Fire and Rain by Andrew Grey Page B

couldn’t find him. Faceless people kept saying that he was better off, and after a while I began to believe it, and—”
    “It was just a dream. Isaac is right there, and he’s fine,” Kip said lightly. “None of that is going to happen.”
    “How do you know?” Jos asked. “I know you bent the rules last night when you didn’t call child services when you found us in the doorway. Why do you think I had to get away as fast as I could? I won’t let anyone take Isaac away. We’re the only family we’ve got, and I can’t leave him alone, not after what happened to Mom.”
    “Donald and I aren’t going to let it happen.” Why he was so vehement in his conviction and so trusting of Jos was beyond him. He was a police officer; he should know better than to trust a stranger. He saw things every day that told him he needed to be much more careful, and yet Jos had gotten past his defenses and under his cynical police nature without him even realizing it.
    His phone vibrated in his pocket. Kip read the message, then said, “Aaron got the warrant, and they’re going over now. He said to come by in half an hour and we should be able to have a look around.”
    Jos seemed nervous and turned away. Instantly the suspicions he’d just been admonishing himself for pushing aside came rushing forward. “Is there something there that you don’t want them to see?”
    Jos turned back to him. “How would you like other people going through your stuff?”
    “They aren’t going to. Aaron got a warrant because there was stolen property on the premises. Yours. He’s claiming that in kicking you out illegally, Powers in effect stole your property from you. Hopefully it will stick in court, but Powers will have a bunch of lawyers with a million explanations.” Kip’s phone buzzed again. “We need to go,” he said and got to his feet. “Get Isaac in the car. Powers was already in the process of tearing down the building.”
    Kip called Aaron. “How could that happen so fast?” he asked when Aaron answered.
    “I have someone checking, but it looks like the permit came through today so he wasn’t wasting any time. We stopped the work, but the bulldozers have already demolished half the building.” Kip pulled open the door to his car and started the engine. As soon as Jos had Isaac in his seat and the doors closed, he zoomed to the other side of town.
     
     
    “STAY HERE,” Kip said. He lowered the windows, then got out and walked to where Aaron was standing. One side wall of the brick structure was gone. “Jesus.”
    “Tell me about it. That was Josten’s apartment,” Aaron said, pointing to the undamaged side of the building.
    “What do we do?”
    “It seems undamaged, and I have them stopped for now.”
    “Has anyone else complained?” Kip asked.
    Aaron nodded. “The units seem mostly empty. When I looked into the ones with the missing wall there were a few pieces of old furniture, but most everything was gone. I haven’t been able to look in the unit above, but I’m starting to think that Josten may have been the lone holdout.”
    “Do you think Jos was lying?”
    Aaron shook his head. “I think Powers was. He comes here making a show of force complete with a police officer to make it look really good. He tells everyone in the building that they’re being evicted and to get the hell out. The few others get their stuff once the show is over and clear out. Josten doesn’t know it’s a show, and he has no other place to go, so he grabs what he can and heads to a shelter.”
    “Son of a bitch,” Kip swore.
    “The guy is slime. Hell, he’s shit in slime. But he got what he wanted. The building is empty and there are no leases, and no one complains because they’re scared shitless. He gets a permit, and the building comes down…. Everything is gone, and he can go through with his sale of the land.”
    “So what do we do?”
    “The demolition has stopped, but the building is going to be