He passed the photo over and Weimer looked at it for a second, or two, then nodded and said, "Hell yes. That's her. Who is she?"
Lucas took the photo back and said, "I don't know. But I will find out."
"Beat the shit out of her, for me," Weimer said. "Do that, and I'll get you a personalized autographed picture from the next president."
Lucas said, "You know who it's going to be?"
"Doesn't matter," Weimer said. "Either one. We're covered both ways."
***
AS soon as he could use his cell phone, on the way out of the hospital, he called Carol and said, "Jenkins is on the way back. Grab him, get Shrake, see if you can shake Del loose, he's wandering around town somewhere, doing his homeless act' Meet in the office in twenty minutes."
In the car, he called Mitford, the governor's man, and said, "We're meeting in my office in twenty minutes to talk about the people pulling these robberies. You might want to come by."
"The cop thing yesterday ' is that going to break it open?" Mitford asked.
"Maybe, but maybe not," Lucas said. "The money is getting to be less important, in a way."
"All right. I'm over at the X. I can be there in twenty, if I can get through town at all."
"You're the guy who wanted to have the convention here," Lucas said.
"Hey, I think it's a great success and another sign that Minnesota is marching into a future that gets brighter and brighter minute by minute. See ya."
***
They gathered in Lucas's office, and Lucas kicked Carol out, despite her curiosity, and said to the cops, "You all know Neil'"
Then he told them about it, about the money in briefcases and satchels, about the robberies, about the killing of the cop in Hudson, about Lily Rothenburg's story of the cop murders in New York, and about the Latina-looking woman and the dead kid in D.c.
"We're dealing with murder as a policy. They've killed at least four people and that's only the ones we know about," Lucas said. "They're a murder gang, and they're here, and we need to run them down."
"I didn't know," Mitford said.
"Nobody did-not really. We're coming in the back door on this," Lucas said. "Now, we've got to start pushing some buttons. I want to put this woman's face out there. One of those "Do you know this woman?"' deals on national TV. I can go back to Lily on that, and she can help: she's already plastering the place with Cohn's photo."
"What about me?" Del asked. "I've spent a lot of time getting tight with these protesters. I'm doing the sheriff's office some good, and the St. Paul cops."
"Stay with it until we get something we can use-and then I may have to pull you off," Lucas said. "My feeling is, the big convention trouble is about over, after the arrests yesterday. Maybe more on Thursday, the big McCain day, but' if we need you, we need you."
Del nodded: "Okay."
Shrake: "The question is, where are they? After the trouble in Hudson, they know we're papering the motels. So where are they staying? Out-state? Or have they taken off?"
"Condos," Jenkins said. "There are probably six hundred condos around town with nobody in them and the developers have been renting them out to the Republicans, to the media, to anyone who wants one. If they knew about that'"
"They would," Lucas said. "They've got good intelligence."
"Then that may be the answer," Jenkins said to Lucas. "Your pal
Ralph Warren, you know, with all his connections everywhere ' maybe they went through him. He had a couple hundred empty condos."
"Yeah, well. He's dead," Lucas said. Warren hadn't been a pal, and though Lucas had tried to keep him alive, he'd failed.
"Even if he's dead, there's still gotta be a business manager somewhere," Jenkins said. "Somebody's got to be running the company."
Lucas jabbed a finger at him: "I'll buy your idea. You and Shrake start running down condo managers, the ones with vacancies."
"Maybe we should hold off on the woman's picture for a couple of days," Del said. "Maybe we can spot her without the TV. If we spook her, and she takes off ' it's one thing we've got that they don't know about."
Lucas thought about it, then said, "Okay. A day. If we come up with anything, we can stretch it out. After that, we're going with the TV. I'll get Carol to print up photos of Cohn and this woman for you guys to take around town."
He turned to Mitford: "At night' they've been hitting these guys at night, because it's easier to locate them, and it's easier to operate without letting their faces be seen. We need the names of the four or five biggest money dealers that you still see out there, and we'll put somebody in their rooms. See if we can ambush them."
"I don't know if they'll go for that," Mitford said.
"They'll have to do their deals somewhere else. Maybe they can rent two rooms. But that's what we need, Neil. We got four dead."
Mitford nodded: "I'll make some calls."
***
Letty had twenty dollars from Lucas when she walked in the door at Channel Three that morning. The receptionist buzzed her through the security gate and she walked back past the studios, where the Bob & Jane morning show was unwinding. She nodded to the weatherman, who walked by, on his way to do a thirty-second bit, shaking peanuts out of a cellophane bag, and said, "You've got something stuck to your cheek."
He said, "What is it?"
"Peanut skin?" She brushed it off. "Gone now."
"Thanks."
***
She went on her way, turned into the greenroom, where people waited for their turn on Bob & Jane, got two sweet rolls, and ate them on the way back to Jennifer Carey's office. She'd had breakfast, but not much-she and Lucas were both light eaters in the morning. She realized on the way over that since she planned to give the twenty dollars to Juliet, she'd better get a couple of sweet rolls when she could.
A coffee niche, for employees only, was located down the hall from Carey's office. She stopped there, looked around, stepped inside, and picked up the coffee donation can and peeled off the plastic lid. Three or four dollars. Not worth taking.
She needed eighty dollars more, although a hundred would be better, she thought-enough to convince Whitcomb that Juliet had been working.
Down the hall, she found Carey poking at her computer. Carey looked up and said, "Hi, good-lookin'," with just enough forced cheer that Letty instantly knew who'd ratted her out. It might have been Lois, but it had gone through Carey to Lucas.
"You ratted me out," she said.
Carey started to deny it, and then gave it up: "You're too young. You don't think so, but you are. When I was your age, I thought I was twenty-eight, too, but I wasn't."
"How old were you when you shot your first cop?" Letty asked.
"Letty that's not fair." Carey was a hockey mom, and sometimes acted like one.
"How old were you when you first drove your drunk mother home from the bar?" Letty asked.
"Letty…" Carey was getting flustered.
"How old were you when you first stole money to get something to eat?" Letty was all over her now.
"For Christ's sakes, I gotta do what I think is best," Carey said. "You're fourteen."
Letty leaned into it: "I know how old I am. When it comes to trouble, I am twenty-eight. Try not to forget that the next time you turn me in."
Carey rolled her eyes: "I don't want to fight with you."
"I'm done," Letty said. "But I need a ride to St. Paul and I need a camera in the park. I talked to some street kids-not prostitutes, just skaters from St. Paul-who are going to skate in one of the marches. It'll make a good snip of film."
"I'm going over in fifteen minutes," Carey said, eager to make peace. "The cameras are already over there, so ' we'll hook you up."
Letty smiled: "I'm not really mad at you. Everybody thinks they're doing the right thing. You're not, but I appreciate it anyway."
***
Carey had her personal reporting rules that she'd been passing along to Letty. Like, before you go out on a job, al
ways pee first. Even if you don't feel like you have to. A woman can never find a comfortable place to pee when she needs one. Check your makeup and your hair; there's never a place to do that when you need one- a little too much hairspray is better than too little.
Letty went out in the newsroom to chat with some of the producers, keeping one eye on Carey's office. When Carey came out and looked around, Letty waved at her, and Carey called, "I'll be right back," and she headed down toward the bathrooms. Letty ambled over to her office as she watched her go, and when she was sure that Carey was in the bathroom, she stepped into the office and pulled Carey's purse out from under her desk.
Carey never had any idea how much money she had or what she'd spent it on. She was one of those people who believed that if she had checks, she must have money. She made a good salary, and her husband was rich, so money, at least the kind you spend during the day, meant almost nothing to her: Letty popped the purse and took a peek into Carey's billfold. Must be a thousand dollars in fifties, Letty thought. She took two of them, decided that the thickness of the currency seemed not at all diminished and took two more. She put the billfold back in the purse, put the purse back as she'd found it, and ambled back out of the office and over to the people she'd been talking with earlier.
When Carey came back from the bathroom, she called, "Let's do it," and Letty went to join her.
***
The skaters were gathering in Mears Park in St. Paul's Lower-town, an area of older brick warehouses converted to lofts and condos and small, marginal businesses. Letty pointed them out and Carey looked them over, from the front seat of her SUV and then said, "You know, you do have a natural eye for this. I told your dad that last night."
"Maybe I'll be an economist," Letty said. "TV is starting to seem so superficial."
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."
***
Carey had been watching from a distance, and when Letty walked back to her, she said, "All right-that was interesting, but there's no story. I mean, nothing I would feel right about doing now. She's really too young to say "yes' to it."
"I don't want to do a story, either," Letty said. "I wanted you to meet her because I need to tell somebody the rest of it. I can't tell Mom or Dad-Mom would freak out and she wouldn't know what to do. And Dad ' well, that's the problem."
"What?" Carey asked.
"Juliet's pimp, this Randy. His name is Randy Whitcomb. Dad arrested him, and beat him up once-that's why he got kicked off the Minneapolis police that one time."
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