Arrest
Leilah trudged home from the bus stop with her school bag slung across her body. Vaughan accompanied her. They maintained an awkward silence although he could have said nothing to make her feel worse. Her house key hung from a string around her neck and Leilah pulled her school shirt loose to retrieve it from between her breasts. The hot sun and their walk home heated it up and made her sweat. She watched Vaughan’s pupils dilate as he saw the swollen mounds of flesh in the second that the key pulled free. She’d outgrown the bra Mari bought last year and hadn’t plucked up the courage to ask for another. It would require admitting the one they chose together just months before had gone missing in the laundry. Leilah sensed Mari would assume she didn’t like it and feel insulted.
Vaughan licked his lips and forced his gaze to concentrate on the ruts at the edge of the road. As always, he made no comment.
“I didn’t mean to make things worse,” Leilah grumbled. “Does the sergeant really think Tane killed Malcolm?”
Vaughan shrugged. “Who knows how adults come to the conclusions they do? Why do they think anything? It’s all about their own convenience and comfort as far as I can see. They’ll go for the easiest option and if that’s Tane, then hard luck.”
“His dad won’t.” Leilah kept the warm key in her fingers, feeling the cord tighten on the back of her neck. Her heart fluttered with anxiety. “It’s not convenient or comfortable for him.”
Vaughan raised his dark eyebrows and shrugged. “Lucky Tane. Nobody would give a shit if they came for me.”
“That’s not true!” Leilah bit. “We all would.”
“Yup.” Vaughan’s jaw poked through his cheek as his teeth ground against each other. “Cause everyone loves the foster kid and his ass-hole uncle.”
Leilah gave a snort of exasperation and refused to buy into his pity party. The road continued ahead of them like a metal ribbon, snaking around the curve of the mountain’s foothills in an elegant arc. The sun beat down on their heads and Leilah’s feet slipped around inside her Roman sandals. She sighed as they reached the bend.
“No!” Vaughan’s wail of anguish made her start and his school bag hit the ground at her feet. Dandelion heads sent their delicate fairies floating into the air in a puff of white. Two cop cars sat at the foot of the slope, one blocking Horse’s driveway and the other slewed across the front of the roadside paddock. Police officers milled around, directing the smattering of traffic away from their crime scene. The driver of a cattle lorry slowed, so he could rubber neck up at the houses. His vehicle drifted to the Leilah’s side of the road. Hooves kicked against the inside of the trailer as he glanced back and found himself heading straight for her. She pitied the poor creatures at his mercy as he jerked the wheel onto his side of the road. Loud thunks sounded from the trailer. He gave a pathetic wave of apology and her attention returned to Vaughan’s lanky figure as he sprinted along the narrow lane.
They wouldn’t let him pass. Each of the cops knew him by sight, but still denied him access. Vaughan grew rowdy as fear and rage mingled in his heart. “I live here!” he shouted, flailing arms and frightened, glittering eyes. “What’s happened to my uncle? Is he dead?” His chest hitched and the cops realised the logical leap he’d made. They hurried to dispel his alarm but succeeded in making things worse. Leilah bore a heavy school bag on each shoulder as she traced Vaughan’s footsteps to the gate and gathered cops. She heard what they said.
“He’s under arrest. Move out of the way.”
Leilah gasped and dropped both bags as Vaughan made a run for the gate. “You’re kidding!” she exclaimed. Panic beat a tattoo in her breast as Malcolm’s face floated on the water, an image which refused to go away. His lips parted in a fluid filled gurgle and she quailed, worrying for the millionth time that he’d perhaps been alive and she’d abandoned him.
The imaginary veil dropped, forcing her to think about the location of his death. It exposed her real reason for saying nothing. She hadn’t wanted to be caught out after dark with a boy, imagining her father’s rage as vengeful and superhuman, but she’d dreaded this more. Dreaded facing the possibility that Horse or Hector killed a teenager. She couldn’t decide which was worse. Her gaze strayed to Vaughan as a local police officer restrained him. Parented by two headstrong men, the teenagers stood to lose the same. Everything.
“Horse didn’t do it!” Leilah dropped the bags and rushed forward, hearing a heavy text book thud against the baked soil. She scrabbled at the officer’s arm to force him to release Vaughan. “I made a statement!” Her tone held pleading and she hated the sound of it. Hector told her Derehams never begged. “Red got out and they helped me put him away.” Her voice cracked as she hauled on the man’s sleeve. Strong fingers pried her loose and arms wound around her torso. Her feet raised off the ground. “You’ve got it wrong!” she screeched, kicking her legs backwards to inflict the most damage. The answering grunt sent her spiralling out of control. “Help him, Daddy! Help him! They’ve got it wrong!”
“Deleilah, stop. Come away. There’s nothing you can do.” Her feet touched the ground and she spun around to face him, the landscape tilting at a crazy angle as she lost her balance. Hector righted her, his calloused fingers rough against the soft flesh of her wrist. His expression dared her to argue and she inhaled, holding onto the huge breath as she formulated her protest. He saw it coming, hefting the bags from the ground in one hand and jabbing her spine with the other. A chemistry text book slid into the gully next to the gate and nestled in the grass. “They’re not interested!” Hector bent to retrieve it. “You think I didn’t try? I was there, remember? We all were, but they don’t care.”
He herded her around the police cars and away from the gate, nodding to the other officers who moved out of his path. A giant of a man, he dwarfed them in might and personality and they met his gaze with upward tilts of their heads. Leilah glanced back at Vaughan and her heart clenched in her chest. One officer held onto his wrists, another clamped his shoulders from behind. He seemed diminished, frail and sick and withering before her eyes. Compassion touched her soul and she ground to a halt, disobeying Hector to his face. She’d imagined the moment many times but never followed through. He’d kill her if he found out what she’d been doing after dark with a boy, but what he didn’t know couldn’t hurt him. This felt different, because he could look her in the eye and exact punishment straight away. Leilah tossed her head and dark curls tumbled over her shoulders. She amassed her courage and stood up straight. “I’m not coming. Vaughan’s my friend and I’m not leaving him.”
“Stupid little bugger,” he whispered. He leaned close, hissing into her face. “You don’t know what you’re doing, Deleilah. You don’t understand anything. Let’s leave before they start getting interested in us too.”
“But we didn’t do it either!” Her voice broke. “You were sleeping. I woke you up to help me with Red. Why will nobody believe me?” Her chest hitched and she gave a disgusting sniff. Powerlessness snatched away her energy, tugging at her knees and shoulders as though the ground wished to swallow her whole. She seized a handful of Hector’s tattered shirt, feeling the threads beneath her fingers and drawing strength from the contact. “Don’t leave him, Hector. Please, don’t leave him.”
Hector rose and shook his head. The shirt slid from Leilah’s fingers. “The kid’s from bad stock, Deleilah. I don’t want him on my property.”
She gaped, backing away from her father as though seeing him in a new light. He seemed to shrink before her eyes, no longer a powerhouse but a small minded, jaded man. “Hypocrite,” she breathed.
Hector ground his jaw and his eyes became gimlet hard. He watched his daughter tangle with the wing mirror of a squad car and turn her back on him. Leilah strode towards the men holding onto Vaughan and glued herself to his side, waiting as the police car sent to fetch Horse began its slow descent to the gate.