'No, it just sounded… you know, like something that would happen.' He concentrated on slurping the last of his chocolate shake.
'You're probably right,' she began to say, and was startled when the boy across from her slapped the cup down and began to give out a stream of words.
'She really wanted a family, to be part of a real family, with a mother and a father and a dog. And a baby brother.' His face screwed up in a wry humor that was painfully close to tears. 'She wanted a baby brother to take care of. I told her she was stupid, that babies cried all the time and trapped you, but it was all just a fantasy, you know? She just used to talk about it, about making a family. She'd go on and on until I'd want to shout at her.'
'She didn't want her own baby, though?' Kate asked cautiously.
'Ah shit, man,' he burst out. 'She was only twelve!'
'Have you never known a twelve-year-old with a baby?'
'Well, yeah. But that's different.'
'Is it?'
'Of course. That kind of girl is - well, they're not really girls. Jules was different. She really was young. She was just a kid. Is… just a kid,' he corrected himself. To Kate's amusement, the street-wise boy across the table from her began to blush. 'She never knew anything about sex, not when I knew her last summer, anyway. I mean, she'd talk sometimes, you know, but it was just an idea to her, not a real thing. I'm sure she didn't know. And I never…'
'Did anything to disturb her innocence,' Kate finished for him.
'No.'
The brief flicker of amusement died under the bleak awareness that if Jules was by some miracle still alive, her innocence almost certainly was not. Kate refused to think about it, and she moved on to safer topics.
'When I was at her apartment once, just after you'd disappeared, the phone rang. She took it off and immediately hung up, without even answering, and she said something about strange telephone calls. Do you know anything about them?'
He squirmed in his seat, and all her instincts awoke. She'd hit something here; she could smell it radiating off him. He did not answer, just sat hunkered down, his blush gone, leaving him pale and very determined.
'Dio, she's missing,' she said, nearly pleading. 'I don't think she went under her own power, or if she did, she didn't mean to be away this long. She wouldn't have left us all hanging like this, Dio. Not Jules. She would have called, written, something.'
'She… was getting… weird phone calls,' he said jerkily. 'A couple of times, maybe. It was a man.'
'Were they obscene? Did she tell you what he said?'
'They weren't, no. That was the problem - if they'd just been some guy getting off on dirty talk, she'd have known how to deal with it, but this was just bizarre. He'd say things like, 'You're mine, Jules,' and then - no, wait, he called her Julie. 'You're mine, Julie' and 'I love you, Julie, I'll take care of you.' '
Kate felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle and rise. That kind of call was indeed seriously creepy. 'Why didn't she tell anyone about the calls? Other than you?'
'I told her she ought to. They freaked her out, they really did, but she'd only had two or three, and he didn't actually threaten her or anything.'
'God, she could be stupid,' Kate began, but Dio, his brow furrowed in thought, was not finished.
'And I think there was something else.'
She waited, and then coaxed, 'What was that?'
'She seemed… this funny attitude… I don't know how to describe it.' He was searching for words, though, so Kate waited, and after a minute his face cleared. He looked up at her eagerly, looking amazingly young and almost beautiful until he remembered who she was. He hesitated but then went on, although cautiously.
'I knew someone once - a friend's sister. His older sister, a year and a half older. They had a lot of problems in their family, but the two of them were really close. Then, when she was about fourteen, she started seeing this older guy. I mean a lot older, maybe thirty. He had a big car and he used to take her out, buy her clothes, and she began to get all secretive. She acted proud and excited and a little bit scared, like she had a big prize she was keeping to herself.'
'What happened to her?'
'Dad - her dad found out and threw her out of the house. I don't know what happened next, because I left a few weeks later.'
'And Jules reminded you of your… friend's sister?' Kate asked, drawing him gently back to the point he had been making.
'A little.'
'You think she had a boyfriend, then?'
'Not a boyfriend. Like I said, she's just a kid. Not in her brain, but in a lot of other ways.'
'But it was somebody she'd met?'
He began to look uncomfortable again, and suddenly Kate was certain that he knew more than he was telling.
'I don't think she ever met him, no.'
'There's something else, isn't there, Dio?' She leaned forward, suppressing the urge to shake him. 'Please, Dio. It could be what I need to find her.'
'What if she doesn't want to be found?' he, burst out angrily. 'She's surrounded by goddamn college professors and cops. Who could blame her?'
'Did she tell you that, when you saw her in December?' Kate demanded, but it was too much for him. He stood up and threw his tall cup toward the garbage can, ignoring it when it missed. Kate scooped up the other wrappings, threw them and the cup in the bin, and hurried out the door after him. She caught him halfway down the block.
'Dio, you have to let me take you home.'
'I don't have a home,' he raged, throwing her hand off his shoulder, 'and I don't have to let you take me anywhere!'
'I told Wanda I'd drive you back. If you come back on foot, she won't like it.'
'Who gives a fuck?'
'She does, Dio. She's a good woman; don't push her around just because you're pissed off at me. It's not worth it.'
He saw the sense of this, but no ex-con in cuffs went into a patrol car with less willingness than Dio climbing into the Saab, and he glowered out the side window the whole way back. She pulled up in front of the nondescript suburban house that had served as shelter for an endless trail of disturbed teenagers and turned off the engine.
'You're a good friend to Jules, Dio,' she said quietly. His hand froze on the door handle. 'I think she would be so happy to see how much you've done to pull your life together. I know it's tough, and if there's anything I can do to help you stick with it, I hope you'll call me. I don't agree with all the decisions you're making here, but I do understand that you only want to help Jules, and that you think this is the best way. I only ask you to think about something.
'Sometimes it's a sign of courage not to snitch on your friends. Other times, it's irresponsibility. Part of growing up is beginning to wonder which it is.'
He didn't respond, but he didn't move, either.
'Jules saw the makings of a fine human being in you, Dio. I'm beginning to agree with her.' She saw the color begin to creep up the side of his neck. 'I gave you my card, didn't I? Phone me if you think of anything else,' she said. 'Anything at all.'
EIGHTEEN
Kate drove the Saab away from Wanda and Reg Steiner's home, but around the corner she pulled over and turned off the ignition. After tapping her fingers on the steering wheel for a while and pursing her lips, she looked at her watch. A lousy time of day to get onto the freeway, but it couldn't be helped.
To her dismay, Rosa Hidalgo's apartment was silent, and there was no answer to the bell or Kate's knock. She walked back to the car, thought for another minute, then retraced her path toward the freeway, stopping at a
