Rarities Unlimited 04 - The Color of Death

driver’s license, it was customary to get a photo identification card from the state. “What about your birth certificate? The state of Colorado doesn’t have a record of anyone named Kelly Martin being born on January 12, 1985.”
    Kelly shifted in her seat. “I don’t know. Maybe my mom lost it. Maybe I wasn’t born in a hospital, so they never got a birth certificate.”
    Ed caught Tessa’s glance and shook his head slightly. “You’d need one to enroll in school, child.”
    Kelly thought for a moment, then said “My mom home-schooled us.”
    Ed had to give her credit for quick wits—or for remembering a story she’d rehearsed before. “Tessa told me that you had an envelope with a bunch of cash and credit cards in your purse, but that you hadn’t known the cards were in there. She said you were going to talk to your cousin about it.”
    Kelly’s shoulders hunched even more. “I did. He said they belonged to friends that he had dinner with. They all forgot their cards at the restaurant I work at, so I returned them to my cousin when the manager asked me to.”
    Same story. Ed sat back and raised an eyebrow at Tessa, silently asking what she wanted to do next.
    Kelly saw the exchange, then shot to her feet. “I’m out of here. I don’t need this.”
    “Wait—” Tessa began.
    “You don’t believe me,” Kelly said accusingly. “After everything I told you. I trusted you.”
    Tessa’s heart sank at the hitch in Kelly’s breath, at the beginnings of a sob in her voice. “We do believe you were attacked, Kelly. We just need to understand the rest. But that can wait. Right now my priority is to get you to a safe place.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You can’t go back to your cousin’s house. Why didn’t you tell me what happened when we talked yesterday?”
    “I tripped and fell after I talked with you,” Kelly said, refusing to meet Tessa’s eyes even through her sunglasses.
    “Yeah, right.” Tessa shook her head. “You’re still not going back there.”
    “I have to. I have, um, things there. I can’t just leave. Jerry would worry about me,” Kelly said.
    “We’ll call your cousin—”
    “No! You can’t talk to him. I have to go now, I don’t want to cause any trouble.” Kelly began to edge away from the table.
    Tessa had had it. “Listen to me, young lady. You will not be going back to that house. Clearly there’s not enough supervision for you there.”
    “You can’t make me leave,” Kelly insisted. But it was said in a tone of voice that was almost hopeful, as if she wanted the responsibility to be taken off her tiny shoulders.
    Tessa jumped into the opening. “Right now, you are the only witness to a crime that’s being investigated. I can have Ed take you into custody for your own protection. So you can tell your cousin you don’t really have any choice.”
    Kelly felt her stomach muscles relaxing for the first time in days. “Whatever,” she said, working hard to sound sullen.
    Tessa looked at Ed, glad that he hadn’t called her bluff. He stood up. “Kelly, why don’t you order yourself a big breakfast. I need to talk to Tessa alone.” He handed the girl a menu and steered Tessa out of earshot.
    She looked back over her shoulder and saw Kelly reading through the menu with what looked to be real enthusiasm.
    “That was pretty tricky, lady. She was damned relieved to have you take the decision out of her hands,” Ed said.
    “Comes from helping to raise Kevin,” Tessa smiled, referring to her much-younger half brother. “Teenagers act like they want independence and responsibility, but when things get tough they’re happy to find a way out of being in charge of their own lives while still saving face.”
    Ed smiled briefly, then grew serious as he thought of what he had to do next.
    “Kelly’s lying, you know. She’s got a pretty, well-rehearsed story, but you could grind it up and use it as fertilizer,” he said.
    “I don’t know what’s going on, but I do agree there’s something, er, fishy-smelling about her story,” Tessa responded. “Still, someone could be intimidating her, and that’s why she’s afraid to tell us the truth. We need to get her into a safe environment, then she’ll begin to trust us.”
    “You can’t build a legal case on a foundation of lies.”
    “She’s not lying about being raped,” Tessa insisted.
    Ed looked over her head at Kelly, who was watching people pass by the front windows—as if she were