When she didn’t continue, Hickey nodded. “All right, then. Why don’t you tell us what happened this afternoon?”

She recounted it all from the beginning. Most of it, anyway; some. She didn’t mention that the missing girl reminded her of the girl she’d seen at Essanay—she didn’t mention the studio at all. Hickey asked most of the questions. Occasionally Fatty would break in, as O’Connell continued to type her answers.

“Sergeant Bacon said you found a girl’s hair ribbon. May I see it?”

She gave it to him with reluctance. Hickey turned it over in his hand. He shot a look at Fatty, then set the ribbon on the desk. “Can you describe the man who was with her?”

“He had on a hat. A boater. Seersucker jacket, I think. Or I dunno, maybe it was just a suit.”

“Was he a colored man?”

“No. He was white.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I dunno. He looked like a white man.”

“What color hair?”

“Dunno. The hat.”

“If the hat hid his face, how could you be sure he was a white man?”

“He just was.”

Hickey drummed his fingers on the desk. “What else?”

She bit her lip, thinking. “He had a mustache, maybe. Red or blond. Or light brown. I’m not sure, he might not have had one.”

“Red or blond or light brown. Maybe. Jesus.” Hickey puffed his cheeks out. “Got that, O’Connell? Red or blond or brown mustache. Maybe.”

“Could be anyone,” said Fatty.

Hickey sighed. “What else can you remember, son? There must be something.”

Pin closed her eyes. “That’s all.”

Hickey paced to the window, peered out at the people on the midway. He lowered the shade.

“That queer little man you mentioned—why did you approach him?” he asked, turning back to her. “You said he was a stranger. You weren’t up to any mischief like your pal Mugsy Morrissey, were you?”

“You know I wouldn’t.”

“Then why’d you go talk to him?”

“I seen him hanging around sometimes.” Pin averted her gaze from the captain’s. She shouldn’t have told him anything.

“You said he told you he was part of some society called the Gemini?”

“He showed me a card and that’s what it said. Gemini Child Protectors, something like that.”

“Did you get his name?”

“No.” It was her first outright lie.

“Can you describe him?”

“No.”

“No? You talked to this man and you don’t know what he looked like?”

“He looked like a regular man.”

Hickey frowned. “What about the card—was his name on the card?”

“I don’t think so. I can’t remember.”

Hickey glanced at Fatty and O’Connell. “Gemini Child Protectors—ever heard of them?”

The two sergeants shook their heads. Hickey rubbed his chin.