Carey made a rude noise and said, "Let's get a truck over here. You go get your friends lined up."
Carey called a Channel Three van, and let Letty out to talk to the skaters while she took her SUV to a parking garage up the block. Letty got her cell phone out and called Juliet Briar: "Where are you?"
"Still at home. Randy's sleeping," Briar said.
"Tell him that a guy called for a date, and that you'll walk down," Letty said. "I got some money."
After a moment's silence, Briar said, "Okay."
"Call me when you get out."
The leader of the skate gang was named Marv, a burly, cheerful busted-faced guy with a shaven head and jeans so old that they looked like paper. He was wearing a T-shirt that said, "Mathews Solocam, Catch Us If You Can," that was washed thinner than the jeans.
He held out a fist and they bumped knuckles and he said, "How are you, babe?"
"Don't call me babe," Letty said, but she said it with her happy face, and she asked, "So who's who?"
There were seven guys and one girl among the skaters, and all of them desperately wanted to be on television. As Marv introduced them, Letty kept looking at the girl, with her dry, underfed, feral face, thinking that she was the one; but she had to keep Marv and the others happy, too. A management problem.
After the introductions, she said, "Listen, we've got a van coming with a camera. I'll want to talk to Marv, and then to Jean, because she's a girl, and we don't have that many girl skaters, and then maybe whoever ' but I'd like to see some runs, if you got anything that's good."
One of the kids, a too-tall teenager with a bandaged hand, said, "We were jumping barrels…"
"That's terrific, that's great," Letty said. "Why don't you guys get set up with the barrels and we'll get shots of you skating, and then I'll do a couple of quick interviews."
Carey came back and Letty explained the situation to her, off to the side, and said, "Take a look at Jean's face. Isn't that a great face?"
Carey looked at her, then said, "You really are going to be good at this. That's acom' great comface."
The van showed, and the kids gathered around the cameraman, whose name was Mike, not really believing that it was going to happen. So the kids did their tricks and Mike even lay on the ground behind a trash barrel that they were jumping and had a kid jump over him, which got everybody laughing.
Briar called and said, "I'm out, I'm walking down the hill."
Letty: "I'm doing an interview in Mears Park. You know where that is?"
"Yeah. I can come there."
Letty did a quick stand-up with Marv and a longer one with Jean, then they all bumped knuckles and the skaters took off. Letty did a couple of shots alone, putting up some background, and then she saw Briar standing on the sidewalk, watching.
Off-camera, she walked over to Carey and said, "I've got somebody you need to meet."
"Who?"
"Come on," and she grabbed the older woman's elbow and pulled her over toward Briar.
They got hot dogs and talked for half an hour. Letty dug harder into Briar's passivity; to her way of thinking, if she could replace Randy Whitcomb as Briar's boss, she would be making progress.
Carey, on the other hand, was fascinated by Briar's story and her relationship with Whitcomb. "He can't possibly love you. He treats you like an animal," Carey said. "He loves himself, he doesn't love you. I mean, he doesn't, Juliet."
"You don't know him," Briar said defensively.
Letty pushed: "She's right. He doesn't love you. If you think he does-well, you're wrong."
Briar flinched, and put her head down, and said, "Okay," and Carey looked at Letty and said, "Get off her back, Letty. Jeez."
"I'm just backing you up," Letty said.
"I'm discussing," Carey said. "You're pushing her around."
"Letty's okay, she's a friend," Briar mumbled.
"Going home is out of the question?" Carey asked.
"As long as Don is around," Briar said. "He won't leave me alone, and Mom doesn't believe me when I tell her about him."
"You're sixteen?" Carey asked.
"Almost seventeen. Next month," Briar said.
"And Don's a mailman. So he's got to be quite a bit older."
"He's forty, I think," Briar said. "He's ' an asshole."
"I don't want to embarrass you," Carey said, "but I've got to ask. What does he do?"
"Well, you know, he grabs me, he feels me up, he comes in the bathroom when I'm taking a shower-he's got a nail thing that he can push in the doorknob, and open it even when it's locked. He gets naked and he comes out and grabs me, and rubs himself on me. He's come into my bedroom naked and gotten in bed, and when I tried to get out, he's, you know, held me…"
"Hasn't raped you?"
"No, but he will, if I go back," Briar said. "He came into my bedroom naked and got in bed with me, when I was asleep, and when I woke up, he was all over me. He was trying to push my head down by his cock, and I bit him right here"-she touched her hip bone-"and he bled all over and was screaming at me ' Mom pretended like she didn't hear."
"You've seen him naked," Carey said. "Does he have any identifying marks, you know, around his penis, or on his butt? You know, something you couldn't have seen if he wasn't naked?"
Briar thought for a minute and then said, "Well' he shaves. You know, he shaves his cock and his balls. He does have a big brown spot, like a football shape, where the hair should be."
"Great!"
"And when I bit him, I bit a piece out of him," Briar said, with satisfaction. She smiled with the memory. "That's why he was bleeding so much. I bit out a piece and spit it on the floor. Not a big piece, but you know, enough that he was really bleeding."
"So he'll have a scar," Letty said.
"Oh, yeah."
"How long ago was that?" Carey asked.
"Last spring. I ran away in June ' and met Randy."
"Okay, then. We can handle Don," Carey said. "We can get rid of him. If we get rid of him, could you go back home?"
"Maybe," Briar said. She was twisting her hands, and then she said, "Maybe Randy doesn't love me. But you know what? He needs me. He needs me to take him around, and to rub his shoulders and his back, and clean him up. In my whole life, he's the only person who ever needed me. Who ever wanted me around. Except Don, I guess."
Letty leaned forward: "You want to be needed, become a nurse. Not a hooker. God. Juliet."
Briar looked doubtful, and Carey said, "Let's get rid of Don for a start. When we get rid of Don, and Juliet has a place to stay, then maybe we can make some progress."
Carey got up, and Letty said to her, "I need to walk with Juliet for one minute. I swear to God it won't be any longer than that. I'll be right back."
"What don't you want me to hear?" Carey asked.
Letty said, "Come on, Juliet. I'll be right back, Jen."
Down the sidewalk, Letty pressed seventy dollars into Juliet's hand. "Is that enough?"
"That should be," Briar said, and showed a little sparkle. "He hasn't caught me yet."
"He won't catch you," Letty said. "I can get some more money. We'll meet tomorrow-I'll call you. Remember what I said?"
"Yup." Briar showed a little grin. "Lie like a motherfucker."