“I couldn’t stand to
look.”
“Do you have the picture?”
“I burned it.”
“Too bad,” Jesse said. “Might be
evidence.”
Candace shook her head.
“I didn’t want anybody to see
it.”
“I understand,” Jesse said.
“They threaten you any other
way?”
“They said they’d do it again. You know.
If I told. And Bo said
next time they’d hurt me.”
“Your parents know what happened to you?”
Jesse
said.
“My mother knows I was raped, but not by who.”
“Your father?”
“My mother says we can’t tell
him.”
Candace wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Jesse was still for a
moment, staring straight ahead through the car windshield, drumming his fingers on his thighs.
“Okay,” he said after a time.
“It’s our secret.”
She nodded. Jesse took a card out of his shirt pocket and wrote
his home phone number on the back.
“You can call me anytime,” Jesse said.
“About anything. It’ll be
between you and me until you say otherwise.”
She took the card.
“What are you going to do?” she said.
“I’m going to keep you out of
it,” Jesse said. “But I’m going to
find a way, sooner or later, to bust all three of them.”
“You won’t tell,” she said.
“No,” Jesse said. “I
won’t.”
“I’m so scared,” she said.
“I know,” Jesse said. “Just
remember you’re not alone anymore.
We’re in this together.”
She nodded.
“Do you want me to take you home or back to the mall.”
“The mall,” she said.
“I’m meeting my friend there at
three.”
Jesse finished his coffee and a second donut as he drove back to
the mall. When he parked near the entrance she sat for a moment in the car.
“Do you think they’ll do it
