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"No proble some friends later"
"And you’ll callat all"
"Yep"
"Okay I don’t kno er I’ll be in Houston, but you can reachthe backpack over her shoulder and gave Kelli one last look "Thanks for this, Kelli It’s a good thing"
Kelli blushed and ducked her head "Yeah, well Liz is all right"
"So are you You rinned "Talk to you later"
She hurried out of the et back to the hotel and herwith Ramona Hewitt
Chapter Eleven
Ramona Heas already at a table when Cyn arrived It had taken her longer than she’d expected to get across town because, contrary to the wide open i city, with lots of traffic
Hewitt looked worn out Her neat-as-a-pin blue suit ilted and the tidy hairdo had a halo of wisps that had escaped their rigid confinelass of Scotch sat on the table in front of her
"I hope you put that on a tab," Cyn said, pulling out a chair to sit
"I did"
"Good" Cyn signaled to the waiter who hurried over after leaving a trayful of drinks at the next table
"What can I get you ladies?"
Cyn usually didn’t drink, but today she’d make an exception "I’ll have an Absolut on the rocks, with a couple of olives and" She looked at Hewitt, but the caseworker shook her head Cyn pointed at the Scotch "Can you put that onto eat, rabbed the bara little face at the choices "Far Eastern Bites, I guess, whatever that is" The waiter nodded and took off, stopping at another table on the way
"Busy in here," Cyn commented
"It’s Friday," Hewitt said "People like to start their weekend early" She took a sip of her Scotch and Cyn noticed she was drinking it neat A real Scotch drinker then, which Cyn hadn’t expected Hewitt seemed more like the sherry type to her
"So why didn’t you tell me you cofounded Jessica’s House?" Hewitt said
Cyn shrugged "Because I didn’t That’s Luci’s baby, not mine She does all the work All I did rite a check"
"Quite a big check"
"No more than Luci’s She had this dreae to create a place where runaway kids could feel safe More like an obsession, really It was the only thing she ever talked about I wasn’t that dedicated, but I believed in Luci and in what she was doing I’m not that much of a people person, so I took the easy way out and wrote a check"
"And becahtly "I became a cop first Luci probably told you Mostly to irritate my father, but I enjoyed it for a while"
"But not forever"
"No Not forever Like I said, I’m not much of a people person I work better alone"
The waiter arrived with her drink and the promise of food to co sip of her vodka, feeling it smooth away the snarls of the day, a nice warm slide all the way down "So You called"
"I did," Hewitt said "How much do you know about Jabril Karim and his outfit?"
"More than most, less than soeneral, their hierarchy and such Jabril’s got real poithin their society, both personal and political I wouldn’t underestio, Mirabelle and Elizabeth? I only knohat I’ve been told, which isn’t much I can tell you without question Mirabelle is a virtual prisoner out there, and Jabril wants herelse As for the Hawthorn Trust, it’s a matter of public record, and I assume there are private assets as well What I don’t know is how he got ahold of her in the first place He claiht?"
"Yes, it is" Hewitt’s jaw tightened in anger "YouI was the original caseworker assigned to the CPS evaluation, and I recoodly creature custody over those two girls Just babies, they were Fifteen and ten years old What kind of a system would turn those children over to a monster like that? I didn’t understand it then, and I don’t understand it now Even after what he did to Mirabelle, plain as day, no one said a peep" She leaned across the table, one fingertip pressed into the lacquered wood for emphasis "It’s ht and paid for A suy like Jabril--I may not like him, but he’s wily as a snake--a ood Those girls never had a chance"
"They didn’t have any other family? No one with a better claim?"
"A half sister up in Maine soe There was a lot of bitterness in the divorce and she was quite a bit older than the girls I contacted her, but she wasn’t really interested You would have thought the h of her own, I guess Or maybe she’s one of the ten people left on Earth who don’t care about money, I don’t know I recommended foster care For all its problee even saw my report My for was held in private, to protect the children’s privacy, they said" She snorted "To keep the whole dairls over and never looked back Judge retired a year later, a nice fat pension and a vacation house in the Bahaot a shiny new job over in the ht and paid for, I say"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>