Look For Me (Detective D.D. Warren #9)(62)

D.D. shifted from foot to foot, the woman’s callousness getting to her. “You allow dating in your house?”

“Like at their ages they’re gonna listen to anything I say? Boys and girls are kept separate under this roof, of course. But the teen fosters . . . they don’t spend much time here anyway.”

Hence Mike’s and Anya’s absence, which Mother Del didn’t seem concerned about.

“Did Anya help out Roberto with his . . . schemes?”

“They were together.”

“And their relationship with Lola and Roxanna?”

“Didn’t like ’em. Lola and Roxanna came fresh from family and still had each other. In a foster’s world, that can be cause for jealousy. Roberto did his best to tear ’em apart. I wised up to some of the games—Roberto and Anya breaking dishes, pinching babies, then pointing the finger at Roxy to take the blame. Petty stuff, really.”

D.D. wasn’t sure she agreed. “You ever see the fights get physical? Roberto or Anya hit the girls? Threaten them?”

“No fighting. House rule. Everyone knows that.”

Which would be all the more incentive to keep it quiet. Phil must’ve thought the same, as he said, “What about kids falling down stairs? Running into doors? That happen in this house?”

Mother Del shot him a glance. “Roxanna fell down the stairs once, now that you mention it. But then the stairs in this place kind of match the rest of it.”

D.D. remembered Hector’s observation that Roxanna seemed to have injured ribs when he saw her at the courthouse. She wondered if that came from this alleged fall down the stairs or if, in fact, Mother Del was as stupid as her kids thought. “You ever have to take either Lola or Roxanna for medical treatment?” D.D. asked.

“Once, but it was Lola’s fault.”

D.D. homed in. “What happened?”

“Foolish girl drank a fifth of whiskey. Like, the whole bottle. I heard the babies crying, then Roxanna screaming, Mike shouting. Came upstairs to find Lola throwing up all over the damn place. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and that was that. I bundled her off to the ER, where they pumped her stomach and lectured her on alcohol abuse.”

“Where’d she get a bottle of whiskey?” Phil pressed.

“Don’t look at me. There’s no booze in this house. Hell, most of these kids come from addicts. I keep even the cough syrup under lock and key.”

“Where were Roberto and Anya when this was going on?” D.D.’s turn.

“Standing in the doorways of their rooms, watching.”

“Just watching?”

Mother Del stared at her. “Wouldn’t you?”

“Lola would’ve been eight years old,” Phil said. “A young girl. Why would she drink an entire bottle of whiskey?”

“I was told the mother was an alcoholic. A kid grows up seeing that . . . Monkey see, monkey do.”

“What happened afterward?” D.D. asked.

That shrug again. “DCF trolled around. The CASA lady paid a visit. No one could find fault with anything. Girls settled back in. That was that.”

“No more falls down the stairs?” D.D. asked.

“Nope.”

“Running into doorknobs?”

“Nope. Lola was acting in some community play, Oliver Twist. Roxanna worked set design. Mike, too. Roberto and Anya started joining them. Guess they got tired of fighting, brokered a peace deal instead. Except for Mike. He quit. Can’t make everyone happy.”

D.D. frowned, churning this around in her head. She couldn’t see an eight-year-old girl suddenly chugging a fifth of whiskey in the middle of the night. It already sounded forced to her. Say, something the infamous Roberto and Anya might have pulled off, if Mike Davis’s account was to be believed. Maybe Roxanna arrived too late to intervene.

So Lola drank the booze, Lola ended up in the hospital.

Then they decided to live happily ever after?

D.D. didn’t buy it for a moment. Her cynical cop’s mind had an entirely different spin on things: Lola went to the hospital, and then Roxanna caved. Did whatever it was Roberto wanted just so long as they never bothered her sister again. At which point Roberto and Anya joined her and Lola at their new hobby, the community theater, in order to keep an eye on her.

Sex? Could it be that awful, that simple? Roxanna submitted to abuse in order to keep her little sister safe? Except why was Lola the one suddenly acting out?

God only knew what went on in a place like this. D.D. already wanted to leave, and she wasn’t a helpless kid. Everything about Mother Del, the house, smacked of hopelessness. No wonder the older kids did their best to stay away as long as possible.

“You ever talk to Juanita Baez?” Phil was asking now.

“Girls’ mom? She showed up. Different. I don’t normally see the parents much. Then again, not too many of my kids get reunited.”

“What did she want to know?”

“Same questions you’re asking now. Except she was a little more hostile on the matter. Convinced Lola was abused by some perv under my roof.”

D.D. watched the woman with fresh interest.

“Look,” Mother Del rumbled. “This house ain’t no castle. And I’m no fairy godmother. But I run a clean operation. House rules, strictly enforced. No drinking, no drugs, no hanky-panky. And that’s that.”