“Why do you care? Will it bring my job back, or return Frank to life, if you find out?”
I pulled the soap dish out of my shoulder bag. I’d sealed it in a plastic bag, but I handed it to Rose and asked if she recognized it.
She barely gave it a glance before shaking her head.
“It wasn’t in the employee bathroom at the factory?”
“What? Something like that? We had a dispenser on the wall.”
I turned to Josie, who had peered over her mother’s shoulder at the little frog.
“You recognize this, Josie?”
She shifted from foot to foot, looking nervously behind her into the living room, where Julia was sitting on the couch. “No, Coach.”
One of the little boys was jumping up and down. “Don’t you ’member, Josie, we seen them, they was at the store, and—”
“Quiet, Betto, don’t be butting in when Coach is talking to me. We seen them—saw them—around, they had them at By-Smart around Christmas last year.”
“You buy one?” I prodded, puzzled by her nervousness.
“No, Coach, I never.”
“Julia did,” Betto burst out. “Julia bought it. She wanted to give it—”
“She bought it for Sancia,” Josie put in quickly. “Her and Sancia used to hang out, before María Inés came.”
“Is that right?” I asked the boy.
He hunched a shoulder. “I dunno. I guess so.”
“Betto?” I knelt so my head was at his level. “You thought Julia bought it for a different person, not for Sancia, didn’t you?”
“I don’t remember,” he said, his head down.
“Leave him alone,” Rose said. “You went and bothered Frank Zamar and he got burned to death, now you want to bother my children so you can see what bad things happen to them?”
She grabbed his hand and dragged him into the apartment. The other boy followed, casting me a terrified glance. Great. Now the boys would think of me as the bogey-woman, able to get them murdered in a fire if they spoke to me.
I pushed Josie into the apartment. “You and I need to talk.”
She sat on the couch, the baby between her and her sister. Julia had clearly been paying attention to our exchange at the door: she sat tense and alert, her eyes on Josie.
In the dining room beyond, I could see the two boys sitting under the table, quietly crying. Rose had disappeared, either into the bedroom or the kitchen. It occurred to me that the couch had to be her bed: when I was here before, I’d seen the twin beds where Josie and Julia slept, and the air mattresses for the boys in the dining room. There wasn’t any other place in the apartment for Rose.
“So where did Billy sleep?” I asked. “Out here?”
“He wasn’t here,” Josie said quickly.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “When he left Pastor Andrés’s house he had to go somewhere. He drove you to the hospital yesterday. I know you and he are seeing each other. Where did he sleep?”
Julia tossed her long mane of hair. “Me and Josie shared one bed, Billy slept in the other.”
“Why you have to go shooting off your mouth?” Josie demanded.
“Why you have to let that rich gringo stay here in your bed when he could buy a whole house if he want a place to sleep?” Julia shot back.
Little María Inés began to fuss on the couch, but neither sister paid any attention to her.
“And your mother was okay with this arrangement?” I was incredulous.
“She don’t know, you can’t tell her.” Josie looked nervously at the dining room, where her brothers were still staring at us. “The first time, she was at work, she was at her second job, and she never even got home until one in the morning, and then, last night and Friday, Billy, he come in—came in through the kitchen door after she was in bed.”
“And Betto and your other brother won’t tell her, and she won’t notice? You two are nuts. How long have you and Billy been dating?”
“We’re not dating. Ma won’t let me date anyone because of Julia having a baby.” Josie scowled at her sister.
“Well, anyway, the Bysens don’t want Billy dating no spic girl,” Julia flashed at her.
“Billy never called me a spic. You’re just jealous because a nice Anglo boy is interested in me, not some chavo like you picked up!”
“Yeah, but his grandpapa, he called Pastor Andrés, he told him he’d report Pastor to the Immigration if he hear Billy going around with any Mexican girls in the church,” Julia shot back. “Wetbacks, he called us, you just ask anyone, you can ask Freddy, he was there when Billy’s grandfather called. And after that, how long was it before he called you?”
“He don’t need to call me; he sees me every Wednesday at choir rehearsal.”
The baby began crying more loudly. When her mother and her aunt still ignored her, I picked her up and started patting her back.
“How about now?” I asked, “Now that he’s not living at home. Does Billy call you now?”