But someone needed to stay with Isaac, and a total stranger would freak Isaac out. Jos nodded, and Red led him into the building.

KIP SAT
with Isaac, doing his best to entertain him, watching what was left of the building and worrying. Jos came out with his arms full of clothes for him and Isaac. “Can you stay here? I’ll just be at the back of the car,” Kip told Isaac and left the door open for air. He took the load, and Jos hurried back inside. Kip did his best to fold things and put them into bags and organize the trunk. When Jos came out again, he had a few more bags, and Red was following him.

“That’s all,” Jos said. “People went through everything.” His lips quivered. “The TV and stuff like that was gone. They were old, but somebody still took them.”

Red set a bag in the trunk. “I found some pictures and put them in there for you. Some of the glass was broken, but I figured the pictures were what was important.”

Jos nodded. He looked about ready to cry. “I found the papers Donald said he needs. They were in a pile of stuff that was thrown on the floor.”

“We’ll wash all the clothes when we get them home. Did you find any of Isaac’s toys?”

Jos shook his head. “I tried to find the bear Mom gave him. He always slept with it. I couldn’t find it when we got evicted, so we had to leave without it, and I didn’t see it anywhere just now. Why would someone take it?” Jos put his hands over his face. “Why? It was just a stupid bear. It didn’t mean anything to anyone except Isaac and me.”

“Was there anything else you wanted to get?”

“The furniture were things I got at thrift stores for a few dollars. All I wanted was some of Isaac’s things. It was the only stuff worth anything.”

“Was there anything of real value left inside?” Aaron asked, and Jos went to pieces when Red shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“Can you roast the bastard?” Jos asked before Kip folded him into his arms. He wasn’t in uniform, and he didn’t care at that point what the other officers thought. Jos was reaching a breaking point. It seemed like every time the guy turned around, any sort of good news was followed by a bitter disappointment.

“What’s going on here?” a rough voice demanded. “This building should be down by now. Why has everything stopped?”

“And you are?” Aaron asked forcefully. “We have a warrant, and in order to fulfill it, we stopped the work.”

“Gordon Powers. I own this lot, and I have a demolition permit.”

“This building contained property that wasn’t yours,” Aaron explained.

“That’s too bad. The tenants were given ample notice and have had weeks to get their property out. The locks were changed two weeks ago, and we’ve gotten no requests for access.”

“You kicked us out with no notice,” Jos said.

“I did no such thing. You were given notice, and then you abandoned the apartment. We sent registered letters that went unanswered. So I’m within my rights to move ahead.” Powers turned his considerable girth toward the demolition crews. “Take her down, boys.” He turned back to Aaron. “Unless you have a court order specifically stopping the demolition….”

Kip wanted to slap the smug look off the bastard’s face.

“Didn’t think so,” Powers said and motioned to the men to continue. “I’m not paying you to stand around. Knock it to the ground and start hauling it away.” He stepped back, arms crossed across his chest defiantly as the trucks started up and a bulldozer pushed into the building.

“Do you want to watch this?” Kip asked Jos, who shook his head. Kip felt so damned powerless.

Aaron and the other officers moved away as a bulldozer plowed into the other side wall and the weakened structure imploded in on itself, roof falling in followed by the side walls.

Kip moved Jos toward the car and got him inside. Isaac was craning his neck to try to see what was happening, his hands over his ears. “Sorry, buddy,” Kip said. “Let’s go home and get some dinner, okay?”

“Pizza?” Isaac asked.

“It was Mom’s favorite, so we had it a lot,” Jos explained.

“Sure. I’ll have one delivered,” Kip agreed. He drove as fast as he could away from the devastation that had been Jos and Isaac’s last home. He fumed for much of the trip. Powers was a total bastard, and Kip didn’t believe a thing the man had said, but they couldn’t prove otherwise, so they were stuck looking like fools while Powers did what he wanted anyway.

“Did you find Weeble?” Isaac asked, holding Pistachio.

“I’m sorry. I tried to find him.”

“He was under my bed. I put him there to save him when the mean men came,” Isaac said, and Kip looked to Jos, who held his face in his hands. Kip didn’t have to ask to know that Jos hadn’t looked there.

“I’m sorry, buddy, but can you take care of Pistachio instead?” Kip had to try to think of a way to make Isaac feel better—and by extension Jos, who once again seemed on the edge of losing it. “He needs you.”

“Weeble needs me too,” Isaac said, and Kip pulled the car into a driveway and turned it around. He raced back to the devastation and caught Aaron as he was pulling away.

“What is it?” Aaron asked.

“Isaac’s bear was under his bed in the apartment,” Kip said. “Get them to stop so we can see if we can find it.”

“You’re kidding,” Aaron said.

Kip leaned out his window. “Do you want to tell a four-year-old that we didn’t even try to find his bear?” he asked, turning on the guilt. They had to try.

“Okay. Red and I will help.” Aaron backed up and flipped on his flashers. The bulldozer came to a stop, and Aaron got out. Kip pulled in next to him and told Jos to stay with Isaac. If Isaac’s toy was in there, he was going to find it.

JOS COULDN’T
believe Kip was actually doing this.

“Where did he go?” Isaac asked from the backseat.

“To try to find Weeble for you,” Jos answered, not taking his eyes off Kip as he stopped the bulldozers from taking down the rest of the building and Aaron threatened to arrest them all on suspicion of something or other. He couldn’t hear it all clearly, but there was plenty of yelling, most of it coming from his former landlord.

Jos got out and opened Isaac’s door, then helped him out of his seat. Then he lifted his brother into his arms so he could see what was happening. What was left of the building was a jumbled mess. But it was Kip standing toe-to-toe with Powers that was the real attraction. The big, rumbling engines on the equipment grew silent, and Kip’s voice carried on the evening breeze. “I’ll tell the media what you did and make sure your ugly mug is plastered all over the evening news as a slumlord. You won’t be able to rent an apartment to a flea-infested rat by the time they’re done with you.”