“All right. And Agent Dunning I hope you don’t take offense to this, but I would appreciate if you could wait out here. Marie has been sexually and physically abused for most of her life and your presence would unduly intimidate her. Not just Marie, but several of the girls here have been sexually abused, and this is a safe place for them. For some, the only safe home they have ever known. We don’t allow men inside.”
“No offense taken, ma’am, I will wait out here.”
“Thank you.”
Rose led Aggie inside.
The house smelled of stew and cinnamon and Aggie smiled. “Are you making apple pie?”
“Two of our girls love baking. We encourage them to pursue what interests them. But the stew is my mother’s recipe. Feeding a house of fourteen isn’t easy, but I have nine brothers and sisters, so I have a handle on the kitchen.”
“The warden sang your praises,” Aggie said.
“Kathy is one of the reasons we’re successful. She finds us the girls who need us the most. Marie was one. She’s been here for three months, and already I see how much she has improved.”
They walked to the back of the house, where a small room had been converted to an office. “Please wait here.”
A moment later, Rose returned with a tall, underweight girl with very short hair and big brown eyes. “Marie, this is Agent Jensen with the DEA. She has some questions for you about one of your roommates at juvenile detention. You are not in any trouble, and I’m going to stay with you, okay?”
Marie nodded and smiled, revealing two deep dimples. “I’m okay, Mrs. H. I promise. I know I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Good. Agent?”
Rose and Marie sat down and Aggie said, “You can call me Aggie, okay? Do you remember Elise Hunt? She also went by Elise Hansen.”
Marie nodded. “She came in a few weeks after me. She was nice to me. Not everyone is nice.”
Aggie shared with Marie what she’d told Rose about Elise’s background and why they were concerned. “Did Elise share with you what she planned to do when she was released? Did she share any anger or resentment she had toward law enforcement?”
Marie frowned.
“It’s okay,” Rose said as she rested her hand on Marie’s arm. “Whatever you know might help.”
“Elise was good to me. I got picked on a lot—lots of reasons, stupid, mostly, but Elise defended me, and she didn’t have to. And she didn’t expect anything from me, so I’ll admit I feel a little like I’m betraying her by talking to you. I want to do the right thing, but she never told me that she was going to commit a crime or anything like that.”
“I appreciate the fact that she helped you,” Aggie said. “And if we could have found Elise this week we’d never have come here to talk to you. But we can’t find her, and prior to her incarceration, she threatened specific people. So we’re a little worried that we don’t know what she’s up to.”
Marie looked at her hands, then looked at Rose. “She was very nice to me—stood up for me, but…”
“Go on,” Rose pushed gently. “This is a safe space, you know that.”
Marie nodded. “There was a girl who really picked on me—I don’t know why, I don’t know what I did, what I said, but Danielle hated me from day one. She’d push me, she’d take my food, say … well, they’re just words. Just really mean words. But Elise … I don’t know for certain, because I didn’t witness it. I didn’t lie to the warden when she asked me, I really didn’t see it. But I knew it was Elise.”
“Knew what?”
“One night Elise snuck out of our room. She had a way of getting wherever she wanted, I don’t even know how. I even think she left the grounds sometimes, but she always returned before anyone knew. Well, that night I woke up when she came in. I asked her where she’d been, said that she was going to get in trouble. She said she was too good to get in trouble, but Danielle wouldn’t be a problem anymore. The next day, Danielle wasn’t there. But this is juvie, rumors spread faster than anything. And word was that Danielle attacked a guard, nearly killed him, and was being transferred to a psychiatric prison for evaluation. I don’t know what happened, if Danielle did it or Elise or what, but Elise had that cat