Beth and her baby boy would be safe here. It was what waited them beyond Good Sam that had Leah worried.
Twelve
Harper pulled up alongside the patrol car waiting in the high school’s empty parking lot and rolled down her driver’s side window, cursing the heat that flooded her car—it had taken the entire drive down the mountain to get the interior temperature half-bearable. “What do you have for me?”
The uniformed officer, a guy named Tommy Narami, lowered his window. “Saw a few of Freddy’s girls over at the Burger Chef.”
“Anyone on this list?” She showed him the names of other girls arrested alongside Lily.
He propped his sunglasses on top of his head and flipped through her sheaf of booking photos. “Yeah. These two: Heidi and Tina. A couple of Freddy’s boys are with them, but I don’t think they’ll give you any trouble.”
Harper made a small noise of disgust. Of course Freddy wouldn’t trust his girls out on their own—not because he was worried about their welfare; more likely he wanted to make certain the girls weren’t ripping him off. “Thanks, Tommy.”
“No problem. Call me you need anything.”
Harper drove away, already thinking through her approach. It was too dangerous to talk to Heidi or Tina directly—that would lead to Freddy’s unwanted attention and could place the girls in danger. But if the girls were in a group, and Freddy’s boys were right there, she could work with that, leave an opening for anyone who had information to contact her when they were safely alone.
She pulled up alongside a fire hydrant in front of the fast-food joint and observed the group through the plate-glass windows. Five girls, including Heidi and Tina. Because their pimps were paid via online apps, the girls carried little to no cash, so Harper wasn’t surprised to see that there weren’t any food containers on the table, only a collection of large soda cups. Drinks were the cheapest item on the menu and the girls would make them last until it was their turn to venture out to the curb and flag down potential customers. Working girls were always underfed and hungry, which gave Harper an edge—thanks to Rachel.
She went inside, taking a moment to pause and appreciate the miracle of modern technology as the air-conditioned chill greeted her. Tommy was right: the girls were “protected” by two corner boys sitting at a front table, filling their faces with burgers and fries. Barely old enough to shave, yet they thrust their chests out and dropped their hands to the waistbands of their baggy shorts, giving Harper the stink-eye. She flashed her badge and ignored them, even as they got on their cells, calling their boss, no doubt.
The counter staff ducked their heads, knowing that if they asked her to remove the loiterers, they’d pay the price later. Harper gave them a nod, reassuring them that she wasn’t there to cause any trouble. She carried her cooler over to the girls. They were slouched along the seats lining the booth, pretending to ignore her.
Harper set the cooler on the table with a loud thud. “You guys hear about Lily?”
Two of the five gave an automatic nod, but quickly flicked their gazes away. As if anything outside the smudged and dirty window was more interesting than Harper.
“I’m trying to find her family. Let them know she’s passed.” Harper figured Lily’s family was a safe topic even if the corner boys reported their conversation to Freddy. “You guys hungry?” She opened the cooler, unleashing her secret weapon: Rachel’s roast with all the trimmings. The aroma overpowered even the weakest of them and while the corner boys looked on with envy, their greasy burgers forgotten, the girls dug in like locusts.
One girl, Heidi, edged over so that Harper could slide into the booth beside her. Harper sat quietly as the girls devoured the leftovers, passing the containers around, their guards dropping as their bellies filled. Tina sat across from Harper. She was the oldest of the group, in her thirties at least, and studiously avoided Harper’s gaze, keeping her expression stony and distant. No joy coming from that direction, Harper thought, so she focused instead on Heidi. “You doing okay?”
“I remember you,” Heidi said. “Picked me up last winter, got me a coat and boots.”
“Heidi, right?” Harper said as if she didn’t remember. The girl had been freezing, close to frostbite standing on a corner one icy night. “Thought they sent you to juvie.”
“Suspended sentence. Judge sent me home to Lancaster, but couldn’t deal with my dad—” She rolled her eyes. “So now I’m back. At least Freddy takes good care of me.”
And yet it was Harper who’d bought the girl a coat from the Goodwill. It always shocked her to be reminded of how brainwashed the girls were, how they believed that they were loved, respected, and cared for. The drugs helped erode their inhibitions, of course, and addiction kept them anchored by invisible chains, but the psychological manipulation was more powerful than any drug or fear of violence. All she could imagine was that their lives at home were so bad and their expectations about love and family were so warped that they wouldn’t know the real thing if they ever found it.
“You knew Lily? She ever mention where home was?”
“Nope.” Heidi filled her mouth with a biscuit and Harper turned to the others. None of them knew where Lily came from, just that she wasn’t from Cambria City. Harper carefully edged the discussion into the previous night, but everyone denied seeing Lily.
“Good thing, because Freddy’d kill her he saw her poaching his territory.”
“Besides,” another chimed in. “Thought she left the biz. Like, last year or something?” This garnered a chorus of nodding agreement.
“Maybe jail?” someone suggested.
“Not for that long,” another girl said. “Rehab?”
“You cook this yourself?” Heidi asked. “Like every day?”
Harper smiled as she gathered the empty
