mind active. I say, great. All I have to do is give him an office, a desk, and a phone. We’re a whole lot stronger with Richard on our side. Not to mention the fact that he’s also become a great friend.
“How’d the qualifying go?” he asked.
“It went great,” I said. “Matter of fact, we both shot perfect scores.”
“Then he beat me in the tiebreaker,” Toni said. “Again.”
I smiled at her. She stuck her tongue out at me.
“Does Gunny Owens still run the qualifying?” Richard asked.
“Sure does,” I said. “Speaking of which, you ought to be due pretty soon, aren’t you?”
“July. I’ve got to go down there in July.”
“Piece of cake, right?”
He smiled, his blue eyes sparkling. “Is there any doubt in your mind?”
I shook my head. “Nope. None at all.” I turned to the group. “Everybody’s here. We’ll just get right into it,” I said. “Let me start by saying that I was going through the books yesterday and, as you may know, the coffers are getting a little thin around here. We haven’t had a good-sized job in a while. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I don’t think I’m going to have to dip into reserves because I think there are two nice jobs coming right up. I’ve got an appointment next Wednesday with Ferguson and Sons.”
“With whom?” Kenny asked.
“Ferguson and Sons is the largest restaurant-supply distributor in the Puget Sound,” Richard said. “They’ve been around for about a hundred years. The name should probably be Ferguson and Sons and Grandsons and Nephews and Nieces and whatnot.” He turned to me. “What’s their problem?”
Suddenly, Toni gave a little scream. She shoved herself back from the table.
“Oh, shit,” she said. “A spider just dropped down and landed on my damn notebook.”
Everyone looked. A small spider-less than half an inch across-sat on her notebook, unsure of what to do next.
Kenny leaned over to look. He started laughing. “That?” he said. “You’re afraid of that?”
She turned and fixed him with an evil glare. “I. Don’t. Like. Spiders.” Each word was carefully enunciated.
Kenny laughed again.
Doc was sitting closest to the balcony door. “Doc,” I said. “Put that little dude outside, will ya?”
He got up and scooped up the notebook, spider and all.
“Don’t kill it,” Toni said, suddenly concerned.
Doc glanced at her. “I don’t kill spiders.”
“No,” Toni said. “No, you don’t. Sorry.”
Doc walked outside onto the balcony where he tipped the notebook up onto the balcony rail. The spider, now clear as to which way it should go, calmly walked off the notebook onto the rail. As if satisfied of its surroundings, it walked slowly over the edge of the rail, down the side and then, upside down, along the bottom, where it stopped-most likely surveying the site for a new web.
“There. Everyone satisfied?” I asked.
Toni nodded.
“Good,” I said. “Let’s continue. Where were we?”
“I was asking about what kind of problems Ferguson and Sons were having,” Richard said.
“That’s right,” I said. “It’s the usual stuff. Apparently, they have inventory walking out of their warehouse. They want us to set up hidden cameras and monitor their warehouse staff. We’ll go in late at night when they’re closed and wire the place up. We might even need to order new vinyl panels for one of the vans so we can do a little undercover work.”
“Pretend we’re some kind of restaurant-supply outfit?” Kenny said.
“Exactly.”
“Sounds like it could be a nice job,” Richard said.
“Very nice,” I agreed. “Pretty good-sized project.”
“You mentioned two cases?” Richard said.
“Right. The other item is my dad said he has a case he’s working on, and he’s going to need us to look into some stuff-but he was his usual vague self and wouldn’t be more specific than that.”
“It’s probably a high-profile case, and he just doesn’t want to get ahead of himself disclosure-wise,” Richard said.
“Could be,” I said. “You know my dad-strictly by the book.”
“This is true,” Richard said.
I continued. “Meanwhile, we’ve had something else pop up that might keep us busy for a week or so while we wait for the Ferguson job to get started.”
This got everyone’s attention. We typically go over all new cases as a group. These are all smart people, and I value their opinions. I wouldn’t quite go so far as to say we’re a democracy around here-final decisions are my domain-but I definitely take group input, and I listen to what these guys say.
“You all know Kelli Blair? Toni’s little sister?” Everyone nodded. “Yesterday after we finished qualifying, she asked if we’d meet her here at the office. She told us a friend of hers-Isabel Delgado-had run away from home.” I recounted Kelli’s story to the group, leaving nothing out, including the claim that Isabel’s stepfather had raped her.
“
“Agreed,” I said. “So based on what Kelli said that Isabel said, Toni and I drove up to Lynnwood late yesterday afternoon. We talked to Isabel’s mom and then, later, her stepfather showed up as well.”
“Really? How’d that go?” Doc said.
“The mom’s okay,” I said. “She seems pretty much a classic case of ‘Battered Person Syndrome.’ You all familiar with that?”
“No,” Kenny said.
“Basically, BPS is when a person who should otherwise know better and be able to defend themselves doesn’t, basically because they’re afraid of or intimidated by the person doing the abusing. In this case, Marisol Webber is afraid of her husband, Tracey Webber. He’s beat her in the past, but she hasn’t done anything. Why? She’s afraid, and she’s intimidated. Battered Person Syndrome.”
“What about now that he’s raped her daughter?” Doc asked.
“She says she didn’t know about that, but it also didn’t seem to surprise her much,” Toni answered.
“Right,” I said. “But even not counting that-just focusing on the fact that her husband beats on her-still, she does nothing. She can probably be helped with intervention and with counseling and guidance. But short of that, she’s stuck-at least for the moment.”
“By the way, the stepfather is a complete douche,” Toni said. “I felt like I needed a shower after he got there.”
“He ogled Toni pretty good until I snapped him out of it,” I said.
“You hit him?” Doc asked, hopefully.
“No. I snapped him out of it.” I recounted the “snapping the fingers” episode. Toni jumped in and took credit for saving the day.
“Yeah,” Toni said, “I didn’t want to have to bail him out of the Lynnwood jail. But let’s get back to Isabel. Apparently, she doesn’t suffer from the same problem as her mom. She’s obviously not paralyzed into inaction. Looks like she said, ‘screw that, I’m out of here’ after Webber raped her. She ran.”
“I think it would be interesting to hear from Isabel,” Richard said. “In my experience, when a child is abused- raped in this case-there’s often been a long history of abuse at play. It’s hardly ever an isolated case.”
I hadn’t paused to consider the notion that Isabel’s rape might have been more than just a one-time event. “The idea that that little girl had to live in the same hell-house as that monster, with her mom at work and unable to protect her, is fucking staggering,” I said.
Toni nodded.
“How long have her parents been married?” Richard asked.
“Five years, give or take,” I said.
“And she just turned sixteen?”
