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didn’t think this was a first, the thing with the diary.
    “It was in there.”
    “That she’d been molested?”
    “That she’d had sex. Here. You read it.” She handed it to Talba, opened to a page with a section marked in yellow highlighter, and Eddie had no choice but to wait until she’d read it.
    ***
    He picked me over Shaneel! Bet that’s never happened to her in her whole life. “You,” he said. “Come with me.” Just like that. As soon as we were in the bedroom, he said, “Baby, you beautiful. Anybody ever tell you that? You got a bottom like somethin’ out of the movies. You want me to rub your back? Come on. Let’s go over to the bed.”
    Well! I’m embarrassed to write what happened next— stuff I never even
heard
of. Wow. I can honestly say he taught me things about my body I never suspected. Oh, yeah— all right! That part was real good. But it still hurt when we did it.
    Why doesn’t anyone ever tell you it’s going to? I asked Shaneel and she just laughed at me. I wonder if it always does— every time, I mean?
    At first I wasn’t going to do it. No way, José! Cassandra Scott from Catholic School? I don’t
think so.
But then, while I was lying there feeling like that, I just thought, why not? Why
not
do it with him? I’ve got to do it with somebody sometime, and he’s a grown man— been everywhere, done everything. Why not find out what it’s all about?
    Anyway, I made him wear a condom.
    ***
    Talba handed the diary to Eddie, and asked, “How old is she, Mrs. Scott?”
    “Fourteen. And you see what she says about him.”
    Talba said, “Statutory rape.”
    “Not exactly,” Eddie said, “Louisiana law is tricky. Here, it’s called ‘carnal knowledge of a juvenile.’”
    “But it’s still a crime. Why not go to the police?” asked Talba. Eddie gave her a look that told her not to rush things.
    “Cassandra says she doesn’t know who the man was. I tried to get it out of her, and I did go to the police. They say they can’t do a damn thing without a name. Then I went to find that little bitch Shaneel, and the idiot counselor wouldn’t even let me talk to her. Goddammit, you see how frustrated I am? No one will
do
anything!” Talba remembered what Darryl had said about her causing a scene in the counselor’s office. She hoped it wasn’t going to be repeated.
    Grasping at straws, she said, “There’s no name anywhere in the diary?”
    “Oh, yes, there’s a name. Toes.”
    “Toes.”
    “My daughter had her first sexual experience with a man named Toes.” She twisted the tissue till it tore, and at this moment, her anguish seemed real to Talba. She didn’t care much for the name Toes herself.
    Eddie said, “We need to talk to the girl.”
    Scott nodded. “Might as well. She doesn’t talk to me, that’s for sure. But I don’t think it’s— I don’t want to be rude, but I really think she’d respond better to Ms. Wallis.”
    Take that,
Talba thought.
Take that, Eddie Valentino. I’m the right demographic— young, female, and as dumb as the kid when it comes to guys. Scratch that. Formerly as dumb as the kid.
    She was feeling magnanimous. Instead of letting Eddie do the dirty work, she jumped in ahead of him. “I’ll be happy to talk to her, but we do work as a team. Okay if Eddie comes along?”
    “I guess it can’t hurt.” Scott didn’t seem happy about it.

Chapter 4
    She was pushy, she was smart-mouthed, she was probably brilliant (or thought she was, which was just as bad). She was also cute as a button, and the whole package added up to one large pain in the ass. But after the reading, once he got home and got sober, Eddie found he didn’t hate her at all. In fact, he had to admit she reminded him of someone— an awful lot, as a matter of fact. Except for the little matter of skin color, she was just about a clone of his daughter Angela.
    The thing he hated was Angie and Audrey pushing her down his throat. Sometimes it seemed like he never got