Larkspur (9 page)

“
After talking and
pointing out the guys, my sister’s better than she’s been,” the
older girl said. The older girl looked from Wanda to Tink and Sissy
before adding, “If you
ever
need help, you let me know. Me or any of my
friends.”

“
Frankie,” a girl near the
corner piped up and said to Wanda. “That your
boyfriend?”

Wanda nodded.

“
He’s fine,” another girl
said. “So’s that Charlie.”

The girls nodded to Sissy.

“
Charlie’s dating Tink.”
Sissy couldn’t help but sound like a snot.

The girls turned to look at Tink and she
blushed.

“
What’s going on in here,
Jen?” asked another older girl as she came in the
bathroom.

“
They were hassling Tink,
Sissy, and Wanda,” the older girl said.

“
Assholes,” her friend
called out the door. “Hey you guys, Sissy, Tink and Wanda are in
here.”

The older girl made a path through the
sophomore girls. Tink followed by Wanda with Sissy at the back,
went through the tunnel of sophomores. They got out into the hall
and the older girls clapped for them. Tink blushed and moved closer
to Sissy and Wanda. They did their best to keep moving. They got to
their next class and sat down in the front. Beaming, Sissy looked
at Tink and then at Wanda.

“
What?” Wanda
asked.

“
Nothing,” Sissy said.
“Seems like we’re not freaks anymore.”

“
Speak for yourself,”
Wanda said.

Tink laughed, Sissy giggled in response, and
Wanda smiled. They giggled until the teacher started class.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday afternoon — 3:27 p.m.

Sandy smiled at her own brilliance. She’d
made good use of her light schedule and called Alex Hargreaves. The
room was full of soldiers. The new hairstylists were working on
some wives of young servicemen while Sandy had Alex’s team lined up
for haircuts and shaves.

Agent Rasmussen was sitting in her stylist
chair. Sandy put her hands on his shoulders.

“
What would you like
today?” Sandy asked.

Raz’s intelligent eyes smiled at her and she
knew she’d been caught.

“
We’re never going to
complain, Sandy,” Alex’s friend Troy said from under warm moist
towels. “But you just can’t expect to fool us.”

“
Good deal all around, I’d
say,” Alex laughed from where she was sitting under the hair
dryers.

“
No complaints here,”
Alex’s assistant Dusty said.

Colin Hargreaves chuckled from the chair
next to Raz’s.

“
Then tell me what’s going
on,” Sandy said. “I have little kids at home who are
waiting . . . Noelle wakes up screaming every
night . . . and . . .”

Sandy’s emotions rushed forward and she
stopped talking. Raz put his hand over her right hand. Their eyes
met in the mirror.

“
It’s our fault that no
one has anything to tell you,” Raz said. “We’re holding out for a
specific outcome.”

“
What?” Sandy
asked.

“
That the kids don’t have
to testify,” Colin said. “The DPD are trying to get the boys to
confess. They’ve gotten to a few . . .
but . . .”

“
The boys are terrified of
the ring leader,” Raz said. “He’s got ties to a couple of prison
gangs. He’s told them they will suffer if they say anything about
him.”

“
Which means the kids will
have to testify,” Alex said.

Raz nodded.

“
Wanda’s case is cut and
dried,” Raz said. “Hate crime. Five or six targets. She, Frankie,
and her father gave good evidence to that fact. That case will move
forward without a hitch.”

“
Charlie? Noelle?” Sandy
looked at the back of Raz’s head. She glanced at Colin.
“Tink?”

“
Any of the thirty or
forty girls and women,” Colin said. “We have to line up the
dots.”

“
Dots?” Sandy
asked.

“
Specific testimony must
match specific forensics from the crime,” Raz said. “The forensics
have to be consistent with video evidence. We need to place the
defendants at the place of the crime at the time and day the
assault happened.”

“
Takes time,” Colin
said.

“
The Denver Police have a
little team that’s wading through a year of grainy video tape from
ATMs and intersections, not to mention mounds of rape kits,
forensic fibers,” Raz said. “Money’s tight. Most of them work on
their own time — nights and weekends.”

“
In the meantime, there’s
pressure to release the boys,” Colin said. “Many of them aren’t
sixteen yet. Their parents pressure politicians
and . . .”

“
Charlie, Noelle, and Tink
get lost in the mix,” Sandy said in a low tone.

“
Don’t despair, Sandy,”
Alex said. “We’ve been able to recruit agents and forensic teams
from all over the country.”

“
We’ve connected this case
to other cases in other places,” Raz nodded. “That makes it easier
to recruit help and money. We’re going to get these
guys.”

“
What about the boys who
bought the videos?” Sandy asked.

“
Agent Angie should be
here in a bit to talk to you about them,” Alex said.

“
The child pornography
laws are really clear,” Colin said. “The rest of
this . . .”

“
You mean the boys who
bought the videos could get longer sentences than the boys who did
the raping?” Sandy asked.

“
We’re holding out for
specific outcomes,” Raz repeated.

“
A lot of those boys
didn’t even watch the videos,” Sandy said. “They bought them
because they felt pressured and . . .”

“
Exactly,” Colin
said.

“
Agent Angie’s coming to
town to see if, as victims, you guys can help us get the outcomes
we think would work,” Alex said. “For the boys who bought the
videos only.”

“
Outcomes?” Sandy
asked.

“
Rehab for boys willing to
tell us everything they know,” Colin said.

“
Help us build a case,”
Raz said.

“
Rehab?” Sandy
asked.

“
Drugs are a key component
of this case,” Raz said.

“
And the sex?” Sandy
asked. “They watched this brutal . . .”

“
Rehab,” Colin said. “If
we come to some decision about the purchasers, we can tighten up
the other case. But with so many perpetrators and so many
victims . . .”

“
The sheer number makes
people look at unacceptable solutions,” Raz said.

“
Such as?”

“
Probation for first
offenders,” Colin said. “No record for rapists willing to testify
against the leader.”

“
Unacceptable solutions,”
Raz said.

Sandy nodded. Overwhelmed by the prospect
that the rapists would get away with it, Sandy turned her attention
to her work. Sandy focused on clipping Raz’s hair and the team
returned to talking and laughing. Margaret and Leena came from the
back with their long hair wrapped in plastic wrap. Sandy’s
assistant set them under the dryers and took Alex to the back.
Sandy finished Raz’s hair and wrapped his face in a warm towel. She
touched his shoulder before starting to work on Troy. His curly mop
of hair took her full attention. Remembering what Jill had asked
her to ask them, Sandy looked up.

“
Has anyone heard of
Experiri Genetics?” Sandy asked.

Alex’s team stopped talking and looked at
Sandy. The room had become so quiet that Sandy could hear the new
stylists laughing with their customers.

“
I’m sorry, Sandy,” Raz
pulled the towels off his face and sat up. “What did you
say?”

“
Experiri Genetics,” Sandy
said. “Have you heard of it?”

“
Why?” Alex Hargreaves was
standing in the doorway from the back.

“
Where did you hear that
name?” Raz asked.

“
Jill.” Sandy looked from
Colin to Alex, and then back at Raz. “Why?”

“
How did Jill hear about
Experiri?” Alex asked.

“
There was a form in her
medical file,” Sandy said. “We’re not lawyers, but someone said
this Experiri Genetics could take one of her boys.”

Sandy watched Alex and Raz communicate
without a sound. Alex’s eyes flicked to Dusty. He gave a slight
nod.

“
Do you think I could take
a look at the form?” Dusty asked.

“
Sure,” Sandy said. “I’ll
call Jill. She was going to come but with
everything . . .”

Sandy looked flustered. She took her iPhone
from the drawer by her station. Holding the iPhone, she looked
up.

“
You mean they can take
Jill’s baby?” Sandy asked.

“
As a matter of national
security,” Raz said.

Sandy’s head jerked to look at Alex. Her
face was unreadable. She was about to say something when Dusty
stepped in front of her.

“
Why don’t I get the form
from her?” Dusty smiled at Sandy.

“
She’s just around the
corner,” Sandy smiled.

“
At the Castle?” Dusty
asked, and Sandy nodded. “I’ll go.”

“
If you want,” Sandy
shrugged, “I’ll let her know you’re coming.”

When she got off the phone everyone was
talking again. She finished up with Troy and started trimming
Colin’s hair. Before Sandy knew it, Alex and Raz were gone.

“
What was that?” Sandy
asked Leena when she sat down in her chair.

“
Spy crap,” Leena said.
“They get all
Spy vs. Spy
a couple times a day. You can’t pay any attention
to it.”

“
But . . .”
Sandy started.

“
It could be something
that happened this year,” Colin said. “Or forty years
ago.”

“
Or something that might
have happened forty years ago.” Troy shrugged.

“
Seriously,” Margaret
said. “You have to just ignore them.”

Sandy nodded. By the time she finished the
rest of the team’s hair, her day was over. She was cleaning up when
she remembered what happened when she mentioned Experiri Genetics.
She thought about calling Jill but decided to go home instead. By
the time she got home, she’d forgotten it completely.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday night — 9:52 p.m.

Jacob yawned and opened the door to the
loft. He knew that Jill was tired. He knew Katy should be sound
asleep. He just hoped he might see them. He stood at the door
pouting for a moment before going into the kitchen. He used his
hands to take off his Lipson shirt while he used his psychokinetic
skill to get a beer from the refrigerator. He popped the top of the
beer while it was sliding across the counter toward him. The beer
hit a seam in the granite just as the cap came off. Beer and foam
spewed onto the counter and floor. Jacob hopped around the counter
to clean up the mess. When he looked up Jill was standing there.
Her smirk indicated that she had seen the whole thing. He
laughed.

She got out the mop while he worked on the
counter. Before she could wipe the floor, he took the mop from her
and made quick work of the small space.

“
Sorry,” he
said

She laughed. His head jerked to look at her.
He laughed. She went to the refrigerator to get another beer. She
reached into the refrigerator and then looked to her left.

“
What?” he
asked.

“
I think we have some
feral cats,” Jill said.

“
Cats?” Jacob
asked.

She turned around and gave him the beer.

“
I keep seeing them,” Jill
said. “You know, out of the corner of my eye.”

“
What kind of cats?” Jacob
used his hands to twist of the cap.

“
Black cats.” Jill
shrugged.

“
Like
panthers?”

“
Like cats,” Jill said.
“They look like Cleo but all black. I was talking to Delphie one
morning in her apartment. Cleo hissed and arched her back at
something. I saw this black cat scamper off.”

“
It’s always possible,”
Jacob shrugged. “We could have an entire wing of cat housing and
never know it.”

Jill smiled.

“
How are you?” Jacob
asked.

“
Good,” Jill smiled. “Dr.
Anna liked the space. She hinted that she wouldn’t mind working
there all the time. It’s better than the clinic she
has.”

“
I’ll talk to Delphie,”
Jacob nodded.

“
I doubt she wants it full
time,” Jill said. “But a day downtown… That’s what she said
anyway.”

“
Why don’t I talk to her
and see what makes sense?” Jacob took a drink of his
beer.

“
How was today?” Jill
asked. “Aden said it was a little wild.”

“
Wild,” Jacob nodded.
“Yes. I just left Tres. We put more money on the books today than
we did any of the days at the big project.”

“
How?” Jill
asked.

“
The employees,” Jacob
nodded. “Excuse me, the owners. They came up with little ways to
make money. Wanda’s dad, Erik, and the plumbers sold most of the
toilets we bought for the large project. By mid-day I was talking
to our supplier about getting more. A team out in the Highlands
stumbled on a guy who’s rehabbing almost an entire block. He needs
his basements dug out. We’re taking down a couple garages near
here. I…”