Desert Angel (10 page)

At Angel’s turn she showed the single earring she carried. “My mom gave this to me. I don’t know what it’s made of.” She pulled her earlobe and put the hooked end through the pierced hole, then took it out and passed it around. Most of the girls examined it carefully as if they were imagining jewelry they could wear when they grew up. The boys simply passed it along, except for one who made everyone laugh when he tried to stick it in his nose. During the circle time Norma held on to LaDonna’s arm and did not look at Angel.

The next activity was movement, jumping rope. The room had enough space for two ropes whirling at the same time, two lines of children taking turns to see how long they could jump without missing. Rita and Angel kept one rope going. Norma stayed in LaDonna’s group.
Down in Mississippi where the green grass grows
 … Angel wondered if she jumped rope to these rhymes when she was younger. She didn’t think so.

At free time Angel went to a table with the checkerboard. Norma went to the block area and built towers that she quickly knocked over. The other children played in clusters of two or three and ignored them both. At lunch Angel and Norma sat at separate tables.

During nap time Angel asked Rita, “What’s the matter with Norma?”

“Her home’s pretty unstable. She’s lived with aunts and friends of the family when her dad’s acting too crazy or her mom’s at the shelter. It’s very hard on her when someone she likes pulls a no-show, and we were both gone yesterday. LaDonna said Norma fought with the other children morning and afternoon. So today, even though we’re here, she doesn’t trust us. We might vanish again and, one more time, she’d have to feel sad and abandoned. Probably thinks, better for her to drop us. Less hurt.”

Disappointed. Angel could understand that. How many times did Angel hope her mother would get an apartment, just the two of them? How many birthdays did she watch her mom drool over some guy and completely ignore her own daughter? How many times did her mom forget even a simple present? And Christmas? The guy would get a glitzy watch, something nice, and Angel would get a pack of barrettes and some fancy hairspray that her mom would start using in a couple of days.

After nap Angel managed to stand or sit near Norma a few times but neither spoke. Norma glanced at Angel only when she was busy with something else and could not catch her eye.

*   *   *

T
HAT EVENING
TJ
INTERRUPTED THEIR DINNER.

“I can’t keep this twenty-four-hour thing going; we don’t have the people or the budget.” He took his hat off as if in apology.

“I appreciate what you’ve already done, and Vincente’ll be back sometime tonight or tomorrow,” Rita said. “What’s the best way to get hold of you if we need help quick?”

“You got my personal cell number and I programmed it in one of our confiscated phones I’m giving the girl.” He nodded toward Angel. “Got an hour’s worth of minutes if she needs help.” He handed a small black cell phone and a plug-in charger to Angel. “Keep the batteries full up. Press this to call. I’m speed dial 1, Goot’s 2.”

“I got Goot’s cell?” Rita asked.

“Same as mine with a four at the end instead of a three.”

Rita put the number in her phone’s list as he continued talking.

“I still need this girl’s name for my report and I need her story. The feds put a Level Two all-points on this guy”—he checked his pocket notepad—“Kramer. Darrell Scott Kramer. Fire east of Cathedral on the federal land at the edge of Joshua Tree Park. Endangered animal carcasses in the rubble. Probably substances, too. Interstate violations. ATF’s part of it so there may be weapons in the mix. They only tell us enough to catch the guy. Not enough to ask the right questions once we’ve got him. They get to do that.”

Angel’s stomach had started to rumble. It sounded like people were taking Scotty seriously. It was too good to be true.

17

“I need to ask you some questions,” TJ said to Angel.

“Can it wait till after we finish eating?” Rita asked.

“Sorry,” TJ said, “I’m out of time and me and Goot’re supposed to do surveillance. Brawley’s got some gangs percolating and it could spill north to you guys and Shell Beach. Good night to stay off the streets for a bunch of reasons.”

He pulled a chair to him and straddled it, resting his notepad on the back. “I still don’t know your name,” he said.

“Angela Ann Dailey.”

Rita raised her eyebrows. News to her, too.

“How long you known this Kramer?”

Angel told him about her mom meeting Scotty for the first time in Cabazon. Told about driving out into the desert and living in the trailer. Told about Scotty trapping, stealing and selling guns. Told him Scotty did drugs.

“First time I saw you you said he killed your mother?” TJ had stopped writing and looked at her.

If Angel admitted she didn’t have a mother anymore would he send somebody to take her away? “What’s going to happen if I tell you?” she asked.

Now TJ was surprised. “What do you mean? We’ll check it out. That’s our job.”

“What’ll happen to me?”

“I don’t get it,” he said. “You mean will Kramer keep coming after you?”

Angel felt her legs pushing her chair back, away from the table. Automatic reaction: run.

Rita picked up on the girl’s motion. “Whoa. Hang on a minute. Are you asking can you keep staying here with me? You want to know if they’ll take you away?”

TJ was looking back and forth between the two of them, impatient. “Hey, could you guys do this later? I got to split. Did you witness a murder?”

Angel put her hands on her thighs to relax them for a moment. She shook her head.

TJ, exasperated now: “So how do you know he killed your mother?”

“I found her grave,” Angel said, “dug up her arm. Saw where he’d taken her rings.”

Nobody moved.

TJ broke the spell. “When are you talking?”

“A few days ago,” Angel said, her voice rough, hoarse. Angel could feel Rita looking at her.

TJ stood. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. He stopped before he got to the front door. “We’ll find this guy.”

*   *   *

A
FTER HE WAS GONE
, Angel still felt hopeless. “He doesn’t believe me, does he?”

Rita shrugged.

They exchanged cell numbers. If they were separated when trouble started, at least maybe they could send a warning.

“Matteo hasn’t showed up yet, right?” Angel asked.

Rita took a deep breath, shook her head.

“Should we have told TJ about that?”

“That’s Ramón’s decision. He pretty much takes care of the Gomez family. They don’t have cards. If we report Matteo, then Abuela and Tío might be sent back to Michoacán.”

“You and Vincente got cards, right?”

“We were born here.”

“Momo?”

“Same thing.”

“Ramón and Carmen?”

“I think they got citizenship.”

While they were doing the dinner dishes, Rita asked Angel if she had any way to prove Scotty killed her mother. Angel thought about that. And thought about that. And thought about that. There must be a way.

An hour later, neither Rita nor Angel was awake to see the man in the old Suburban make a phone call from his parking spot at the corner of the block. Didn’t hear his car start or see it crawl slowly down their street and turn right toward the highway and Cathedral City.

*   *   *

N
EXT MORNING
, Angel didn’t feel like breakfast. She’d had trouble sleeping after her talk with TJ. Like she was in a tunnel. One end, Scotty, the other, foster care. Every hour brought her closer to the unfaceable.

She borrowed a pair of Rita’s old jeans and rolled up the long legs. Good for traveling. At night they could work like those pajamas with feet. In spite of the heat she knew midday would bring, she tied Carmen’s sweatshirt around her waist. This could be the day she’d have to run for her life and she was determined to have a fighting chance.

She made herself stay calm on the sidewalk from Rita’s car to the school door. Inside, she rubbed the perspiration from her neck and forehead and went about checking the doors again. Maybe it was foolish but she wanted the outside ones unlocked. Scotty could kick in a locked one, but she couldn’t break through a locked door to run out. When she examined the windows she undid the latches in the boys’ bathroom and the vestibule. Call it a premonition, call it whatever you want, she was spooked and she knew it.

Before sharing circle started she found Norma burrowing in the play clothes. She waited until the girl pulled out a green cap and smelled it. Norma frowned when she saw who was standing beside her.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry for not being here,” Angel began.

“I don’t care,” Norma said. “I don’t like you.”

“I don’t blame you for being mad,” Angel said.

“Go away.” Norma threw the cap on the floor and resumed digging.

“I don’t want to go away, because I like you and I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.”

Norma reached behind herself with one hand and flipped Angel the bird.

Angel was shocked but it was kind of funny, too. “What are you looking for?” she asked.

Norma ignored her.

“I need a hat, too. Could you find me a blue one?” Angel asked.

“No,” Norma said, not looking up.

Angel didn’t move away. Quietly watched Norma search.

“What you want a hat for?” Norma asked, after a minute of tossing more and more clothes out of the box. But before Angel could answer, Norma changed her mind. “I don’t care,” she said, coming up finally with a multicolored scarf that she wrapped around her neck.

“You look good in scarves,” Angel said, but she was speaking to Norma’s back as the girl made straight for LaDonna and held on to her arm until sharing circle began.

A thin boy next to Angel held a Sucrets box in front of him as he sat. Since he was so obvious, Rita started with him. “Tell everybody your name again and what you brought for today.”

“Primo,” the boy said, “and I found this at home.” He opened the box.

Angel shrieked and scooted backward. She was only dimly aware of the class pandemonium that followed as she began corralling her own panic. Embarrassing. It was only a wolf spider. She’d even made friends with a few during the evenings she’d slept outside the trailer, but she knew why she’d reacted. Watching for Scotty had made her like a snare, set to spring at the slightest pressure. Within a minute the spider was back in the box and Rita and LaDonna had restored order.

“Well, that was certainly exciting, Primo,” Rita said. “Will you promise to tell me the next time you bring a pet to school?”

“He’s not a pet,” Primo said, his dark eyes gleaming.

Rita looked at him until he nodded, then shifted to the next person. “Angel, how about you?”

Angel smiled, thinking how close she’d come to sharing a pee stain. She reached in her pocket and pulled out the folded five-dollar bill. “This is what my mom called ‘mad money.’ I’m not sure where that name came from but it was like for an emergency. Like if you got in trouble and had to buy something.”

“What kind of trouble?” This from the spider boy.

Angel glanced to Rita for help, but she sat patiently waiting.

“Um, well, like if your car broke and you had to get somebody to fix it,” Angel said, knowing this was a stupid example.

“You don’t got no car,” Norma said.

The other kids ignored her, probably used to her vendettas.

“Or if you went someplace and got hungry, you could get something to eat,” Angel amended, wishing she’d thought of that first.

“What do you think you could buy for five dollars?” Rita asked, and quickly added, “Not you, Angel.”

“An ice cream!” a girl with heaps of curly brown ringlets said, grinning at the thought.

“Good,” Rita said. “Would you have any money left over?”

The girl shrugged.

“An ice cream would be fun,” Rita agreed, “but all that sugar’s not good for some people. What could you buy if you wanted something healthy?”

“An orange?” Spider Boy suggested.

“That’s healthy,” Rita agreed. “Would you have any money left over if you paid for an orange with a five-dollar bill?”

“I’m pretty sure,” the girl with ringlets said.

“Teresa’s right,” LaDonna chipped in. “I bought an orange yesterday at StopShop for less than a dollar.”

Angel got it. Head Start. It wasn’t just talking and playing. Rita and LaDonna were using these activities to teach the kids about numbers and healthy eating and thinking, all sorts of things, really. That was cool.

*   *   *

A
T MOVEMENT TIME
the jump ropes were brought out again, Angel supposed, so that the kids could get better at things they worked on the day before. Again, Norma stayed with LaDonna’s group.

At free play time Rita asked the children, “Who can teach the big girl how to play Candyland?” Everybody looked at Norma. Norma made a face and walked to the blocks area.

“I could,” Spider Boy said.

“Yeah,” Angel said, “that’s the least you could do.”

The boy grinned and rubbed the pocket with the Sucrets box.

As soon as they started, Angel was surprised. She actually had fun. The boy, Primo, was a cute little guy and a pretty sharp game-player.

At lunch an unexpected outside noise froze Angel mid-bite.

“Garbage guy,” LaDonna explained.

Angel felt a momentary relief but knew this was another reminder not to get careless, not to mess around and miss a warning sign that could save her. At nap time she stayed by the kitchen door to the outside. During the rest of the afternoon Angel lost track of school activities, instead paying attention to every unusual sound, every shadow that showed through the windows.

The parents coming in to pick up their children at the end of the day made her more nervous. Was he out there waiting? She left the main room and watched from behind a screen in the kitchen, waiting for the process to be over. After the last child was gone, she swept while Jessie looked at picture books and Rita called TJ for an escort home.