said.
Jesse nodded.
“Sometimes I think everything is,” he said.
17
Jesse was in the parking lot of the Northeast Mall, talking to Molly on a cell phone.
“Where is she now,” he said.
“Just coming out of Macy’s.”
“She alone?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone around you recognize?”
“No. This is the time.”
“Okay, pick her up and bring her.”
Molly didn’t actually have a hold on Candace when they came out
of the vast shopping sprawl, but she walked close and a little behind, herding her with her right shoulder like a sheepdog.
“Hop in,” Jesse said, when they reached him.
“What do you want?” Candace said.
“We’ll talk about it when you get
in,” Jesse
said.
Molly opened the door, Candace got in, Molly closed the door.
Through the open window she looked at Jesse. He shook his head.
“Is that smart?” Molly said.
“Probably not,” Jesse said.
“I’ll take it from
here.”
Molly shrugged and nodded and walked away. Jesse knew she disapproved. Sexual harassment was an easy charge to make against a male cop alone with a woman. Jesse put the car in gear.
“You want to slump down so nobody sees you,” Jesse said, “I
won’t take it personally.”
Candace sat with her back to the car window.
“What do you want?”
“To talk,” Jesse said. “The
elaborate stuff is to make sure no
one sees you talking to me.”
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t care. But I was under the
impression you
did.”
Jesse pulled out of the parking lot and went north on Route 114.
“Where are you taking me?”
“There’s a Dunkin‘ Donuts up
here,” Jesse said. “We’ll have a
cup of coffee.”
“I don’t want to talk with you.”
“I know,” Jesse said. “But I
think you have to.”
They were quiet while Jesse drove through the take-out window and got two coffees and four cinnamon donuts. Jesse carefully opened the little window in the plastic top of both cups and handed one to Candace. He sat the donuts on the console between them, leaning against the shotgun that stood in its lock rack against the dashboard.
“Bo Marino,” Jesse said. “Kevin
Feeney, Troy
Drake.”
Candace’s shoulders hunched, her head went down. She didn’t say
anything.
“We both know they raped you,” Jesse said.
Candace hunched herself tighter.
“And we both know they threatened you about telling.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’m the police chief,” Jesse
said. “I know
everything.”
“I don’t know what you are talking
about,” Candace said in a
small voice, her eyes riveted on her own lap.
Jesse ate half a donut and drank some coffee.
“If you let them,” Jesse said,
“they will make your life
miserable as long as you live in this town.”
Candace shook her head.
“If you tell me about it,” Jesse said,
“I can give you your life
back.”
“My mother,” Candace said.
“I can help you with your mother,” Jesse said.
Candace kept staring at her lap. Jesse finished his first donut
and drank some more coffee. They were both silent. Candace’s hunched shoulders began to shake. She made no sound, but Jesse knew she was crying. He put a hand on her near shoulder.
“Off the record,” Jesse said.
“Just between you and me. No
testifying. Nobody knows you told me.”
Her shoulders continued to shake.
“Let it out,” Jesse said.
“You’re safe here. It’ll never leave the car.”
“Bo’s the football captain,”
Candace said and began to cry
outright.
Jesse took some Kleenex out of the glove compartment and put them on the dashboard in front of her. He patted her shoulder.
“He’s so strong,” she said.
Jesse stopped patting and simply rested his hand on her shoulder.
“You know behind the football field …
there’s this little
like valley … where the railroad tracks are? …
They
took me there.”
She was talking and crying at the same time. Her nose was running. She wiped it with a Kleenex.
“They force you?”
“They just … told me to come with them
… and, you
know … they are … so … so important
… you
know?”
Jesse nodded.
“Sure,” he said. “I
know.”
“And … they started … they
started talking …
dirty and they grabbed me and took my clothes off
…”
She stopped talking for a time and sobbed. Jesse waited, his hand gently on her shoulder. Finally she got enough control to talk.
“And they did it,” she said.
“All three?” Jesse said softly.
“They took turns … Two holding me down, one doing
it.”
Jesse put his head back against the car seat and closed his eyes
for a moment and took in a lot of air quietly through his nose and let it out. Candace cried, softly now, her hands folded in her lap, her head down.
“They took pictures,” she said.
Jesse nodded slowly, his head still back against the car seat, his eyes still closed.
“And they’ll pass the pictures around the school,” Jesse said.
“If you say anything.”
“Yes.”
“Have you seen the pictures?”
“I saw one,” Candace said.
“Are they in the picture?”
“One of them.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“I couldn’t stand to
look.”
“Do you have the picture?”
“I burned it.”
“Too bad,” Jesse said. “Might be
evidence.”
Candace shook her head.
“I didn’t want anybody to see
it.”
“I understand,” Jesse said.
“They threaten you any other
way?”
“They said they’d do it again. You know.
If I told. And Bo said
next time they’d hurt me.”
“Your parents know what happened to you?”
Jesse
said.
“My mother knows I was raped, but not by who.”
“Your father?”
“My mother says we can’t tell
him.”
Candace wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Jesse was still for a
moment, staring straight ahead through the car windshield, drumming his fingers on his thighs.
“Okay,” he said after a time.
“It’s our secret.”
She nodded. Jesse took a card out of his shirt pocket and wrote
his home phone number on the back.
“You can call me anytime,” Jesse said.
“About anything. It’ll be
between you and me until you say otherwise.”
She took the card.
“What are you going to do?” she said.
“I’m going to keep you out of
it,” Jesse said. “But I’m going to
find a way, sooner or later, to bust all three of them.”
“You won’t tell,” she said.
“No,” Jesse said. “I
won’t.”
“I’m so scared,” she said.
“I know,” Jesse said. “Just
remember you’re not alone anymore.
We’re in this together.”
She nodded.
“Do you want me to take you home or back to the mall.”
“The mall,” she said.
“I’m meeting my friend there at
three.”
Jesse finished his coffee and a second donut as he drove back to
the mall. When he parked near the entrance she sat for a moment in the car.
“Do you think they’ll do it
again?” she said.
“I don’t know. Try not to be alone with them. Call me whenever
you need me.”
She nodded silently.
“Thank you,” she said.