She heard Patty O’Ryan before she even opened the door. The girl was screaming like a banshee in heat.
“Get me the fuck out of here! Get these fucking chains the fuck off me, you goddamn motherfuckers!”
Lena stood outside the door as she waited for the others to catch up. She had to section off the part of her brain that kept going over Jeffrey’s words. She had to stop letting her feelings get in the way of her job. She had already fucked up the interview with Terri Stanley. There was no way she could screw up again. She wouldn’t be able to face herself.
As if sensing her thoughts, Jeffrey raised an eyebrow at Lena, asking if she was ready to do this. Lena gave him a curt nod, and he looked through the window in the door, telling Buddy, “She’s having a little problem with withdrawal this morning.”
“Get me the fuck out of here!” O’Ryan screeched at the top of her lungs. At least, Lena hoped that was the loudest the girl was capable of screaming. As it was, the glass was shaking in the door.
Jeffrey offered to Buddy, “You wanna go in there and talk to her alone before we start this?”
“Hell no,” he said, shocked by the suggestion. “Don’t you dare leave me alone in there with her.”
Jeffrey opened the door, holding it for Buddy and Lena.
“Daddy,” O’Ryan said, her voice husky from yelling so much. “I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got an appointment. I’ve got a job interview. I need to go or I’m gonna be late.”
“You might want to go home and change first,” Lena suggested, noting that O’Ryan had torn her skimpy stripper attire.
“You,” O’Ryan said, focusing all her rage on Lena. “You just shut the fuck up, you spic bitch.”
“Settle down,” Jeffrey told her, sitting across from her at the table. Buddy’s spot was normally on the other side with the defendant, but he sat in the chair by Jeffrey. Lena would be damned if she would put herself within the girl’s reach again, so she stood by the mirror, arms crossed, to watch the proceedings.
Jeffrey said, “Tell me about Chip.”
“What about Chip?”
“He your boyfriend?”
She looked at Buddy for the answer. To his credit, he didn’t give her an inch.
O’Ryan told Jeffrey, “We had a thing.” She jerked her head back to get her hair out of her eyes. Under the table, her foot was bobbing up and down like a rabbit in heat. Every muscle in her body was tensed, and Lena guessed from all this that the girl was jonesing for a fix. She had seen enough junkies going through withdrawal in the cells to know that it must hurt like a motherfucker. If O’Ryan wasn’t such a bitch, she might feel sorry for her.
“What’s a ‘thing’?” Jeffrey asked. “That mean you slept with him some, maybe got high together?”
She kept her focus on Buddy, as if she wanted to punish him. “Something like that.”
“Do you know Rebecca Bennett?”
“Who?”
“What about Abigail Bennett?”
She gave a disgusted snort that made her nostrils flair. “She’s a Jesus freak from over at that farm.”
“Did Chip have a relationship with her?”
She shrugged, the handcuff around her wrist banging into the metal ring on the table.
Jeffrey repeated, “Did Chip have a relationship with her?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she kept tapping the handcuff against the ring.
Jeffrey sat back with a sigh, like he didn’t want to do what he was about to have to do. Buddy obviously recognized the play, and though he braced himself, he didn’t do anything to stop it.
“Recognize Chip?” Jeffrey asked, dropping a Polaroid on the table.
Lena craned her neck, trying to see which of the crime scene photos from Chip Donner’s room he had led with. They were all bad, but this one in particular- the close-up of the face showing where the lips had been practically ripped off- was horrendous.
O’Ryan smirked at Jeffrey. “That’s not Chip.”
He tossed down another photo. “Is this him?”
She glanced down, then looked away. Lena saw Buddy was staring at the only door in the room, probably wishing he could hop the hell out of here.
“How about this one?” Jeffrey asked, tossing down another.
O’Ryan was beginning to understand. Lena saw her bottom lip start to tremble. The girl had cried plenty of times since being taken into custody, but this was the first time Lena thought her tears were real.
Her body had stilled. She whispered, “What happened?”
“Obviously,” Jeffrey began, dropping the rest of the Polaroids on the table, “he pissed somebody off.”
She pulled up her legs on the chair, holding them against her chest. “Chip,” she whispered, rocking back and forth. Lena had seen suspects do this often. It was a way they had of soothing themselves, as if over the years they had realized no one was going to do it for them, so they had to adapt.
Jeffrey asked, “Was somebody after him?”
She shook her head. “Everybody liked Chip.”
“I’d guess from these pictures there’s somebody out there who wouldn’t agree with you.” Jeffrey let that sink in. “Who would do this to him, Patty?”
“He was trying to do better,” she said, her voice still low. “He was trying to clean up.”
“He wanted to get off drugs?”
She was staring at the Polaroids, not touching them, and Jeffrey stacked them together, putting them back in his pocket. “Talk to me, Patty.”
Her body gave a great shudder. “They met on the farm.”
“The soy farm in Catoogah?” Jeffrey clarified. “Chip was there?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Everybody knows you can hang there for a couple of weeks if you need to. You go to church on Sundays, pick a couple of beans, and they give you food, give you a place to sleep. You pretend to pray and shit and they give you a safe place to stay.”
“Did Chip need a safe place to stay?”
She shook her head.
Jeffrey’s tone was conciliatory. “Tell me about Abby.”
“He met her on the farm. She was a kid. He thought she was funny. Next thing you know, he’s busted for holding. Goes up a few years. When he comes back, Abby’s all grown.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “She was just this goody-two-shoes bitch, and he fell for it. Fell for all of it.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“She’d come to the Kitty. Can you believe that?” She laughed at the absurdity. “She’d be in her ugly, plain clothes and Mary Janes and she’d say, ‘Come on, Chip, come on to church with me. Come pray with me.’ And he’d go right with her without even telling me good-bye.”
“Were they sexually involved?”
She snorted a laugh. “There’s not a crowbar been invented could pull those knees apart.”
“She was pregnant.”
O’Ryan’s head snapped up.
“Do you think Chip was the father?”
She didn’t even hear the question. Lena could see the anger building in her like a kettle about to boil over. She was like Cole Connolly in that they shared the same quick temper, but for some reason, Lena felt more of a threat from the girl being out of control than the older man.
“Stupid bitch,” she hissed through her teeth. She was clanging the handcuff against the metal ring again, rapping out noise like a snare drum. “He probably took her to the fucking woods. That was our fucking spot.”
“The woods over in Heartsdale? The forest?”
“Stupid cunt,” she spat, oblivious to the connection he was trying to make. “We used to go there and get high when we were in school.”
“You went to school with Chip?”
She indicated Buddy. “Till that fucker kicked me out,” she said. “Threw me on the streets. I had to fend for myself.” Buddy didn’t stir. “I told Chip to stay away from her. That whole fucking family is crazy.”
“What family?”
“The Wards,” she said. “Don’t think she’s the only one’a them been to the Kitty.”