Cooked Goose

late-night beer and pizza orgy,” she said. “Somebody had to drive him here.
    Dirk joined them, wearing his “I Mean Business, Suckers” scowl. “So, guys... what’ve we got?”
    Jake nodded to the nearest radio car and a teenage girl who sat, shivering, in the backseat. The door was open and her feet were hanging out. A large jacket—a cop’s uniform coat—was draped around her shoulders. “The girl over there...“ he said, “...the pretty Latina . She and her boyfriend were driving by about 2200 hours and spotted the victim crawling, naked, by the side of the road. The girl got out to help her. The boyfriend drove on... didn’t want to get involved.”
    “Nice guy,” Savannah muttered.
    “Yeah, right. But he did call it in when he got home.” Dirk gave an unimpressed grunt. “So, the mayor will pin a rose on his nose.”
    “Is the victim at the hospital?” Savannah asked.
    “Yeah, the ambulance just left.”
    “How is she?”
    Jake looked like he might be feeling a bit queasy. “Not great. Her arm’s broken, maybe some ribs.”
    “And her face is pretty mashed up,” Mike added, looking equally sick.
    “Were you two the first to respond?” Dirk asked.
    “Not the first. We were on a possible liquor store burglary over by the high school. Titus got here first. He’d just come on duty.”
    “Where’s he?”
    “He’s been searching the grove since we got here.” Mike pointed into the orchard where a lone figure was combing the ground with a flashlight beam.
    “Did he string the tape?”
    “Yeah. He had the perimeter set up when we arrived.”
    “Good man.” Dirk waved a hand toward the teenager in the backseat of the patrol car. “Has anyone questioned the girl?”
    “I think Titus talked to her, but we told her you’d want to speak to her, so she’s been waiting around.”
    “Whose jacket is she wearing?” Savannah asked.
    “Titus gave her his. Seems she put her sweater on the victim. The kid was freezing when he got here.”
    “Thanks guys,” Dirk said. “Keep these people back behind the line, especially the reporters, and let me know when Bloss gets here.”
    Dirk headed toward the unit and Savannah followed.
    “What makes you think the captain’s coming?” Jake called after them.
    “Are you kidding?” Savannah replied over her shoulder. “We’ve got television cameras here, and Bloss is still working on his fifteen seconds of fame.”
    Savannah felt a mini-surge of affection for Dirk as she watched him drop to one knee beside the open car door to talk to Angie Perez. His street-worn face softened, and he dropped the brusque, tough guy tone of voice when he interviewed victims or traumatized witnesses.
    After being his partner for seven years and his friend for ten, Savannah knew all his secrets... like that he would get teary-eyed over an abandoned puppy. And the guy couldn’t be all bad if he liked cats.
    She leaned over the open car door and listened as he spoke to the distraught teenager. “Your name is Angie, right?” he said.
    The girl nodded.
    “I hear you did a good thing, helping the victim,” he said as he fished a tattered tissue out of his jacket pocket and handed it to her.
    “I don’t know how much I helped,” the girl replied between sniffs. “I hope she’s going to be okay. Have you heard how she is?”
    “No, I haven’t,” Dirk said. “But I’ll call the hospital in a little while and I’ll let you know, okay?”
    “Thanks.”
    “And how about you?” Savannah asked her, touched by the teenager’s concern for the victim. Who said kids didn’t have a heart these days? “Are you going to be okay, sweetie?”
    “Yeah. I guess so.” Angie dabbed at her eyes and the dark streaks of mascara dripping down her cheeks. “I mean... I don’t know why I’m crying. I wasn’t the one who... That poor lady.”
    Savannah reached over and stroked the girl’s hair as though she were one of her younger sisters. “You’re crying because you have a heart, kiddo, and it hurts to see something like that.”
    “I guess you guys get used to it,” she said, hiccuping, “but that’s the first time I’ve ever...”
    Dirk looked down and brushed some dirt off the knee of his jeans. “We don’t get used to it either,” he said quietly, “if that makes you feel any better.”
    He waited while Angie blew her nose and composed herself, then he said, “Do you feel up to telling me what happened?”
    “I already told the policeman, the