Eve’s eyes sharpened. “What church?”
“None in particular. She said she liked them because they were quiet and pretty and smelled good. Is it important?”
Eve pushed past the question. “She was with you for a year, then she wasn’t. You didn’t think anything of it?”
“On the contrary, we looked for her. One of the girls told me Iris said she had a secret, but she couldn’t tell or it wouldn’t come true. Secrets are stock and trade for girls of that age, so I didn’t think anything of it at the time. She had a stuffed dog she’d found somewhere. She called it Baby. She was very young for her age and circumstances. She took Baby with her when she left, and as she left during the night, after curfew—”
“Curfew?”
“There are some rules,” he said again. “Since she left on her own, I had to believe she’d chosen to leave us. Still we looked.”
“Back in a minute,” Eve said to Roarke, and strode out of the bar.
“I believe I’ll have that beer.” Sebastian cocked an eyebrow at Roarke. “Are you sure you won’t have one?”
“Yes, I’m sure, but thanks.”
Sebastian went to the bar, came back with a bottle. “I admire your wife,” he began.
“As do I.”
“She’s dedicated and ferocious, for all the right reasons. She’ll find who did this.”
“She won’t stop until she does.”
“It’s an interesting life the two of you’ve made.”
“I could say the same of yours.”
“It’s one that suits me. I think you understand the perspective of a certain fluidity of borders others, such as your lieutenant, must see as firm demarcations.”
“I understand adjusting borders when needs must.”
Sebastian looked down at his beer a moment, then just nodded to himself. “They have nowhere to go. Most will say they have to go into the system—the system will tend to them. It was created to tend to them. But we know, you and I and your lieutenant, that far too often the system fails. It fails, even with the dedication of ferocity of those who’ve sworn to protect, who do everything they can to fulfill that duty, it fails. When it does, the wounded, abused, and innocent among us suffer.”
“I don’t disagree. Neither would the lieutenant on the failure of the system, and the cost when it does. So she’ll fight within the system to protect. And when she can’t protect to work—ferociously—to see that justice is served for those who suffered.”
“Even if it means dealing with me.”
“Even that. Some of them, it seems, were yours for a time. All of them are hers now. They’ll always be hers now.”
She walked back in, eyes flat, stride brisk. And held out her PPC. “Iris Kirkwood.”
Sebastian looked at the screen, at the image of the girl with straight, sandy blond hair, wide brown eyes, and lips curved in a small, sweet smile.
“Yes, that’s Iris.” He picked up the beer, took a slow swallow. “Is she one of them?”
“I don’t know yet. Her mother’s dead, beaten to death by the guy she lived with in North Carolina. April of ’forty-five.”
“That would’ve been six or eight months after Iris came to me, and a few months before she left us.”
“Any other girls who left about that time?”
“No, at least none who didn’t go back to a parent or guardian. Which is encouraged—strongly—when they’re spinning a tale as Merry did.”
“As Merry did?”
“You’ve looked at her background by now, so you know—as I did—she came from an average family. No reports of abuse, no Double Ds—and yes, some of that often isn’t reported. But I know when a girl’s lying to me. And her claims of terror and misery at home were lies.”