AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Joan Stark is highly intelligent. She’s being paid a bundle to look after them. Why would she do something that would—orcould—raise our suspicions even the slightest? Today was supposed to be about gathering information on Elizabeth. The girls weren’t even on our radar. But now I have more questions about the rest of them than I do about the victim.” I roll my neck, trying to relieve my frustration. “Elizabeth York is the only one who seems completely predictable.”
“She was a mess.”
“Volatile,” I affirm.
Mani runs a hand through his hair. “Except for Catherine Beauchamp, they all have alibis.”
“We’ll verify them. Even if they didn’t kill Elizabeth, they almost certainly have most of the information we need to figure out who did—girls working as escorts in this city are bound to have run into trouble.”
“That’s for sure. It’s kinda crazy to think about—women like that, making a living by whoring.”
“How so?”
“Dude. Come on. Any one of those girls could leash some rich asshole with a click of her fingers.”
“So, it’s okay as long as they’re selling themselves to one man?”
He snorts, ceding my point with a small grin. Mani pulls out his phone and checks the time. “It’s nearly seven.”
“You should go home before I get in trouble again.”
“Are you done for the day?”
“No, I’m behind. I need to go through what we have so far. Figure out next steps for tomorrow’s debrief.”
“How about we start with the criminal underworld?”
I groan quietly, knowing exactly where he’s going. “Just our luck.”
“I mean, all four of them had Sokolov on their lists of people who could harm Elizabeth. That can’t be coincidence.”
“And both Catherine Beauchamp and Lyla Kaspar had Drakos down too.”
“AndNico Drakos is Antoinette’s alibi for the night of the murder.” Mani shrugs. “Either one seems like a good place to start.”
“It wasn’t them.”
“Yeah,” Mani sighs. The sound is tired. “Sokolov wouldn’t dump a body like that. And Drakos is so clean, he squeaks. If either of them had done it, we’d be looking for an MP.”
“If the girls ever filed the missing person’s report. You heard Antoinette in that interview—Elizabeth disappeared so often that she’d stopped reporting her missing.” Spinning around to my desk, I make a hurried note to pull all police records and reports with the girls' names on them. “Either way, Sascha’s name coming up so frequently and Drakos as Antoinette’s alibi give us probable cause to talk to both of them.”
“You know what I can’t understand?”
“What’s that?”
“Elizabeth was a sex worker for most of her adult life. Some of her childhood too. She must have seen and done some dark shit.”
I nod, knowing where he’s going. “Why Sascha?”
“Hanging with Sokolov…It just doesn’t play. His operation is small. It barely even registers as a gang in LA. But his primary business is clubs and, allegedly,girls.”
Mani doesn’t use the word ‘Women’. And why would he? Sascha deals in profit, and underage girls notoriously sell for more. “Allegedly.” I say the word aloud, trying to remind myself that no evidence has been brought against Sascha yet.
“Don’t pull that bureaucratic bullshit with me.”
“My initial impression of Elizabeth isn’t of someone who had her head screwed on straight.” I push us back to the topic at hand.
“But, still, she must have known.”
