I couldn’t help but smile a little. Her street smarts and intonation told me she was no dummy.
She mumbled, “Sorry. I figured you for just a nosy tourist at first.”
I eased closer to them. The man was standing about three feet away from me. Blood leaked out of his nose and mouth, and was smeared across his shirt. I noticed a gap in his upper row of teeth. I knew where the missing tooth had gone.
The woman in the glittery dress said, “You going to arrest me?”
I looked toward the man and said, “Do you intend to make a complaint?”
He glared at the woman. He took another few seconds, then slowly shook his head.
“Then probably not.” I looked back at the young woman and said, “I can probably guess what happened.”
She shook her head. “I’m not a prostitute, if that’s what you think.”
I said, “Okay. But I need to know what happened before I just let you two wander off. Why don’t you enlighten me as to what caused this fracas.”
The girl said, “I met this moron at a club last night. I gave him some ZsaZsa. He took it all, then refused to pay me. It was, like, three hundred bucks’ worth.”
“Excuse me. You sold him what?”
Now the man interjected. “She didn’t sell it. Shegaveit to me.”
“I gave you asample. That’s just good salesmanship. But you owe me for all the rest of the gummies you gobbled down. If you hadn’t acted so goofy all night and kept telling me you had money back at your shitty hotel, I wouldn’t have given it to you.” She looked like she was going to hit him again.
I said, “You guys are going to have to excuse me. I work in Homicide. I have no idea what ZsaZsa is.”
The man blurted out, “It’s a scam is what it is. It makes you feel great. For about five minutes.”
The girl was much more sedate in her answer. “It’s a synthetic form of marijuana. There is no law against it. And it’s expensive.”
I didn’t have time to get embroiled in a long dispute with these two. I held up one finger, pulled my phone out, and made a quick call to our Narcotics division. One quick conversation with a detective confirmed the truth: It wasn’t a crime. At least not yet. A bill in the California legislature might change that soon. That’s all I needed to know.
I waited until the man was safely out of the alley. I saw him turnat the corner and start to run. I hoped he noticed his tooth on the sidewalk and picked it up on his way.
I turned to the girl. “You seem way too smart to be doing things like this.”
“And you seem way too reasonable to be a cop. Sometimes appearances can be misleading.”
“Why sell that stuff?”
“Like you said, I’m smart. I got one more semester at SF State. But I’m too lazy to get a real job and not tough enough to go to jail. This is a good compromise for now. I’m hoping to land a job in marketing. If not, I’m making pretty good money, at least until they turn this into a crime.”
That was logic I had a hard time refuting.
CHAPTER69
YUKI CASTELLANO SPRANGto her feet and said in a strong voice, “Objection.”
Judge Robert Cousins turned his head slowly toward the defense attorney. The cross-examination of this prosecution witness felt like it’d been going on for two days. In fact, it had only been about forty-five minutes since the start of the trial this morning. Court had convened especially early today.
The judge said in his calm and monotone way, “Ms. Torres, please avoid leading the witness. I know it’s cross and you have some leeway. Don’t abuse it. I would prefer not to have to mention this again. Is that understood?”
The defense attorney, Angela Torres, flipped her jet-black hair over her shoulder. “Of course, Your Honor. My apologies.”
Yuki sat back down at the prosecution’s table. Nick Gaines, her second-chair attorney, leaned in and said, “Could she be any more full of it?”
Yuki mumbled, “Not even if she was a septic tank.” She glancedover her shoulder and noticed the crowd in the courtroom was growing. Spectators were shoulder to shoulder. Word was getting around the Hall of Justice that this was a heavyweight bout. She was gratified to see that the three young, muscular patrolmen she’d coerced to help with a witness had come back to watch the trial on their own. They sat together in the very front row. Two of them were in uniform, and must’ve been there with permission from their sergeant. The third one was off duty and dressed in civilian clothes. Yuki acknowledged them all with a little nod.
