We Find What Is Lost: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 1)

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Rachel, Summer, 1979

Stakeout, day two. Tuesday.

Rachel tapped on Danny's window, and when he dragged himself over, they were shocked to see he had a black eye.

"Hey, guys," he muttered.

"Danny, what the hell?!" Rachel said.

"Mom blabbed about the women from the shelter," he said, shaking his head.

"That does it," Lauren said. "You have to call the cops."

Danny shushed her, suddenly terrified. "He gave it to her, too, and now she's mad at me because she thinks I'm bringing too much attention on us."

"Danny," Al said, "you said you wouldn't leave without your mom, but it's clear your mom has no intention of going anywhere. She betrayed you."

Danny sighed. "It's the booze. It makes her make bad decisions. She doesn't know what she's doing."

"What if she likes things just the way they are, and that's why she gave you up?" Sunny asked.

"What do you mean?"

"If you and her go away, or if your dad is arrested, she suddenly has full responsibility for you," Joe explained. "And she can't stay drunk if she has to be responsible for you all the time."

"Come with us now," Rachel said. "Bringing you back was obviously a mistake. We'll go back to Mrs. Anderson's house. We'll tell her your mom won't play ball."

Danny's face screwed up, and tears welled in his eyes. "I can't," he said. "I don't want to be taken away. From mom. From you guys."

"You're worried you'll go live with someone you won't know or like," Al said. "I can understand."

"Maybe you can live with Mrs. Anderson after they arrest your dad," Rachel said. "She could be your foster parent. Then you'd be here, and you can still be near your mom."

Danny blinked in surprise as he thought about it. "Do you think she would?"

"We can ask her."

A muffled voice outside Danny's bedroom door called to him, and he quickly shooed them. "That's my mom. You should go, you don't want her to see you."

Too late. The door opened and his mom looked in. She caught a glimpse of them before they could duck down and started shouting incoherently at them. They hurried away, crouching as they ran, and snatched their bikes from the sidewalk on the other side of the street.

Danny's mom opened the front door and ran a few steps out, shaking a rolled up newspaper at them. A Royal City Record, it turned out. Rachel's heart raced in her chest as she pedalled furiously, but soon they were far away. Mrs. Trybek, apparently, was not going to chase them all the way home.

Soon terror morphed into determination, and Rachel couldn't remember a time when she felt braver, riding like the wind on a hot summer day with her friends riding beside her. Danny needed help, and they were the only ones, apparently, who were willing to help him. Knowing this made her feel a kind of power, but also a responsibility to carry through on their promise.

They found Mrs. Anderson puttering in her garden as usual. When she saw how breathless they were, she rose from her carrot patch and removed her gloves. "What is it?"

"Do you think you could be a foster parent to Danny?" Rachel asked.

Her face fell. "I don't think I can. I think I'm too old. Unless I was a blood relative to him, I don't think they'd let me apply to foster."

"But you have a really nice house, and I know you'd take care of him just like you did me."

"Oh, sweetie," she said, "that was an informal arrangement to help your father, but your father is still here, still your primary guardian. If I were to foster Danny, I would be his primary guardian. That's a very serious thing, and the government has a lot to say about it."

"We saw you and the women in your friend's group talk to Danny's mom yesterday," Lauren said. "Danny told us today that his mom told his dad about it."

Mrs. Anderson put her face in her hands and groaned. "This is bad."

"He took it out on her and Danny," Rachel said.

"She chased us away when she saw us today," Al said.

"She's deeper down the well than I thought," Mrs. Anderson said. "At this point it would be dangerous for me and those women to go back. The only way she might listen is if her husband is out of that house."

"Danny doesn't want to call the police unless he can be sure he doesn't get separated from his mom," Joe said. "That's why we thought, if he could stay here, he could stay close to her, at least."

"That's a very lovely thought," she said, "but I don't know if his mother would let him go so easily, no matter that she's an alcoholic, and I don't know if the Ministry would let me take up fostering at my age."

She saw their faces and looked very sad.

"He had a black eye today," Sunny said.

Mrs. Anderson reddened and growled, "That bastard." It was the harshest language Rachel had ever heard out of her mouth, so she must have been really upset.

"Look," she said, "all I can do is make some calls and try. I'll see if they'll let me apply, at least."

"You'd do it?" Rachel said. "You'd take him in?"

Mrs. Anderson shrugged and said, "How can I say no to a child in need?"

Rachel threw her arms around her before she could think about it. Mrs. Anderson was surprised at first, but then she put her arms around Rachel and squeezed.

"Thank you," they said at the same time. 

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