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
