Jesse felt hollow.
“Un-huh,” he said.
“With drugs, she could talk about it. One night while she was there the old man molested them, and tried to include her.”
“Shit,” Jesse said.
“My thought exactly.”
“She give you details?” Jesse said.
“Yes.”
Jesse waited. He could hear Kelly Cruz breathing.
“I hate this,” Kelly Cruz said.
“I don’t like it much, either,” Jesse said.
“They were all lying on a bed in the twins’ bedroom, sideways, across it, you know. Looking at some snapshots, and he came in wearing his bathrobe and closed the door and sat on the bed with them and began to pat Kimmy and his bathrobe fell open and exposed him and Kimmy was like, paralyzed.”
“How old?” Jesse said.
“Fifteen,” Kelly Cruz said. “And he said he always kissed his girls good night and because she was a guest he’d kiss her, and he kissed the daughters and then her, with his tongue. And she started to cry and he put his hand under her skirt and she said no and clamped her legs and started to cry and he said maybe he could show her how easy it was, and he proceeded with the twins.”
“Touching?” Jesse said.
2 3 5
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“Fucking,” Kelly Cruz said. “She wanted to run, she said, but she lived across town and she couldn’t get home without a ride. And the twins were telling her not to be a baby and . . .”
“He did it,” Jesse said.
“Yes.”
“In front of his daughters,” Jesse said.
“And when he got his rocks off, he got up and thanked her politely and left the room. She ran in and took a shower and got dressed, and called her father and he came and got her.
She told him that she’d had a fight with the twins.”
“How did the twins react to all of this?” Jesse said.
“Kimmy says that’s part of what made it so awful. They seemed to take it in stride—so he banged you. He bangs us, too.”
“She ever tell anyone?” Jesse said.
“No.”
“She know if he molested Florence?” Jesse said.
“She doesn’t know.”
“But it’s likely.”
“Very,” Kelly Cruz said.
“What happens to her now?”
“She’ll spend the night,” Kelly Cruz said. “Talk to a shrink tomorrow afternoon, and they’ll decide.”
“Notify her parents?”
“She doesn’t want them to know.”
“Maybe they should know anyway.”
2 3 6
S E A C H A N G E
“This part of the case is mine, Jesse,” Kelly Cruz said.
“And you are going to honor her wishes.”
“I am.”
Jesse was silent.
“I’ll stay on it, and I’ll keep you informed,” Kelly Cruz said. “But I’m going to protect this kid as much as I can.”
“It’s the right thing to do,” Jesse said.
“Thanks.”
Again they were both quiet.
“There’s something wrong with that man,” Kelly Cruz said.
