“Yeah, well, cops tell me all kinds of crap.” He walked inside the house, and she raced in behind him, grateful when he didn’t try to bolt out the back door. He stopped in front of his mom and stepdad.
“What’s the matter with Dad?” he asked in concern.
“He got upset,” his mom replied softly. “I was crying with the detective here, and he thought the detective hurt me.”
“Well, she did,” he snapped. “Anybody who has these kinds of conversations will hurt you. And yet it doesn’t stop anything.”
“Can we sit and talk?” Kate asked quietly. “Or maybe we should go back out on the porch, so we don’t disturb Barney here.”
The older woman looked at her gratefully. “Maybe you and Rick could go outside, could you?”
She nodded and asked Rick, “You ready to go talk?”
Rick frowned and headed out in an almost childish action of defiance. He then threw himself into the same chair his mother had just vacated. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Well, to start with, why did you run from your job?”
“My shift was over,” he replied in a snide tone.
“Sure it was, except for the last ten to fifteen minutes. Your boss gave you a good reference, but, of course, he’s bothered by your behavior.”
He looked at her in alarm. “Did you get me fired?”
“No,Ididn’t.” She stared at the young man. “Did you do anything to get yourself fired?”
He stared at her in shock and started shaking his head. “No, you don’t know how hard it was to get a job when I got out.”
“So, tell me about these last few days. Where were you?”
“At work, I was at work,” he said. “What about it?” An honest bewilderment was in his voice.
She stared at him for a long time. “What time do you leave the house to go to work?”
“I work seven to five usually,” he replied, “but I’ve been putting in extra hours because we’re short on people.”
“I know your boss appreciates it,” she noted quietly. “What time do you get up?”
“About fifteen minutes before I have to be at work,” he answered, rubbing his eyes. “I stay up late gaming sometimes. I know I shouldn’t because then I sleep in late, and I have to book it to get to work.”
“And what do you do when you come home?”
“Usually I help Mom with a few chores and dinner and play a few games with my dad. He’s really slipped. I don’t know what it is. The doctor said he’s regressing.”
“Well, when you can’t handle the stress of what’s going on in the world, that makes sense.”
“It’s not like who he was at all,” the son fretted. “Haven’t they been through enough without you showing up now?”
“You mean, without you running away and making it all that much worse?” Simon said from the side.
Rick looked up at him, frowned, and then back at Kate. “What is this? Good cop, bad cop?”
“Nope,” she argued cheerfully. “So did you go anywhere else on the weekend?”
He shook his head. “The usual. I took Mom grocery shopping. Other than that, I’ve been playing an online game all weekend.”
“Well, as much as I could, I worked over my weekend,” Kate noted.
“But it’s not like I have any friends.”