actually was a woman in her late twenties.
He had slapped her at least three times: there were that many distinct welts on her face. In another day she’d look like she’d been face-first through a gauntlet.
“Would you step outside, miss?”
She did. She was blond, and might’ve been pretty in a glassy kind of way. She wasn’t pretty now.
“What’s your name?”
“You haven’t got to tell him one fucking thing,” Jackie Newton said. There was an implication in his voice that she’d better not.
“What’s your name, miss?”
“Barbara.”
“Do you need help?”
She looked confused, scared.
“We can take you out of here if you want to go,” I said.
“She doesn’t want to go anywhere with you, cop,” Jackie Newton said.
“Miss?” I tried for eye contact, but I couldn’t get a rise out of her. “Did this jerk beat you up?”
“She ran into a door,” Jackie Newton said.
“You’d better get that door fixed, Newton. Looks like she ran into it three or four times.”
“She ran into a goddamn door, okay? You want to make something out of that?”
“Miss,” I said. “Do you want to go with us?”
“I don’t know,” she said shakily.
“We could go over to the car and talk it over. Come on, let’s do that.”
“She’s going nowhere with you, cop.”
“Don’t pay any attention to that,” I said. “If you want to go, you go. Fatso’s got nothing to say about it.”
I knew that would get to him. He balled up his fists and said, “I’ll show you fat, motherfucker. Take off your badge and I’ll beat your fuckin‘ head in.”
I gave him a bitter, pathetic smile, the kind you’d give a talking worm. I kept looking at him the whole time I was talking to her. “I want you to be very sure, miss, what your options are. It’s all up to you. If this jerk beat you up, you can file charges against him. He can do some good time for that. Maybe when he gets out he won’t feel so frisky.”
“I’ve had about enough of this shit,” Jackie Newton said.
“I don’t think so, Newton. You and me, we’ve got a long way to go with each other.”
“You wanna go now, Janeway? You wanna go now, huh? What do you say, cop, just you and me, bare hands, an old-fashioned fight to the finish.”
“I see you’ve been reading comic books again, Jackie. I wish I could accommodate you, I really do. You could show me how you beat up women and murder dogs. Or murder bums on the street.”
“Is that what this is about? Are you still trying to stick me with that?”
“I’m going to stick you with it, pal. You watch me.”
“Why don’t you fight me, Janeway? Just pick the place and time.”
“I wish I could. We don’t do things that way.”
“That don’t surprise me. Now if you’re all through, I’m going in.”
I had been working my way slowly around, putting more distance between Newton and the woman. Now I put an arm out and moved her completely aside.
‘Barbara,“ I said. ”Why don’t you come on with us?“
“All right.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Jackie Newton said.
“You wouldn’t do anything unless it was stupid or mean,” I said. I got my hand on her shoulder and guided her away from the house. We got her to the car and inside, and there she broke down in a fit of sobbing. Her whole body trembled. I took off my coat and covered her shoulders, but it was a long time before she was ready to tell us about it.
We let Nasses off in Jeffco and were coming down Sixth Avenue toward Denver when I started to get her story. Hennessey was driving and Barbara was huddled against the shotgun door. I was in the back, leaning over the seat. I started with the little things. Her last name was Crowell. She lived in a Capitol Hill walk-up near Eleventh and Pearl. She worked for one of the companies that did business with Jackie Newton. Yesterday was the first time she had seen him… socially. She was flattered that he had asked her: he was rich and some people found him attractive. No one had warned her what he was really like.
