Dreaming Death (Krewe of Hunters #32) - Heather Graham Page 0,33

facing the charges, not me!”

“We’ll have some paperwork to do now,” Keenan told Stacey, regret in his voice. “But that’s okay. I’ll get Fred’s guys to take it slow until we have a chance to chat here.”

Police officers in uniform came walking down the alley.

The girls shied back several steps, as if they could disappear in the haze.

“It’s all right. No one is after you,” Keenan said, turning then to speak more loudly as the officers approached. “It’s this man—he threatened a federal agent with a knife!”

“We’ll meet you down at headquarters,” one of the officers, a stocky man with a buzzed cut to his hair, said. “Why, Jimmy,” he said to his partner, “if it isn’t Rafael Sabatini, better known as Harold Johnson down at the station. Why, goodness, Harry, I think we have you on something with proof at last!”

The man was handcuffed and taken away, protesting all the while.

“I’ll see you to the car,” Keenan told the officers, glancing at Stacey with a nod as he followed the officers and the pimp.

Stacey watched him go, then turned as the women came out of the haze, forming a half circle around her.

The sandy-haired girl let out a sigh, staring after Keenan longingly, a sigh worthy of the finest princess in an animated film.

Stacey forced a smile. Work. Whatever managed to get these women to trust them was worth it.

“Not to worry, he’ll be back,” she said. “But for now, please, help me. Your lives might depend on it!”

Five

“Candy can help you most,” a big blousy woman in a glittery dress was saying as Keenan returned to the alley.

“Candy?” Stacey asked.

They were now surrounding her as if she were the head cheerleader and a school game was about to begin.

She’d been right; they had her trust. And he supposed they might trust him now, too, because he had come up at the right moment.

“Yeah, and it’s my real name,” a young woman with ash-blond hair said. “Well, Candace. And I loved Jess. She was truly a kind person. We’re out here trying to survive, and she’d still run in and buy food for Dave, the homeless guy on the other corner. She was a good person—a really good person, though I’ll bet more than half the world would never see her that way,” she finished bitterly.

“Hey, we all do what we have to do. And we can only ever do what we think is right—or necessary—when we do it, right?” Stacey asked.

The girl flushed. “Yeah. I guess we do.”

“So, can you help us?” Stacey asked.

The bouffant woman moved in again. “Why, honey, if we could nail the bastard, we would. You see the group of us here? We live together, about a block away. And we do our best to look after one another.” She hesitated and seemed pained. We didn’t talk to the cops before because we didn’t want them at our place. It’s a dump, but it’s all we’ve got. Cops might have got us evicted or the whole building condemned. So we said we all lived on the streets or took rooms when we could. We were also worried about the place where we slept getting out, just in case. You have to be so careful who you trust. Cops coming to our place couldn’t help Jess. Anyway. We tried to look after Jess. Candy can best tell you her story.”

“She was excited,” Candy said. “She wouldn’t tell me any particulars, but she was so excited. She said that she finally hit the big time, and she was going to be able to help us all. She took her time getting dressed, and she wore her low heels. It’s not like she looked like a schoolmarm or anything, but...”

“She looked classy,” one of the others put in.

“Did you see her leave?” Keenan asked. “Was she picked up in a car?”

Candy shook her head thoughtfully. “I didn’t see... She was picked up in front of our place, though. I heard the car. We’re on the ground floor.”

“Rain seeps in all the time,” another muttered.

“Well, it is a bona fide hovel,” Candy said dryly.

“But the car—it stopped right in front of your place?” Keenan asked.

Candy nodded, her brows knitting into a frown.

“Would you mind taking us there?” Stacey asked.

“The cops already came,” Candy said. “Well, not to the apartment, but here. They wanted to speak with us. They tried to find next of kin for Jess. We’re the best thing she had. She doesn’t know of any next