Andrew Vachss - Strega

She took Scotty by one hand. Immaculata took the other. On the way down the hall to the back office the two women lifted Scotty off his feet, swinging their arms. The kid giggled like he'd found heaven.

We turned into a small room stuffed full of kids' stuff-toy animals, a three-panel screen with puppies playing on its surface, dolls, coloring books. All the furniture was child-size.

"This is where you and Immaculata get to talk," Lily told Scotty.

"About the bad things?" he asked.

"If you want to, Scotty. We don't make you do anything you don't want to here, okay?"

He just nodded, subdued now.

"You go inside with Immaculata, and we'll all wait for you out here, okay?"

"Max too!" the boy said, tugging the Mongol forward.

Max picked the boy up by his belt and tossed him in the air. Scotty screamed in delight, never doubting for a minute that Max would catch him. Max caught the boy in his arms and carried him inside. Immaculata bowed to Lily and me and followed, closing the door behind her.

There was a long window in one wall. I could see the three of them inside. Scotty was sitting on Max's lap, Immaculata talking to him.

"One-way glass?'? I asked Lily.

"Yes," she said. "We have graduate students observing all the time."

"You videotape the interviews?"

"We don't have the facilities to conceal the cameras here. And many of our children are phobic for video. You understand?"

"Sure," I told her. Kids who had been stars in porno movies could freak out if they saw a camera.

The boy was drawing something, holding the picture up for Immaculata and Max to see every couple of seconds.

"My name is Burke," I told her.

"I know who you are," she said, mixed feelings running through her words.

"You have a problem with me?"

She gave it some thought, looking directly into my eyes. "Nonot a problem. In fact, a couple of our older girls said you pulled them off the streets. And McGowan says you're okay too."

"So?"

"Mr. Burke, when we work with children at SAFE we don't edit their disclosures."

I stood there, watching Scotty make word pictures with his hands for Max. Max's arms were folded on his chest, his eyes slitted in concentration. I was waiting for this woman to tell me what her beef was.

"You know a girl named Babette?"

I nodded. I was in a mess a few months ago and she ended up going off with McGowan. I guess she landed at SAFE. It was fucking sure she couldn't go back to the stepfather who paid me to find her.

"In group one day Babette told us how she happened to get free of her pimp," Lily said. "She said you shot the man."

"I thought he was reaching for a gun," I said lamely.

"Babette said your gun didn't make any noise," Lily told me, eyes level.

I didn't say anything. If I hadn't had the silencer, it might have been some uniformed cop coming to that hotel room instead of McGowan. Shooting a pimp should only be a petty misdemeanor anyway-like hunting without a license.

"Don't worry," she said. "Nobody's going to testify against you.

"I'm not worried," I told her. The Prof had visited the pimp in the hospital-given him the word.

"We don't allow guns at SAFE," Lily said, watching me.

"You want to search me," I grinned at her, opening my coat.

"No. I want your word."

"You got it."

We both turned back to the window. Scotty had his hands on his hips and was shouting something at Immaculata. Suddenly he struck out; his little fist pounded on her shoulder. Max didn't move.

"It's okay," Lily said. "It's probably a re-enactment."

I looked a question at her. "When the child relives the experience…some of them find it easier than talking about it at first. Or maybe he's already past it…maybe he told the secret.Some of our kids fly into a rage when the truth is out…they have so much anger."

"So why's he hitting on Immaculata?"

"We encourage them to do it. At first. Then they progress to the self-defense classes. It all has to come out-first the secrets, then the anger.

"The secret is what happened to them-what people did to them?"

"No. That's what they call the 'bad stuff' or the 'scary stuff' The secret is that the offender told them never to tell anybody about what happened. They usually make it so that if the child tells, something horrible will happen."

"To the kid?"

"Usually not. To their parent, or a puppyeven to some character on TV the child loves."

"The kid believes it?" I asked. When I was Scotty's age, I didn't believe anything.

"Of course. The offender is all-powerful. He can do anything. And the secret is helped by the guilt too."

"Why should a kid feel guilty if somebody did that to him?"

"Because they like some of it…it arouses new feelings in them. And, for some of them, they believe the person who is doing these things actually loves them. A parent will tell a child that if the secret comes out the parent may go to jail…and it will be the child's fault. You see?"

"Yeah, they make the kid take the weight."

Scotty was crying, his face buried in his hands. Immaculata was bending over him, talking to him, patting his back.

"You know a D.A. named Wolfe? With the City-Wide Special Victims Bureau?"

"Sure," said Lily. "She's the best. I do a lot of work for her office."

"You think you might be willing to put in a good word for me?"

"Are you looking for a job as an investigator?"

"No. I just want to talk with her about this case, maybe get some help. And I don't know too many people on her side of the fence."

"I could tell her what I know about you-that's all."

"Hey!" I said. "I brought the kid out safely, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did. Your methods left a bit to be desired, didn't they?"

"I don't know," I told her. "Why don't you ask Babette?"

Lily smiled. "I'll talk to Wolfe," she said, and we shook hands.

Scotty wasn't crying anymore. His tear-streaked face was turned to Max, his little hands flying. Max took some picture from Scotty's hands-it looked like crayon scribbles to me. Then he pulled the round wooden top off one of the tables, held it so the edge was facing the floor, and wedged it into a corner of the room. Max tested it with his hands to be sure it was solid. He wet his thumb and pasted the picture against the round surface. He bowed to Scotty, spun his wrists so the palms were facing outward, and flicked his fingers to his side. Telling them to stand back.

Lily was standing next to me at the window. "I never saw this one before," she said.

Max glided forward onto his left foot, twisting as it hit the ground. His right foot came around in a blur, shattering the wooden table like it was glass. He walked to the corner, pulled Scotty's drawing out of the wreckage, and turned to face the boy. Max tore the picture in half, throwing a piece to each side like it was garbage. The little boy's smile was wider than his face.

The door opened. Max stepped out first. He rubbed two fingers and a thumb together, pointing at me. "How much for the table?" I asked Lily.

"It's on the house," she said, a smile on her face too.

Immaculata came out with Scotty holding her hand. "I got the bad stuff out," he told Lily proudly.

"That's wonderful!" she said. "Would you like to play with the other children outside while we talk?"

"Can Max come?" Scotty asked.

Nobody answered him. "Come on, Max," he said, tugging at the Mongol's hand.

Immaculata nodded almost imperceptibly. Max and Scotty walked down the hall together to play.

LILY TOOK us to her office, at the end of the corridor. It looked like a kid's playroom except for the computer screen on the desk. I looked at the keyboard-there was no lock-out device. "How do you keep someone from getting into your records?" I asked her.