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Jenna huffed. “Andreas’s wife. Aren’t you listening? He’s known her his whole life, says he always loved her.”
“Who did he say this to? You?”
She shook her head. “I just listened. You learn a lot if you listen.”
Gray nodded. If she’d been working for Andreas, Gray was sure that was true.
“He was talking to Billy, then Billy stormed out and this man took Lisa. She’d been talking to Billy when the man came in.”
Gray had so many questions—was Lisa the first girl who’d been murdered? Why did he take Lisa but not Jenna? Gray stayed silent, though. He was afraid he’d spook Jenna if he interrupted.
“I snuck out and followed him.” Tears began to roll down her face and she sniffed, trying to hold them back.
Gray wanted to comfort her, but he knew that was out of the question.
“The man took her to the park, to the place where she was found.” That answered Gray’s first question. “He told her she had to die, that we all had to die. He said Billy took his love from him and corrupted her, having her around all us whores. He said she wasn’t a slut like we were and that Billy had turned her.”
Love gone wrong. That motive hadn’t even been on Gray’s list.
Jenna was crying freely now, and Gray ached for her. “I wanted to stop him. I meant to stop him, but I froze. My legs wouldn’t work. I… I couldn’t move. I thought he would…”
Gray could only imagine how terrified she’d been. He wanted to say something to make her feel better, but he needed her to keep talking, and nothing he could say would take her pain away.
“The fucker stabbed her.” Anger cut through her grief. “The knife went right up into her chest. Her eyes went wide and she bled all over the place. Then she was dead, just like that. The blood was dark, so dark, blacker than the night.”
She looked at Gray then, and he nodded, letting her know he’d heard her.
“I couldn’t save her.”
“He would have hurt you too,” Gray said.
“I ran. I just ran back to Billy and didn’t say anything.”
“You could have come to us, to the police.” Gray knew the words were stupid as soon as they were out of his mouth.
Jenna shook her head violently and her gun wavered. Gray held up his hands and took a step back.
“Police don’t care about us. They just want to bust us. They don’t care that we can’t survive without selling ourselves. At least Billy… He never hurt us, never even made us fuck anyone.”
Gray hated just how much of her anger at the authorities was deserved. “So are you saying…?” How could he ask what he wanted to without offending her?
“None of us fucked men, okay? Billy only pretended we did so no one would think he was soft. Marcy, his wife, she took care of us. We did work for him—entering data in spreadsheets, other office work and cleaning his house—but we didn’t do nothing illegal.”
Gray doubted the figures in those spreadsheets represented any legal earnings, but data entry was a far cry from underage prostitution. How had Andreas managed to hide this rather philanthropic effort?
“Do you believe this same man killed Andreas and the other girls that were at his house?”
She nodded. “I’m sure of it.”
“What about Danielle?”
“She’d left. She didn’t want to be in debt to Billy. She said she was going to earn enough to be on her own.”
“Do you think the same man killed her?”
“Probably. If he wants us all dead, I doubt he’d care that she’d left.”
Gray’s mind buzzed with questions. Had the killer tracked her to Whittaker’s? Or was she contacted by the killer and told to meet him there? Was he connected with Whittaker somehow and wanted him to take the blame? “Did anyone else hear what the man said to Andreas?”
