no sound, but Jesse knew she was crying. He put a hand on her near shoulder.
“Off the record,” Jesse said.
“Just between you and me. No
testifying. Nobody knows you told me.”
Her shoulders continued to shake.
“Let it out,” Jesse said.
“You’re safe here. It’ll never leave the car.”
“Bo’s the football captain,”
Candace said and began to cry
outright.
Jesse took some Kleenex out of the glove compartment and put them on the dashboard in front of her. He patted her shoulder.
“He’s so strong,” she said.
Jesse stopped patting and simply rested his hand on her shoulder.
“You know behind the football field …
there’s this little
like valley … where the railroad tracks are? …
They
took me there.”
She was talking and crying at the same time. Her nose was running. She wiped it with a Kleenex.
“They force you?”
“They just … told me to come with them
… and, you
know … they are … so … so important
… you
know?”
Jesse nodded.
“Sure,” he said. “I
know.”
“And … they started … they
started talking …
dirty and they grabbed me and took my clothes off
…”
She stopped talking for a time and sobbed. Jesse waited, his hand gently on her shoulder. Finally she got enough control to talk.
“And they did it,” she said.
“All three?” Jesse said softly.
“They took turns … Two holding me down, one doing
it.”
Jesse put his head back against the car seat and closed his eyes
for a moment and took in a lot of air quietly through his nose and let it out. Candace cried, softly now, her hands folded in her lap, her head down.
“They took pictures,” she said.
Jesse nodded slowly, his head still back against the car seat, his eyes still closed.
“And they’ll pass the pictures around the school,” Jesse said.
“If you say anything.”
“Yes.”
“Have you seen the pictures?”
“I saw one,” Candace said.
“Are they in the picture?”
“One of them.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
