Stone Cold (10 page)

“Conall Reese Stone? Are the parents of Conall Reese Stone here?” A police officer bellowed to the people waiting in the lobby.

Darin was jolted out of memory lane and stood instantly to alert the police officer that Conall’s father was present.

“I’m his father. Can I see him now?”

“Yeah
, they’re ready for you – follow me.”

He followed the officer through a set of doors, down a long corridor to another set of doors and into a room where Conall was
sitting at a table.

Without a word,
Conall stood and Darin walked over and gave him a huge hug. To his surprise, Conall hugged him back with an even bigger embrace. Their relationship had been strained a bit lately and he was expecting things to get worse after the way he angrily demanded Conall come out of his room to face the police. Instead, Conall seemed relieved that his father was there.

“We have a lot to talk about but first what are they going to do with you? Do you get to come home?” asked Darin.

Before Conall could answer, a man who introduced himself as the lead investigator on the case emerged from a corner in the room and spoke on his behalf.

“Your son can le
ave with you tonight but there’s some paperwork that needs to be filled out first. He’ll be required to do community service in lieu of a jail sentence.”

“Was Conall charged with anythi…
?” Darin’s question was cut short.

“Mr. Stone, this was Conall’s first offense and he was really lucky to have gotten away with the punishment he did. The paperwork will give you a full description of what he was charged with and what is expected of him.
”

“I only wanted to know if he was charged with anything.”

“Like I said read the paperwork. Then you can ask all the questions you want. I suggest you talk to him and try to knock some sense into his head – don’t want to see him back here ever again,” the investigator’s icy response sounded so routine.

“I’ll have the paperwork sent right in.”

With that, he left the room and without further delay Conall started to relay what had happened from the start. His adrenaline was so high, that Darin had to stop him twice to have him take a breath and slow down his speech.

“Conall, I want to hear all about it but right now I want to get the paperwork done so we can both get out of here.”

As he read the description of what the boys had done he was relieved that each of them had received the community service punishment and nothing more. The victim, Jack Barnes, decided he didn’t want to press charges. He asked that they be given community service to work in a charity near and dear to his heart that helped children of fathers who’d been killed. He also asked that this incident wouldn’t become a part of any permanent record for any of the boys.

Darin said, “I don’t understand why Mr. Barnes would drop the charges on you boys and ask that it not become part of your permanent record but I’m not going to question it.”

Conall knew why but he wasn’t about to divulge what he knew about Jack Barnes. Not yet anyway.

*****

Both Darin and Conall signed the papers. When they received their copy and were given the go ahead to leave, they couldn’t get to the car fast enough.

Evelyn had left six voice messages on Darin’s phone but there was no reception inside the police station so he hadn’t received any of them until they got in the car. Before leaving the parking garage, he called her to let her know they would be home in fifteen minutes.

The ride home was silent. Neither father nor son wanted to talk anymore that day. It was two o’clock in the morning and all they wanted to do was get some sleep. There would be plenty of time to talk tomorrow.

As they parked the car and prepared to enter the h
ouse, Darin said, “Your mother’s going to want to know all about it but we’re both tired and need rest. You go straight up to your room. I’ll handle her.”

“Thanks dad and I’m really so so sorry for all of thi
s, I never meant…,” Conall’s voice broke and he couldn’t finish his thought.

“I know son. We can talk about it tomorrow. Get some sleep.”

As he opened the door, Conall could see his mother out of the corner of his eye standing near the stairs. Without making eye contact, he strode in and bounded up the stairs skipping steps as he went.

Evelyn started after him but was stopped by two arms that had found their way around her waist from behind.

“Let him go for tonight. There’s plenty of time to talk tomorrow,” Darin reassured her.

He held her there for a few minutes
to make sure she wasn’t going to go against his words and attempt to talk to Conall tonight. When he was satisfied she’d wait until tomorrow, he turned her around and found her gaze. Her eyes were filled with worry and Darin could see the tears welled up and about to spill over her lower eyelashes. As he hugged her to him he could hear and feel her exhale a sigh of relief.

“So you can sleep tonight, I’
ll at least tell you that this isn’t going to give him a record and he has to do community service to make amends for what he did. No jail time or anything.”

He felt
her body relax and her heartbeat slow as he held her for as long as she needed him to. When she pulled away he kept his arm around her waist and they climbed the stairs together to get some much needed sleep.

Chapter 8

It was noon when
Conall awoke the next day. His first thought was that maybe he’d dreamt it all. The slight knock on the door from his father told him otherwise.

“Conall, it’s noon. Time to get up so we can make some plans.”

Not a dream.

“Okay dad. Be right there.”

He rolled onto his back for a few minutes and attempted to clear the sleep from his brain. That’s when he realized he’d been so preoccupied with everything that had happened the night before that he hadn’t even thought about Hannah since his arrest.

In his wakeful state Conall’s memory started to flood
his brain with everything at once. Waiting in the dark alley for Jack to exit the building. Bobby and Shawn knocking Jack to the ground. Him picking up Jack’s cell phone and running home. Eden coming to his room and telling him his friends had gotten caught. Him getting arrested. He also remembered his urgent plea to Eden.

Conall had begged
her to get into Jack’s phone and remove any data about Hannah, after she wrote it down for him of course. Community service or not, he had to find out if she’d been successful. Jack was sure to have bought another phone by now and he may’ve been able to recover his contact list. He’d stop by her room to find out if she’d been successful on his way down to talk to his parents.

“
Eden. Eden, open up. Need to ask you something,” commanded Conall as he knocked on her door.

Without warning, the door swung open
and she pulled him inside by his arm.

“Finally! What took you so long? I’ve been dying to find out what happened!
”

“Mom and dad want to talk to me so I’ll have to tell you about it later but I have to know if you were able to retrieve and destroy
that information I asked you to.”

Eden
was sitting on the edge of her bed and looked like she was about ready to burst.

“I was able to get
that information because his password must have either been lost when the phone hit the ground or he never had it password protected. All of Hannah’s information is on this piece of paper and I deleted it from his phone like you asked me to along with a picture of the letter.”

Conall felt his knees start to buc
kle. For the first time since all of this started he was finally able to feel some relief that Hannah was going to be safe. It also meant that he was possibly going to get to meet her all over again.

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you
Eden! Have I ever told you you’re my favorite sister?”

“Yeah, every time
you say the same thing to Kylie.”

Eden
pretended to hand him the paper with Hannah’s information on it but pulled it back when he went to take it. The more he tried to get it the more she teased until he tickled her sides at which point she collapsed onto the floor in a fit of laughter. Her grip became weak and sensing this, Conall grabbed the paper from her hand.

“
Works every time. Come on, let me help you get up,” he said as he grabbed her wrist.

When they were both standing again Conall reached over and put both arms around her.

“Thank you Eden for always being there for me. I’ll be back later to tell you what happened.”

“I’m just glad you’re alright and not in jail.”

“Me too,” he said as he kissed the top of her head.

He let go of
Eden and started toward the door.

“Conall. I, I hope she’s worth it – this girl Hannah.”

He paused for a moment and grinned, “So do I.”

On his way out the door, Conall looked at the piece of paper in his hand. He finally had what he wanted and tucked it away safely
into his pocket for later as he headed down the stairs.

His parents were sitting in the living
room and he guessed they must’ve been talking about him when their conversation abruptly ended as he came into view.

“Conall
, your mother and I want to talk about what’s in the police report and also about your community service. We’re still shocked by what you did and we want to hear from you in detail exactly why you felt the need to steal someone’s phone.”

“Jack Barnes is not
just someone dad. Let me explain,” his eyes narrowed as he paused to collect his thoughts.

He wanted to find the right balance between telling them what they needed to know for their own peace of mind versus what he wanted to keep private – to keep all to himself.
He decided to go with straight and to the point with the minimum amount of detail – just enough to explain what happened.

After taking a deep breath he said,
“I briefly met a girl on the school trip we took to Ellis Island. We liked each other but we were interrupted and didn’t have a chance to exchange contact information. I only knew her first name, Hannah. She sent an email to my school looking for me and the school secretary, Liz Tanner, was going to give it to me.

Evelyn interrupted.

“You mean Liz Tanner, the administrative assistant who was hit by that cab? I felt so sorry for what happened to her. Is she okay now?”

“Yes mom that’s the same Liz Tanner. As far as I know she’s still in a coma.”

Conall paused to collect his train of thought.

“She had the email that belonged to me in her
hand the day she was almost hit by the cab. I found out she had this email and followed her on my way to the dentist hoping she would give it to me then.”

“So that’s why you never made it to your dentist appointment.”

Conall looked at her with an annoyed expression.

“
She was reading it when she stepped off the curb and I bumped her out of the way of the cab when I saw it coming toward her. She dropped the email and the cab’s passenger, Jack Barnes, saw it drop from her hand and he took it instead of giving it back to Miss Tanner. He took it and I saw him put Hannah’s contact information in his phone and threw the email away.”

“That wasn’t a very nice thing to do but go ahead with your story,” interrupted Evelyn.

“I got the email and it was missing her contact information but I thought Hannah was in danger from Mr. Barnes. I found out where he lived from the cab driver who had driven him that day.”

“So you thought he’d gotten her contact information before he destroyed the email,” said Darin.

“Yes. Bobby and Shawn helped me devise a plan to get Jack’s phone in case he had plans to harm Hannah in some way. Why else would he keep her information in his phone? What would he want with a total stranger’s email address?”

“I can see your point,” sympathized Evelyn.

“I should mention her picture was on the email too.”

Conall paused to gauge the reaction of his parents. When they didn’t say anything he continued.