Times and Seasons Read Online Free Page A

indicated that he thought she was bluffing.
    He was still small for his age. He hadn’t been given the height that Rick had. Even though he had just turned fifteen, Mark looked thirteen. She wondered why in the world he would think he could play among criminal types with his stature. Maybe his height was part of the problem. Maybe he was playing the part of big shot to make up for his lack of height.
    “Mom, I’m telling you—you can’t leave me here,” he said. “Do you know what happens in these places? You took me to the juvenile center—that River Ranch place—yourself last year. You told me how horrible it was.”
    “I thought it would be a deterrent. Never, in a million years, did I think—” She closed her eyes, unable to stop the thoughts of what she had seen there. Kids with rap sheets as long as their arms had filled up those cells. Some had committed violent crimes; others had been in isolation over and over for fighting with other inmates. She shook her head as tears rolled down her face. Maybe they wouldn’t put him there tonight. Maybe he’d be safe…in a cell alone.
    The door opened and a burly police officer came in. “We’re ready to take him over to River Ranch,” he said. “That’s our juvenile facility.”
    “I know what it is,” Mark spouted.
    Mark’s reaction to the officer set off a small explosion within Cathy. “Mark, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll talk tohim with respect,” she said. “You’re not in a position to go spouting off.”
    “Mom, please. You can’t let him take me.”
    “I’ll be back as soon as I can get a lawyer, Mark. But I can’t promise anything.”
    “But I didn’t do anything. They trapped me.” He turned to the police officer. “It was a trick! ” Mark insisted, as if that would make him change his mind about taking him away. The officer wasn’t impressed.
    “Mom, please!”
    But there was nothing Cathy could do.

C HAPTER
Five
    Tory Sullivan wasn’t good at keeping secrets, but she felt that Mark’s arrest should be kept quiet. As new guests arrived for the shower, she tried, with Brenda and Sylvia, to make excuses for the couple.
    “They had an emergency with one of the children,” she told a group of women who had shown up together.
    “Oh. Is someone sick?”
    “No, no one’s sick. We’re not really sure what the problem is, but we’re going to have to cancel the shower.”
    “It’s not Annie, is it? The way that child runs the roads in that car of hers, she’s bound to wreck one of these days.”
    “I really can’t say.” Or actually, she wouldn’t say. If her child had been arrested, she would have wanted as little passed on to her acquaintances as possible. She tried to show Cathy the same consideration, even though she knew word would be all over town before sundown. Cathy was the most popular veterinarian in Breezewood, and everyone knew her.
    When the last of them had left, Brenda started covering the food. “Maybe we could reschedule the shower,” she said. “Freeze the food and try it again in a few days.”
    Sylvia shook her head. “I have to get back to León in just a couple of days. Besides, everyone left their gifts. Another shower would be kind of anticlimactic.”
    Tory looked around at the gifts that had filled up the table and lined the wall. Cathy would have had so much fun opening them. “So what are we going to do with them?” Tory asked.
    “I have a key to Cathy’s house,” Brenda said. “We could just take them over and set them in her dining room.”
    “I’ll get Spencer’s wagon,” Tory said. “It’ll take several trips, but we can carry the gifts over in that.”
    “Better yet,” Brenda said. “How about if I get David’s truck and back it up in the driveway? We could fill it up with the gifts, then take it to Cathy’s in one trip.”
    “You’re a genius,” Tory said.
    Tory and Sylvia waited outside as Brenda crossed the cul de sac to get the truck. The trellis