Chipped Pearls

by Helen Jacey

  I walked into the main lobby of the precinct, praying I looked the part. Alice Lucas, junior attorney-at-law.

  The lobby was dingy, the purgatory to jail hell. The walls, which needed a good coat of paint, were dotted with faded signs that no one had bothered to take down. One listed air raid instructions. Another was a poster for the Red Cross.

  Give Gladly.

  A tiny Christmas tree made out of wire and thinning tinsel had been shoved in a dull metal bucket. Somebody had bent the tip where the fairy should go. The sand the tree stood in was topped with cigarette butts. The air was stagnant with years of exhaled nicotine smoke and a distinctly masculine odor: sweat, cheap aftershave, and something leathery.

  Eau de Tough Guy.

  A wooden staircase led upstairs with a sign: Detectives and Commanding Officer. First floor.

  The uniformed cop I’d seen earlier went into a side door on the left, next to a front desk. He appeared on the other side of it. A half-drained tumbler of milk was on a smaller desk behind him. Up close, his cheeks were flushed, a sure sign he’d been drinking on the job, confirmed by rum fumes.

  ‘Can I help you, Miss?’

  ‘I would like to see someone you’re holding. Dolly Perkins.’

  He looked me up and down. ‘Why?’

  I passed him my card. ‘I work for her attorney, Sonia Parker. We need to check on our client.’

  He shrugged. ‘You can’t. She ain’t here.’

  I blinked. ‘Where is she?’

  ‘Gone.’

  ‘Released?’

  ‘Nah, she don’t get that kind of lucky.’

  ‘Where, then?’ Surely not the County Jail already?

  ‘County hospital. Got sick in the night.’ He opened a record book. ‘Left here at three a.m. by ambulance. Approximately.’

  ‘Sick? What happened? Is she okay?’ I was totally alarmed. ‘You didn’t tell Miss Parker?’ It was rhetorical. Sonia had no idea.

  ‘Not my shift. You wanna know more, ask at the hospital.’

  Was this bribe time? Surely there was some kind of record of the details. No, Alice Lucas didn’t do bribes. That could lead to trouble. But I was totally out of my depth now. I wanted to run, but needed to stay authoritative. ‘We really should have been informed.’

  ‘Yeah, well, consider yourself informed now.’

  I stared at him. Sonia must have a sixth sense, with her worries for Dolly. ‘Is the investigating detective aware of her situation?’

  ‘Yeah. He knows.’

  I stared at him. ‘This is way out of line.’

  He shrugged. ‘So write to the commander. Go to jail ward. They might let you see her. Can’t guarantee it, though.’

  Jail ward. Another high-risk visitation for a job I wasn’t even supposed to be on. I had no way of getting to Sonia. She said she was going to call me. I could just go back and wait in my office and let her find out later.

  ‘Are we done here, Miss?’

  I must have been staring into space. He had his rum-spiked milk to get back to. ‘Yes, sir. Thank you for your time.’

  The cop grunted something I couldn’t make out, his eye already on his glass. I gave him a tiny smile and left, confident he’d forgotten Alice Lucas already.

  I turned around and headed towards the daylight streaming in through the glass panels on the main doors.

  I’d made it. I should be relieved, but this situation stank. They hadn’t even bothered to call Sonia. And if Dolly was ill, or medicated, God knows what she’d be babbling. Was Detective Flannery already down there, sitting by her bed with a recorder? As Dolly had gone during the night, he’d had all morning to get at her alone in a weakened state.

  Could she be dead?

  13

  Out in the street, I scanned the area. Annie the bum might know what really happened, especially if she’d been locked up with Dolly. No sign of her.

  She couldn’t be far. I ran across the lights and along the next row of closed shops. I stopped, relieved. There she was, rummaging through the contents of a trashcan. The end of the white stole was already grimy with filth, dangling in the gutter. As I got closer, I could see there was something darker, as if it the edge of the fur had brushed brown paint. Dried blood?

  I slowed down and sidled up to her. ‘Hey. It’s Annie, isn’t it?’ I said. ‘I need your help. Were you in the cage last night with a small blonde girl? Name of Dolly Perkins?’

  Annie stood up, totally ignoring me. She clutched an empty bottle as if was pirates’ treasure, holding it upside down.

  ‘Looks like a whole lot of nothing in there.’ I said. ‘Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help you out.’

  Now she looked at me with bloodshot, puffy eyes. ‘Scram, why don’t you?’

  ‘I got liquor in my car. A whole flask of it. French brandy, good stuff.’ Alice Lucas was disappearing by the second.

  Her eyes lit up greedily. ‘You ain’t kidding?’

  I said, ‘Do I look like I’m kidding? Tell me what you saw, maybe I can give it to you, call it a Christmas gift. You were locked up last night? Did you see Dolly? Little bitty thing. Hair about this long. That fur stole you’re wearing sure looks like Dolly’s.’

  Annie scratched her head, eyeing me. ‘She gave it to me.’

  ‘She did? Why would she do that?’

  Her hand went to the fur stole, protectively. ‘Finders keepers.’

  ‘I thought you just said she gave it to you?’ She was crazy. A whole waste of time. ‘Can you just tell me what happened?’

  Her eyes flicked around. I knew that look. She would say anything for a drop. But I needed facts, and fast.

  ‘Where’s your car?’

  ‘Tell me what you know, first. If I believe you, you get a drink. And I’ll let you keep the stole.’

  ‘It’s mine now. Sure don’t need furs on death row, huh?’

  ‘Did she tell you that?’

  ‘Heard she’s on a murder beef.’ She gave an odd smile. What remained of her teeth were little yellowish-gray stumps. She was further along the path of self-annihilation than I’d realized, but maybe I could trigger an iota of empathy for Dolly.

  ‘You look like a real kind person. You can help me help Dolly. I need to know what really happened. Those cop jerks won’t say.’

  Annie frowned, confused. She wasn’t used to being taken seriously. ‘That’s too bad,’ she mumbled.

  ‘Come on, tell me what you know. Let’s sit over there.’ I pointed at a bench. I took her arm to guide her. It was bony, a worn spindle under the dirty layers which were her only padding against the cold.

  We sat down. Annie started to speak without really looking at me. ‘I’m tryin’ to get some shuteye, then they throw her in the cage. She’s bawlin’ her eyes out. I’m thinking she’s needin’ a fix. Told her them cops ain’t gonna do a damn thing, no matter how loud she hollers.’

  She tailed off.

  ‘Then what happened?’ I nudged her to continue.

  ‘I don’t remember. I’m thirsty.’

  ‘Annie. Tell me!’

  ‘She’s cryin’, yellin’, says she’s knocked up, she’s gonna lose the baby. There’s blood all over.’

  She broke off again, maddeningly.

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘Sure could use that drink.’ She coughed plaintively.

  ‘Later. Then what, Annie?’

  ‘Then she stops yelling. I guess she blacks out. Finally, a cop shows up, ambulance gets here, takes your girl away.’ Annie’s hand poked my arm. ‘Hey! Deal’s a deal.’

  ‘All right, all right.’ Dolly had almost certainly miscarried. If she survived, she would be devastated.

  I helped Annie up and we staggered over to Mabel. Annie bent down to rub her sore knee. I got the flask out of the glove compartment.

  ‘I dished! Hand it over!’ Annie’s hand shot out.

  The flask was good quality and it’d be a shame to lose it, but wasn’t I supposed to be cutting back? Giving up the fla
sk was eliminating temptation.

  And Annie had kept her word.

  ‘All right.’

  Quick as a flash, she grabbed it off me. Anticipation of a hit seemed to be an instant cure for the shakes. She twisted the lid off and knocked the contents back in one slick move, like a hustler potting the black in one.

  ‘Make it last, why don’t you?’ I said sarcastically.

  Annie waved me to shut up with her other hand as she glugged.

  ‘You really on the street? No family?’ I said, as she finished guzzling.

  Annie narrowed her eyes, wiping her mouth with a grimy sleeve. ‘My son’s over Alhambra way. His wife hates my guts. Feelin’s mutual. He ain’t got no backbone. Just like his useless pa.’

  ‘Maybe you don’t help your case. Takes two to tango.’

  ‘Family? Who needs ‘em? Rot in hell for all I care.’ Annie wobbled off.

  I half-watched her, too caught up with the mental images of what Dolly had gone through during the night.

  The sand timer of legal process was draining fast. No baby, no stay of execution if Sonia lost the case.

  But what if Dolly herself hadn’t made it?

  Damn.

  Annie wandered off. I called out, ‘How can I find you again?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t go far, feet too bad.’ Annie’s eyes suddenly brightened, tossing the empty flask in the gutter. ‘Won’t be needing that no more.’ She tottered off, flinging the stole around her neck like a defiant starlet. She yelled back at me, ‘Tell her Annie says hello!’

  Annie knew what I was doing before I did.

  I was going to jail ward.

  14

  The officer gestured at my purse. ‘Purse. Open it.’

  My heart pounding, a knot tightening in my stomach, I undid the clasp and handed it to him. I tried my best to look calm as he poked around.

  So far, so good. My second risky visit of the day as Alice Lucas.

  The fact the cop was letting me inside meant Dolly had to be in an okay condition.

  You wouldn’t know the jail ward was even part of the hospital. Security doors divided the general population from the sick and incarcerated. Another uniformed guard stood by these doors. He hadn’t once taken his suspicious eyes off me.

  ‘Wait through there. The nurse will escort you.’ The cop had finished with my purse. I headed towards the guard, who began to unlock the door, still eyeing me.

  He held the door open for me, and I felt his glare boring through my back.

  I was inside. Back in a jail. My heart pounded and I could barely breathe. The guard locked the door from the inside. It struck me that I was a prisoner in here until he decided otherwise. I just wanted the whole thing over and done with.

  What the hell are you doing this for?

  I waited in the cold corridor. The place was cheerless, devoid of any sign of Christmas celebrations.

  It was windowless, the air stagnant. The smell of jail wards everywhere, disinfectant mingling with the desperation of the criminal class. Funny how in Holloway, girls would feign fevers, flu and migraines to get to lie in the cold brass beds of the medical wing. The food was slightly better there and at least you could get out of your cell for a while.

  I didn’t want to be here. I wasn’t supposed to be here.

  Christmas Day was going from bad to worse.

  A frazzled nurse came out of a door on the right and closed it behind her.

  The guard spoke. ‘Visitor for Dolly Perkins. You got ten minutes.’ He said the last part to me.

  ‘I might need longer. She’s my client.’ I frowned, trying to conceal the dread inside with a professional demeanor. My hands and face were clammy with sweat.

  ‘Ten minutes,’ he repeated.

  ‘This way, Miss. I’m sure she’ll be pleased to have a visitor.’ The nurse led the way.

  When the guard was out of earshot, I asked the nurse. ‘Is Miss Perkins okay?’

  ‘She’s doing just fine. Most women survive miscarriages if they’re treated fast and the cops brought her as quick as they could.’

  No, they did not.

  ‘So…she lost the baby?’

  The nurse shot me a Have you even been listening? look.

  I tried to look apologetic. ‘Sorry. My boss asked me to step in today. It’s not the best of days, to be honest.’

  ‘I’ve been working since six this morning. And it’s Christmas. But if criminals don’t stop, we can’t.’

  ‘How do you know she’s a criminal? They haven’t charged her yet.’

  She gave me a withering look. ‘She can’t be decent if they had reason to arrest her on suspicion of homicide.’

  I ignored this. ‘Is she sedated? Can she talk?’

  ‘Oh, she’s talking all right. And no sweet talk. She’s only had something for her stomach cramps.’

  ‘Have any detectives visited?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  If she started at six, the nurse might not know what went down last night.

  She stopped. ‘This one.’

  The women’s ward had four iron-framed beds, small metal cabinets, and not much else. A gloomy dump.

  Dolly lay in the corner on her side, facing the door. Her hopeless eyes were blank, one of her thin arms lying across her recently vacated womb. Somebody had cleaned off her makeup; she looked about fifteen years old. And in her faded striped pajamas, every inch the inmate.

  A manacle tethered her leg to the bed.

  I made my way over towards her. Dolly’s dull eyes glanced at me. ‘Leave me alone, will ya?’ Miserable, but not doped up. She rolled onto her other side, the chain clinking, to face the wall. The hair at the back of her head was a yellow, matted mess. Her pajama top slid up. I caught a glimpse of a long purple scar on her back. An old welt? Instinctively Dolly’s hand slipped back around and pulled the top down. She muttered to the wall. ‘That beauty’s compliments of my step-daddy.’

  I pulled up a metal chair. ‘That sucks.’

  ‘You bet.’

  ‘Turn around, Dolly. I heard about the baby. I’m very sorry.’

  She pulled her knees to her chest. ‘They let it die!’

  And you didn’t call anyone for Ronald Hunter, I thought. Karma’s a bitch.

  ‘I’ll make sure Sonia knows about it. Look, I don’t have long. Has anyone questioned you in here?’ I kept my voice low.

  ‘I don’t care what happens to me. I’m through with it all.’

  I glanced behind me. Luckily, the nurse was outside the door, talking to another nurse. They were laughing.

  I hissed at Dolly. ‘Don’t talk like that! Answer the goddamned question! Has the detective visited you? You say anything to that nurse, anybody? Turn around, will you?

  Slowly, she rolled back around. Dolly shook her head without looking at me. So far, so good.

  ‘I ain’t said nothing to nobody.’

  Maybe Flannery couldn’t be bothered to leave his own Christmas celebrations to quiz someone whose conviction was already looking like a slam dunk. As Lauder had said, Dolly seemed guilty as hell. Cut and dried. Flannery could crucify her at his leisure.

  I could relax, too; the risks of running into him today were low. ‘You sure?’

  ‘Think I’m that dumb?’

  Was that a tear rolling down her cheek? I resisted an urge to sit on the bed and console her. I said, ‘I’ve been there too, exactly where you are now. Hating the very air you breathe. Feeling your life’s over. But guess what? One day, things get better. The nightmare will fade.’

  Who was I kidding? I still remembered exactly how she felt as if it was yesterday. Washed up, betrayed and friendless.

  ‘You been in jail?’

  I resisted an urge to share. ‘Been in a some jams, sure.’

  She absorbed this. ‘Unless you been banged up, you got no idea. So quit pretending. I know what’s gonna happen to me, so quit your pep talk, an’ all.’ Her voice was devoid of emotion.

  ‘Sonia’s a real good
attorney. You’ve got to hope for the best and keep your mouth shut. You haven’t been charged yet, so sit tight.’

  Now she met my eyes. ‘If they kill me, I’ll be closer to him, won’t I? My baby son. Born on Christmas Day.’

  There was no answer to that. She surveyed me. ‘You got kids?’

  I shook my head.

  ‘So you ain’t got nowhere better to be today? All on your lonesome?’

  Now it was my turn to avoid her eyes. ‘We care about you, Dolly, and we’re doing our best to help you. So try to remember that, all right? And for the record, I’m going by the name of Alice Lucas, Parker’s assistant. So forget about my other name, if anyone asks.’

  Dolly sat up. She wiped her big eyes. ‘It’s all right, Alice. I remember who you are.’

  She sounded more rational. I wanted to pat her hand, give her a hug, but something made me hold back. ‘Well, so long.’