slut,” Alice said. “There’s a laugh.”
“I rescued you from your father, and you talk to me like this?”
“At least I’m not a fat slut,” Alice said. “I’m outta here.”
She turned and found Crow standing in front of the door.
“Get the fuck out of my way,” she said.
Crow slapped her hard across the face and sent her halfway across the room. She fell back onto the couch beside her mother and began to cry with her face buried in her hands.
“Esteban is going to kill you,” she said. “He’s going to kill you for Puerco, and now, when I tell him, he’ll kill you for me, too.”
Crow took his cell phone out and punched in a number.
After a moment he said, “Chief Stone? Wilson Cromartie. We got a situation down here on Sewall Street.”
25.
Jesse brought Molly with him. They were all together in the living room. Jesse standing by the door. Molly in the opposite corner so Crow wouldn’t be able to shoot them both together. Crow sat on a reversed straight chair, his arms folded across the back. Alice’s face was red from Crow’s slap, and her heavy black eye makeup had run when she cried.
“Can we talk off the record?” Crow said.
“I don’t see why we should,” Jesse said.
“Guy named Louis Francisco,” Crow said. “Lives in Palm Beach. Does business all over South Florida. He’s very, very important in South Florida. Miami, all over. He’s married to this woman, calls herself Frances Franklin, but her real name’s Fiona. Fiona Francisco. Kid here, looks kind of like Alice Cooper, is his daughter. She goes by Alice Franklin around here. But her real name’s Amber Francisco.”
Jesse didn’t comment. He waited, leaning on the wall, his arms folded across his chest. In the opposite corner, Molly was watching both women as Crow talked.
“One day, about three years ago, in the middle of the afternoon, Mrs. Francisco”—Crow nodded toward her—“and the kid disappear. Francisco’s upset. He don’t care too much about Fiona. But he wants the kid.”
Crow paused for a moment, thinking about what he’d say next. No one else said anything.
“So,” Crow said, “think about it. You’re Louis Francisco. You don’t know where your daughter is. And you don’t know who’s got her, or so you say. But you not only want her back but you probably want to get her away from her mother, whom you consider a bad influence.”
“He should talk,” Fiona Francisco said.
No one paid her any attention.
“What do you do?” Crow said. “You probably hire somebody to find her. Now suppose he did, hypothetically, hire somebody. And suppose the guy found them. And he calls Louis and tells him and Louis says kill the mother, bring the girl to me.”
“He would say that,” Fiona said. “The prick.”
“I’m not going back,” Amber Francisco said.
