Page 106 of Road Trip
My legs gave out a little and I sat on the edge of my desk.
“You okay, Ms. Mora? You don’t look—”
“I’m fine. Look, Sergio. It’s-crucialSTARTI-for you to tell these cops what you know. I can personally vouch for Officer Graham. I know he’s fair and he will treat you well. Besides, you need to get protection for your little sister, right? What if this guy comes back and your mom lets him come back?”
That got to him, I could tell. Normally I’d try to let a student come to a decision more on their own, but in this case, I had conflicting interests. I didn’t think it was wrong to encourage him. I would’ve done it for any cop, but I was worried about crossing a line here.
“You’ll be there, right? And I don’t have to say anything I don’t want?”
“I’ll be right there. I promise. I know this is messed up—”
“Fuck yeah, this is fucked up! I could get in a lot of trouble with the OGs for ratting him out. But that fucker deserves what’s coming to him, and when people find out what he did to my sister? They ain’t gonna let him live anyway.”
Sergio’s family was Norteño back at least two generations. He’d joined, but he mostly stayed out of the real trouble. He was content to come to school and try to do well in his classes. He wanted to get a job and not rely on selling drugs or guns to support his family. Unlike his stepfather, who was one of the main players in Del Norte, thebarriohe was from. I had no doubt, however, that if people found out he was molesting his six-year-old stepdaughter, all hell would rain down on him.
I stood on shaky legs and worried about how Kelly was going to take this. He’d have to be taken off the case since it had to do with his assault. The boys followed me back to the conference room. We found Kelly standing in the corner, and Kara was still sitting. When the boys came in they halted at the doorway and I could feel the tension rolling off them. I introduced the boys and they weren’t exactly polite, they didn’t shake hands, but they did nod.
“Sergio, we’re really glad you came,” Kara started. “Unless your friend has information—”
“He stays. And I ain’t saying nothing unless Ms. Mora is here, you know? I don’t want to talk to you.”
Kara pressed her lips together and nodded. “Fair enough. Officer Graham is going to ask you some questions, and we’d like to record your statement, just for informational purposes. Is that all right?”
Kelly
The kid was scrawny. He had a black eye and a cut up lip and still managed to look vulnerable and angry at the same time. Abra sat between the boys, and I noticed she had her hand on Sergio’s shoulder, calming him. I pulled out my notes while Kara got the recorder ready.
“This is Officer Kelly Graham of the Child Safety Unit and I am here with Officer Kara Mitchell. We are at Hayward Alternative School and present I have Sergio Consuelo, Abra Mora, the school counselor, and Julian...”
“Alvarado,” Abra said quietly.
This kid was huge. I could see why the two of them probably stuck together. I thanked them and continued on with my questions. I noticed Abra looked even more nervous, but I had a job to do.
“Sergio, do you know the whereabouts of your stepfather, Orlando Reyes?”
“No. He left our house two days ago, and I don’t know where he is.”
“Do you know what we are here to discuss?”
Sergio nodded. “My mom told me she called you about my sister. I was there when my sister told her what had happened.”
“What did your sister tell you?”
The kid looked down at his hands, and I watched his jaw tense.
“You already know what he did to her. I don’t want to rehash it. I don’t want him back in my house neither.”
“I know this is hard, Sergio. Do you recall any of the incidents she talked about?”
“I remembered the night she said he came in her room when it was my uncle’s birthday party. I remember that night and remember that she was crying in her room when I walked by to go to bed. It was like three in the morning, you know? And she was sitting in her room with the door open, just crying on her bed. I went in to check on her, and she just hugged me and cried. I got her to go to sleep, but she didn’t say anything.”
This was part of the job that was very difficult, but I wanted to nail this guy. “Sergio, do you know why he left the house?”
“Yeah. Some CHP cops came to talk to him about something that happened near Bakersfield. Something about a cop who got fucked up and almost set on fire.”
He might as well have brained me with a club. I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to get a breath in. I looked up at him and felt my pulse quicken. Kara hadn’t told me about this. I wondered if she knew. I almost wondered if she’d set me up. She hadn’t been easy to work with. She had a competitive streak I didn’t like. I shot her a look, and she raised an eyebrow at me as if to say, ‘what are you going to do now?’
“And what do you know about that?”
