“Nobody called her Fawn. She was Ruby here. But we got close, and she told me her real name. She was Lakota. Me, I’m White Earth Ojibwe. She came after me.”
“Here to the cabin?”
“That was before the cabin. We were outside Thief River Falls then, working out of the trailer. Brandi and Coral came after Fawn and Sapphire, when we got down here.”
“Sapphire?”
“Yeah. She didn’t last long. Billy told us she ran away. Which was strange. None of us got anywhere to run. Me, I always thought Toad might’ve had something to do with that.”
“What happened to Fawn?” Dross said.
“We all had to take turns with Toad. Part of the bargain with him and Billy. None of us liked it, but nobody said no to Billy. There was something wrong with Toad. He liked to hurt you. He was with Brandi, there in the back room, and he was going to burn her with a cigarette. She screamed and Fawn ran in and pulled him away. He grabbed her by the throat and…” She didn’t finish but instead closed her eyes as if replaying the scene in her mind. “He called Matt, and him and Adrian took her body away. That’s all I know.”
“This was when?”
“Couple of months ago, maybe. I don’t remember exactly.”
“What about Billy?”
“Was he ever pissed. I thought he’d kill Toad. He just told Matt to make sure Toad never hurt any of us. Christ, like that was going to stop Toad.”
“You’re from White Earth,” Cork said. “How’d Billy Bones get his hands on you?”
“I ran away. Ended up in Duluth. Had no money, no nothing. Billy kind of rescued me. Or that’s how I thought of it.” She gave a grim laugh and shook her head. “Rescued.”
“Why didn’t you leave?” Dross asked.
“And go where? Back to my uncle? That pervert was worse than Toad. Girls like me and Brandi and Coral, we don’t have anywhere else to go. That’s why we stay.”
Cork said, “Do you have any idea where Billy Bones took the other girls?”
“Nope.”
“What about Matt?”
“I haven’t seen him for a while. He came three or four days ago, really freaked out. Something to do with Fawn. Somebody found her body, I guess. He went away, then a day or so later, Billy got a call from him and went ballistic. Something about another dead girl. Billy left us here alone for a whole day. When he came back, he was acting crazy. I don’t know. He could’ve killed Matt, I suppose. He sure seemed crazy enough. Screaming, hollering. Shouting about taking care of loose ends. I’m lucky he didn’t shoot me.”
Cork looked at this girl, who was thin, tired, scared, bitter, lost, abandoned. At that moment, she seemed to him the most ancient seventeen-year-old he’d ever seen.
Dross finished tending to the girl’s injured feet and stood up. “I need to call this in.”
CHAPTER 40
That morning, Stephen and Belle had asked Maria if she would be willing to return to Spirit Crossing, to help in the protest. They believed there was going to be another clash that might involve injuries.
“Will you come?” Maria had asked Annie.
“I’m too tired,” Annie had said. It was more about her spirits than her body. “But go. You’re needed. I’ll be all right here.”
They’d headed off in Stephen’s Jeep. But Rainy left her Bronco in case Annie needed transport. So when Daniel called and asked her to check the files in Cork’s office at Sam’s Place, Annie grabbed the keys from the hook beside the mudroom door and took off.
She pulled into the gravel lot at the old Quonset hut and killed the engine. It wasn’t yet opening time, 11:00 A.M., and there was only one other car in the lot. She knew it belonged to Sylvia Villebrun, who was in charge of opening and managing that day. Annie had performed these duties when she was a teenager, as had her brother and sister and so many other kids in Aurora. Sam’s Place was often their first experience in a real job.
She sat a little while, recalling her time working for her father, recalling all the friends who’d worked with her, recalling so many sweet moments in the town of her birth. Although she’d left years ago to follow her own path, she’d never lost her love of this place and the people she’d left behind.
When she stepped inside, she greeted Sylvia, who was bustling around in the prep area, getting ready to open.
“Working alone?” Annie asked.
“Augie Treuer was supposed to be here to give me a hand. He’s running late. Again.”
“Happy to help,” Annie offered. And she did, falling into a routine that was still as familiar to her as breathing.
Augie showed up fifteen minutes later, panting hard. “I still don’t have a motorcycle license, so I borrowed my auntie’s car,” he explained. “It broke down.”
“Can you get it fixed?” Sylvia asked.
“Needs a new carburetor, I guess. I got a friend who said he’ll fix it for a hundred bucks. Costs money to get around. That’s why I’m working here.” He looked at Annie. “Who are you?”
She told him.
“I thought you were in South America or someplace.”
“Home for my brother’s wedding. You better get to work. You open pretty soon.”
She left them to their duties and went to the file cabinet in the area of the Quonset hut that her father set aside for his private security work. She found the file for Erno Paavola and the address for the house in Aitkin where his sister had lived and had raised Irene and Mathias. She called Daniel and gave him the information.
Gwen Lytle, another teenager Annie’s father had hired, came in for her shift. Annie thought about sticking around to give a hand, but there was something bittersweet in watching the kids in whom her father had put his trust do what he’d trained them to do.
