“And what about your father?”
“I never knew him; my mother…She used to work the streets. I don’t think she was even sure who he was.” Her smile is supposed to be brave, but it’s not convincing.
“I’m sorry.”
“What for? For thinking you had it tough growing up?” She puts her hard exterior back in place and tries to mock me.
“So how did you end up becoming a criminal?” I don’t ease off like I should. I want answers.
“I had to do whatever I could to survive. My foster parents never gave us anything; they pocketed the money the government gave them for having us and made us survive on the bare minimum. We were always hungry; none of us had decent clothes. I was a little more streetwise than the others were, so I managed to get us by.”
“You were ten.” I shake my head and frown.
“I was the daughter of a hooker; I’d hung out in some pretty shady places. Mother taught me how to take care of myself.” There's a hint of fondness in her smile.
“So as soon as I turned sixteen, I left the foster home. I didn’t like the way Ricky had started to look at me; he’d come into my room while I was changing, a few times too many for it to be accidental.”
“Where did you go?”
“I had nowhere to go.” She laughs again. “I slept rough for a while, then I met Jonah.” She takes another one of those deep, nervous breaths.
“Who?”
“He was older than me, and smart. He had big plans for the future, and he excited me.” I can tell by the bitterness in her laugh that she has regrets. “Jonah gave me somewhere dry to sleep. He fed me, and he never expected anything for it. I was never going to be like my mother.” She looks up and makes that point very clear.
“So this Jonah took care of you?” I ask, wondering how it all came to this.
“Jonah was a grifter, and he was good at it, the best in fact. He taught me how to do a hell of a lot more than just pick pocket. I guess, over time, we got closer, and it just made sense.”
“I see.” I nod, pushing my plate to one side and doing everything I can to get the image of her and this other guy from my head.
“He was a good person to begin with. He had his head on straight and his heart in the right place, but as jobs got bigger, and Jonah got more successful, he started to change, and I started to learn more about who he really was.”
She takes another sip of her water and clears her throat. “I found out he was running a brothel, one for… vulnerable girls,” she whispers under her breath. “I swear I had no idea, until I met Polly.”
“Polly, the girl from the house?” I check I’m keeping up.
“She’s his sister; she’d been in his care since their parents died, and it turns out he was exploiting her.”
“That's disgusting!” I can’t believe what I’m hearing. What kind of asshole could do that?
“I was never supposed to find out; he kept that part of his life very separate from mine, and he did it well. I didn’t exactly roll in the same circles as the kind of men that used those girls.” Now she really does look bitter.
“What are you saying?” I can sense there's a little more to this story than what she’s telling.
“Jonah supplied girls to agentlemen’s clubyour father owned in Kent. And those girls he supplied weren’t of age.”
“You're lying,” I snap back immediately. I know my father could be an asshole, but her accusation isn’t only wrong, it’s insulting. “My father wasn’t the best of men, but he wasn’t that. And he had no gentlemen's club in Kent. The only place he’s ever owned is the one he bought from Alex.”
“What reason would I have to lie, Jack?” She speaks so softly and sympathetically.
“He wouldn’t have; he couldn’t have. I would have known.”
“Jonah ran up a debt with your father. He was taking advances on the girls, promising to deliver more…Your father had a demand for girls who were intact, and Jonah tried more than once to try and deceive him.” She closes her eyes in disgust. “All it took was for a few of the girls to run away, and your dad got pissed off.”
I refuse to believe what I’m hearing. There is no way my father would be that stupid.
“Jonah needed to pay back what he owed. Apparently, Ravenshaw had a guy working for him. A man who, Ravenshaw threatened, would not just have killed Jonah, but every girl that was ever associated with him. I couldn’t let that happen. Even though I was done with Jonah, I’d met Polly; she’d risked her own life to come to me and tell me what kind of a man her brother was. I had to protect her, and any other girl Jonah had put in danger.”
