‘I’ll get these for you today,’ Hunter said, earning him an intrigued look from Officer Emiliano and a tearful one from Craig. ‘You do look like you could do with some food… and a shower… and some rest.’ He finished scribbling down on his pad and tore off the page before giving Emiliano a nod.
The officer took a breath, nodded back and used his keys to free Craig’s hands.
Hunter handed him the note. ‘The first two addresses are soup kitchens. Neither of them are too far from here, and theycan both provide you with at least one hot meal a day. The third address is a shelter that caters specifically for kids who have run away from violent and abusive households. They’re good people there… friendly, caring… you’ll see. The last address is a counseling service. You can talk to them about anything you like, but more importantly, they can help you find a job… get you started, you know?’
Craig looked back at Hunter with glassy eyes.
‘We can drop you at the shelter on our way back,’ Hunter offered. ‘You can have a shower and they’ll give you a bed to sleep in at night. At least for a few days. And the in-house nurse can have a look at your face, especially that eye.’
The law in the USA stipulated that parents were legally responsible for children in their care until the age of eighteen. The law also specified that a teenager had the right to leave home, without their parents’ permission, at the age of sixteen. Since Craig was seventeen years old, the LAPD wasn’t obliged by law to inform his parents of his whereabouts.
Craig went speechless for a moment. ‘Thank you, sir,’ he finally said back, wiping the tears from his face. ‘Thank you so very much.’
Hunter simply nodded back, hoping that Craig Thompson wouldn’t one day end up at the old cold-storage facility building on 4th Street.
Thirty-Eight
Less than fifteen minutes later, back at Freedom Plaza, Hunter and Garcia finally got to sit down with Officer Emiliano Esqueda.
Craig Thompson was sitting inside the same coffee shop, a couple of tables to their right, taking such large bites of the sandwich Hunter had bought him, he was risking snapping one of his fingers off.
‘That was kind… what you did.’ Emiliano addressed Hunter, nodding in Craig’s direction. ‘Most detectives I know are so sick and tired of excuses that they wouldn’t hesitate in booking that kid in. “Save it for the judge,” they’d say, and that would be it.’
‘We all need a little help every now and then,’ Hunter said.
Emiliano chuckled. ‘I somehow get the impression that there’s a little more to it than that.’ He paused, as if considering his next words. ‘Did you have problems when you were younger as well?’
Hunter noticed the way that Emiliano’s eyes narrowed as he said the words ‘as well’. He didn’t seem to mean them as – ‘Did you have problems when you were younger, just like Craig did?’ He seemed to mean them as – ‘Did you have problems when you were younger, just like I did?’
‘Families can be difficult to deal with,’ Hunter said, keeping his reply as general as possible. ‘And unfortunately, we can’t exactly choose our parents.’
Another chuckle from the officer. ‘Yeah, you can say thatagain.’ He sipped his coffee and allowed his gaze to move over to Craig for a split second. ‘Years ago, I found myself in a pretty similar situation. My mother and I moved in with her new boyfriend who…’ He shook his head. ‘Turned out to be a complete asshole.’
‘Violent?’ Hunter asked.
Emiliano looked away for a beat. ‘Yeah, I guess you could say that.’ Reflexively, his left hand moved up to his face and his index finger lightly brushed against the outer edge of his left eye, rubbing the gentle dip that Hunter had noticed earlier. It had been a subtle movement, one that Emiliano probably didn’t even notice doing, but Hunter did. Some psychiatrists call it a telltale reflex… a subconscious giveaway – when a subject would unconsciously somehow drive attention to a part of the body associated with a memory, distressing or not.
Garcia seemed to have noticed it as well.
‘Thankfully,’ Emiliano continued, ‘my mother was only with him for a couple of years.’ His gaze became distant again – his mind clearly tapping into another undesirable memory for a quick second before he snapped out of it. ‘Anyway.’ He sat back on his chair. ‘How about we jump back to the very beginning here.’ His head jerked in Craig’s direction. ‘Before all this started. Why do detectives from the UVC Unit want to talk to me?’
‘This boyfriend of your mother’s,’ Hunter questioned. ‘The violent one… was his name Shaun Daniels?’
The mention of that name alone seemed to be enough to make Emiliano’s body go rigid. His surprised eyes moved from Hunter, to Garcia, then back to Hunter. ‘What is this? How do you know that?’ He paused, his mind clearly racing through thoughts. ‘Did he go after my mother again? After all these years? Is that why you mentioned her earlier today?’
‘No, no… relax.’ Garcia tried to calm him down again. ‘Like I said before – this has absolutely nothing to do with yourmother.’ He sneaked a glance at Hunter. ‘But it does have to do with Shaun Daniels.’
Emiliano half-opened his mouth, as if he was about to say something, but no words came out. His eyes kept on bouncing between both detectives.
‘Shaun Daniels is dead,’ Garcia finally revealed.
The half-opened mouth slowly closed.
The bouncing stare became a skeptical one.
‘When?’
‘Almost a month ago,’ Garcia replied. ‘His body was found on June 16th.’