Play dead

THIRTY-NINE

Francesca Sanz was the girl they had seen at the front counter.

Standing closer to her, Jessica could now see she was not a mid- teenager, but rather eighteen or so. Coral lipstick, blue eye shadow. Street pretty. She was also four or five months pregnant.

Jessica told the young woman why they were there, giving her the bare minimum of details. Jessica then showed her a picture of Caitlin O'Riordan. While Byrne called in a request for Francesca Sanz's wants and warrants, Jessica and the young woman sat across from each other in a booth.

"Have you ever met this girl?" Jessica asked.

Francesca scrutinized the photo for a few moments. "Yeah. I met her."

"How do you know her?"

Francesca chipped at a nail. "We were friends."

"You mean school friends? She was from the neighborhood? Something like that?"

"Nah. Not like that."

Francesca did not elaborate. Jessica pressed. "Then like what?"

A hesitation. "We met at the train station."

"Here in Camden?"

"Nah," she said. "In Philly. That real big one."

"Thirtieth Street?"

"Yeah."

"When was this?"

"I don't know. A couple of months ago, I guess."

"A couple?"

"Yeah," she said. Jessica noticed that the girl had a tattoo on her right wrist, a tattoo of a white dove. "You know. A couple. Maybe more."

"I need you to be a little more specific about this, Francesca. It's very important. Was it June? April?"

Silence.

"Could it have been May?"

"Yeah," Francesca said. "You know. It could have been." She did a little air math-counting something with her fingers in front of her face. "Yeah. May sounds right."

"So you're saying you met her at the Thirtieth Street station in May of this year?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," Jessica said. "Why were you at the train station? Were you going somewhere, coming from somewhere?"

Francesca brewed an answer. "I was just getting something to eat."

"Do you have friends in that part of Philly? Family?"

"No," she said. "Not really."

"So, let me get this straight," Jessica said. "You went down to the river, crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge, made your way all the way across the city of Philadelphia, thirty or so blocks, just to get a hoagie and some Boardwalk fries? Is this what you're saying?"

Francesca nodded, but she would not make eye contact with Jessica. "What do you want me to say?"

"The truth would be good."

Another few seconds. Francesca tapped her long nails on the scuffed Formica. Finally: "I was on the street, okay?"

"You ran away from home?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," Jessica said. She took a moment, giving the girl some space. "I'm not judging, I'm asking."

"And I was using. I don't do it no more, 'cause of the baby. But I had heard that kids used to hang around the station."

"Runaways?"

"Yeah," she said. "I figured I could hookup."

Jessica put her notebook down. Francesca was starting to open up, and a cop making notes was intimidating. "Can I ask why you ran away from home?"

Francesca laughed a wintry laugh. She worried the edge of a table menu, peeling back the plastic. "I don't know. Why does anyone run away?"

"There are a lot of possibilities," Jessica said, knowing that there were really only a handful.

"My mother, right? My mother is loca. To this day. Her and her pipehead boyfriends. That house is hell. She found out I was pregnant and she hit me."

"You were abused?"

Another laugh. This one laced with irony. "I'm from East Camden, okay? I was horn abused."

Jessica tapped the photograph of Caitlin. "Did your brother know her?"

"That girl? No. At least, I don't think he did. I hope not."

"You hope not? Why do you say that?"

"You came here to talk to him, so I figure you know his record, right?"

"We do."

"So you know what I'm talking about."

"Okay," Jessica said, trudging on. "So tell me, how did this girl come to be in possession of this magazine cover?"

Francesca leaned back, crossed her arms, resting them on her swelling belly. Defensive, now. "I was reading the magazine, that's all. We started talking. She said she decided to go home. She kinda talked me into it, too. So I wrote down my number and gave it to her. I thought maybe we could talk sometime."

Jessica tapped the magazine cover. "This is your number?"

"Yeah."

"What happened after that?"

"What happened? Nothing. She just walked out."

"And you never saw her again?"

Francesca looked out the window. In this light, Jessica saw her as a middle-aged woman, a woman with all her bad decisions behind her. "I saw her outside."

"Outside the station?"

"Yeah. I called a friend of mine and he came to pick me up. On my way out I saw her. She was talking to a well-dressed man."

"A man? White, black?"

"White."

"Well-dressed how?"

"Not like in a suit, but nice. Expensive."

"Can you describe him?"

"Not really. He had his back to me. It was dark."

"Did you see her get into a car or on a bus with this man?"

"Yeah. She got into his car. I thought maybe he was her father."

"Do you remember what kind of car?"

"No. Sorry."

"After that day at the Thirtieth Street station, did you ever see this girl again?"

Francesca thought about this, weighing her answer. "No," she said. "I never saw her again."

Jessica glanced at Byrne. He shook his head. No questions. She clicked her pen, put it away. They were done. For now. "We may need to talk to you again."

A shrug. "I'll be here."

Jessica started to pack up to leave. "When are you due?"

Francesca beamed. "They tell me December twentieth."

Jessica felt a pang of envy. A Christmas baby. Was there anything better than a Christmas baby? She and Vincent had been trying to get pregnant for the past year or so. There was a close call the previous winter, but no baby. "Good luck."

"Thank you."

They looked at each other for a few seconds in silence, two women at different ends of everything. Except motherhood.

Jessica took out a business card, handed it to the young woman. "If you think of anything else that might help, please give me a call."

Francesca took the card, stood-with no small amount of difficulty-and made her way toward the ladies' restroom door. At the door Francesca stopped, turned. "That girl?"

"What about her?"

A grave look veiled Francesca's young face, a weariness far older than her years. "She's dead, isn't she?"

Jessica could find no reason not to tell the truth. "Yes."

Francesca chipped at another nail for a moment. "Could you tell her family something for me?"

"Sure."

"Tell them… tell them I'm sorry for their grief." Francesca placed a hand on her belly, a gesture of defiance to this angel of death who walked the streets, a gesture of defense. "Tell them it's not their fault."

"I will."

Francesca nodded, perhaps thinking about the past, the future, realizing she had only the present. Without another word, she opened the door and stepped through.

Iggy Sanz was not out of the woods yet, but whatever enthusiasm the detectives had on the way over the Ben Franklin Bridge had waned considerably by the time they made their way back. He had no real violence on his sheet. Both detectives were reasonably sure that Ignacio was telling the truth, perhaps for the first time in his life. He may have been a creep and a lowlife, but he was not a killer.

They drove back to Philly.