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“And they got tired of communal living in an age of male dominance?” retorted Jamison.
“No, but my parents did, apparently. They left after my grandparents passed on, when my sister and I were still kids.”
“Do your parents live here?”
“Nope. They retired to Florida about three years ago.”
“And your sister?” asked Jamison.
“She passed away a few years ago.”
“I’m so sorry. She was really young then?”
“Yeah. She had a rough life.”
“What else can you tell us about the Brothers?” asked Decker after a few moments of silence.
“They’re antiwar pacifists. Some of the Hutterites, the largest branch of Anabaptists in the country, were persecuted for that stance during World War II.”
Decker nodded. “So that covers her place of lodging and her work as a teacher. What about her work as an escort? You said you weren’t sure if she actually was one, even though you recognized her from the website. But are you sure itwasher?”
“I am.”
“How?”
“I contacted her through the site. I made arrangements to meet with her. It was at a flophouse on the other side of town. I got there before her. Badged her when she showed up.”
“Did you arrest her?” asked Jamison.
“No.”
“Why not?” asked Decker. “You’re a cop. She broke the law. Seems pretty simple.”
“Look, I was trying to help her out. She didn’t need a prison sentence. She just needed some positive reinforcement and guidance. Only it looks like I failed on both counts.”
“But when you met with her did she confirm that she was selling sex?” said Decker. “Because earlier you intimated that you weren’t sure what she was up to.”
“She never admitted to being a prostitute, or an escort. She did say she was lonely and that while she admitted to arranging to meet men from the website, she never took any money from them. And they didn’t always have sex. Sometimes they just talked.”
“Right,” said Decker skeptically. “I’m sure they did.”
“And she wasn’t dressed like most hookers I’ve run into. Her outfit was pretty normal.”
Their meals came and they ate fast, with a lot of work ahead of them.
As they prepared to leave Decker said, “You ran her prints through IAFIS, right? To see if she had a record?” He was referring to the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System.
“I did, but how’d you know that?”
“It’s the only reason we’re here. When her print came through it obviously dinged some pretty high-up corridors at the Bureau. You said it was a request from the Feds that sent your reports to DC. That had to be how they knew.”
“So shewasimportant?” said Kelly.
“They’re all important,” retorted Decker.
“But we didn’t get any hit on our submission,” said Kelly. “As far as the FBI was concerned, they had no criminal record of Irene Cramer.”
“Well, maybe they didn’t under that name,” replied Decker.
