“Okeydokey.” Eve stepped back in, sat, smiled, folded her hands. “Resume record.” Waited.
“If my client addresses your questions regarding Lino Martinez, you will drop the charges currently against her.”
“If she answers truthfully, to my satisfaction, she gets a pass on the charges.”
“Go ahead, Penny.”
“Maybe I kinda had this feeling, this vibe, you know, when he started coming in. He didn’t look like Lino, or not a lot. But there was something. And after a while, maybe we flirted some. Weird, him being a priest, and I don’t like the holier-than-thou types. But Lino and I, we always had something. We made it a lot back in the day, and I kept getting this buzz from him.”
“Did you start banging before or after you knew who he was?”
Penny smirked. “Before. I think he got off on it. Maybe I did, too. Back room of the bodega, after closing. Man, he hammered me. Pent up, you know? Had to figure it was all that celibacy song. Couple times after, we’d meet at this flop a friend of mine has. She works nights. Or we’d use a rent-by-the-hour. Then this one time, after we’d made it, he tells me. We had a big laugh.”
“Did he tell you what happened to Father Flores?”
“What did I care? How’m I supposed to know there ever was one?”
“Why was he masquerading as a priest?”
“He wanted to come back, lay low. He liked people looking at him like he was a big deal, he liked the respect.”
“Five years, Penny. Don’t string me. What was the angle?”
“He liked the secrets, too, the sins. He used them when he could, when he wanted.”
“Blackmail?”
“He had some ready, sure. More than a priest earns. When he was in the mood, he’d get us a room at a fancy hotel, and we’d order room service and shit. Paid cash.”
“Did he buy you things?”
“Sure.” She flipped her finger at one of her earrings. “Lino wasn’t stingy.”
“He trusted you a lot.”
“Lino and I went back, all the way back. We needed each other. That’s what this is about.” She slapped her palm on her tattoo. “This is family, and it’s protection. My mother was useless, more interested in her next fix than me. More interested in that than stopping my old man from moving on me. Barely twelve years old the first time he raped me. Slapped me around good, too, and he tells me I’ll keep my mouth shut about it, and he won’t slap me around next time. Kept it shut for two years before I couldn’t take it anymore. I joined the Soldados, and I got family.”
“Your data states that your father was killed when you were fourteen. Stabbed. Cut to pieces.”
“No loss.”
“Did you kill him?”
“My client’s not going to answer that. Don’t answer that, Penny.”
Penny only smiled, rubbed a fingertip on her kill mark.
“You and Lino,” Eve concluded. “Makes a hell of a bond. And two years later, he’s smoke. Gone.”
“Nothing lasts forever.”
“Were you in on the planning of the Skull bombing?”
“My—”
Penny held up a finger to stop her lawyer. “Questioned and released, a long time ago. Nobody ever proved that was Soldado work.”
“People died.”