in town.”

“Family?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know him

real well. I never saw any

family around.”

“Do you know how long he’s lived

here?” Jesse

said.

“No. He was here when I moved in three years ago.”

“From where?”

“From where did I move?”

“Yes.”

She smiled.

“Am I a suspect?”

“No,” Jesse said. “The question

was unofficial.”

“Really?” she said. “I came from

LA.”

“Me too,” Jesse said.

7

Jesse was eating a pastrami sandwich on light rye at his desk, when Molly brought the girl and her mother into his office just after noontime on Thursday.

“I think you need to talk with these ladies,” Molly

said.

Jesse took a swallow of Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda. He nodded.

“Excuse my lunch,” he said.

“I don’t care about your damned

lunch,” the mother said. “My

daughter’s been raped.”

“Moth-er!”

“You might want to stick

around, Molly,” Jesse

said.

Molly nodded and closed the door and leaned on the wall beside it.

“Tell me about the rape,” Jesse said.

“I didn’t get raped,” the girl

said.

“Shut up,” the mother said.

Jesse took a bite of his sandwich and chewed quietly.

“She came home from school early and tried to slip into the

house. Her dress was torn, her hair was a mess, her lip was swollen. You can still see it. She was crying and she wouldn’t tell

me why.”

Jesse nodded. He drank a little more cream soda.

“I insisted on examining her,” the mother said. “She had no

underwear, her thighs are bruised. I said I would take her to the doctor if she didn’t tell me, so she confessed.”

“That she’d been raped?” Jesse

said.

He was looking at the daughter. The daughter looked frantic to him.

“Yes.”

“Anyone do a rape kit?”

“Excuse me?”

“Did you take her to the doctor,” Jesse said.

“And have it all over town, God no. I had her clean herself up

and brought her straight to you.”

“Clean herself up?”

“Of course. Who knows what germs were involved. And I’m not

bringing her in here looking like a refugee.”

“Bath?” Jesse said to the daughter.

“Shower?”

The daughter wouldn’t speak.

“I put her in a hot bath,” her mother said, “scrubbed her myself

like she was two years old.”

Peripherally, Jesse saw Molly raise her eyebrows.

“What are your names,” Jesse said.

The mother looked startled, as if Jesse had been impolite.

“I’m Mrs. Chuck Pennington. This is

Candace.”

Jesse said, “So who raped you, Candy?”

“Candace,” her mother said.

Jesse nodded.

“Candace,” he said.

Candace shook her head.

“You tell him, young lady. I will not permit anyone to rape my

daughter and think they can get away with it.”

“I won’t tell,” Candace said.

“You can’t make

me.”

“No,” Jesse said, “I

can’t. But it’s hard to protect you if I don’t know who they are.”

“You can’t protect me,” Candace

said.

“He threaten you?”

“They all did.”

“All,” her mother said, “dear

God in Heaven. You tell the chief

right now what happened.”

Candace shook her head. Her face was red. She was teary.

“If I don’t know who they are,”

Jesse said, “I can’t stop them.

They might do it again. To another girl. To you.”

Candace shook her head.

“Don’t you even want revenge,”

Molly said. “If it happened to me

I’d want revenge. I’d want them caught.”

Candace didn’t speak. Her mother slapped her on the back of her

head.

“No hitting,” Jesse said.

“Molly, why don’t you take Candace out to the conference room.”

Molly nodded. Left the wall and put her hand gently under Candace’s left arm and helped her out of the chair and through

Jesse’s office door. Jesse got up and went around to the door and

closed it and came back to his desk.

“She’s been traumatized by the

rapists,” Jesse said. “She should

not be traumatized by her mother.”

“Don’t you dare tell me how to raise my daughter.”

“I don’t know a hell of a lot about

daughters,” Jesse said. “But

I know something about rapes. She needs to see a doctor. If nothing else he might be able to give her some sedation. Who’s her gynecologist? I can call him for you.”

“Is there some kind of medical thing they can find out who did

it.”

“The hot bath tends to wash away

evidence,” Jesse

said.

“Well then, I won’t take her. The doctor may not tell, but

someone will. The nurse, the receptionist. The doctor’s husband. I

am not going to have her the subject of a lot of filthy talk all over town.”

Jesse finished his pastrami sandwich and drank the last of his cream soda and wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. He put the napkin and the empty can and the sandwich wrapper in the wastebasket. He rocked his chair back and rested one foot on the open bottom file drawer in his desk, and tapped his fingers gently on the flat of his stomach, and looked thoughtfully at Mrs.

Pennington.

“Why don’t I talk to her alone,”

he said.

“You think she’ll tell you things she won’t tell her own

mother?”

“Sometimes people do,” Jesse said.

Mrs. Pennington frowned. She put her palms together and tapped her upper lip with the tips of her fingers. She’s pretty good-looking, Jesse thought. A little too blond, a little too tan, a little too carefully done, maybe, teeth a little too white. Face is kind of mean, but a good body.

“This entire incident must remain

confidential,” Mrs. Pennington

said.

Jesse nodded.

“Can you promise me that?”

Jesse shook his head.

“You can’t?”

“Of course not. We don’t plan to blab about it. But, if there

are arrests, indictments, trials, someone will hear about it.”

“Oh God,” she said. “I cannot

bear, cannot bear, the

scandal.”

“Being raped is not scandalous behavior,”

Jesse

said.

“You don’t understand.”

Jesse didn’t say anything.

“I can’t discuss this any further.

I’m taking my daughter

home.”

“Sooner or later you’ll have to deal with this,” Jesse said. “Or

she will.”

“I want my daughter,” she said.

Jesse stood and went to his office door.

He yelled, “Molly,” and when she appeared he said, “Bring the

girl in.”

When she saw her daughter, Mrs. Pennington stood.

“We’ll go home now,” she said.

Candace’s eyes were red and swollen. A bruise had begun to

darken on her cheekbone. She seemed disconnected. Jesse looked at Molly. Molly shook her head.

“Candace,” Jesse said.

The girl looked at him vaguely. Her pupils were large. She had no focus.

“Is there anything you want to say to me?”

Jesse

said.

She looked at her mother.

“We are through here, Candace,” Mrs.

Pennington

said.

The girl looked back at Jesse. Their eyes met and held for a moment. Jesse thought he saw for just a moment a stir of personhood in there. Jesse nodded slightly. The girl didn’t say anything. Then

her mother took her arm and they walked out of the station.

8

“I’m here to cook you

supper,” Jenn said when she

arrived at Jesse’s condo with a large shopping bag.

“Cook?” Jesse said.

“I can cook,” Jenn said.

“I didn’t know that,” Jesse said.

“I’ve been taking a course,”

Jenn said and set the shopping bag

down on the counter in Jesse’s kitchen. “Perhaps you could make us