“Oh God…” Decker sighed. It was heartfelt. He leaned back and inched away from her. “I did a lot of Juvenile before I transferred to Homicide. You do Juvie, you deal with lots of sex crimes involving minors. That’s what it was, Jen. A sex crime. Because at fourteen, it certainly wasn’t anything you did. It was all about what he did. And what he did… was a sex crime.”
The tears going full force.
“They’re all the same… all of them.” Decker raked his hands through his hair. “They’re all monsters.” Another sigh. “Raping your wife’s fourteen-year-old kid sister. It doesn’t get any lower than that.”
No one spoke.
“Yes, it does,” she whispered. “It does get lower.”
Decker waited.
“No one believed me. My sister…” Jen clasped her shaking hands. “She called me a lying little slut. My father beat me. My mother stood by and didn’t do anything. They put my daughter in a foster home. When they tried to force me to sign papers… putting her up for adoption… I ran away.”
“What a mess! I am so sorry.”
“Mr. Donatti… he took me in. He-” She was choking back sobs. “He introduced me to my… to my husband. He… he was one of Mr. Donatti’s clients.” She wiped her face. “My husband… he proposed to me on my eighteenth birthday. Mr. Donatti told me to go for it… to marry him. He told me that he’d take care of me. And he does… my husband takes good care…” Another sniff. “He takes very good care of me. He loves me very much.”
“I’m sure he does, Jen. Who wouldn’t love you?”
She tried to stem her weeping. “My husband… he helped me get her back-helped me get my daughter from her foster parents. He paid for the lawyer; he paid for everything.” Again she broke into tears. “Oh God, I’m so stupid.”
“Hey, it’s okay.”
“No, it’s not! When Mr. Donatti finds out-”
“He won’t find out because neither one of us is going to tell him.”
She looked away and sobbed out, “He’ll find out!”
“So big effing deal!” Decker took her chin and turned her face to his. He looked her in the eye. “I’ll handle Donatti, all right?”
She didn’t answer.
Decker let go of her face, riding out her crying. Finally, after it had subsided, he said, “Jen, that Quinton girl I was telling you about? The one who was murdered?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know her at all?”
“No.” She sighed a sob and shuddered. “Just what I read in the papers.”
“That’s why I’m here. To find out who killed her.”
She didn’t comment.
“She was only fifteen, Jen. Just like you when you gave birth. Only she never had a chance to redeem herself-like you did.”
“I haven’t really redeemed myself. Working day in and day out with ugly men and perverts leering at my boobs and butt, trying to grab a piece of my snatch.”
“You look like you can handle yourself very well.”
“I hate it!”
“Then why don’t you quit?”
She couldn’t look at him. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”
“He won’t let you?”
“No, not at all. I don’t think he’d care. He’s got others to take my place. And this is actually a paying job.”
“Unlike the other assignments he’s given you?”
“Mr. Donatti has been nothing but wonderful to me.”
Staunchly loyal. Go figure. Decker said, “Then why don’t you quit?”
“You’ll think I’m horrible.”
“Nah, I’ve heard it all.”
She didn’t answer.
“Hey, try me!”
She sighed. “I love my husband, I really do. But he’s fifty-six, Lieutenant. And he’s not a healthy fifty-six at that. He’s had a difficult life. His first wife died after a ten-year battle with breast cancer. He has chronic heart problems… high blood pressure. We don’t do too much… obviously, we do something. We have a son. But it’s not… you know. And after what I’ve gone through… that’s really okay with me. But still, there are times…” A pause. “Mr. Donatti… he comes here occasionally… to check up on what’s going on. He’s… he’s a good-looking guy. I’m still young, you know.”
Her eyes begged to be understood.
Decker smiled. “Got it.”
Her voice got tiny. “It’s just that I feel comfortable with him. Protected. I know he uses me-that’s what those guys do-but he’s been okay about it.” Silence. “Not a lot of choices for a fifteen-year-old on the streets. I’ve heard some real horror stories. I turned out okay considering…”
No one spoke.
“We’re not that different, you know-me and Mr. Donatti. I’m a user, too.”
Meaning her husband. Decker said, “I understand what it is to feel… indebted. I’ve got a few buds like that myself. One of them… helped me out in Vietnam. Saved my life actually. No matter what he does to screw himself up, I always feel obligated to pull him out of the muck.”
“You’re a real good listener, you know that?” She pulled her legs straight out, yanked down on her nonexistent skirt, and laid her head on his shoulder. “Sure I can’t do anything for you?”
“You can do a lot for me, and I don’t mean sex.”
She sat up. “So… you really want information only?”
“Yes,” Decker said.
“Your wife must be amazing.”
“She is. Tell me about Merrin.”
“Horny old goat. Looks the other way when it comes to this place.”
“Donatti pays him off?”
Her shrug told him he was on the right track.
“Does Merrin look the other way with other things?”
“Like what?”
“Like if I wanted to score ecstasy, would I go to Merrin?”
“I have no idea.” She faced him. “That’s the truth. I only know Merrin as a client.”
“Well, who would I go to?”
“I don’t know. I don’t do drugs.”
“What about some of the other girls? I know you have a few here who also work at Tattlers.” Decker took a stab in the dark. “I’ve heard you can get a variety of pharmaceuticals over there.”
“Plunkett, right?”
“Right,” Decker lied.
“Figures. He’s a real jerk, but he’s a good source for referrals.”
“So maybe those girls would know about scoring… the ones who work at Tattlers?”
“You’d have to ask them. We don’t have anything on the premises, that much I know.”
“Anyone here from Tattlers that I can talk to?”
“Maybe Angela. She’ll be free in a half hour or so.”
“Could you set that up without calling him first?” A smile. “Please, Jen?”
She looked at him and shrugged.
Decker didn’t push her. “So you know the people in these townships pretty well?”
Jen laughed softly and bitterly. “I know the horny ones.”
“What about the boys?”
“Lots of horny boys.”
“Ryan Anderson and Philip Caldwell.”
Her face darkened. “I know Caldwell. He came in about two months ago. Right when he turned eighteen. Rich threw him out.”
“Who’s Rich?”
“The bouncer.”
“The one who’s behind the paneling in the lobby.”
Her expression was stunned. “You don’t miss a trick-oh, that’s right. I went there to phone Mr. Donatti.”
“Yeah, but I figured it out before. You kept looking over your shoulder. So Rich threw Caldwell out. Why?”
“He was roughing up the girl. It was Angela, come to think of it. Rich got to her before the little prick could do real damage. All the rooms have video cameras.”
Decker laughed. “Oh really?”
She pointed to the crystal chandelier.
“Rich must like his job,” Decker said.
“He’s gay and all business.” She looked down. “Everything’s being recorded. Eventually, Mr. Donatti’s gonna see the video. He’s gonna hit the ceiling.”
Decker patted her knee. “Look, Jen. He wanted you to pump me for information using whatever means, right?”
She was quiet.
“He knows me. Sex wouldn’t be an option. That means he knows you’d have to feed me info to keep me talking. My questions will tell him a lot. Was he pissed, by the way… Donatti?”