He was insinuating something. “He’s my big brother,” she said quietly. “And not one like Morris, who hated sharing the house with me and Tad and Granddaddy. You don’t know about Cal, and I can’t tell you, but he’s had a tragic life. He wasn’t always a policeman,” she added.

His black eyes narrowed. “There are rumors.”

She nodded. “Lots of them.”

“He’s friends with a priest who sent six violent gang members with automatic weapons to the emergency room, and he wasn’t even armed.”

She laughed softly. “The priest converted some of them. The others made sure they never encroached on his turf again. He’s good friends with the leaders of the Serpientes gang.” She held up a hand when he started to speak. “Gangs are bad. But the Serpientes take care of the elderly and the very young, and they go looking for people who try to hurt the helpless. As gangs go, they’re far and away better than the Little Devil Wolves were.”

“Were, is right. Their leaders were put in prison and the gang disintegrated. No loss.”

She nodded. “I totally agree.”

He studied her somber face. “You’re damned young to have lived through the things you’ve endured.”

She shrugged. “Everybody has problems.”

“Now I understand the broken ribs on your X-ray,” he added.

“There was a steel shovel by the fireplace—one of those things you use to scoop up ashes.” She grimaced. “Tad interrupted his video game and caused him to lose a battle. Morris picked up the shovel and knocked Tad off the chair he was in. I stepped in to save Tad, and he turned on me with the shovel. Ben was furious because he had to call an ambulance. I wasn’t going to tell what happened, but the doctor in the emergency room knew that a fall couldn’t have produced the damage he saw. He asked a policeman to take me home. The officer dragged it all out of me. We went home. Morris was waiting outside, but he couldn’t keep the officer out of the house when he had probable cause. When the policeman saw Tad, who was still bawling from his injuries, he called another ambulance and arrested Morris on the spot. Morris tried to escape. He got in a couple of licks, but the policeman wasn’t under the influence of drugs and alcohol and it was a short fight. All Morris accomplished was to have resisting arrest and assault on a police officer added to his charges. Ben was furious at me because Morris got arrested.”

“You’re afraid of Morris,” he said, studying her pale face.