"Elijah, beta, what has happened?" Are you in trouble? He came out from behind the counter so quickly he knocked over a stack of cup lids and did not stop to pick them up. He knelt in front of the boy and took the boy's small face in his hands and turned it gently from side to side looking for damage. Are you hurt?
Did someone hurt you? Tell me, Beta. No, Mr. Patel. I'm okay. I delivered the message.
He listened. Mr. Patel looked up at Richard then. He looked at the dark suit. He looked at the silver hair. He looked at Detective Marsh's badge clipped to her belt at hip level.
He drew his conclusions, all of them, in perhaps 4 seconds. "Sir," he said standing up, "I do not know what is happening, but this boy is a good boy. He has slept behind my dumpster for 8 months. I have not called anyone because every time I think to call, I look at where the system would put him and I cannot do it. He has the heart of a man twice his size."
Whatever it is he told you, it is true. He does not lie. "He saved my life tonight, Mr. Patel," Richard said quietly. "I am here because he saved my life. He came to find me to say so before he came back here. I wanted to meet you because he wanted me to know about you."
He told me you give him a hot dog sometimes at the end of the night. Mr. Patel's face did something complicated. He is too proud to take more than one. I have offered. He says one is enough.
He paused. Where are you taking him? Somewhere safe for tonight. The person who tried to harm me may still be a danger. I want Elijah out of the city until that man is arrested.