“Let’s call it a work meeting. I’m happy to fill you in on Curtis’ progress.”
Inside the church, the hymn had finished and a second minister stood at the podium to begin his sermon. This wasn’t ending any time soon. She nodded but added, “I’m going to hell for this.”
Davis opened the door and they stepped into the fresh, cool air. Ari took a deep breath.
They went to a local burger place—Ari’s favorite—and ordered greasy hamburgers and fries. Over lunch, Davis explained that, “The children of Glory are in a battle. Most fighting against one another, but all ultimately from the same beginning. Every time a child dies here it affects the others. Some become harder. Others resolve to fight. And the rest turn toward the darkness.”
“So, you help the fighters?”
“I teach them how to fight against an assumed death.”
“What? Like training and preparing an army? That sounds a little out there.”
“Mental, emotional, and physical training is not the worst way to go. We’re trying to create strong minds and bodies.”
Ari wasn’t so sure about his vision but at least he had one. “Do you know how Maria died? The police have no idea other than a possible ex-boyfriend.”
“I have some speculations.”
“Care to share?”
Davis put his hamburger down. “There are different levels of crime in this city. The obvious ones,” he held his hand up to his eyebrows, “they exist up here. Where people can see them and identify their attackers. The drug dealers, for example. The ones you see on the street,” he lowered his hand, near his neck, “then there is the next phase. The distributor. You don’t see them, but they are the ones funneling the drugs to the dealers and into the community.” He then dropped his hand under the table. “Under that, you have this deep system of organizers. The real criminals. The ones that walk among us but wear a mask of good. They run our companies, the legal system, the churches …”
“What are you saying?”
He shrugged and took a bite of his burger, wiping his mouth before he spoke again. “I think the base level is using the kids of this city in a war, and Maria may very well be a victim.”
“Why do you think this? Why exactly?”
“Because she’s not the first girl I’ve seen show up dead like this.”
***
Nick rubbed tiny circles into the bottom of Ari’s feet that she’d propped his in lap. He was good at this and Ari gave him a thankful smile.
“So, the funeral was that bad, huh?”
Ari didn’t tell him about bailing with Davis. “It’s always hard to lose a client, but this one seemed worse, you know?”
He nodded.
“Normally, it’s a shooting or drugs. Maybe an altercation with the police, but no one knows what happened to Maria,” she explained. But what Davis had told her nagged at the back of her mind. He’d explained that it wasn’t the first time a young girl had been found dead like this.
He’d told her, while she’d tried to hold down her lunch, that there had been a series of crimes like this, that the police didn’t want to alarm anyone so they’d kept it quiet.
“But these are my clients!” she argued. “How can I protect them if I don’t know how to keep them safe?”
“Because even though there is a pattern, it’s unclear what is really going on here. Young girls. All kidnapped or missing for several days at a time, and then they find them like Maria.”
“Maria is the only girl on my caseload or from our office that has been murdered like this. Who are these girls you’re talking about?”
He leaned his elbows on the table. “Runaways. Young girls—younger than what you usually get assigned. Kids slipping through the cracks because no one is reporting them missing or truant. Every troubled kid in the county doesn’t make her way across your desk.”
“It sure feels like it,” she mumbled. “They all go missing from time to time, but in general, they reappear. Either in lockup or in my office begging for a second chance.”
“Keep an eye out for the ones with strange absences or weird stories.”
It had been impossible not to think of Hope.
Nick’s hands inched up her legs, kneading the tired muscles. She sighed at his touch, willing him to go higher. “Do you think this could be part of a bigger thing?” she asked.
He frowned. “What do you mean, thing?”
“Like, what if Maria’s murder isn’t the first one? Maybe there are other girls.”
“Is there any evidence of that?” Ah, the lawyer. Ari should have expected him to appear.
“No, not that I know of.”
“Then why are you coming up with this reasoning?”
Davis had mentioned kids going missing. “Hope’s story. I wonder if it was connected.”