He told Jane, ‘I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. I’m Special Agent Trent with the GBI. This is my colleague, Faith Mitchell.’
‘Call me Dr Doe, on account’a I’m in a hospital.’
Will doubted the woman was carrying an ID and he couldn’t fingerprint her without arresting her, which brought its own problems. He said, ‘All right, Dr Doe. Someone was murdered Sunday night in the building across the street from where we found you Monday morning.’
She asked, ‘Shot?’
‘We’re not sure. Did you hear a gunshot?’
Jane leveled him with a gaze. ‘Do you know that at least once a year, a dog shoots somebody?’ She seemed to think this was useful information. ‘You ask me, people should be real careful about keeping dogs in their homes. Aha.’ She looked past Will. Amanda was in the doorway. Jane said, ‘The captain always commands from the back of the ship.’
Amanda accepted the compliment with a nod of her head. ‘Agent Mitchell, why hasn’t this suspect been transferred to the prison ward downstairs?’
Faith said, ‘You mean the one with no TV or sponge baths?’
‘Damn, bitches, you don’t gotta go DEFCON so fast.’ Jane struggled to sit up in the bed. ‘All right, I got information. What’s in it for me?’
Amanda said, ‘You’ve got one more day in the ICU, then you’ll be transferred downstairs to the regular patient wards. I can get you a couple of extra days on the ward. After that, you’ll be enrolled in a treatment program.’
‘Nah, I don’t need no program. I’m back on the coke as soon as I get outta here. I’ll take the extra two days, though. And you’ll give it to me because I was in the building when it happened.’
‘The office building?’ Will asked.
‘No, the whatsit, the one with the balcony.’ Her brown teeth showed in a smile beneath the bandages. ‘Now I got your attention.’
Faith crossed her arms. ‘What time did you get there?’
‘Aw, shit. They stole my Rolex.’ She patted her wrist. ‘What time? How do I know what time it is, bitch? It was dark outside. There was a full moon. It was Sunday. That’s what I know.’
Faith stepped back so that Amanda could take over. She knew when a witness had turned against her.
Amanda said, ‘Start with the gunshot.’
‘I was across the street in the office building, bedding down for the night, right? Then I hear this gunshot and I’m like, “What the fuck?” Like, could it be a backfire from a car? Could it be a gangbanger, which, holy shit, that ain’t my jam.’ She coughed to clear some phlegm from her throat. ‘Anyway, so I’m lying there thinking about what can I do. Then I decide I need to check it out in case there’s some kind of gang thing going down, get my ass outta there, ya know?’
Amanda nodded.
‘I’m on the third floor, tucked up in my crib, so it takes me a little while to get down. Place is a goddam deathtrap. Before I’m out the door, I hear a car streak off, like burning rubber.’
Will bit his lip so a curse wouldn’t slip out. Jane Doe had gotten there too late.
Amanda clarified, ‘You heard a car leaving the scene?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Did you see the car?’
‘Sort of. Looked black, with some red along the bottom.’
Angie’s car was black with red stripes.
Jane said, ‘But there was another car in the parking lot. White, kind of foreign-looking.’
Dale Harding’s Kia.
‘And, so, I go back up to my crib, right? Don’t need to get involved in that shit with cars running off in a hurry. I been out there on the street long enough to know a deal gone bad when I see it.’
Will felt a moment of disappointment, but then Jane started talking again.
‘So I’m back up in my crib, just lyin’ there, and I get to thinking, well, shit, you know what I’m thinking. Maybe I got it wrong. This is a transactional kind of neighborhood. I got some scratch in my pocket. There’s a car outside that building, another car just screeched off, it seems like there’s gonna be a dealer inside, right? Simple economics.’ She pushed herself up in the bed again. ‘So I mosey on back across the parking lot, go inside the building, and it’s dark as shit. Windows are tinted or something. I’m walking around blind and then my eyes get with the program and I see there’s this gal on the floor. At first I thought she was dead. Started checking her pockets, but then she moved and I was like, “Whoa.” ’
Amanda asked, ‘This is the bottom floor, not the upper level?’
‘Correct-o-mundo.’
‘Where was she lying on the floor, exactly?’
‘Shit, I dunno. I’d need a map, right? Not like I was paying attention. I just walked into the building and boom, there she was.’
‘What did she look like?’
‘Dark hair. White gal. She’s laid out on her side. Can’t move her arms and legs, can barely move her head, but she’s making this moaning sound so I’m like, “All right, that’s it. I’m gettin’ the fuck outta here,” only I can’t because there’s another car pulls up in the parking lot.’
‘The same car?’
‘Yeah, but I seen it for real this time. Square nose like an older car. But I ain’t no car expert, right?’
Angie’s Monte Carlo was black with a square nose. Why had she returned to the scene? Why had she left in the first place?
Amanda asked, ‘How much time had passed since the car first peeled off?’
‘Mebbe ’bout thirty minutes? I dunno. Don’t have to punch a clock in my line of business.’ Jane continued, ‘So, the car is out front, so I booked it to the back. Hid behind that bar thing. Peeking out, like . . .’ She elongated her neck. ‘And I see this second bitch comes in. Tall. White. Long hair like the first one. Thinner. Don’t ask me what her face looked like because who the hell can see in that place? Like a fucking tomb.’ She pointed to the pitcher on her bedside table. ‘Gimme some of that, will ya, honey?’
Will was closest, so he poured some water into a Styrofoam cup.
Jane took a drink, drawing out the tension with a loud gulping sound. ‘Okay, so the second bitch comes in, and she’s just fucking furious, right? Kicking things around. Cursing. Motherfuck this. Motherfuck that.’
Definitely Angie. But why was she mad? What had she screwed up?
‘She goes upstairs like she’s marching against Hitler, you know what I mean? Feet just pounding.’ She put down her cup. ‘I hear her upstairs, doing what, I don’t know. Throwing shit around. Going in and out of rooms. Leaving shit. Moving shit.’
Staging the crime scene.
‘She’s got a flashlight. Did I tell you that?’
Amanda said, ‘No.’
‘One’a them little lights that’s real strong. That’s why I’m not leaving my cover, right? Didn’t want that light shining on me. Who knows what the bitch would do?’
She went silent.
Amanda repeated, ‘And?’
‘Oh, well eventually the bitch came back downstairs. She says another couple’a three motherfucks, kicks the chick on the floor. Real hard. And the chick, she moans loud-like: “Uhhhhhn.” That’s when it got interesting.’
Again Jane went silent.
Amanda warned, ‘Don’t draw this out.’
‘All right, I’m just trying to have some fun here. I don’t get to talk to people much.’ Jane took another drink of water. ‘So, bitch just stands there listening to her moan for a coupla minutes. Staring down at her like “You piece of shit.” Then, wham, bitch just grabs the chick by the leg and starts dragging her out of the building. And man . . .’ She shook her head. ‘That chick was moaning before, but when the bitch yanked on her leg, that’s when the screaming started.’
Will felt a pain in his jaw. Had Angie dragged her own mortally wounded, paralyzed daughter out of the building?
‘Then, bitch comes back in again and starts kicking things around again.’
Hiding the fact that she’d dragged a body across the floor.
‘She leaves for real this time. Next thing I hear something like a car door slamming. Lots of car doors slamming.’