The woman looked at her, then pushed a pad across the desk and through the small opening in the glass. “Name?”

Kerry glanced at the pad, then fished in her purse for a pen.

She realized she didn’t know Lena’s last name at the same time Dar handed over her favorite heavy, silver-cased ballpoint.

“Thanks.” Kerry scribed the first name, then hesitated. “I’m sorry.

I only know her first name.”

“Real good friend of yours, huh?” The officer took the pad back and studied it. “Could be worse; could be Maria. Lemme go look.” She ripped the top sheet off the pad, got up, and disappeared into a cluttered area full of files and tall cabinets behind her.

“Hm.” Kerry rocked on her heels. “I feel pretty stupid about that.”

Dar shrugged, laced her fingers together behind her back, and glanced around the lobby. “Hasn’t changed much.” She accepted Kerry’s curious look. “After I…” Dar paused and inclined her head. “That little incident at the club I think you mentioned once.”

“Ah.” Kerry did, indeed, remember. “They brought you here?”

“I was pretty young,” Dar said. “They wanted to make sure one of the jackass’s friends didn’t come after me. They called Dad and he came down to pick me up.”

Two officers with an obviously inebriated young woman slung between them pushed by. Kerry moved out of the way and ducked as the woman wildly swung an arm. “Whoa.” Dar pulled her to one side and hovered protectively over her. Kerry decided a distraction was appropriate. “So, Dad picked you up, huh?”

Dar’s nose wrinkled at the sudden stench of vomit. “Yeah.”

She took another step backwards, tugging Kerry with her. “He was, um…”

“Proud.” Kerry tried to breathe through her mouth.

“Well…”

“Paladar Katherine Roberts, I can just stand here and picture your father coming in here to get you. I bet he made every cop who was there tell him what you did.”


Thicker Than Water 27

Two men, arguing in loud, strident Spanish, brushed by. They had badges on chains around their necks. Another yelling man, pointing a finger at one of the detectives, approached. The detective slapped his hand and yelled back.

“Hey!” The clerk had returned to her desk, and now she used the microphone. “Take it inside!”

The three men gave her a look, then shoved through a worn, wood paneled door off to one side, which opened into a large room filled with desks and papers. The clerk watched them, then looked up, made eye contact with Kerry, and curled her finger inward.

“Officious little—”

“Dar.” Kerry patted her lover’s leg. “C’mon, let’s get this over with.” She led Dar over to the counter and rested her elbows on its chipped Formica surface. “Find her?”

“Yeah.” The woman shuffled some papers. “You a relative?”

“No. Just a friend.” Kerry moved a little closer and tilted her head to see the officer’s nametag. Funk. Hm. “She had a little trouble with her folks.”

“No kidding,” Officer Funk said. “All right. The bail’s a thousand dollars.”

Kerry saw the officer’s eyes lift to her and she suspected she was waiting for a reaction. Kerry smiled pleasantly. “Okay. Do you take checks? Credit cards?” She waited a moment and there was still no reaction from the officer. “Animal pelts?”

“Cash,” Officer Funk replied. “Ten percent.”

Dar removed her wallet from her hip pocket and sorted through its contents. She removed a hundred dollar bill and tossed it onto the counter. “There.”

Kerry opened her mouth to object, then realized she didn’t have that much cash on her. She pushed the bill closer to the officer. “There.”

They stood there while the paperwork was completed, what looked like an eight or nine part form along with a sheaf of other documents. “I didn’t have to sign that many things for my new car,” Kerry commented idly.

“You weren’t buying it from Dade County,” the officer muttered. “All right. Jack, c’mere. Get me this one from the holding area.” She thrust a piece of paper behind her, and it was taken by a shorter man in uniform, sporting a thick, dark mustache. “This is your receipt.” She pushed a form to Kerry. “She comes up for a hearing in ten days. Make sure she’s there, or you’re in the hole for the other nine hundred.”

Dar leaned forward. “What is she charged with?”

The deeper tones caught the officer’s attention and she looked 28 Melissa Good up to find Dar’s piercing eyes pinning her. “Destruction of property.”

“What did she break?” Kerry asked.

“Car window.”

Dar’s brow creased. “Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just pay for the damn window?”

Officer Funk shrugged. “Her parents pressed charges. Guess they figured the kid couldn’t pay.”

“Bastards.”

The policewoman stopped from standing up to put away her papers and peered through the glass at Dar. “I don’t know. If my kid told me she was queer, I might do the same thing.” She shrugged and walked away.

Kerry turned and met Dar’s eyes, and they looked at each other in silence. After a moment, an inner door opened and the short, male officer appeared, one hand grasping Lena’s arm. The girl was very quiet, her face showing signs of rough handling and her clothes ripped and stained. She looked up and saw the two of them and a look of utter gratitude lit her face.

“Hey, Lena.” Kerry smiled at her. “C’mon, I bet you want out of here.”

“Oh.” Lena closed her eyes, then opened them. “You bet your ass I do.” She paused awkwardly. “Um…I mean…”

“I think you said exactly what you mean,” Dar drawled.

“Let’s get out of this place.” Her eyes drifted and met Officer Funk’s. “It stinks.”

They went out through the large double doors and into the cool night air. Lena stopped on the stone steps and took a breath, tilting her head back to look up at the night sky. “Thank you.” She hugged herself. “I’ll pay you guys back. I’ve got some money in my savings account.” She looked around with a lost expression.

“I’ll have to take it all out anyway. I’ll need clothes before I can go back to work tomorrow.” She paused. “If they haven’t fired me.”

Kerry and Dar exchanged glances. “C’mon.” Kerry put a hand on her arm and steered her towards the Lexus. “The first thing you need is a shower and some clean stuff to wear. We’ve got both back at our place.”

“I can’t ask you to do that.” But Lena looked pathetically grateful.

“You’re not. Let’s go.” Dar keyed the doors open and motioned her inside. The poor kid looked so ragged, and so at a loss, Dar felt like… Like what, Dar? her conscience pricked her. Like you want to go punch her mother? She closed the door after Lena climbed up inside, then walked around and started to get in. She paused and rested her arm on the edge of the windowsill as she Thicker Than Water 29

gazed down the sidewalk.

She remembered walking down it, dressed in her scary, punky best, with parts of her aching from the fight but happy, because her daddy was there next to her. They’d stopped on the corner and leaned back against the coral wall, across from the parking lot where she’d spotted her dad’s truck. Andrew had looked her over and shook his head. “Lord. You are mah kid, ain’t you.”

Dar had stuck her hands into her ripped pockets and just nodded.

“Y’know, they don’t much give medals to folks who do what I do,” Andrew had said, looking off into the distance. “And I sure ain’t got none to give up, but here.” He’d taken off his dog tags and put them around Dar’s neck.

Dar remembered looking up at him, and she knew her face must have shown how she felt, because he’d smiled and cupped her cheek with one callused hand.

They’d just gone on home after that, after a stop at a gas sta-tion mart to pick up a couple of ice cream bars and two bottles of pop. Even her mother had listened to the story and, with a sigh, given her a pat on the knee and told her she’d done a good thing.

It had felt like winning the lottery, that winning of her parents’ praise, and listening to Lena, Dar realized all over again how different it could have been for her.

“Dar?” Kerry leaned over and tugged on Dar’s shirt. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Dar slid behind the wheel and closed the door. “I was just thinking of something.”

Kerry studied the angular profile for a moment, then patted Dar’s thigh and half turned in her seat to address Lena. “You’re doing data entry, aren’t you?”

Lena was running her fingers over the soft leather of the seat.

She glanced up guiltily. “Um…oh, yeah, yeah, I do. It’s a telemar-keting thingie. I put in the orders.” Her eyes dropped. “Or, I did.

My boss hates when people are late. I can just imagine what his reaction was when I didn’t show for work for two days.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Kerry smiled at her. “So, what exactly happened?”

Lena pushed some very dirty hair back off her forehead. “Oh, my God, it was like…It was so incredibly stupid.” She exhaled, but her spirit was rebounding a little. “I can’t believe it. It’s like some dumb weird ass dream thing, you know?”

“No. But if you’d tell me, I would,” Kerry replied patiently.

Lena emitted a sigh. “Okay. Like, I told you I was really into this Internet thing, right?”


30 Melissa Good Dar and Kerry exchanged looks. “We can relate to that,”

Kerry said.

Lena was momentarily distracted. “Are you guys on the Internet?”

“We run the Internet,” Dar said as she pulled carefully onto the highway. “So, yeah, you could say we’re on it, under it, inside it, crawling all over it.”