The Price of Candy Read Online Free PDF Page B

it
without anyone getting hurt. You might even save your mom from
getting in trouble. I suspect you’ve more sense than she does. I
need your help.”
    Jamie gave in slightly. “If you tell on my
mom, then I’ll get put in a foster home, that’s where I’ll get
put.”
    Sandy felt a stab of despair, fearful of what
that meant. But she had Jamie’s attention now and her response
indicated some progress. She dreaded digging deeper, but was
certain this girl knew something and didn’t know how to handle it.
Abby would soon come back. Sandy opened her handbag quickly, wrote
on a small piece of paper, and whispered, “Here’s my phone number
sweetheart, phone me. I want to be your advocate. Do you know what
that means?”
    Jamie appeared puzzled.
    “That means I always take your side. If you
get in trouble for talking about something that’s wrong, then I’m
with you. If I must choose between you and your mother, then I’m
going to choose you.” She didn’t in fact know what was going on so
just in case, she added, “Or if it’s between you and some man, then
I’m with you. I’m always on your side. Get it?”
    Jamie nodded her head cautiously, her eyes
frozen on Sandy’s eyes.
    Sandy heard Abby in the next room saying her
phone goodbye. She hurried on, “Trust me, I know how to handle
these situations. If you want everything to be cool, phone me and
I’ll help you. All just between you and me. We’re two girls with a
problem we must solve. Are you with me? Are we cool?”
    Jamie stepped closer. Her scowl had faded.
She looked up at Sandy with wide eyes. She staring intently as
though processing every syllable as though hearing each word for
the first time.
    Abby rushed back into the kitchen and saw
them together. Jamie stiffened noticeably. Abby stomped over
between them and gave Sandy a hard look. “What’d you do to my
daughter?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Well, I heard her yell, she looks stunned,
and her face is red. Looks as though you just slapped her. What’s
going on?”
    Jamie crumpled the note in her fist to hide
it. “She didn’t do anything, Mom.” Jamie swung around and hurried
out of the kitchen.
    Abby frowned at Sandy. “What’d she tell you?
What did she tell you?”
    Sandy tried to smile innocently.
    “You’d better leave right now!”
    Just then, Jamie leaned back into the room
and asked, “What did you say your name was?”
     
     
     

Chapter Five
     
    Five days later, Sandy sat beside Detective
Pomar, from the county sheriff’s office, in the front seat of his
unmarked Ford Crown Victoria. They had parked across the street and
down two houses from Abby’s house.
    It was dark and Pomar was looking through a
night-vision scope. “Can’t see the back of the house from this
angle, don’t dare move any closer.”
    “Your first name is Mel?” she asked. “And you
know my friend Detective Chip Goddard on the city police
force?”
    “Yeah, Goddard phoned and said if I followed
your lead it would most likely pay off. I’m violating sheriff’s
procedures right now sitting here doing an unauthorized stake in
the middle of the night with a pretty coed in the front seat.”
    “Let me try that weird thing.” She reached
over. “How do I...hey, I can see in the dark, pretty tricky.”
    “They’re all the rage with voyeurs. Okay, you
got me here, now what the hell is going on?”
    “A woman named Abby Olin lives in that house
and a bad guy is going to show up and then...well, I don’t know,
just expect the unexpected.”
    “What I expect is to be put on suspension.
Now tell me what this is all about.”
    “Child porn, I think.”
    That stopped him. “Oh Christ! That’s big
time. I can’t do this. That’s special stuff...special procedures.
The county has a trained task force for that. They don’t allow me
to take any action on my own. I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m
dead. Where you getting the word on all this?”
    “The ten-year-old daughter. She phoned me