The exchange between Teddy and Ann was helpful but only to a point. Nobody knew if Teddy was really ok and doubted that he was, and even he wasn't sure. He tried to hide his pain but for the most part his efforts were unsuccessful.
Everyone hoped there was time for him to heal on his own but nobody was sure if he would succeed before losing the battle against the irreparable damage still possible from the trauma he had suffered. Neither was he.
THEY HEARD IT ON THE NEWS:
"At 3:47pm this afternoon a mostly naked body was found in a city park near the high school. No details are available presently and identity of the victim is being withheld pending notification of next of kin".
Standard procedure.
THEY SAW IT FIRST HAND:
For the 2nd time in one year, Dylan and Jake had stumbled across a body...the first one barely alive and the second one not even barely. This was beyond anything even remotely resembling ordinary. However this time, Teddy was with them and he...crumbled, to the ground.
Dylan and Jake both dove down after him trying to help. Jake tried to cradle him as Dylan pulled out his cell and dialed 911.
Teddy began to vomit and to cry which isn't easy when you are doing it simultaneously and Jake began to cry with him. They waited for help to arrive which as always seemed like an eternity but was actually only a few minutes.
Ironically the first cop on the scene was Greg Laidlaw, the only 'out' cop on the force and he sized up the scene in a heartbeat. Wasn't hard. Someone had disfigured the face of the victim with makeup and lipstick...and crudely so. Not exactly subtly, someone had attempted to make sure that everyone would know this was definitely a gay hate crime borne out of homophobia. Why remained a mystery at this point.
Even more ironically, the first person on the scene after Jake and Dylan was...Kenny, by accident. They had all been headed to McDonalds on the other side of the park.
Kenny instantly went down to his brother and began to cry with him, after quickly surveying the scene and guessing what had happened, which is all any of them could do. These things are usually pretty transparently obvious as to what, but rarely to the why, for usually homophobia rests deep within the perpetrator of these kinds of hate crimes. It is often really more work for a psychologist than law enforcement...but law enforcement has to begin the process.
In the end, law enforcement carries the burden of determining the facts and then the resolution/punishment. If they can determine who done it and capture them.
Oddly enough, this body lay next to a bed of roses in the park, apropos considering Ann's comments...and in a way proof that life does indeed seem to imitate itself sometimes...and can definitely be stranger than fiction.
They began to hear the sirens of help on the way, and not a minute too soon. The three brothers and Jake were almost beyond rationality at this point.
Ann was in her office in the courts administration building when she heard the news, and then her phone rang. It was Dylan cueing her in. She beat a hasty retreat to the crime scene and was only minutes behind the cops and the forensics team, etc.
She gathered the boys into a hug huddle and then began to try to deal with the situation, as only someone who is both a mother and a prosecutor can. Mother first of course.
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