On Behalf of the Family (A Detective Dave Mason Mystery) by Mar Preston

Author:Mar Preston [Preston, Mar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pertinacity Press
Published: 2014-02-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

They finally got rid of Birch after two lettuce and tomato sandwiches and four cups of chamomile tea. On his way upstairs Mason passed by the office of the School Resource Officer, Norma Unell, and looked in. Mason was startled to recognize one of Yasemin’s Safak’s sisters sitting there, one hand cuffed to the desk. The Juvenile Unit Detective, Morrie Lefkowitz, stood on the other side of Unell’s desk talking on the phone. He gave Mason a wave.

Instead of the long-sleeved grayish garments Mason had last seen the girl wearing, she had on a midriff-baring pair of hip huggers over skinny, undeveloped hips and a cheap scooped-necked, glittery top. She held her backpack against her protectively, and drew in a breath when she saw Mason. She knew him. He caught the truant officer’s attention and beckoned to her. She came outside to talk to him in the hall.

“What you got here, Norma? This girl’s part of a case I’m working.”

The weary middle-aged woman, with a hairstyle that looked as solid as a motorcycle helmet, dug into her briefcase. Unell had been doing truancy a long time and was very good at it.

“Just a minute, Dave. Ah, found it. Here’s what I’ve got. Fifteen years old, name of Safak, Elif Safak.” She looked up at Mason. “What kind of a name is that? Address on Adelaide. Ha! If that’s true…. It’s just the usual. She was on a bench at the Promenade over by the dinosaur topiary near a bunch of runaways and petty thieves in training.”

The Promenade scene was familiar to every cop on the force. There were clever topiaries, one a dinosaur made of leaves that grew over a wire form. Water cascaded from its snout into a rectangular pool. A cluster of teenagers hung there who looked as though they slept in coffins during the daylight hours. Girls wearing low rider jeans and tank tops freaking with teenage boys grinding away to the rhythm of some kind of awful earworm music. Sometimes the smell of marijuana enraged passersby and the high-end merchants on the Promenade enough to complain. The scene where puberty, drugs, alcohol and even gang politics were joined at the hip, would be closed down for a few days. Anybody with money could stock a pharmacy from what was available at the high school. Parents were clueless.

“Usually they take off when they see me,” Unell said. “She was on the edge of the group, and I wasn’t really sure she was even part of it. First time I’ve seen her there, so I brought her here in handcuffs to give her a scare. Anyways, the usual juvies took off. You know her?”

“Like I say, part of another investigation. Mind if I talk to her?” he pushed.

“Not yet. How about coming back in an hour after I process her? I gotta get a truancy interview going, and set up a parent conference. You can’t interview her without a parent. Hope you’re not thinking of that, Dave.

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