Chapter 3

On the other end of the phone, Jake sighed. When Sara got wrapped up in a problem she didn't let it go until she got to the end of whatever the problem was. "Okay. Shoot."

"I have Jade here sleeping on my couch."

"You what!" Jake sat bolt upright in bed, disturbing the girl sleeping next to him. Amber rolled over with a sleepy protest on her lips, which died at his imperious 'be quiet' gesture. "Jade? The doughnut shop Jade? The little girl Jade?"

"Yes. And Jake…she might have leukemia."

Jake sat there for a moment, absolutely stunned. "What?" he finally managed.

"She might have leukemia." Sara sounded as sick as he felt. "She's been going to a public clinic for low-income persons to get her vaccines and stuff for school, and the doctor there recommended she get tested after she came down with a bad cough at the end of last winter. They didn't have the money for the tests so her mother never took her to be diagnosed or treated."

"But…but…" Jake waved a hand helplessly, though he knew Sara couldn't see it. "There's welfare and Medicare for that. There's a way, I know there is. There has to be. She can't die like that, Sara, she's too young!"

"Frankly, Jake, I don't think her mother gives a damn." Sara described Jade's mother's apartment to him, including Hakeem, the odor of drugs and cigarettes, and what the rental office guy had told her. "Do you understand, Jake? Her mother kicks her out of the apartment every night on purpose. Because she's inconvenient. It's not right, Jake, and I can't just—" Sara swallowed hard. "Jake…I can't just let her die. I have to try something. Anything. You told me once you have a friend who's a doctor. Do you think you could get the doctor to come here and take a look at her?" Sara sounded frantic. "I'll pay him for the visit myself. I just can't let her die, Jake. I don't know what it is about her, but I can't."

"Sara, she's gonna need Jade's mom's permission to treat or test her. If she doesn't have that she can't do anything." Jake felt his heart sink. It was a horrible situation, and if the mother didn't cooperate… "Here, let me give you her number. She's Tina Gillis, and her number's 555-2130. She works at Nighttime Pediatrics, and she will do house calls on emergency cases. Ask her what you need to do."

"Thanks, Jake, you're a lifesaver. I owe you one, a huge one. Just name it."

"I'll remember that. Call her now." Sara hung up.

Jake put the phone down a little more slowly, still stunned by what Sara had told him. He went to the doughnut shop regularly, though most of the other cops liked the Starbucks. Whenever he saw Jade, he made sure to give her his change or whatever he could spare, even buying an extra bagel or doughnut for her once in a while. And all the while, Jade had been…was still…dying…

Amber had gone back to sleep; Jake lay down beside her again, but sleep for him was a long time in coming.

"Hello, this is Doctor Tina Gillis, can I help you?"

"Um, yes, I hope you can. My name is Sara Pezzini, I'm Jake McCarty's partner at the precinct."

"Jake?" the doctor said. "I didn't know he had a partner! You're very patient to have put up with him for this long." Sara wanted to laugh. Jake's ego would take a definite blow if he knew what his—from the sound of it—ex-girlfriend was saying about him, but she was too tense right now to share the humor.

"Thanks for the compliment, Doctor Gillis, but I have a problem. I have a little girl here right now who's got a terrible cough. She says the last time she went to an immunization clinic the doctor there told her mother to have her tested for leukemia or tuberculosis or something like that and they never went because the mother said she didn't have any money. Can you do the test?"

Tina shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't. Not without her parent's permission or permission from a legal guardian. If her mother were to sign a statement saying that she authorizes you to make decisions about her medical care because she isn't competent to make them, then I could, but without that, I can't."

"But if I got that, you could." Sara's mind was already busy.

"Yes, I could."

"Can I call you tomorrow? I'll get permission by tomorrow."

"Certainly."

Sara was already in motion, shrugging her jeans on as she hung up. A few minutes with a pen and paper served her purpose, and she then folded the piece of paper and put it carefully in her pocket. Then she shrugged on her jacket and slipped out of bed. She didn't think the poor girl was going to wake up anytime soon, but just in case she did… "Jade: Had to run out for a moment. Make yourself comfortable, watch TV if you like, but don't go anywhere. I'll be back soon." She propped the note on the edge of the coffee table, against a small decorative crystal vase, and quietly left, locking the door and getting onto the elevator.

She headed back the way she'd come, back to Jade's mother's apartment, and knocked smartly on the door. She could hear someone moving around inside, loud voices, and smell the odor of various recreational drugs, but although one part of her wanted to go in and bust them all, she needed Sally Doran's signature on the piece of paper in her pocket. For Jade's sake.

She kept knocking, insistently, making it clear that she wasn't going anywhere, and was finally rewarded when a large black man came down the hallway. Not as big as Hakeem, but still a fair size nonetheless. He paused just outside the door, looked her over curiously, then said in a slow drawl, "We don't see many whites here in this neck of the woods."

"My name is Sara Pezzini. I need to speak to Sally Doran," Sara said firmly, refusing to let herself be intimidated by this man. Jade needed someone to stick up for her.

The man spent a few more minutes possibly contemplating her motives, then stepped to the door, produced a key, and opened it. The noise inside the apartment stopped abruptly as what seemed like a dozen pair of eyes turned to stare at her, standing in the door. The man never blinked. "Sally."

A tangle of arms and legs on the couch turned into three black men and one disheveled, drunk, and stoned white woman. "Righ' here, Keene," she slurred. "What you wan'?"

"This lady needs to speak to you." Keene pushed Sara forward by the elbow.

"Oh. S'you. Whatcha want?" Sally could barely look at Sara straight.

Sara controlled her disgust and pulled the paper out of her pocket, fiddling with it nervously. "Ms. Doran, I'm aware of your daughter's condition. I want to help."

Sally broke into raucous laughter. "Ah, whatcha wanna mess with the brat for? She's gonna die anyway."

"Ms. Doran, regardless of what it might look like on the news, not every child with leukemia dies. Many of them live into adulthood or longer…with treatment." Sara stressed the word 'treatment'. "But Jade won't get that chance if she doesn't get treated. I'll take care of her myself, I'll pay for the treatments if I have to. She won't cost you anything." Sara took a deep breath. "But you have to sign this note saying you give me permission to take charge of her treatment. She can stay with me while she's in therapy and she has a home with me for as long as she wants it." A note of pleading crept into Sara's voice, as much as she tried to mask it. This was a matter of life and death.

For a moment it seemed that Sally was going to agree, then she stepped back and laughed again. "Naw. I ain't lettin' a cop take m'daughter away from me. You're gonna fin' a way t'turn this against me, I know y'will. Nope. I ain't signin' nothin'."

"Ms, Doran, please," Sara said helplessly. "She needs treatment. It's not fair that she dies before she gets a chance to live her life. Give her a chance."

Keene shifted position subtly, and every eye in the room instantly turned to him. "Sign it, Sally," he said firmly.

"Keene!" Sally exclaimed, shocked.

The man took a pen out of his pocket and handed it to Sally. "Sign it, Sally. As little as I've seen that girl around here, she might as well not exist. You complain on a daily basis that she's a bother, and that you wish she was never born. You've even told her that on a daily basis. Hakeem doesn't like her. Why not give her care to someone who does?"

"Cause she's a cop. She's gonna fin' a way t'turn this against me, I know she is."

Keene looked at Sara sharply. "Are you a cop?"

Sara felt a sinking feeling. "Yes…but I don't want to use Jade to hurt her. Jade's life is in the balance here. I want to do this for her." Then, a little bolder, she said, "And it's not like she loves Jade anyway."

Sal nodded sloppily. "'S true, I don't," she said. "I don't give a damn. But I don't wanna give her to no cop either."

Keene looked at Sara. Looked at Sally. Looked at Sara again. Then he pushed the pen into Sally's hand and handed her the paper. "Sally. Sign it." She looked like he was going to protest, and he snapped, more forcefully, "Sign it!"

Sally signed it.

Sara picked up the precious piece of paper with relief. She had it, she had Jade's salvation in her hand. She breathed a sigh of relief and tucked the paper in her pocket. "Thank you, Ms. Doran."

"I'll show you out, Ms. Pezzini," said Keene, and turned his back on the room, leading Sara out into the hall and closing the door firmly. They were halfway down the hall before he spoke. "You'll be good to her?" he said.

Sara stopped and looked at him squarely. "Why is it important for you to know?"

Keene sighed and shoved his fist deep into his pockets. "Ms. Pezzini, I may sell the stuff, I may pimp my girls, but I've never used the drugs myself. Sally was a good girl, once. She was the fiancee of an old college friend of mine. After he died in a car accident, she turned to drugs, then to hooking to keep herself in the habit. I became her pimp to keep her from going off with the wrong customer and winding up dead. Instead, she wound up knocked up after a night with a man she couldn't remember. She wanted to get an abortion, but I couldn't watch my best friend's fiancée ruin herself and her baby. I dragged her through detox and kept her clean through her pregnancy, made sure she kept every prenatal appointment, and gave her the name Jade for the child. For ten years now I've kept an eye on Jade, tried to make sure that, if she didn't get everything she wanted, she got at least what she needed. I enrolled her in school, made sure she had supplies and books. She's a good student; despite what her mother is like, she keeps her grades up and is always on the honor roll.

"Then she got sick. I was helpless when Sally told me the doctor thought she had leukemia. I don't have the kind of money needed to take care of that and get her treated. Even if I took her to a children's hospital that would do the work free, she's not my child. I couldn't do it. I tried to distance myself, ignore what was going on, but it got so hard. She's gotten very pale and thin over the summer, lost weight, lost appetite…she's dying, and I couldn't do anything. But now you're here, and you promised to take care of her." he turned to Sara, his face serious. "You will, won't you, Ms. Pezzini?"

Sara looked back at him, her gravity matching his. She didn't like perps. In any other situation, she would be arresting him. But he had done what he could to give a small girl a hand up out of the morass of sin and sloth that she had been born into, and that simple, basic compassion was something that was sorely lacking even in the child's own mother. Moved, she smiled gently as she placed a hand on his arm. "I'll take care of her. Here's my card; call me if you want to speak to her or know how she's doing." He took the card uncertainly, then slipped the card into his pocket, nodded briefly to her as they reached the front door, and tuned away back into the depths of the building. Sara went home, wondering at his motives but too thankful for the signature on the paper in her pocket to protest or be too suspicious.

Jade was still asleep when Sara got back. She quietly hung her jacket in the closet, removed her shoes, got the freshly-washed clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer, thanking God that she had a quiet machine, and stretched herself out on the bed, watching the child sleep. Jade's breath was a harsh rasp in her throat, and listening to it made Sara's own throat hurt. She'd have to get up early tomorrow; there was a lot to do. She had to get Jade some decent clothes, go shopping for groceries and take Jade to see Tina Gillis, then pick up whatever medicines Gillis said Jade needed to have…

Still thinking, Sara drifted off into sleep.