And the Greatest of These Is Love: A Contemporary Christian Romance Novel (27 page)

“What?”

“I don’t know, Antonio. I wish I knew.” Knowing nothing else she could do, Gabi wrapped the little boy into her arms and held him there as if to ward off all the evil hovering around them.

When Bryan heard the message, concern drove through him. Gabi sounded very worried and very scared, and he couldn’t blame her. The story of Andrew’s arrest was enough to frighten anyone. He dialed the number and waited.

“Hello, McCullough Youth Center,” a tired male voice said.

“I need to speak with Gabi,” Bryan said.

“Andrew? Is that you?”

“No, this is Bryan, Andrew’s brother. I really need to speak with Gabi.”

“Hold on. I’ll get her.”

She had put it off as long as possible, but there was nothing to keep her from going home now. In a daze, she helped Antonio put his coat on, and her mind raced back to the shopping trip. Back before everything had gotten so crazy. When Andrew was just Andrew, and she was just Gabi, and things weren’t so insanely complicated.

“Gabi,” Jerry said, coming in almost before he opened the door. “Bryan’s on the phone for you.”

The walk down to the office was more of a run, and she didn’t wait for Jerry to hand her the phone before she had gathered it up and was on it. “Bryan? How is he?”

“He’s fine,” Bryan said. “A little worried about you, but fine.”

“Me? Where is he? What is going on?”

The pause was long as Gabi’s mind went through every horrific scenario it could find.

“He’s in jail, Gabi,” Bryan said, and her gasp jerked through her, “but it’s not as bad as you think.”

“How is that possible?”

“Well, Andrew has some information that the FBI wants.”

Incomprehension swirled around her. “What information could Andrew possibly have?”

“About the DA,” Bryan said, and she stopped like she’d slammed into a brick wall. The DA? What did Andrew have to do with the DA?

“Well, why can’t he just tell them what they want to know?” she finally asked slowly.

“I think you’d better ask him that yourself.”

And so Gabi found herself driving around the deserted courthouse square past dark with a small child in the front seat on her way to see the man she loved but couldn’t let herself be with who now was somehow in jail. She asked herself again when this had gotten so complicated and what she could have done to prevent any of it, but try as she might, she couldn’t find an answer.

She parked and helped Antonio struggle out of the car seat, and the fear in his eyes was evident.

“It’s going to be okay, Antonio. Trust me,” she heard herself saying although she couldn’t be sure that any of it was true. She took his hand and led him up the steps. Bryan was waiting for them at the front door.

“Hi, Gabi, how are you?”

“How’s Andrew?” she asked without bothering with introductions and pleasantries.

“He’s okay, but I think he’ll be better when he can see you,” Bryan said as they walked down the hall. “Hey, Antonio.”

Antonio walked in silence his hand gripping Gabi’s.

“It’s been a tough day on all of us,” Gabi said, looking down at the child, her heart softening at the turmoil and terror he was clearly in.

“I can imagine.”

Andrew felt very, very out of place. A three piece suit somehow branded him as ‘different’ in this place, and he knew instinctively that his ensemble did not bode well for his safety. He sat on the small bench in the holding cell and put his head in his hands. A whole night here was going to be unbearable.

“Clark,” the guard called from the other side of the bars. “You’ve got a visitor.”

Andrew stumbled to his feet and forced them to carry him past the stares of his fellow prisoners across the cell.

“Do we really have to do the handcuff thing?” Andrew asked when he got to the bars.

The guard just looked at him with disgust, and Andrew put out his hands obediently. What a life.

Her first impression was that he looked very tired, but her mind hadn’t even had time to process that thought before her feet had her standing next to him and her arms were around his neck.

“Hey,” he said softly as she released him. The guard clicked off the cuffs and retreated into a dark corner.

“Are you all right?” she asked concerned, searching his eyes.

“I’m fine. How’s Antonio?”

“Scared. He thinks they’re going to beat you up in here,” she said, laughing softly and then adding seriously, “They’re not, are they?”

“No.” Andrew half-laughed, but it seemed to take even more energy out of him. “They’re not going to beat me up, but they are going to make life very difficult for me.”

That was the part she didn’t understand. “Why?”

“Listen, Gabi, I haven’t been totally honest with you,” he said, studying the floor and her heart took a nosedive through horrible.

“No kidding.”

He chose to ignore that comment. Instead, his gaze came up and latched onto hers. “Right before I came to the center, I was the reporter who broke the story on the DA mess. It was my story.”

That made no sense in a situation that already made no sense. “Your story? I don’t get it. While that story was going on, you were at the center with… us.”

“I can’t explain it.” He exhaled hard. “I don’t even know what happened.” Andrew ran his fingers through his hair as he leaned against the little table and let his gaze fall. “The center story was supposed to be a throw away piece. Something to kill a day while I waited for the story of my life to take me on to the big time. But it didn’t work out that way.”

She tried to get him to look at her, but his eyes were once again glued to his shoes.

“Let me get this straight. You gave up the story of your life to come out to Collins and entertain some kids for a week?” she asked in confusion.

“No, Gabi,” he said in exasperation as he looked her straight in the eye, “I gave up the story of my life so I could have a chance at being with you.”

The look on her face told him all he needed to know, and his eyes found the floor again. “But I guess I shouldn’t have bothered, huh?”

She stumbled through words and thoughts. “But… Andrew... Come on, you didn’t even know me.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t say it made any sense.”

That was putting it mildly, she thought before she could stop it. Another three thoughts, and her decision was made.

“Okay. So, how can I help?” she asked, forcing her mind to focus on the crisis at hand and not on the one in her heart.

“You can take care of Antonio,” Andrew said, without looking at her.

“I don’t know how to take care of a kid,” Gabi said in instant panic.

They weren’t talking about one night, and she knew it. Andrew could be gone for a very long time and being responsible for a child 24-hours a day indefinitely was not in her plans.

“Antonio trusts you,” Andrew said never taking his eyes off the squares at his feet. “And I want you to keep him, but if you can’t, I guess talk to Bryan. He said they’d take him.”

Gabi looked away, unable to process or deal with all of it. She couldn’t stand to see him so dejected and depressed. With a slow close of her eyes, she surrendered to her new reality. “I’ll keep Antonio,” she said softly, wishing she felt as certain as her words sounded.

“Good,” he said not even glancing up. “I think that’s best.”

“Clark,” the guard said from the corner. “Time’s up.”

Gabi looked over at the guard pleading with him with her eyes for one more minute, and then she looked back at Andrew. “It’s going to be all right, Andrew.” Then, because she couldn’t stand the distance between them, she put her hand on his arm. “You just concentrate on keeping yourself in one piece. Okay?”

“Tell everybody hi for me.” Andrew said, his words barely audible. “I miss them.”

“I’ll tell them,” Gabi said, wishing with all her heart that this was just a bad dream and she would wake up. But this was real. As real as life got. Andrew was in jail, and she had to concentrate on keeping herself and everything else together while he was gone.

“If you need anything, talk to Bryan,” Andrew said, the distance in his voice obvious as he offered his hands to the guard. “I don’t have the luxury of a phone.”

Gabi heard the ice in his voice, and she wished there was something she could do so he wouldn’t sound so callous and indifferent. “Take care of yourself, Andrew.”

“Tell Antonio hi,” he said, and with that, the guard led him out.

She stood there unable to move, unable to think. Andrew was gone. This was really happening, and somehow she had to find a way to keep the world spinning without him.

“Why couldn’t I see Andrew?” Antonio asked pitifully as the street lights crossed his tiny face. “They let Andrew in to see me. This isn’t different.”

“You sure have gotten talkative since I first met you,” Gabi said teasingly. She wanted to avoid the topic of Andrew as much as possible.

“I have more to say now,” Antonio said with all the wisdom of a four-year-old.

“Obviously.”

“I bet they were worried I’d break him out.”

Gabi laughed in spite of herself. “And how would you accomplish that, Mr. Walls?”

“Easy. I’d distract the guard, steal his keys, and bust him out.”

“I don’t think that would work.”

He scowled. “It works on TV.”

“TV? Huh? And what else have you learned from the TV, Antonio?” she asked to distract him from the Andrew situation.

“I know that four out of five doctors prefer Advil over Tylenol.”

Gabi laughed out loud and shook her head.

“And I know that Aquafresh whitens better than Rembrant,” Antonio said, sensing he was on a roll. “And that Diet Dr. Pepper tastes more like real Dr. Pepper.”

“You certainly watch a lot of TV,” she said suddenly realizing how drastically she’d underestimated this child.

He shrugged. “It’s something to do.”

“So what do you do besides watch TV?”

“Well, now I like to play soccer,” Antonio said. “We went to Greg’s game on Saturday. He’s really good, you know? He promised to teach me how to play. He even gave me his ball, but it’s at Andrew’s.”

Instantly the sadness returned in his voice.

She glanced over at him. “I’ll tell you what maybe tomorrow we can go to Andrew’s and get your soccer ball.”

“Okay,” Antonio said, brightening back to half-wattage.

“Well, here we are.” She pulled her car up to the curb of her dingy brown apartment building. She tried not to think how it compared to Andrew’s, but she did just the same. “Grab your stuff.”

Antonio obeyed and followed her up the steps to her apartment. She unlocked the door and swung it open for him to enter. She flipped the light on and was immediately glad she’d spent the weekend cleaning. Her apartment hadn’t been this spotless since she’d moved in, which was appropriate because Antonio was her first guest.

“Nice,” he said, surveying the apartment. “It’s not as big as Andrew’s, but it’s nice.”

“Well, thanks,” she said, putting her things in the kitchen. “You hungry?”

“A little.”

“Want a ham sandwich? It’s all I’ve got,” she said. “We’ll have to go shopping tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow?” Antonio asked, staring at her quizzically. “I’ll be home with Andrew tomorrow.”

Gabi’s heart fell. She knew how important Andrew was to this little boy, but she didn’t want to lie to him either.

“Well, we’ll see,” Gabi said, dodging the question. “Why don’t you go wash up for dinner?”

Andrew ate the cardboard the jail called food as he sat on the edge of the hard mattress that was to be his bed for the night. He wondered again what they were doing. How much had Gabi told Antonio? His heart went out to the little boy. What a mess. Bounced around until you don’t know who to trust and then stuck with a jail bird for a dad.

When he’d made the decision to adopt Antonio, somehow this scenario had never occurred to him. But Gabi wouldn’t let him down. She would take care of Antonio even if she did hate Andrew.

Knives of pain screeched through his heart as he thought about her. She must think he was insane, and at the moment, he thought, she was probably more right than wrong.

It was an accomplishment worthy of a medal. She had made it a whole twelve hours as a full-fledged mother, and both she and the child were still in one piece. She watched him coloring at the desk with Shaniquille and Devon, and she couldn’t help but remember his first day at that table — snuggled next to Andrew.

In fact, everywhere she looked, Gabi saw Andrew. In the window he’d fixed, sitting with the children surrounding him as she read during story time, even watching the fish swim in the tank. He was everywhere, and yet he was nowhere.

She wondered about his first night in jail. Jail. A word she never thought she’d have to deal with, but here she was, and there was no going back now.

“Clark,” the guard said. “Your lawyer’s here.”

Andrew stood from the hard mattress and tried to right the world around him as he followed the guard to the tiny conference room. He had never been so happy to see Bryan in his entire life.

“Drew,” Bryan said the moment the door closed on the room. “You look awful.”

“Thanks,” Andrew said with no enthusiasm at all. “So, what happens now?”

Bryan sighed and frowned. “Well, the way I see it, you’ve got two choices — talk or stay here ‘til you do.”

“Some choice,” Andrew snorted. “I thought there were laws about this stuff.”

“There are.” Bryan nodded. “But unfortunately the feds have a grounds to say the information you have is more important than the shield laws in this case.”

Andrew tried to absorb this information. “So when’s the hearing?”

“Nine.”

It sounded like a death sentence.

She looked at the clock again and wished she could at least find out what was going on at the courthouse. She debated calling Bryan, but he was probably working hard to get Andrew out — the last thing he needed was her interference. With supreme effort she herded the children to the tables for show-and-tell.

“Please raise your right hand, Mr. Clark,” the bailiff instructed, and Andrew did so. He was sworn in and took his seat on the witness stand, a place in the courtroom he had never occupied until this very moment.

“Your witness, Mr. Blankenship,” Judge Carson said over his glasses.

“Thank you, Your Honor,” a man Andrew immediately recognized as the assistant attorney general, Leron Blankenship, said. This was not a good sign, he thought with an inward groan. Blankenship was surely counting on riding this one to the top of the heap. “Good morning, Mr. Clark.”

“Morning,” Andrew mumbled.

“I trust you know why we’re here, Mr. Clark,” Blankenship began slowly.

“I do.”

“Good. Then we’ll skip right to the point. Could you please tell the court the name of the source you cited as anonymous in your story dated October 21st?”

“That source is confidential,” Andrew replied, leaning into the microphone.

Blankenship sighed dramatically and then looked at him. “You also cited a series of tapes in that same article. Can you tell us where those tapes are at the present time?”

“No, I cannot.”

“Why not?”

“Because that information was given to me with the understanding that it was confidential, and I am not at liberty to discuss it,” Andrew said.

“Mr. Clark,” Judge Carson said slowly, and Andrew felt the blade of the guillotine lower toward him, “I advise you to answer Counsel’s questions, or I will have to find you in contempt of this court.”

Andrew glanced at Bryan for help. He was a lawyer, it was time for him to act like one.

“Your Honor.” Bryan stood slowly.

“Yes, Mr. Clark?” Carson asked, fixing him with a debilitating gaze.

“I would just like to remind His Honor of the state’s shield law.”

“I am well aware of the law, Counsel.”

“Yes, Sir. I’m sure you are; however, I simply wanted to point out that the shield law protects a reporters’ right to extend confidentiality to any source in the gathering of information for a story, and that said reporter cannot be compelled to disclose this information in a court of law. Furthermore, any documents or recordings procured are covered as well.”

“As I said, Counsel, I am well aware of the law. I am also aware that if the information is central to an investigation, then said reporter can be held in contempt for failure to cooperate in an investigation.”

“Your Honor,” Bryan said quickly, “Mr. Clark is not the one being investigated. He hasn’t committed any crime.”

“By refusing to divulge this information, Counsel, Mr. Clark, has committed a crime against this court,” Carson said harshly, and he instantly turned back to Andrew. “Now, Mr. Clark, please answer the question.”

There was a long, silent pause as everyone in the courtroom held their collective breath.

“No.”

The word was barely audible, and even as he said it, Andrew wondered if it had actually come from his mouth.

“Very well.” Judge Carson sighed. “Then I have no choice but to find you in contempt of this court. You will be held in custody of the county jail until you decide to cooperate. Court will reconvene Friday morning at ten o’clock. I advise you to take that time to think seriously about your decision, Mr. Clark.”

Andrew nodded silently.

“Court is adjourned.”

The suspense was killing her, and by lunchtime Gabi could take it no more. She asked Jerry to watch the kids so she could make the all-important phone call.

“Bryan, thank goodness,” she said when he answered the phone. “What’s going on?”

“Well, it’s about what I expected although I have to say Judge Carson was a little more adamant than I thought he would be,” Bryan said, and she could hear the distress in his voice.

“So, what does that mean?” she asked as fear filled her lungs.

“Carson held him in contempt.”

Contempt? That didn’t sound good at all.

“So, when will he get out?” she asked, immediately fearing the worst.

“When he talks.”

Andrew thought about them again as he sat in the corner of a jail cell with nothing but bars and his new orange jumpsuit to look at. It was hard to think of anything else. By now they were probably singing around the piano, and he smiled in spite of the situation at that thought. He belonged at that piano with them. His heart knew it; his mind knew it; his very soul knew it, and there was no denying it anymore. There was no reason to.

Her energy was gone. It was becoming difficult to concentrate on anything for very long — anything other than the absence of Andrew anyway. Only two children remained, and as Gabi sat at her desk pushing papers into piles for no reason other than to have something to do, her mind went to him again.

“Miss T, you got a minute?” the voice from the door asked, and she looked up and smiled.

“Sure, Irvin, come on in,” she said.

He came in but not smoothly or quickly. “Hope I’m not disturbing anything.” His hands were buried deep in the pockets of his pants.

“Oh, no not at all,” she said as Irvin greeted the two remaining boys. “What’s on your mind?”

“Well,” he said, looking again to the tiny table behind him, obviously trying to decide whether or not to ask the question he had come to ask. He dropped his voice to a whisper before he said, “I was wondering what’s up with Mr. C.”

Her face fell, and without willing them to, her eyes found her desk again.

“The kids said he got arrested,” Irvin slowly said. “Is that true?”

“True enough,” Gabi said, nodding, unsure herself the actual words to put to what had happened.

“There’s got to be some kind of mistake. Mr. C isn’t a crook.”

“No, Irvin. He isn’t.”

“Then why’s he in jail?”

“Well, I’m not really sure I can explain it, but I’ll try,” she said, sighing wearily. “Before he came here, Andrew was a reporter with The Herald.”

Irvin nodded, his face set hard with concentration and concern. “I knew that.”

“Well, he was the one who broke the story about the DA being crooked,” Gabi said, explaining a story she herself still had trouble understanding. “In order to get that story, he promised some people that he wouldn’t use their names in the story.”

“Confidential sources,” Irvin said, nodding.

“Yeah. Well, now that the FBI’s investigating the DA, they need the names of those sources.”

“But they were confidential,” Irvin said as though that should be the end of the discussion.

“That’s the problem.”

“I don’t understand,” Irvin said, shaking his head and watching her intently.

“Well, Andrew gave his word to these people, and now the FBI needs the names, so they got a judge to try to force Andrew to give them the information they want.”

“Can they do that?”

Gabi sighed. “I guess so. They’re doing it.”

“How long can they hold him?”

“Until he tells them what they want to know I guess.”

Irvin paused to let that sink in.

“What about Antonio?” he asked, dropping his voice again.

“He’s staying with me. For now anyway,” she said, willing herself to stay strong.

“Are you okay?” Irvin asked slowly looking right at her.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “I just hope Andrew is.”

As soon as the last parent left, Gabi placed a quick call to Bryan, bundled Antonio into the car, and headed for the courthouse. Somehow she knew this was only the beginning.

“Irvin asked about you,” she said, her voice retaining its balance even as her heart threatened to give her away.

Andrew sat in silence, his eyes never leaving the table in front of him.

“He’s worried about you,” she continued when he said nothing. “We all are.”

“I’m fine,” he said, his voice sounding hollow. “How’s Antonio?”

“He’s all right. We’re going shopping tonight. For food and stuff. No big deal,” she said as her concern for him overtook her. “He wants to know when you’re going to get out of here.”

Andrew never moved.

“Will you please look at me?” she finally asked in frustration. “Talk to me. Please.”

There was so much to say, and yet there was nothing at all to say. Nothing that hadn’t been said. He had laid his heart on the line only to be rejected. He wasn’t sure he could do that again.

“Tell Antonio I love him,” he finally said softly, “tell him I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

There was a long pause as Gabi sat there, right in front of him, with the saddest, most dejected face ever.

“I’m ready,” he suddenly said to the guard behind him, and like a robot he stood as her eyes followed his form up and around to the guard. It tore her heart out to see him like this. This wasn’t Andrew. This was someone she didn’t even know.

“Andrew,…” she began with no clue as to how to finish that thought, and before she had the chance to figure it out, he was gone.

Somehow she walked out to the lobby where Bryan sat with Antonio.

“How is he?” Bryan asked, standing the second he saw her, but the look on her face said it all. “What can I do?”

She looked right at him as her heart broke in two. “Find a way to get him out.”

“Here, Antonio,” she said holding onto cheerful with both hands and all her might as they pushed the cart through the aisles, “how about if we buy you a soccer ball? That way you can practice at my house.”

She didn’t have money to waste on a soccer ball, but seeing Antonio trailing sullenly behind her was about to kill her.

“K,” he said never even glancing up from his feet he was sliding across the tiles, and for the second time in an hour her heart tore in two.

It wasn’t until Antonio was safely asleep on the couch and she was in bed that she allowed the emotions in her head and heart to take over. Somehow she had to keep it together — if not for her own sake, at least for Antonio’s. He was being so strong, but she wished with all her heart that he didn’t have to be. There had to be a way out of this mess, but at the moment all she could see was the pain surrounding her and everyone else she loved.

Why did Andrew have to insist on being so stubborn? Surely the people he loved were worth more than some stupid principle could ever be. But even as she thought it, she knew the trap behind that thought. It was precisely because of the people he loved that he couldn’t back down. And that was the paradox that just might kill them all.

*              *              *

Until 4:05, Thursday had passed much like Wednesday had, and Gabi feared every day henceforth would be uninterrupted misery punctuated only by small diversions into fantasy until Andrew was allowed back into her life. But the knock on her door as she watched the kids working with the clay at the tables startled her back to reality.