“He did,” Susan said, handing over a single sheet of paper from the Detroit public school system. “But look at this counselor’s report from last spring.”
Rebecca adjusted her reading glasses and scanned the columns of grades. The drop-off was steep, falling from high marks to failing grades within a six-week period starting in April.
“He used to be a good student, Your Honor, before everything changed,” Susan said.
Rebecca looked closely at the dates on the attendance record, matching them against the filed petition for child support that had gone unanswered. The boy’s defiance was not a slow, lifetime habit; it was a sudden, desperate reaction to an empty house.
“His mother is working two jobs just to keep the apartment,” Rebecca said, her eyes tracing the red ink on the progress report.
“The school counselor tried to call the father three times,” Susan said. “Every call went straight to a disconnected line.”
Rebecca laid the school report down on her desk, the yellow legal pad sitting beside it.
On Grand River Avenue, the overhead fluorescent lights hummed inside Patel Market. Kiran Patel stood near the small glass display case by the cash register, his fingers lightly smoothing the front of his canvas apron.
An officer pointed a small flashlight at the wooden trim of the case. “He used a screwdriver to pry it?”
“A small one, yes,” Kiran said, his polite, unyielding cadence filling the quiet aisle. “The lock is loose now. The door does not close all the way.”
The officer noted the detail in his pocket notebook. “We have the earbuds down at the station. They are evidence for now, but you should get them back once the court processes the case.”
Kiran looked at the empty shelf where the sixty-four-dollar item had sat, thinking of his commercial insurance premium which had just risen by twelve percent. He reached into his apron pocket and touched a worn silver key chain, his fingers tracing the metal edge of the key that locked the back door. He wondered what he would do with the stolen earbuds once the police returned them, since the plastic packaging was already torn and smudged.
