'Oh yeah,' Patrice said.
'Well, if you look right under the newel post on the stairs leading under the stage, on the right-hand side, there is a carving that reads JG AND BB 4EVER.'
'That was you?' Patrice looked quizzically at the business card.
'I was Jessica Giovanni then. I carved that in tenth grade.'
'Who was BB?' Patrice asked.
'Bobby Bonfante. He went to Father Judge.'
The girls nodded. Father Judge boys were, for the most part, pretty irresistible.
Jessica added: 'He looked like Al Pacino.'
The two girls glanced at each other, as if to say: Al Pacino? Isn't he, like, grandpa old? 'Is that the old guy who was in The Recruit with Colin Farrell?' Patrice asked.
'A young Al Pacino,' Jessica added.
The girls smiled. Sadly, but they smiled.
'So did it last forever with Bobby?' Ashia asked.
Jessica wanted to tell these young girls that it never does. 'No,' she said. 'Bobby lives in Newark now. Five kids.'
The girls nodded again in deep understanding of love and loss. Jessica had them back. Time to cut it off. She'd take another run at them later.
'By the way, when do you guys get off for Easter break?' Jessica asked.
'Tomorrow,'Ashia said, her sobs all but dried.
Jessica flipped up her hood. The rain had already ruined whatever style her hair had held, but now it was starting to come down hard.
'Can I ask you something?' Patrice asked.
'Sure.'
'Why… why did you become a cop?'
Even before Patrice's question, Jessica had a feeling that the girl was going to ask her that. It still didn't make the answer any easier. She wasn't entirely sure herself. There was legacy; there was Michael's death. There were reasons even she didn't know yet. In the end she said, modestly: 'I like to help people.'
Patrice dabbed her eyes again. 'Does it ever, you know, creep you out?' she asked. 'You know, to be around…'
Dead people, Jessica finished, in her mind. 'Yeah,' she said. 'Sometimes.'
Patrice nodded, finding common ground with Jessica. She pointed at Kevin Byrne, sitting in the Taurus across the street. 'Is he your boss?'
Jessica looked over, looked back, smiled. 'No,' she said. 'He's my partner.'
Patrice absorbed this. She smiled through her tears, perhaps in the understanding that Jessica was her own woman, and said, simply: 'Cool.'
Jessica shook off as much rain as she could, then slipped into the car.
'Anything?' Byrne asked.
'Not really,' Jessica said, consulting her notepad. It was soaked. She tossed it into the backseat. 'Sean Brennan's family moved to Denver about a month ago. They said Tessa wasn't seeing anyone else. Patrice said he was kind of a hothead.'
'Worth looking at?'
'I don't think so. I'll put in a call to the Denver Board of Ed. See if young Mr. Brennan has missed any days recently.'
'What about Dr. Parkhurst?'
'There's something there. I can feel it.'
'What's your gut?'
'I think they talk about personal things with him. I think they think he's a little too personal.'
'Do you think Tessa was seeing him?'
'If she was, she didn't confide in her friends,' Jessica said. 'I asked them about Tessa's three-week sabbatical from school last year. They got hinky. Something happened to Tessa around Thanksgiving last year.'
For a few moments, the investigation halted, their separate thoughts met only by the staccato rhythms of the rain on the roof of the car.
Byrne's phone chirped as he started the Taurus. He flipped the cell open.
'Byrne… yeah… yeah… outstanding,' he said. 'Thanks.' He flipped the phone closed.
Jessica looked at Byrne, waiting. When it became clear that he was not about to share, she asked. If reticence was his nature, nosiness was hers. If this relationship was going to work, they would have to find a way to jigsaw the two.
'Good news?'
Byrne glanced over at her, as if he had forgotten she was in the car. 'Yeah. The lab just made a case for me. They matched a hair with evidence found on a vic,'he said. 'This fucker is mine.'
Byrne gave her a recap of the Gideon Pratt case. Jessica heard the passion in his voice, the deep sense of subdued rage as he talked about the brutal, senseless death of Deirdre Pettigrew.
'Gotta make a quick stop,' he said.
A few minutes later they came to a rolling rest in front of a proud but struggling row house on Ingersoll Street. The rain was coming down in broad, cold sheets.As they exited the car and drew near the house, Jessica saw a frail, light-skinned black woman in her forties standing in the doorway. She wore a quilted magenta housecoat and tinted, oversized glasses. Her hair was in a multicolored African wrap; her feet were clad in white plastic sandals at least two sizes too large.
The woman put her hand to her breastbone when she saw Byrne, as if the sight of him stole her ability to breathe. A lifetime of bad news had walked up these steps, it seemed, and it probably all came from the lips of people who looked like Kevin Byrne. Big white men who were cops, tax assessors, welfare agents, landlords.
As they climbed the crumbling steps, Jessica noticed a sun-faded eight-by-ten photo in the living room window, a leached print made on a color copier. The photo was an enlargement of a school snapshot of a smiling black girl of about fifteen. There was a loop of fat pink yarn in her hair, beads in her braids. She wore a retainer and seemed to be smiling despite the serious hardware in her mouth.
The woman did not invite them in, but mercifully there was a small awning over her front stoop, shielding them from the downpour.
'Mrs. Pettigrew, this is my partner, Detective Balzano.'
The woman nodded at Jessica, but continued to bunch her housecoat to her throat.
'Have you…,' she began, trailing off.
'Yes,' Byrne said. 'We caught him, ma'am. He's in custody.'
Althea Pettigrew's hand covered her mouth. Tears welled in her eyes. Jessica could see that the woman wore a wedding ring, but the stone was gone.
'What… what happens now?' she asked, her body vibrating with anticipation. It was clear that she had prayed for and dreaded this day for a long time.
'That's up to the DA's office and the man's attorney,' Byrne replied. 'He'll be arraigned, and then there will be a preliminary hearing.'
'Do you think he might…?'
Byrne took her hand in his, shaking his head. 'He's not getting out. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure he never walks free again.'
Jessica knew how many things could go wrong, especially in a capital murder case. She appreciated Byrne's optimism and at this moment it was the right sentiment to convey. When she was in Auto, she'd had a hard time telling people she was sure they were going to get their cars back.
'Bless you, sir,' the woman said, then all but threw herself into Byrne's arms, her whimpers morphing into full-grown sobs. Byrne held her gingerly, as if she were made of porcelain. His eyes met Jessica's, saying: This is why. Jessica glanced over at the picture of Deirdre Pettigrew in the window. She wondered if the photo would come down today.
Althea composed herself somewhat, then said: 'Wait right here, would you?'
