Lousiana Hotshot

in ten.”
    Valentino seemed hardly to notice the interruption. “Twenty-seven tops,” he said.
    Tops, my ass,
Talba thought, and tried not to think about what Darryl was sending them. She was starting to perspire, partly from fear, and partly from the realization that she was doing it, she was going to get what she wanted. “Forty plus benefits.”
    “Of course benefits,” Eddie said. “Think I’m a piker? Twenty-seven and benefits.”
    Several thousand dollars later, when they had finally shaken hands, a well-dressed woman arrived, nervously twisting the nice-sized diamond she wore. Talba breathed a sigh of relief— apparently, she was able to afford an apprentice hotshot.
    Valentino was suddenly the perfect host. “Come in, come in, Mrs. Scott. Would you like a cup of coffee?”
    The woman was tall, African-American, straight-haired, straight-nosed, and probably, if her clothes were any indication, straitlaced. She was dressed for the business world, and from the looks of her gray suit and gold jewelry, high up in it. Talba thought she looked like a bank officer.
    The woman addressed herself to Talba. “Mr. Boucree seemed to think you’d be able to relate to my daughter.”
    “Mr. Valentino and I work as a team. Excuse me a moment, will you? I’ll get another chair.” She was making it up as she went along, but it seemed to be working. The woman relaxed and sat.
    When Talba came back with the chair, Eddie was already talking. “What can we do for you?”
    “My daughter’s been molested.”
    Talba gasped, but she kept quiet, taking a cue from Eddie, who shook his head slowly, murmuring, “Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.”
    “The thing is, no one will
do
anything!” Scott sounded whiny and at the end of her rope.
    “I’m so sorry.” Talba said, no longer able to contain herself.
    “She still has braces on her teeth.” The woman was twisting a tissue, but maybe, just maybe, she didn’t seem quite as anguished as Miz Clara might have been in her situation.
    “Why don’t you start at the beginning,” Eddie said quietly.
    Aziza Scott took a breath. “I read her diary. I don’t like to admit it, but I didn’t know what else to do. She wasn’t acting right. Nothing made her happy all of a sudden— she was sullen and pouty all the time instead of only three-quarters of it.” She tried out a smile on this one, but none of the three of them had the stomach for it. “I thought maybe I could find out what was bothering her.”
    Talba 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