Page 90 of Concealed in Death

He rose as they approached. Eve managed to watch his eyes and his hands at the same time, just in case.

“Lieutenant Dallas.” He offered a hand—empty—and a smile as quiet and professorial as the rest of him. “Such a pleasure to meet you at last. And you.” He offered the same to Roarke. “Mavis has told me so much about you, and I follow news of you in the media, of course. I feel I already know you.”

“We’re not here to get chummy.”

“In any case.” He gestured toward the booth. “Let me buy you a drink. The safest here is beer in the bottle. Anything else is suspect.”

“On duty,” Eve said briefly.

“Yes, I understand. Still, the bartender looks askance when there’s no order on the table. There’s bottled water to be had. If that will suffice, just give me a moment.”

“What’s with this guy?” Eve asked, sliding into the booth as Sebastian stepped to the bar.

“He hopes to make a good impression.” Roarke angled his head to read the title of the book. “Macbeth. It suits the educated voice, the well-presented demeanor.”

“He’s a thief and an enabler of delinquent girls.”

“Yes, well, we all have our flaws.”

Sebastian came back, set down three short bottles. “I wouldn’t trust the glassware either. I’ll apologize for asking you to meet me in such a place, but you’ll understand I feel a bit more comfortable on my own turf, so to speak.”

He sat, looking comfortable, a man in his middle forties who kept in shape—body and mind.

“Shelby Stubacker,” Eve said.

He sighed, nudged his book to the side. “I heard the reports on the girls you found. It’s painful to me, on a human level, to know there are those who’d prey on the young. And painful on a personal level as Mavis said three had been mine.”

“Four.”

Shock flicked in his eyes. “Four? Mavis said three. Shelby and Mikki and LaRue.”

“Add Crystal Hugh, and possibly Merry Wolcovich.”

“Crystal.” He slumped a little. “I remember her very well. She was only nine when she came to me, still wearing the bruises her father had put on her.”

“Then you should’ve called the police.”

“Her father was the police,” Sebastian said with a snap in his tone. “There are beasts in every walk of life. She was hurt, hungry, and alone, with nowhere to go but back to the man who took out his frustrations on a child and her spineless mother. She stayed with us until she was thirteen. It can be a difficult age.”

He paused a moment. “Crystal. Yes, I remember Crystal. Soft brown eyes and the mouth of a longshoreman. I appreciated the first, discouraged the second. As I recall, she’d started considering boys, as girls will at that age, and straining against the rules.”

With a half smile, he lifted his bottle. “We do have them. She told me she was leaving and going with some friends. They were going to travel down to Florida. I gave her some money, wished her well, and told her she could come back whenever she wanted.”

“You let a thirteen-year-old girl walk.”

“They were only mine as long as they chose to stay. I’d hoped she’d gone to Florida, and sat on the beach. She deserved to. I remember Shelby as she was brash, rebellious—an interesting girl. A leader, but not always where others should be led. And Mikki because she would have followed Shelby into hell and back again. But the other you mentioned?”

“Merry Wolcovich.”

“I don’t recall right off. Fifteen years is a long time, and I’ve taken in a lot of girls over the years.”

It put her back up, this taking in girls as if he were some selfless hero instead of an exploitive criminal. She leaned forward.

“Let’s just lay this out. You train disenfranchised kids to steal, to break the law, to treat it like a game on one level, an avocation on another. So they run the streets, bilking people, taking money and possessions those people worked for, money they earned to pay the rent, to pay bills, or to blow at craps at a casino—because it’s theirs. And you make a profit on your school of thieves and grifters. Mavis might see you as some sort of savior, but to me, you’re just another criminal circumventing the law for his own gain.”

Nodding, Sebastian sipped his water. “I understand your point of view. You’ve built your life around the law, have sworn to uphold it. And while you’re neither naive nor rigid, your duty is your core. I’m a hard bite for you to chew and swallow, but you’ll do it. On a personal level for Mavis, and on both a personal and professional level for twelve dead girls.”

“Girls you might’ve killed. You helped Shelby get out of the new HPCCY, just as they were moving in.”