A Country of Old Men by Joseph Hansen

Author:Joseph Hansen [Hansen, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: detective, mystery, gay
ISBN: 9781480416796
Google: iFDgKW3dE4kC
Amazon: B00COWLZ6K
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

11

IT WOULD TAKE CECIL half an hour to drive in his blue, flame-painted van, rock music throbbing on the stereo, to the television studio over by Dodger Stadium. Dave didn’t go back to bed as Cecil had asked him to. He sat in the cookshack, drinking coffee, reading the Times, looking often at his watch. Then he again unplugged the phones Cecil had so methodically reconnected—“I want to be able to find out how you are”—limped out, and climbed painfully into the Jaguar.

He drove south through Venice on his way to Tomorrow House. But when he passed the flat-roofed green stucco buildings of Toyland School, he slowed, peered in the side mirror, made a U-turn. He parked at the curb and got out of the car. Sounds of high-pitched little voices singing came to him. He crossed that very clean sidewalk, opened the gate in the wire-mesh fence, and doors burst open and small children came tumbling out, hopping, chirping. After them came a placidly smiling grandmotherly woman in a smock, and after her Celia Yamashita, a child clinging to her hand.

The children began climbing the jungle gym, tunneling through the barrel, piling into and out of the cars of the little engine that couldn’t. Dave closed the gate carefully. The old woman looked at him, cocking her head, frowning. A question on her lips, she took a step toward him, clean white tennis shoes crunching the gravel. Then Celia Yamashita saw him and spoke to her, and she managed a smile for Dave, and turned away to look after the children, one of whom had started to wail. Celia Yamashita came to him.

“I don’t see Zach Gruber,” Dave said.

“His parents withdrew him,” she said. “They didn’t like it that I’d believed he’d been beaten at home. They said they’d find another school to send him, someplace that would treat them with respect.” She blinked at Dave through her blue-rimmed glasses. Worriedly. “Who’s been abusing you?”

He smiled thinly. “I have my prepared explanations, too. I fell down stairs. Will that do, or must I see the doctor?”

She wasn’t in a mood for jokes. “The elderly suffer from abuse at home, too, you know. Spouses, grown children, caretakers—” Then she must have seen a warning in Dave’s face, because she shut her mouth, blushed redly, and held out a hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“I appreciate your concern,” he said stiffly, “but it wasn’t anything like that.” He turned away. “Where did they put Zach, do you know?”

“No, but they’re feckless. I doubt they’ve found a place yet. He’s probably at home.”

“I’d like it better if he wasn’t.” He opened the gate.

She was with him. “So would I. See if you can make them change their minds, will you please?”

Tomorrow House would have to wait. Dave drove up into West Hollywood, parked, and hobbled into the courtyard of the brown stucco apartment complex again. No one was around. They’d set off for work a couple of hours ago, hadn’t they? Those that worked.

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