Page 75 of Final Approach

They closed in behind him and then Andrew said, “Hello, Jacob.”

THE KID SPUN FASTand Andrew held up a hand in warning. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”

Jacob’s hands shot into the air and he stared at them with wide, scared eyes. “Don’t shoot me.”

“No one’s going to shoot you,” Kristine said.

“Do you have any weapons on you?” Andrew asked.

“N-no. Nothing. I swear. Not even my pocketknife.”

“Can I pat you down?”

“Yeah. Sure.” Jacob held his hands out to his sides.

Andrew shot a look at Kristine, who nodded. She’d cover him.

The door opened just as Andrew finished with Jacob, and Chey stood there gaping. She snapped her mouth shut and glowered. “You need to leave him alone.”

“Relax, Chey,” Andrew said. “We just want to talk to him.” He nodded to the restaurant. “Wanna do this in there or come with me to the station?”

Jacob swallowed hard and Andrew’s compassion meter kicked up a notch. The kid was terrified. “I-I’ll do whatever you want me to do,” he said.

“Okay, then let’s go inside and talk.”

“Can Chey stay with me?”

“Sure.” Maybe if Jacob didn’t want to talk, Chey would be scared enough to do so for him.

Once the four of them were seated in a booth in the very back of the restaurant, Andrew looked the boy in the eye. “We know you dug up the money your dad buried. I need you to turn in whatever money is left, and I need you to do it ASAP.”

He flinched and frowned. “And if I don’t?”

“You’ll be arrested. That money is the fruit of a serious crime. You can’t keep it.”

Jacob went white. He picked at a fingernail. “My dad told me where it was the day before the hijacking. I asked him where he got the money, but he just said he’d taken a major gamble that paid off and I was the only one who knew where the money was. If something happened to him, I was to use it to take care of Mom and the kids.”

Andrew eyed him. “What else did he say? Why didn’t he want your mom knowing about it?”

“He said if she knew about it or spent it, she would probably get in trouble with the law, but I was a kid, so I’d be fine.” He raked ashaky hand over his head. “I didn’t know why he thought she’d be in trouble because of his gamble, but I didn’t ask. Anyway, I was just trying to do what he told me to do.”

“I get it, but now so do you. You going to cooperate and return the rest of the money or make this difficult?”Please cooperate.

Jacob shot a glance at Chey, who gave him a subtle nod. The teen sighed. “Okay. I’ll give it back. I wasn’t trying to steal or do anything wrong. I just wanted to help make my mom’s life easier, do what my dad told me to do. I promise.”

“Then if you cooperate, you should be fine.”

“Do we have to give back the stuff I bought with the cash? I mean, I don’t think I can get that money back.”

“No, probably not. As long as we get the rest of it, everything should be all right.”

“Fine. I’ll give it back.” He dropped his gaze to the table and shivered.

“Let me buy you a good meal and then you can take us to get it.”

Jacob nodded, and Chey, who had been silent through the whole exchange, sighed. “I told you, Jacob.”

“I know.” He glanced at Andrew. “She told me I needed to turn the money in, but I thought since Dad basically died for it, I should do some good with it.” He squirmed in his seat. “I ... uh ... paid for two kids in the youth group to go to camp this summer. And I paid someone to help mow Mrs. Crabtree’s lawn for a year. Her husband died a few weeks ago and I overheard her say she didn’t know how she was going to keep up with the house, much less the lawn. And some other stuff like that.”