understand what I’m saying, Kristy? You’re a big girl—”
“I think they’re knocking the door down,” Kristy said, her voice cool. She felt cool.
“Don’t say anything to them. The men are coming,” her mother said.
She put the phone down. She knew what they were afraid of. A lot of photographs, taken by her father. Of people doing things to each other. Of people doing things to her. She smiled, and went to answer the door.
DUNN REACHED past Coakley and gave the door a solid thwack-thwack-thwack with his fist, hitting it hard enough to shake it, and then said, “Want us to kick it?”
Coakley saw a shadow moving toward them and said, “I think somebody’s coming. Off to the side, guys,” and she took her pistol out of her holster and held it by her side, the only time in her life she’d ever drawn it in the line of duty. Dunn and Hart were doing the same, and then the shadow hardened, and the door’s lock rattled, and the door opened and a girl looked out. “Yes?”
“Are you Kristy?” Coakley asked.
“Yup. My parents aren’t here,” Kristy said.
“We have a search warrant for your house. We’re going to have to come in.”
“Well, then I guess you better,” Kristy said.
“Are you alone?”
“Yup. They all went to a meeting at Emmett Einstadt’s.”
Coakley looked at Dunn and tipped her head, and he nodded and went back outside. He’d call the cars trailing the Einstadt truck. Coakley said to Kristy, “Well, let’s go in, and I’ll explain this all to you.”
THEY WENT UP the short flight of stairs, Kristy leading them to the kitchen, where she pulled out a chair and pointed Coakley and Hart at the others, and Coakley took one and asked, “How old are you?”
“Fifteen. Last month.”
“Okay, we’re here because we’ve heard—we’ve had people tell us—that the World of Spirit church has involved adults having sex with younger people, like yourself, and like Kelly Baker. We’re here to search your house to see if we can find evidence of that.”
“I thought somebody might come someday, especially after Kelly died,” Kristy said. She turned and looked at Dunn, who’d come back in, and who nodded at Coakley. She continued: “I don’t know exactly what happened to her, but I heard people talking for a while, then they hushed it all up. She was providing service to three or four of the men, and she suffocated, is what the rumor is. Jacob Flood had a great big cock and he left it in her throat too long and something happened and she couldn’t start breathing again when he took it out. He was like that. He was a jerk like that. He liked to see girls choke on it.”
Coakley looked at Dunn and Hart, whose mouths were hanging open, and Hart said, “Oh, Jesus.”
Coakley said, “Your father is a photographer. Did he ever take any pictures of anybody doing these things?”
“Sure,” she said. “There’s boxes and boxes of them up in a secret cubbyhole in their bedroom. Father likes to look at them to get excited, before we service him.”
“Who’s . . . we?” Dunn asked.
“Mom and me. Or one or the other of us. And sometimes other women. And he gets more excited if there are other men there, and everybody is servicing everybody.”
“Could you show me the boxes?” Coakley asked.
“Sure. My mother would have a heart attack if she knew I was showing it all to you,” Kristy said.
“Why are you?” Coakley asked.
“Because you’re going to save me, and take me away from it, and then I’m going to get psychological help and try to lead a normal life, although that might not be possible anymore,” Kristy said. “If it is, I’d like to go to LA.”
Hart asked, “Where did you hear about psychological help?”
“Facebook,” she said. “I’ve read all about it. I don’t think I’m insane yet. Some girls are insane, we think. I think my mother is insane. We talk about it sometimes, the ones on Facebook. Our parents don’t know about Facebook.”
“Okay,” Coakley said, exhaling. “Could you show me the boxes?”
ON THE WAY up the stairs, Dunn said, “This is awful. This is the most awful thing I’ve ever heard. And Crocker knew about it. I wonder if he took the job to watch us?”
“Dunno,” Coakley said.
Hart asked Kristy, “Why do you want to go to LA? I mean, just to get away from . . . them?”
“Oh, no. It’s just that it’s so dark and cold here,” Kristy said.