But Not For Lust by BJ Bourg (comprehension books .txt) 📕

Jerome in his little girl’s bedroom digging through her piggy bank. It was a big Kentwood bottle filled to the top with coins. When Jerome lifted it up, the coins shifted and made a lot of noise, and it woke up the little girl, who started screaming. Gary, he came flying in the room with a gun in his hand. He would’ve shot Jerome if he hadn’t recognized him. Gary kept him there and called me. I rushed right over there.” He looked up at me. “You know what the worst part is?”

“What’s that?” I asked, barely over a whisper.

“The only reason he knew the money was there was because I’d asked Gary if he had any work for Jerome to do. He let Jerome paint his little girl’s room. Jerome saw the money while he was painting and went back for it that night.”

I scowled. “I’m so sorry.”

“I got so mad at Jerome that I hit him.” He lifted his right hand and stared at his fist, tears flowing freely now. “I punched him right in the face in front of Gary. It knocked him on his ass. I’ve never lifted a hand to him, so it caught him by surprise. He started crying and telling me how sorry he was and that he would get help. But I’d heard that too many times, and I wasn’t ready to listen to him. I told him he was an embarrassment to my name. I…I kicked him out of my house. I told him I never wanted to see his sorry ass again…”

Jerome, II was crying so much now that I could barely understand him. I put a hand on his shoulder and sat there silently.

I didn’t know how long we stayed there before his crying subsided, but it had to be at least fifteen minutes. Once he had control of himself again, he looked up.

“Had I known that was the last time I’d get to talk to my little boy,” he said softly, “I would’ve said something different.”

My heart sank. I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing. We both just sat there in silence for another long moment. He broke the silence.

“Are you gonna do something about Neal Barlow?”

“I’m actually going after him now. In fact, that’s where I was headed when you showed up.”

“Really?”

“Yes, sir,” I said with a nod. “I was on my way to meet with Agent Trinity Bledsoe of the Chateau Parish Sheriff’s Office. They’ve got Neal under surveillance as we speak. They might even have him in custody by now.”

“I’m a law abiding man and I don’t want to take the law into my own hands,” he said slowly, “but if you don’t take care of that little punk, I will.”

“I’ll take care of him.”

“I’m serious. Jerome was everything to me. He did some bad things—I ain’t gonna cover for him or lie for him—but he was still my son and I didn’t want to see him dead.” He shook his head. “If it hadn’t been for Neal, he wouldn’t be back in this mess and you wouldn’t have had to chase him. I know you were just doing your job, so I don’t fault you. But I do fault Neal Barlow. He’s the one who got Jerome started on this shit years ago and I blame him for my boy’s death.”

“I’ll take care of Neal,” I said again. “I promise.”

Jerome, II stared into my eyes for a long moment. Finally, he slowly stood and extended his hand. I took it.

Without saying a word, he slowly walked away. I followed him to the lobby and watched him disappear into the night.

At that very moment, I was seething with anger. Not only had J-Rock’s criminal activities disrupted the lives of the innocent citizens he’d victimized over the years, but he had completely and utterly ripped the heart out of this poor man. I didn’t know much about Jerome, II, but I knew he didn’t deserve this.

  CHAPTER 25

Two hours later…

I stood in the observatory room at the sheriff’s Criminal Operation Center staring through the one-way mirror at Neal Barlow. He was slumped over in a chair with his head resting on the table. His hands were cuffed behind his back. Across the desk from him sat his parole officer, Agent Bourke, who was filling out a mountain of paperwork.

Trinity and Takecia stood on either side of me as we watched what was taking place inside the interview room. Soon, I would be in there interviewing Neal. The arrest had gone down peacefully and the search of his house and property had turned up nothing to connect him to Ty’s disappearance. In addition to several ounces of meth, Trinity and her agents had located a makeshift cooking facility in the woods behind his house. Her agents were still out at the scene processing it. Processing meth labs was an arduous task and fraught with danger. The worst thing they could do would be to rush it. Rushing could lead to mistakes, which could lead to accidents—and those kinds of accidents usually got police officers hurt or killed.

Agent Bourke was still filling out his paperwork when my phone dinged from my pocket. I fished it out, wondering who it could be at such a late hour. Once I’d entered my passcode and accessed the text message, I stood there staring at it for a long moment, wondering what was going on. It was from Amy and the message was simple:

Call me when you can talk.

It sounded ominous. My heart ticked up a bit as I left the observatory and made my way out into the parking lot. Had something happened between Amy and Baylor? Had Baylor not made it home? Surely, that’s not what it was about, because she would’ve simply asked if Baylor had left work yet.

I paced