Then the water in the shower shut off and it occurred to Courtney that playing with the honey might be one of those things she shouldn't be doing. So she hid the rest of the evidence, pouring it into the Ikegami video camera case.
Courtney closed the door, then slipped the empty jar under the coffee table. At that point Dorothy arrived in full-color Oz and the little girl settled down to watch the film.
Rune surprised herself by actually screaming when she saw the camera. She was trying to shout that the camera had cost fifty thousand dollars but the words weren't even getting out of her mouth. Courtney looked down at the camera, bleeding honey, and started to cry.
Rune then dropped to her knees and surveyed the ruined tapes. She cradled the camera like a hurt pet. "Oh, God, oh, no…"
"Oh-oh," Courtney said.
"I can't take it," Rune gasped.
Only two phone calls.
She was surprised to find that when it came to children, you could cut through city bureaucracy pretty fast. The administrator she was speaking to told her that a protective diagnostic caseworker could be on her way in half hour. Rune said not to bother, she'd come totheir offices tomorrow. The woman gave Rune the address.
The next morning she packed up the girl's few possessions and they walked to the subway. After transferring three times they got off at the Bleecker Street stop and climbed to the sidewalk.
"Where're we going?" Courtney asked.
"To see some nice people."
"Oh. Where? At the zoo?"
"I'm sure they'll take you to the zoo."
"Good."
The building looked like one of those massive, grimy factories in ten shades of gray – a set from a 1930s movie about a tough, slick-haired industrialist who learns that life with floozy blondes and martinis can be pretty unsatisfying.
But when Rune considered it again she decided that the building on LaGuardia Place looked more like a prison. She almost turned around. But then she free-associated: prison, Randy Boggs… And she realized that she had a responsibility to do her story and save him. And that having Courtney in her life was going to make that impossible. She shifted the girl's fingers, still slightly sticky from the honey, into her left hand and led her toward the squat, dark building.
Rune glanced at the graniteslab above the front door to the building, which would have been a good place to carve the words, Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter.
Instead of: New York Child Welfare Administration,
Rune and Courtney walked slowly toward the main office, through green corridors, over green linoleum. Through fluorescent light that started life white but turned green when it hit the skin. It reminded her of the shade of lawyer Megler' s office. A guard pointed to a thin black woman in a red linen suit, sitting behind a desk covered with recycled files and empty cardboard coffee cups.
"May I help you?" the woman asked.
"You're Ms Johnson?"
The woman smiled and they shook hands. "Sit down. You're…?"
"Rune."
"Right. You called last night." Paper appeared and civil servant Johnson uncapped a Bic pen. "What's your address?"
" West Village."
Johnson paused. "Could you be more specific than that?"
"Not really. It's hard to explain."
"Phone number?"
Rune said, "No."
"Beg pardon?"
"I don't have a phone."
"Oh." So far she hadn't written anything. "Is this Courtney?"
"That's right."
"We're going to the zoo," the little girl said.
"What it is is this: I have a roommate I mean, had a roommate – her mother – and I don't know her last name and she left me with Courtney. She just took off – can you believe it? I mean, I woke up and she was gone."
Johnson was frowning painfully, more mom than civil servant for the moment.
"Anyway, she went to Boston and what she did, she…" Rune's voice fell. "… ditched you know who. And I'm like, what am I going to do? See, I wouldn't mind if I wasn't working, which is usually what I'm doing – not working, I mean – only now I-"
Johnson had stopped writing. "Apparent abandonment. Happens more often than you'd think."
Courtney said, "Rune, I'm hungry."
Rune dug into her shoulder bag and pulled out a can of sardines. Johnson watched her. A can opener appeared and Rune began cranking. "I liked it better when they had that little key on them."
Courtney watched the process hungrily.
Rune looked at a bewildered Ms Johnson. "You know, the key. On the cans? Like in the cartoons you always see."
"Cartoons?" Johnson asked. Then: "You think those are good for her?"
"Water-packed. I wouldn't give her oil." She held up the can.
Rune tucked a napkin into Courtney's collar then handed her a plastic fork. "Anyway, her mother's gone and I don't know how to find her."
"You don't have any idea? No last name?"
"Nope. Just know she's in Boston."
"Bawden."
Johnson said, "Usually what happens in cases like these is the police get involved. They'll contact the Boston Police and do a standard missing person search. First name, C-L-A-I-R-E?"
"Right. I just don't have any leads. Claire took everything with her. Except this too-disgusting old poster and some underwear. You could fingerprint it, maybe. But they probably wouldn't beher fingerprints on it."
"Who's Courtney's father?"
Rune frowned and shook her head.
Johnson asked, "Unknown?"
"Highly."
"Describe her mother to me."
"Claire's about my height. Her hair's dark now but we're talking it started life pretty light. Kind of dirty brownish." Rune thought for a minute. "She's got a narrow face. She isn't pretty. I'd say more cute-"
"I'm really more interested in a general description that'll help the police locate her."
"Okay, sure. Five-three, jet-black hair. About a hundred and ten. Wears black mostly."
"Grandparents or other relations?"
"I can't even find her mother – how'm I going to know the aunts and uncles?"
Johnson said, "She's really adorable. Does she have any health problems? Is there any medicine she takes?"
"No, she's pretty healthy. All she takes is vitamins in the shape of animals. She likes the bears best but I think that's only because they're cherry-flavored. You like bears, don't you, honey?"
Courtney had finished the sardines. She nodded.
"Okay, well, let me tell you a little about the procedure from here on out. This's the Child Welfare Administration, which is part of the city's Human Resources Administration. We've got a network of emergency foster homes where she'll be placed for a week or so until we can get her into a permanent foster home. Hopefully, by then we'll have found the mother."
Rune's stomach thudded. "Foster home?"
"That's right."
"Uhm, you know what you hear on the news…"
"About the foster homes?" Johnson asked. "It's the press that made up most of those stories." Her voice was crisp and Rune had a flash of a different Ms Johnson. Beneath the ruby lipstick and pseudo Ann Taylor did not beat a delicate heart. She probably had a tattoo of a gang's trademark on the slope of her left breast.
The woman continued. "We spend weeks investigating foster parents. If you think about it, who scrutinizes natural parents?"
Good point, Rune thought. "Can I visit her?"
The answer was no – Rune could see that – but Johnson said, "Probably."
"What happens now?"
"We have a diagnostic caseworker on call. She'll take Courtney to the emergency home tonight."
"I don't have to do anything else?"