Stricken, Jaz said, “I’m sorry!”
Hetty said, “No matter, it’s just spilt milk.”
Something about Jaz’s apology for knocking over the milk seemed so ordinary that it surprised me. Being genuinely contrite for making a mess didn’t seem to go with knowing gang members. It was more the way I would have reacted at her age.
In seconds, her face tightened into a closed mask.
After the milk was blotted up, paper towels were deposited in a wastebasket under the sink, and Ben was brought to heel by Hetty’s feet, Guidry said, “You know who they are.”
It wasn’t a question, but Jaz shook her head.
“I never saw any of them before. Who are they?” Her eyelids fluttered with the effort of sounding clueless.
Guidry said, “A man was killed night before last during a break-in and robbery. We have evidence that points to these young men as the perpetrators.”
She shrugged, and her face took on the look of bored adolescence painfully putting up with stupidity from adults. “So why are you telling me?”
Guidry studied her for a moment, then spoke very softly.
“They’ve been looking for you. Asking about you by name.”
I’ve seen kittens inhale in a startled jerk when something frightens them. A quick intake of breath and then they turn tail and run. Jaz made the same involuntary inhalation, and her eyes grew wide and trembly. She had been shocked and frightened just by seeing the boys’ pictures. Hearing they were asking about her had frightened her even more.
“I don’t know anything about a robbery, okay? And I didn’t have anything to do with anybody getting killed! Leave me alone! Just leave me alone!”
Sobbing, she turned to run, but Hetty caught her in a protective hug and held tight.
Over her head, Hetty said, “Lieutenant, I don’t think Jaz has anything to tell you.”
Guidry said, “The man you were with yesterday claimed to be your stepfather. Is he?”
With her face buried in Hetty’s bosom, Jaz moved her head up and down. “Uh-huh.”
“Mind giving me his name, and where the two of you are staying?”
Jaz turned her head and glared at him. “Why don’t you mind your own business!”
With a half grin, Guidry said, “Actually, this is my business. I just need a name and address.”
“We don’t live here.”
“Okay, where do you live?”
“It’s a secret, okay? I’ll get in a lot of trouble if I tell you that.”
For a moment, the kitchen went silent with all the possible implications of what she’d said. In that instant, Hetty loosened her grip, and Jaz spun away from her and tore out of the kitchen. The back door slammed against the wall as she wrenched it open, and then we heard the slapping sound of flip-flops on the paved walk around the side of the house.
Hetty put her fists on her hips and glared at Guidry. “That girl needs help, she doesn’t need to be bullied!”
Ben reacted to the anger in Hetty’s voice and yipped, which made Hetty squat beside him and stroke him calm.
Guidry sighed and picked up the mug shots from the tabletop. Sliding them into the envelope, he let a couple of beats go by before he spoke.
“Ms. Soames, some young men robbed and killed a man in his home here in Sarasota. We believe the same young men broke into another house yesterday where Dixie was. It was here in your neighborhood. They told Dixie they were looking for a girl named Jaz. Not too many girls named Jaz, so it’s a pretty good bet that she knows them. We have identified them as members of an organized gang who are under indictment for murder in L.A. We need to find them, and Jaz is the only link we have. Since she’s underage, we need to talk to her stepfather.”
Chastened, Hetty said, “I don’t believe Jaz is a bad girl, Lieutenant.”
“Good girls can get mixed up with gangs too, Ms. Soames.”
Hetty looked close to tears, and Ben made a quick puppy grunt of sympathy.
Guidry said, “When you made arrangements with Jaz to come work for you, did you get permission from her stepfather?”
Hetty’s face reddened and she avoided Guidry’s eyes. “There wasn’t time. I wrote my name and address for Jaz and gave her my phone number, but then he dragged her out without saying anything to me.”
Guidry said, “So he may not know she followed through on it?”
He was being tactful, but he was really asking if Hetty thought Jaz had sneaked away to see her.
With a note of asperity, Hetty said, “I don’t encourage children to disobey their parents, Lieutenant. But Jaz doesn’t actually seem to have a parent, at least not one who takes care of her. Her stepfather seems a hard, uncaring man. I don’t believe there’s a mother at all.”
“Why don’t you think there’s a mother?”
Hetty waved her hand at the table. “I gave her cookies when she got here and she gobbled them down so fast I asked her if she’d had breakfast. She said she hadn’t had anything since lunch yesterday, so I scrambled her some eggs and she wolfed them down too.”
Hetty seemed to take it for granted that if there were a mother in the house, she would have fed Jaz. She would have been shocked to know there had been lots of times when my mother had been too drunk to feed me and Michael.
Guidry said, “Any signs of abuse?”
“Not physical abuse, but emotional abuse is just as bad. Her stepfather seems like a verbal bully.”
In case Guidry had forgotten, I said, “And he has that underarm holster. He almost went for his gun when Big Bubba yelled at the vet’s office.”
Guidry said, “And yet he took an injured rabbit to the vet.”
Hetty and I looked at each other with the same Oh, I forgot about that! expression. Now that Guidry had reminded us, it did seem incongruous.
Guidry tapped the envelope on the table. “She didn’t say where she lives?”
“No, but I think she walked here, so it must be nearby.”
“If she comes back, would you call me?”
Hetty met his eyes with an unblinking challenge. “No, I won’t. But I’ll do my best to find out where she lives and what her stepfather’s name is.”
Guidry chewed on the inside of his cheek for a second and then nodded. “You might be able to get more out of her than I can. Just don’t get any ideas that you can save her by keeping her secrets. If she’s involved in gang activity, you’ll be obstructing an investigation if you protect her. If she’s not involved, you can help her to your heart’s content, but I still need to talk to her stepfather.”
With a brisk nod to me, he extended a hand to Hetty. “I appreciate your help, ma’am.”
Hetty allowed her hand to be swallowed in his for a moment, but I could tell she wasn’t squeezing back.
Guidry said, “I’ll let myself out.”
Hetty and I listened to the subdued closing of the front door and then we both dropped into chairs at the table.
Hetty said, “I just don’t believe that girl would be in a gang.”
I thought about the naked fear in Jaz’s face when she’d heard the boys were looking for her. She might not be in their gang, but she knew who they were and she was afraid of them. I thought about the tattoo on her ankle. Could it be the emblem of a rival gang? But if it were, that had to mean Jaz was also from L.A. If so, what was she doing here? And why did her stepfather carry that gun?
Hetty said, “She’s such a scrawny, needy little thing.”
“I know, but don’t put yourself in danger. Do what you can to help her, but don’t endanger your own safety.”
Even as I said it, I wondered if there was a bigger hypocrite in the entire world than I was. At midnight, I would be walking with Maureen down a dark path leading to her private little gazebo by the water’s edge. One of us would be carrying a duff el bag stuffed with a million dollars, and somewhere in the darkness kidnappers would be watching us from a speedboat.