Page 111 of Concealed in Death

“Kind of loose, but yeah.”

“And the singing. If Sebastian comes through with DeLonna, maybe we’ll connect that.”

“A lot of connection, but no strong links.”

Eve glanced at her communicator when it signaled. “Philadelphia’s in the house. Let’s go see if we can make a link.”

•••

She sent Peabody along to transfer Philadelphia to the Interview room. More official setting, Eve mused, a little more pressure. Later, they’d repeat the routine with Jones.

She took her time, gathered props and tools, then started over to where Peabody stood outside the door.

“I got her a lemon fizzy,” Peabody began. “She’s a little nervous, and a little unhappy with the wait, but wants to help however she can. And so on.”

“Nervous and unhappy works just fine.” Eve walked in. “Record on. We need to record the interview, Ms. Jones, for the record.”

“Of course, but—”

“Just one minute. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, and Peabody, Detective Delia, entering Interview with Philadelphia Jones, in the matter of case file H-5657823. We appreciate you coming in,” Eve said as she sat. “We’re just going to read you your rights, for the record.”

“I don’t understand. My rights?” Philadelphia wore her hair swept up today, and smoothed a hand over it in a nervous gesture. “Am I a suspect?”

“It’s procedure,” Eve said briskly, and rattled off the Revised Miranda. “You understand your rights and obligations?”

“Yes, of course. I’m here to help however I can.”

“We appreciate that. We’ve identified all but one of the victims whose remains were found in the building you owned at the established time of their deaths.”

Eve laid out eleven photos. “Do you recognize any of these girls?”

“Shelby, of course, as we discussed before. And Mikki. Lupa, who was only with us briefly. I... This girl looks familiar, but I’m not sure.” Her finger hovered over Merry Wolcovich’s photo. “If you gave me her name, we could check our records.”

“I have. She wasn’t in residence at either of your establishments, officially.”

“If she’d been one of ours, she’d be in our records.” Shoulders stiff, she sat back. “We don’t take our responsibilities lightly.”

“But she looks familiar?”

“I... I just have this little flash of seeing her with Shelby, Shelby and Mikki—maybe DeLonna.”

She lifted the photo, frowning at it until a vertical line formed between her eyebrows. “She... I’m not sure. It was years ago, but something seems familiar.”

“Only this one?” Eve said.

“Yes, and I’m not sure of that. I—in the market!” She sat up very straight. “I went into the market, and they were all in there—with this girl. Dae Pak’s market—oh, he was such an impatient man. He complained to me, more than a few times about the children coming in, stealing or acting up. I remember because I happened to go in, and, frankly, they were being rude. I ordered the girls—our girls—to apologize and come straight back with me. I remember because I asked the other girl her name, where she lived. She told me to mind my own business, only not that politely, and ran out. I remember,” she repeated, “because I kept an eye out for her after that for a couple weeks, in case she came back. I had the feeling she might be a runaway. You start to get a sense when you work with them routinely.”

“Okay.”

“Was she? A runaway?”

“Yeah.”

“And one of the girls who died.” Closing her eyes, Philadelphia laid her hand on the photo. “I should have gone after her, called CPS. I only thought of getting our girls back, and I didn’t follow through.”

“You couldn’t know,” Peabody began.

“It’s my work. I’m supposed to know. Shelby and Mikki, both of them were out of my hands when this happened to them. But some of the responsibility’s mine, isn’t it? Shelby deceived us, and she shouldn’t have been able to. We should have been more vigilant with her, but we were distracted, so excited by our good fortune we let her slip through. Now we have to live with that, with knowing that. Mikki, I don’t know what we could have done, but it feels like we could and should have been able to do something. Now they’re both gone. Both of them.”