“Uh huh,” she said, quickly. “I got my own ass to think about.”

Decker was silent. Kiki bit her lip.

“How much will you give me?” she asked.

“You get me any kind of still or celluloid that links the Countess and Lindsey Bates and I’ll do more than get you money, I’ll get you off the streets, Kiki. I’ll get you into the best halfway house in the city and make sure you’re taken care of until you reach legal age. If you’ve got a habit, I’ll get you into a top-notch rehab program. No cold turkey, something with compassion. I’m in Juvey, I have a lot of favors owed to me, and I know how to pull strings.”

“And if I don’t find anything, I stay out here peddling my ass. That the idea, Decker?”

The detective chewed on his mustache, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it.

“I need something to bargain with in order to strike deals,” he said. “I’m sorry but that’s the way it works. If I took you off the streets now, maybe they could find a home for you, maybe not. But if I take you off after you’ve produced and tell my buddies, ‘Hey, guys, this little gal has come through at risk to herself and we need to pay her back, otherwise our credibility with teenage informants is diddlysquat,’ then we’ve got something. They still won’t give a shit about you, but they’ll do it.”

She folded her arms and scrunched her body into a tight ball.

“You guys are a bunch of creeps, you know that?”

He said nothing.

“Give me a cigarette.”

He handed her a Marlboro and lit it for her.

“I start nosing around where I don’t belong, and bad people are gonna get suspicious.”

He took a deep drag on his smoke and patted her shoulder.

“Listen, you’ve got rules, I’ve got rules,” he said. “First thing you have to do is stay alive.”

He stood up. She looked skinny and her chin was smeared with sauce.

“No matter what you come up with, I’ll see what I can do about getting your ass out of here. But no promises.”

She tried to look tough, but her face crumpled. She started to cry. He sat back down, and she threw her arms around him, hugging him hard while sobbing on his shoulder.

“You must get a lot of this crybaby shit,” she sniffed.

“It’s happened before.”

“I’ll do what I can, Decker.”

“Good. But don’t get yourself killed for it.” He broke away. “Take your time, Kiki. You poke around too quickly, someone’s ears will perk up. So don’t rush it.”

She nodded and wiped her tears with a dirty napkin.

“I’ve got to go,” he said. “You keep in touch.”

“Yeah.”