“I’ll leave you in the care of Alastair and Vincent. Good day.”
She turned on her heel and was out of hearing distance before Jessie could think of anything good to say. Either Alastair or Vincent motioned for her to head back down the corridor. She did so, with one of them in front of her and the other behind.
As she returned to the main entrance of the house, Jessie felt an infuriating sense of helplessness. Despite all the smoke, there was no fire yet. She had no evidence definitively tying him to this murder. But Jasper Otis was guilty of something.
He clearly had an unhealthy, potentially criminal interest in underage girls. And if he wasn’t Milly’s murderer, why the hell did he seem to be covering it up? Was it just that he was so powerful that he didn’t care how he looked as he bullied everyone in his way? Or was it something deeper? Was he hiding some secret so nefarious that it was worth weathering whatever suspicion he faced to keep it hidden?
Either way, it was a tactical mistake. If he’d done his research on Jessie, he would have known she didn’t back down. Not from serial killers, not from corrupt cops, not from drug cartels. And certainly not from pedophile billionaires.
He didn’t know it yet, but she was coming for him.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Hannah focused in on her target.
Yes, she’d been kidding when she told Jessie that she’d keep her eyes out for scummy guys with business cards looking for potential sex slaves. But the truth was she didn’t need to, because she’d already been approached. Just not by a guy.
It was only her third day on campus when a fellow senior had approached her and asked her if she’d ever considered “going on dates.” Hannah had misinterpreted the question and said she wasn’t into girls (though she had no idea if that was really true or not).
“I don’t mean that kind of date,” the girl, who called herself Elodie, had said. “There are older guys who will pay good money to be with a high school girl, especially if she can prove she isn’t eighteen yet.”
Hannah, who knew girls back at her old San Fernando Valley high school who’d done porn, wasn’t shocked that a variation on the sex work theme existed at this school too. Of the many things she’d seen and been through, learning about an underage prostitution ring didn’t make the top five.
At the time, she’d politely declined. She wasn’t interested, but not knowing who had the power at her new school, she didn’t want to alienate anyone. Elodie hadn’t seemed too broken up about it. Hannah got the sense that getting candidates for this gig was a volume business.
“Reach out if you change your mind,” Elodie had told her before moving on.
That’s what Hannah was about to do. She had no idea if this was a run of the mill teen hooker ring or if it might be part of the larger sex trafficking operation that had Jessie so upset. She aimed to find out.
She walked over to Elodie Peters, whose last name she had learned earlier that morning. The girl was sitting at a picnic table under a tree, scrolling through her phone. Hannah let a bit of self-doubt creep in. She couldn’t help but wonder if what she planned to do was a violation of her promise to Kat.
Their deal was that Kat wouldn’t mention the drug dealer confrontation if Hannah agreed not to take any more unnecessary, dangerous risks. But this wasn’t an unnecessary risk. It wasn’t pushing boundaries just for the sake of seeing what would happen.
If talking to Elodie got her a lead that helped her sister with a case that was clearly worrying her, it seemed more than worth it. Moreover, if it in some way saved young girls in trouble, then there wasn’t even a question about whether it was justified. And if she happened to get a little thrill out if it along the way, there was no harm in that.
“Hey,” she said, sitting down on the bench next to Elodie.
The other girl was also blonde, but far fairer than Hannah. Her skin was pale and freckles dotted her nose and cheeks. She was extremely skinny, with a boyish figure. Had Hannah not known she was a senior, she might have thought the girl was in middle school.
“What’s up?” Elodie asked, looking up from her phone.
Hannah looked around, play-acting as if she was worried someone might