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Chris still looked uncomfortable, and like he wanted to object. He put on an awkward smile. “Thank you, Julia, I appreciate that. And no, Chelsea, I’ll be fine on my own.”
“You’re sure?” Chelsea’s hand lightly touched his forearm.
“I am.” He looked down at her abdomen. “You need to take care ofyourself, too.”
Chelsea nodded, and Jo caught the quick flash of relief that flit across her face. “Okay, if you’re really sure. But call me the second you need anything.”
He promised he would, and saw them all to the door. After Julia helped Chelsea into her car, she returned to Jo and Arnett, who’d pulled out a pair of umbrellas from Jo’s Volt.
Even amid the pelting rain, Jo kept her voice low. “What did that mean, when you said you were persona non grata with Naomie’s parents?”
Julia took a deep breath and waved away the question. “Chris is right, it’s probably an overstatement. Divorce is never easy, and they’re a close family. Of course they’ll side with him.”
“Was Naomie siding with him?” Jo asked.
Julia suddenly looked exhausted, and her voice came out as a husky whisper. “No. She was always a good friend to me.” She looked up into Jo’s eyes. “But you said you wanted to talk to mebeforeI said that, so there must be something else.”
Jo nodded. “When I mentioned that Madison worked at The Velvet Volcano, you had a strange reaction, like there was something you wanted to say, but not in front of the others.”
Guilt washed over Julia’s face, along with a quick flash of relief. Julia glanced back over her shoulder at the front door. “It’s hard to explain. No, not hard at all, just embarrassing. One day I pulled Madison aside after class because she looked like she wasn’t well, and with the pregnancy, I was concerned. She said she was just stressed because her mother needed some test and their credit cards were already maxed out. She burst into tears, and believe me, she wasn’t the sort to burst into tears.”
Jo nodded—from everything she’d heard, she didn’t find that hard to believe.
“She told me about the fellowship to UC Davis and the dreams she’d given up. It hit me hard because I know exactly what that’s like. So I told her how much I admired how hard she was working to make a better life, because I had a similar story and had gone another way. I told her how my mother gave up everything to give me a chance to become a doctor, and then my little brother got sick. How trying to save his life meant I was on my own to pay for school. But the way I chose to pay for it had been stupid and irresponsible, and I’d put myself at risk because I wanted a shortcut. I was trying to build her up, let her know what she was doing would be worth it some day. So I told her I’d been a stripper.”
Arnett responded. “You think you gave her the idea? She was already stripping by the time she met you.”
She put a hand on her hip. “No, I don’t think I gave her the idea, but I think she was at a crossroads and I think my story made her feel okay with being a stripper. As in, ‘If Julia made herself so successful starting out this way, I’ll be fine.’ She said something about how she never would have thought someone as ‘classy’ as me did that. When she said that, I got on my defensive high horse and said yes, it was stupid and risky, but there’s nothing wrong with using the assets you’re given, and told her that being in control of your sexuality and making your own choices is empowering, and it’s not about being ‘classy’ or ‘not classy.’ I saw this odd look of resignation cross her face that I didn’t understand, and just thought it had to do with whatever situation ended her up pregnant. But looking back on it now, I think she was at a point where she might have gotten out of it if I hadn’t legitimized it for her.”
Understanding crushed Jo. “You can’t blame yourself. You didn’t know. You were trying to encourage her in what you thought she was really doing.”
“But maybe if I hadn’t called it stupid and risky she would have opened up to me about what she was doing, and I could have talked her out of it.”
“Do you think Madison told Naomie she was working at The Velvet Volcano?”
“Maybe, I don’t know. Naomie wouldn’t have shared something like that with me without Madison’s permission.”
“How do you think Naomie would have reacted to that? Do you think she might have gone down to the club, said something to the wrong person?” Jo asked.
Julia’s face clouded, and she rubbed her eyes. “I wouldn’t doubt it. Naomie had a heart the size of the universe and zero self-preservation instinct. She was sheltered, and she thought she could save everybody.” She shook her head. “And I gotta give it to her, the self-delusion allowed her to blow past warning flags and make things happen. Didn’t matter what arena of her life—work, school, friends, marriage—she refused to acknowledge problems and obstacles. That’s the whole reason Triple-B exists, because she didn’t listen when she heard no. And every win made her more likely to try the next impossible thing. So, yes, if she got it into her head that Madison was working in the wrong situation, she’d have no problem taking it up with whoever was in charge.”
“So she’d just walk in without protection?” Arnett said.
Julia held up a palm. “Naomie’s the daughter of Ferdinand Gagnon. Everywhere she went she had the protection of the Gagnon family’s money and power and connections.”
Jo nodded. The Gagnons were the sort of upper-echelon family that gave back copiously to the community, and so were highly esteemed not just for their money. “Just one more thing. I also sensed there was more to your refusal of police protection than you were saying.”
Julia’s hand dropped to her side, and her posture stiffened. “I’m not sure what gave you that impression.”
Jo purposefully relaxed her own posture, trying to put Julia subconsciously at ease. “I just want to reassure you that our goals are to find out who killed Madison and Naomie, and to keep you and Chelsea safe, not to embarrass anybody. But we need all the facts to do that, even the ones that aren’t related, so we know whatnotto pay attention to.”
For a few seconds, Julia seemed to consider that. Then her eyes and expression hardened again. “I understand it may be hard foryouto understand why some communities aren’t comfortable with the police. But I work with women in all sorts of circumstances, and their safety has to be my primary concern. Appearing with an officer by my side will make other vulnerable women unwilling to use me for their births.”
Jo held her eyes for a moment longer than necessary, trying to make clear what was really at stake, for everyone involved. “It’s not clear at this point whether someone is targeting your friend group in particular, or Beautiful Bouncing Babies as a whole, but they’re certainly aware of your and Chelsea’s movements. That means it’s not just you and Chelsea who are in danger, but all of Triple-B’s clients, and your personal clients, too. You may be leading the killer directly to them.”
Julia’s face turned ashen. Jo said a prayer the dose of reality had worked.
But without another word, Julia marched to her car, climbed in, and drove away.
