She wondered about the man’s sudden transformation. He seemed to have experienced more than just a dressing- down by the boss. She followed his lead to the door of interrogation six. He was pleasant when he said, “Santiva told us you’d be talking to the girl.”
“ I have carte blanche with this kid?”
“ All right by us.”
“ She’s not being charged for obstruction or anything stupid like that?”
“ Only if you say so, Dr. Coran.”
“ No, I don’t think so.”
She opened the door on the interrogation room where Judy Templar had patiently and sadly waited; the place was bare, cold and unfriendly to say the least, and although it had recently been refurbished with new carpeting and furniture, not even the fresh coat of paint could conceal the years-old accumulation of cigar and cigarette smoke. New or old, cigarette butts were cigarette butts, and they lay in cheap Wal-Mart crockery ashtrays instead of cheap tin ashtrays now, and something like battery acid leaked from Sty- rofoam cups, the litter of long nights. Add to this picture one frightened young woman who had come in of her own accord-a second time-to repeat her story, and Jessica knew a change of venue was in order.
She introduced herself to Judy Templar and they shook hands, Jessica immediately aware of the trembling within the other woman. “You’ve been here a long time, I understand. Your parents know you’re here?”
“ Why? They’ve got nothing to do with this.” She looked a bit like the actress Molly Ringwald minus the freckles, Jessica thought, with pretty red tresses for hair; but she’d given no attention to eye shadow or other makeup.
From the young woman’s tone, Jessica guessed aloud, “Your folks
… they tell you to keep your mouth shut, to keep away from the police?”
“ No… not exactly.”
“ They fear your getting involved in any way could make you a target for the killer?”
“ They fear it, I fear it… and why not? You people haven’t been able to stop him, and now they find Tammy and those other two girls, and… and-” Her words were cut short by her inability to breathe, gasp and speak at the same time.
“ You hungry?” Jessica asked Judy.
“ I’m too upset to eat anything.”
“ Have you lost a lot of weight since Tammy was taken?”
“ It’s just fallen off. Can’t eat… can’t sleep.”
Jessica stood, saying, “Whataya say we get the hell out of here. You like cappuccino or Irish coffee or espresso? You know a place where we can get some?”
“ Sure, the Cafe Promenade, just down the street.”
“ Take me, will you?”
“ Just like that, I can leave with you?”
“ No one here’s going to hold you against your will, Judy; no one.”
She seemed suddenly to relax. “Nobody knows how it feels, how I feel, the problem… the sheer size of the problem… of it all.”
“ You want to talk about it?”
“ It’s like a book I read in school once, a book called The Pearl. This man finds a pearl and he thinks it’s going to bring him happiness and riches for his whole family, but all it brings down is misery. I feel kinda like that guy in the book, except I didn’t find any pearl or riches; but I came that close to this bastard who killed Tammy, so close that I sat across from him like I’m sitting across from you, but it’s information-that’s the pearl everybody wants to get from me, but I… I can’t bring it back, and I can’t go back and do things differently…”
“ I understand the feeling, believe me.”
She sniffled and held back a tear. “It’s like my memory on that one point is… well, gone dead. But everybody wants this pearl from me and I don’t have it to give, you know?”
“ Sure… sure… I understand. I shut down on a lot of bad memories myself over the years.” Jessica gave a thought to her psychiatrist, Dr. Donna LeMonte, whose therapy had helped her to deal with her most frightful memories, guilts and ghosts and demons from within and without. She wondered if she might persuade Donna to come to Miami to help Judy Templar and thereby help her and Santiva’s case.
“ Not to worry, Judy. I won’t lie to you. I’m interested in that pearl of information you’re harboring, too, but my first concern is your well-being.”
“ Oh, sure…” This was said in the cynical voice of youth pitted against authority.
“ Judy, you haven’t been able to talk to anyone about this, have you?”
She shook her head to indicate no, her eyes swelling now with tears.
Jessica handed her tissues. “The first time you were asked to come in, you told police you couldn’t remember anything. Was that a lie or were you just as confused as you are now?”
“ I couldn’t bring it back.”
“ You try talking to your family, friends about it?”
“ I tried, but no one wanted to hear it, and I… I was in bad shape, and everybody just wanted to console me, you know, so like Mom says, ‘Put it out of your mind,’ and so I did… I did…”
“ Judy, I’m not here to upset you, but I just spent seven hours with what is left of your friend Tammy.”
The young woman grimaced and looked away.
Jessica cautiously continued, “My concerns are your concerns now; we’re in this together. I’m not a cop, I’m-”
“ You’re FBI, I know.”
“ I’m an M.E. first, and I’m a woman before that, Judy. I have also been the target of stalkers, of madmen, and I have felt fear like a cold rod of steel in my bone marrow, so I think I do have some empathy with you, dear.”
Tearfully, expectantly, her eyes wide, Judy asked Jessica, “Can you… do you think you can help me? I think I’m going crazy.”
Jessica stood, came around the interrogation table and reached out for Judy Templar, who got to her feet and accepted Jessica’s warm embrace. Jessica felt like a mother as she took the younger woman in her arms and hugged her firmly. The human contact felt good and right for herself too, Jessica instantly realized.
Judy’s immediate family had somehow hindered her, encouraged her to hide away from the reality of what had happened, and whatever part she had played in it had been unsuccessfully buried. Jessica felt the eyes of the others on them, penetrating through the mirrored wall at her back. Behind the one-way mirror, the MPD detectives and Eriq Santiva no doubt watched and monitored the words coming out of interrogation six.
“ Come on, let’s get out of here. Get that cup of cappuccino. Whataya say, Judy?”
The young woman passively agreed to leave with Jessica. They gathered up Judy’s things and stepped from the cold room that had made her feel only more guilty than she already did, and together they marched past Santiva and the detectives for the door.
Eriq Santiva called out, “We’re not done with Ms. Templar just yet, Dr. Coran.” He then took Jessica aside, leaving Judy looking alone and vulnerable again, and whispered, “Just where do you think you are going?”
The hard edge Eriq was showing had a dramatic flair that instantly told Jessica he was playing bad cop to her good cop to reinforce her bond with Judy Templar. Good move, she silently thought as she snubbed her nose at Santiva and replied, “None of your goddamned business, Agent Santiva! You’ve bullied this poor girl enough for one day!”
And with that she whisked Judy out the front door as Judy thanked her for being so kind and so brave.
“ I never liked that guy,” she conspiratorially confessed to Judy. “Thinks he’s Einstein and Mel Gibson rolled into one.”
Judy managed a laugh at this, a good sign in the sparkling Florida evening, where the shadows heralded the last rays of the sun in the west. But they were staring due east, toward Washington Avenue between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, just down from Espafiola Way and two blocks from Ocean Avenue and the white-sand beaches of Miami.
“ Which way to this Promenade place?” Jessica asked, feeling the light touch of the warm evening breeze kiss her cheek.
Judy Templar filled her lungs with the salt air, and Jessica did the same as if on impulse; but it was conscious mimicry. Judy said of the cafe, “It looks out over the promenade walkway and the ocean, just a block or so east. I’ll show you.”