best for you. So lose the attitude, okay?”
Jamie burst out, “Excuse me?” And didn’t retreat one inch. Her scowl was about as fierce as any child could manage.
“Geez Jamie, I know you don’t like whatever is going on here. You have a problem and I can help you solve it without anyone getting hurt. You might even save your mom from getting in trouble. I suspect you’ve more sense than she does. I need your help.”
Jamie gave in slightly. “If you tell on my mom, then I’ll get put in a foster home, that’s where I’ll get put.”
Sandy felt a stab of despair, fearful of what that meant. But she had Jamie’s attention now and her response indicated some progress. She dreaded digging deeper, but was certain this girl knew something and didn’t know how to handle it. Abby would soon come back. Sandy opened her handbag quickly, wrote on a small piece of paper, and whispered, “Here’s my phone number sweetheart, phone me. I want to be your advocate. Do you know what that means?”
Jamie appeared puzzled.
“That means I always take your side. If you get in trouble for talking about something that’s wrong, then I’m with you. If I must choose between you and your mother, then I’m going to choose you.” She didn’t in fact know what was going on so just in case, she added, “Or if it’s between you and some man, then I’m with you. I’m always on your side. Get it?”
Jamie nodded her head cautiously, her eyes frozen on Sandy’s eyes.
Sandy heard Abby in the next room saying her phone goodbye. She hurried on, “Trust me, I know how to handle these situations. If you want everything to be cool, phone me and I’ll help you. All just between you and me. We’re two girls with a problem we must solve. Are you with me? Are we cool?”
Jamie stepped closer. Her scowl had faded. She looked up at Sandy with wide eyes. She staring intently as though processing every syllable as though hearing each word for the first time.
Abby rushed back into the kitchen and saw them together. Jamie stiffened noticeably. Abby stomped over between them and gave Sandy a hard look. “What’d you do to my daughter?”
“Nothing.”
“Well, I heard her yell, she looks stunned, and her face is red. Looks as though you just slapped her. What’s going on?”
Jamie crumpled the note in her fist to hide it. “She didn’t do anything, Mom.” Jamie swung around and hurried out of the kitchen.
Abby frowned at Sandy. “What’d she tell you? What did she tell you?”
Sandy tried to smile innocently.
“You’d better leave right now!”
Just then, Jamie leaned back into the room and asked, “What did you say your name was?”
Chapter Five
Five days later, Sandy sat beside Detective Pomar, from the county sheriff’s office, in the front seat of his unmarked Ford Crown Victoria. They had parked across the street and down two houses from Abby’s house.
It was dark and Pomar was looking through a night-vision scope. “Can’t see the back of the house from this angle, don’t dare move any closer.”
“Your first name is Mel?” she asked. “And you know my friend Detective Chip Goddard on the city police force?”
“Yeah, Goddard phoned and said if I followed your lead it would most likely pay off. I’m violating sheriff’s procedures right now sitting here doing an unauthorized stake in the middle of the night with a pretty coed in the front seat.”
“Let me try that weird thing.” She reached over. “How do I...hey, I can see in the dark, pretty tricky.”
“They’re all the rage with voyeurs. Okay, you got me here, now what the hell is going on?”
“A woman named Abby Olin lives in that house and a bad guy is going to show up and then...well, I don’t know, just expect the unexpected.”
“What I expect is to be put on suspension. Now tell me what this is all about.”
“Child porn, I think.”
That stopped him. “Oh Christ! That’s big time. I can’t do this. That’s special stuff...special procedures. The county has a trained task force for that. They don’t allow me to take any action on my own. I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m dead. Where you getting the word on all this?”
“The ten-year-old daughter. She phoned me and said she overhears her mother and boyfriend, Toby, talking about all the money they’re making off kids and how they’re making kids pay off. She sees them pass money back and forth. And she knows her mother hides a shoebox full of money. Also, her mother started carrying a gun in her pocket in the house.”
“Come on, a ten year old can barely tie her shoelaces.”
“Not always. Pascal published a treatise on mathematics at age nine.”
“So, I’m doing this on the say so of a ten-year-old prodigy?”
“No, you’re doing it on
“And I’m sticking my neck out because...?”
“You’re right, Mel, it doesn’t sound like much evidence and admittedly I don’t know much more. Something sure as hell is going on over there. The mother’s the reckless type. For chrissake, she sells panties on the Internet.”
“That’s not porn and it’s not illegal.”
“I think it’s just a cover for the porn. The daughter is certain this Toby is coming over tonight. The girl is very bright. She’s certain something big is going to happen tonight. She saw her mother get out her gun this morning. And the mother told her to stay over at her friend’s house and not dare come home.”
“She one of the victims?”
She held up her crossed fingers. “Don’t think so. I asked her about that and she said no, but children don’t admit such things easily.”
“Look, now! There’s a man walking up the front. Geez Mel, I was right.”
“How can I look...give me the scope back. Yeah, someone on the front porch, he must have parked on the other side. He’s trying to look in the window. Now he’s going around to the back.”
“Good, now’s the time. Go arrest him.”
“What! I can’t just go arrest him.”
“Hey, it’s dark, you were passing by and saw a prowler at the side of the house. Stop talking and at least go check him out. Hurry!”
Mel watched the man moving through the bushes to the back of the house. “Can you prove any of this?”
“Not yet. Okay, forget I ever mentioned child porn. He’s just your everyday church-going prowler. Now accost him and hold him as long as you can. You saw a prowler and you checked him out. You’re going to be a hero.”
“What are you going to be doing while I’m over there stuffing my career down the toilet?”
“If you’ll detain the man, I’ll go knock on her back door and try not to get shot.”
They both got out. The detective remained by his vehicle. She walked slowly to the back of the house straining to look into the darkness for the man. All at once, the kitchen lights went out and the back door flew open. The flash and crack of gunshot filled the doorway.
“Toby!” Abby yelled out from the darkened house.
Sandy heard a man cry out and then moan. She ran onto the back porch. “Don’t shoot again. It’s me...Sandy!”
The door slammed shut, but she caught it before Abby could lock it. She forced it open. She could see Abby standing there holding a revolver straight out with both hands.
“I don’t know what you were doing out there, Sandy, but you are definitely becoming a problem.”
“Put the gun down, Abby.”
