toast without DNA. It's your case, but I'd plead it out quick if I
were you. Case like this, you might be able to squeak out a decent
deal before the guy realizes you're shooting blanks."
"I'll take it into consideration. Thanks. Anything else?"
"How's that vice angle going? Didn't Garcia say something about trying
to use the vie to get some intel on pimps?"
"Yeah, Tommy thought it might pan out. Turns out the girl hadn't been
working long. And what she did, she did on her own. I've got some
pictures she took of some other girls, but it doesn't look that
promising."
"Yeah, I saw those on your desk when I was in there earlier. Didn't
realize the connection. It's not too late to pull out, you know. You
could still dump the mandatory minimums and send it down to general
trial," he said.
"I'll keep that in mind." I got off the phone before I said something
I'd regret and turned back to my computer. Nothing could take my mind
off Kendra. I checked the time so I'd know when I'd waited long enough
to check in with Chuck.
After a long 78 seconds, Tommy Garcia popped his head into my office.
"Hey, Sammie. Quepasa?"
I sighed. "The Derringer investigation's on hyper speed It's coming
together, though. How about you?"
"I'm just over here for a grand jury. Got here a little early, so I
thought I'd check in on you. See how's your vic's doing."
"Kendra. Yeah, seems like a pretty decent kid, actually." I didn't
see any reason to alarm Tommy with the problem of the keys. "Speak of
the devil, though, I've got something for you." I found the
photographs Kendra had given me and handed them to him. "You might be
interested in these. Ken-dra's clique from the Hamilton."
He flipped through once and then went through them more methodically.
"A couple of these girls look real familiar." He leaned toward me and
pointed at one of the girls rubbing against the faceless man with the
Tasmanian Devil tattoo. I recognized her as Kendra's friend, Haley.
"This one's a real piece of work. Holly or Halle or Haley or
something."
"I think it's Haley."
He rolled his eyes, clearly tired of the indistinguishable trendy names
found among today's kids. "Anyway, she's one of the hard-core street
kids. She's about sixteen. Been on the streets at least four years
and lives the life in every aspect. Hates the police, caseworkers,
anything that's legitimate."
"Sounds like she'd have good information for vice."
"Man, are you kidding? She's like a matriarch out there. She knows
the kids, but she also knows who's plucking them off the buses and
streets to get them into it. Problem is, a girl like that ain't easy
to flip. She's convinced herself that her life is the one she wants,
not just what she got stuck with. She wouldn't take the road out even
if it were open to her."
"Well, she and my vie were pretty tight. I got the impression that
this girl sort of watched Kendra's back."
"I don't know, Sam. From what I can tell, this girl's all about
survival, so unless your vie had something for her .. ." He faded out.
"Hell, I guess it can't hurt to take a shot. Use your case as the in
with her?"
"It's up to you. I thought the pictures might help you out, but don't
take it as an indication that you need to do anything with them." Most
detectives would be offended if a DA tried to tell them to initiate an
investigation, but Tommy was worried about letting me down.
"Yeah, I might give it a shot. I'll let you know. You need these
back?" he asked, holding up the photographs.
"Nope. Hold on to 'em as long as you want."
As Garcia left the office, I snuck a look at the clock. Thirteen
minutes now. Why hadn't Chuck called?
Just as my self-imposed fifteen minute deadline was about to expire,
the phone rang.
Chuck knew to get to the important stuff first. "She's at home, and
she's fine." He could hear my relief. "I shouldn't have even
mentioned it to her. I think it scared her mom. She's saying some
things are out of place. I'm sure she's just getting used to having
Kendra around all day again. But she's still spooked."
"But there's nothing else suggesting anyone was in the house?"
"No. Look, it's fine, Sam. Even if they took the keys, I don't see
how they'd know where Kendra lives, and it doesn't make any sense for
them to go there just to poke around. I called one of the community
safety liaisons out in Gresham, to be safe. He's leaving the
department as we speak to relock the house on the city's dime. I'm
just pissed that I didn't put it together sooner."
"It's my fault. I'm the one who Andrea talked to about getting the
keys out of the purse. I should've made sure they were in there."
"No use blaming anyone now. Luckily it turned out OK." With our
temporary panic out of the way, he moved the conversation back to the
new evidence. "So, you happy about the case now?"
"Happy doesn't begin to describe it. I'm ecstatic."
"You want to grab a bite tonight? Celebrate the good news?"
"I was going to stop by Dad's tonight."
"Alright, some other time." He sounded disappointed, and I was
surprised to find myself feeling the same way. When we didn't want to
kill each other, I truly felt at home with Chuck. We'd known each
other so long that we were comfortable together in a way we didn't feel
with anyone else. At least, I didn't. From what I'd heard, Chuck was
never lonely for company in the evenings, but given how often his name
passed through the rumor mill, it didn't seem like he'd kept anyone
around long enough to get serious.
"You want to come with me? Dad always likes seeing you,
you know." The words were out of my mouth before I reminded myself
that, when it came to me and Chuck, there was a cloud for every silver
lining.
"Sure. Sounds great. Pick you up at seven?"
"Only if I get to drive the Jag," I said. If I was going to play with
fire, I may as well get some warmth out of it.
Just as I hung up the phone, it rang again. Maybe it was Chuck, having
second thoughts too.
"Kincaid," I said.
It was Judge Leeson's clerk. Maria Leeson had the unfortunate
privilege of being the presiding judge for the Multnomah County Circuit
Court, meaning she had to deal with all the miscellaneous shit that
none of the other judges had time for.
"The judge wants to know why you're not down here," she said.
"Because I'm here. And not there."
"You better get down here."