“Birth control isn’t perfect.”

“Especially if she didn’t take it. It wouldn’t be the first time. She has a bad gag reflex. It’s hard for her to swallow little things like pills. And liquid medicine makes her gag because it tastes so awful. I should have sterilized—” She cut herself off and looked away.

“I know that lots of the girls in Fordham are sterilized. I am not judging you, ma’am. It is extremely arrogant for anyone to judge you.”

“Thank you.” She wiped tears from her face. “Please call me Louise.”

“All right. How about we both sit down, Louise?”

A nod and we reclaimed our respective places.

I said, “So you don’t know if Sarah was having sex or not.”

“Obviously, she was having sex!”

I tried to put this as delicately as I could. “Consensual sex, I mean.”

“Oh my God!” She leaped to her feet. “She was raped?”

“Louise, let’s not assume anything. It was just a question. That’s why I need to talk to her. That’s why she needs medical attention.”

She sighed and tried to calm herself. “Do you want to talk to her now?”

“Yes, but not for too long.” As long as she was standing, I figured I should get to my feet. “Our first concern is getting her to a hospital. I’ll take you there, if you want.”

“You are being so nice, Officer Decker.” Again the tears started. “That’s all right. I have a car. What are they going to do to her?”

“I imagine that after checking her out, they’ll take a blood test and verify that she’s the baby’s mother. You know, first things first.” I hesitated. “Louise, the baby’s biracial.”

She blinked several times. “She’s black?”

“Part black.”

Silence.

“Thank you for telling me.” She choked on her words. “I’ll go get her. Please be gentle. Despite how it may appear, I love her very much.”

“Louise, I don’t doubt it for a second.”

She clasped her hands together. “You know, it doesn’t matter to me what the baby is as long as she’s healthy.”

“She’s healthy.”

“That’s all that counts.” A moment’s hesitation. “I’ll go get Sarah.”

By the way the young girl carried herself, it appeared as if her chin were attached to her chest. Though her eyes were squeezed shut as tightly as humanly possible, tears managed to leak through. Limp strands of blond hair covered her cheeks. Her hands were white-knuckled, balled up into fists. Her brown smock pulled against her generous breasts. Louise placed a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s going to be all right, Sarah. You just have to talk to the nice police officer. And you have to be honest.”

No response from Sarah. I said, “Does your tummy hurt, honey?”

A slight nod of the head.

“We’re going to take you to a doctor to fix that, okay?”

Silence.

“Do you know why your tummy hurts?” I pressed on.