All The Glory (32 page)

I stood up after the judge went into her chambers for the day feeling let down. Not only had Leo disappeared, but Jason’s lawyer had done nothing to help his case. This whole thing was a mess, like a long waiting period before Jason inevitably went away. Pointless.

“Thanks for coming, Katy,” Jason’s father said, coming up from behind me. He nodded and then made as if to move away, but I put my hand on his arm to stop him.

“Sorry I took off earlier. I wasn’t running from you. I was … running after someone who was leaving.”

Mr. Bradley paused and gave me a sad smile. “You haven’t come around in a while so I just figured…” He shrugged.

“Jason didn’t want me around, but that doesn’t mean I’m not his friend anymore.”

“He wouldn’t tell me what that was all about.”

I couldn’t meet his eyes anymore, feeling embarrassed. I looked over at Jason, but he was deep in conversation with his attorney, still sitting at his table. He probably didn’t want to see me anyway, so I shifted my gaze away.

“I think he’s just feeling very fatalistic about everything right now. He’s trying to protect everyone around him.”

When I said that, echoes of Leo’s words came back to me, calling Jason fearless, saying that he was glad the coach was dead. What kid says that?

My heart was back to racing, which was a welcome change from the coma the lawyers had put it in. I needed to talk to Leo. He had answers to questions that were swimming around in my head and drowning everything else out.

“Mr. Bradley, I need to go. There’s someone I have to talk to.”

“Sure. See you tomorrow maybe? Or no, you probably have school.”

“Screw school. I’ll be here tomorrow.”

He chuckled. “Am I going to be getting a call from your parents tonight?”

“Just blow it off if you do. This is my life and I’m calling the shots on this one.”

He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “You’re a gem. I miss having you at the house. Come and see me one of these days and we’ll have some cake.”

“Count on it,” I said, actually looking forward to chatting with him at his kitchen table. Even if Jason ignored me and stayed upstairs the whole time, I still wanted to be a part of his life somehow. I hoped that didn’t make me a stalker nut job.

I texted my parents telling them I’d be at Bobby’s working on an art project and then texted Bobby and told him to cover for me. Two return texts and I knew I was in the clear at least until ten o’clock.

I left the courthouse using the bus and took it all the way over to the Boys’ Club. It was dark by the time I got off in a neighborhood full of barking dogs. Sticking to the sidewalk and areas thick with hedges, I made it to fifty-three Shady Oak Drive without being accosted or bitten. There was a light on in the living room.

I started to sweat from the pressure. Thinking about going to Leo’s house and confronting him was one thing, but to actually
be
here out on the lawn while the neighbor’s pit bull drooled and dreamed of eating me for dinner was a whole other thing. I was on the verge of chickening out when the front door opened.

“Lawd have mercy, what in the name of all that is holy is goin' on out here? Mavis! Shut yo’ damn dog up already, ‘fore I come over there and put him outta my misery!”

I stood there like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Who you?” she asked as the porch light lit my face up. There was nowhere for me to hide.

I said nothing. Maybe I thought if I stood really still, she’d think I was a new lawn ornament or something.

“Cat got yo’ tongue? I asked who you is.” Her accent got thicker as she walked down her front porch stairs.

“Giiirl, you better not be playin’. I ain’t in the mood for no playin’ tonight. My bunions be acting up and my sciatical nerve been screamin’ for goin' on a week now.” She reached the gate to her fence with a pronounced limp. “You hear me, or you deaf or som’in?”

“I can hear you just fine. I was just trying to decide if I should run away or not.”

She laughed, her round, light-brown face illuminated by the streetlamp across the road. “Well, at leas’ you honest. Good thing you didn’t run tho’, cuz Mavis’s dog likes to chase things that run.” She lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes. “What’s a nice white girl like you doin’ in this hood? You lookin’ for drugs? Cuz I’m sorry to tell you but we got ourselves a neighborhood watch up in here. Ain’t no drugs, ain’t no prostitutes, ain’t no gangs. We practice clean livin’, thanks to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, amen.”

“Uhhh … I’m not here for drugs or prostitutes. I’m here to talk to Leo.”

She backed her head up a little. “Leo?
My
Leo? What you want with my Leo? He done somethin’ wrong?”

“No, no, not at all. He’s a sweet kid.”

“Damn straight. Boy’s a straight-A student, honor roll and everythin’.” She put her arm up on the top of the fence. Lots of extra flab jiggled around when she did it, making me a little worried it was going to get caught in the chain link. “So what you wanna talk to him about, then? You not a social worker, I hope.”

“No, I’m in high school. I just … can I come inside maybe?” The dog next to me sounded like he was foaming at the mouth. I glanced over, hoping the fence keeping him away from me was sturdy enough. When I saw how wide his jaw was, I decided it probably wasn’t sturdy enough at all. He looked like he could eat a hole in that metal and then me for dessert.

“Dammit, Fluffy, shut yo’ mouf!” She swatted at the dog and he ran away for two seconds with a yipe before coming back and starting all over with the I’m-going-to-eat-you-and-gnaw-on-your-bones barking thing.

“Okay, come on, then. Come inside, ‘fore Fluffy be dinin’ on your carcass. You ain’t got much meat on you anyways.”

As we walked in the front door, I heard Leo.

“What’s got Fluffy all crazy, Grandma? Is it that cat again?”

“No, it’s a white girl, says she wanna talk to you.” We stopped in the front living room.

A pot or something heavy clattered into the sink into the kitchen.

“Come on out here, and don’t play like you didn’t hear me, neither.”

Shuffling footsteps came next and then Leo’s face. He was obviously scared shitless, but I didn’t know whether it was me causing his distress or his grandma. She was kind of scaring me.

“What’s wrong wit’ you, boy? You look like you’s seen a ghost.” She looked at me. “You sure you not a cop or somethin’?”

“No, I’m a friend of Jason Bradley’s.” I nodded at her grandson. “He was the guy from Banner High School’s football team that was Leo’s big brother at the Boy’s Center.”

She frowned, confused. “Big brother? Leo ain’t got no big brother. It’s jus’ him and me. Always has been, always will be. His momma passed jus’ after he was born.”

“It’s not that kind of brother, Grandmomma.”

Her eyebrows went up and her head started bobbing. “Oh, shi…ply’s baked beans, he jus’ called me Grandmomma.” She shook her head. “Mmmm, mmm, mmm, somethin’s goin’ on, now I know it.” She was getting riled up and I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about.
Baked beans?

“Grandmomma, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before…”

Leo was clearly going into fight or flight mode, and the way his feet were dancing around, I was pretty sure which option he was going to choose. I was panicked that I was going to lose him again.

I held out my arms. “Okay, people, let’s just take it easy, here.”

“Take it easy? Take
what
easy?” Leo’s grandmother put her hands on her ample hips. “Boy, you better come clean, right this second, ‘fore I put my spatula on your backside and wear it out.”

Leo started crying. “I can’t tell you, Grandmomma, cuz you’ll go to jail and I’ll go to jail and the whole world will
know!”

“Will know what?!” She looked at him and then me. “What’s this child hawin’ about?”

I took a deep breath and let it out before I answered. “I think what Leo is trying to say is that he knows something about the murder of Coach Fielding.”

“MURDER?!!” she screeched, looking first at me and then him. Her eyeballs were bugging out of her head and somehow her hair had come out from its bun and was flying around her head. “YOU MURDER SOMEONE?!!” She charged after Leo and he screamed and ran back to the room behind him.

I screamed and ran after them both.

We all ended up in the middle of the kitchen, everyone in a giant hug, wrestling for purchase on Leo’s body.

Chapter Fifty-One

WHEN THINGS FINALLY SHOOK OUT, I ended up the meat in a good, old-fashioned, Katy Guckenberger sandwich. Grandma was one slice of bread and Leo the other. It got hot really quick, especially with her yelling her steamy breath on everyone.

“Boy, when I get my hands on you…”

“No one’s getting hands on anyone until I get some answers,” I said, frustrated that time was ticking by and I was here wrestling in a kitchen that smelled like fried fish. “I just want to talk to you Leo for ten minutes, fifteen tops, and then I’ll go.”

Grandma didn’t appreciate my request. “I don’t know who you think you is, telling us what you gonna do in my house, but you better back up.”

I ducked down and moved to the side, leaving the two of them to hug it out. Grandma grabbed Leo by the back of the neck and squeezed.

Leo leaned over. “Ow, ow, owwww, okaaaay! Okaaaaay!”

“You’re hurting him,” I said, worried I was about to witness some serious child abuse.

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” She shoved him towards the hallway that I assumed led to the bedrooms. “Go get Grandpa’s belt.”

Tears were streaking down his face. “Yes, Grandmomma.” He left us alone in the kitchen.

She turned her ire on me, but her tone went down to whispering levels. I felt like I was hearing the Devil Himself.

“You gots ten seconds to tell me what the holy hell is going on with my grandson before I lose my mind. And trus’ me when I say, you do
not
want to see this woman lose her mind.”

With her hair flying out in gray tufts all over her head and her crazy bug-eyes, I was absolutely sure she was correct in that.

“You’re right,” I nodded like crazy, “I don’t want to see you lose your mind.”

“Now what’s this about murder?” She jutted her chin out, I think daring me to accuse her boy of killing someone.

 
“Jason Bradley, my friend, a guy I go to school with, killed the football coach about six months ago.”

“You mean that white boy? Good looking boy? Big ol’ football star?”

“Yes, that’s him.”

“What’s that got to do with my boy?”

“Jason and Leo were friends.”

“That ain’t possible. You mus’ be crazy.” She folded her arms across her boobs, somehow defying the laws of physics in doing so. There’s just no way those arms could have fit around that bosom, but she made it happen. It made her even scarier, like she had superpowers or something.

“Leo was part of, or a member of, the Boys’ Center. Jason was a big brother there. Leo was his little brother.”

She frowned. “Leo ain’t at no Boys’ Center. He go to school, he come home. That’s it.”

“Are you home all day?”

“No.” She said it with attitude but then she backed down. “No. I work, ten hours a day, four days a week. I clean rooms at the mo-tel down the street.”

“So he could have been at the Center and you wouldn’t have known.”

“You sayin’ my boy lied to me?”

I gave her a sly look, telling her we were in this together. Teammates not enemies. “I’m saying he might not have mentioned it.”

Leo came out dragging a long leather belt behind him. He held it up but kept his eyes on the ground. “Here you go, Grandmomma.”

“You go sit. I can’t even look at you right now.” She pointed towards the living room, and Leo disappeared.

She lowered her voice again. “Why he wanna do that? Lie to me and spend time with those white boys.”

“I don’t know … they’re not all white boys.” It seemed like a weak thing to say and those damn red shoes popped into my head again. “They give the boys stuff like new shoes for playing sports and they throw the ball around with them.”

She hissed out some breath and shook her head. “Charity. I don’t go for that charity. No foodstamps, no welfare, no free shoes. I pay my way and so do Leo.”

“I know. He didn’t take the shoes.”

She looked over her shoulder. “So what’s this all about, the murder an’ all?”

“I’m not sure, but I think Leo knows some things about it that no one else knows.”

“He was there, like a witness?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. But he has something to tell. I know he does.” I took her by the hand, desperate to get her cooperation. “I know he’s just a kid, but Jason is on trial for murder,
right now,
and his lawyer sucks and I’m worried he’s going to go to jail for the rest of his life.”

“He guilty?” she asked, patting my hands that were gripping onto her.

“Maybe. But not exactly. Can we talk to Leo?”

She thought about it for a few seconds and then stood up, letting my hand go and pulling away from me. “We can try. But that boy can be mighty stubborn when he wants. Jus’ like his momma, God rest her soul.”

We walked out into the living room and Leo was sitting on the couch, staring at the floor.

“I want to die,” he said, without preamble.

“Leo!” his grandmother shouted, sounding shocked. “Why you say such an awful thing?! You know better than that!”

He started crying again, loudly. “Cuz that’s what I want! That’s what I
want!”

She trundled over and sat down on the couch next to him, taking him into her arms. She leaned back and pulled him against her chest. He got swallowed up into her boobs. I noticed he hung onto her like a drowning man.

I slowly walked over and took a seat in the armchair. When I had to peel my leg off it a second later due to instant sweating, I realized that every piece of furniture in the room had what looked like custom-made plastic covers on them. Were they planning on murdering someone or what? I’d never seen anything like it.

“Tell Grandmomma everything. I know you don’t want to die. Ain’t nobody gonna kill hisself in my house. Now you tell me what’s happenin’ and Grandmomma gonna fix it right up. Tell Grandmomma.” She sounded like she was about to cry.