Emily nodded.She’d never been extorted, but could imagine how a woman like June would react to it.She paused, then decided to squeeze more information out of the crack that had just appeared in June’s armour.“What happened between you?”she asked.“Why the change in your arrangement?”
June let out something like a growl.“Nothing to do with me.She just needs more money.Trying to fix all her brother’s bullshit, the fool.”
“What…bullshit?”Emily pressed, the unfamiliar curse awkward in her mouth.
“Oh Christ,” June swore.“See?That didn’t kill you, did it?”She laughed, shoved Emily playfully in the shoulder.“Anyway, Stone’s brother’s a drunken louse, gambles away the family’s money—including her inheritance—even comes into my place every so often.She’s been trying to keep the collectors at bay for years, so she’s been taking these kickbacks from the drug companies for testing their medicines on the girls here.That’s why she was so easy to bribe.Needs the cash.I told you, it’s all about the money.”
Emily was reeling.“But—how did you find this out?”
June scoffed.“God, you got a lot to learn, kid.You gotta get out there more, understand how things work.Howpeoplework.You want to get the real measure of a woman, get her drunk on cheap wine and she’ll spill her guts like roadkill.”
Emily blanched at the imagery.
“Oh don’t look so shocked.Anyway, Stone’s adamant on her price, thinks she can get away with it because she doesn’t know I’ve got you up my sleeve.”Her lips twisted, smug but hostile.Emily had known June Jones was not a woman to cross, but seeing her ire on display was stilldisquieting.“And the truth is, Stone is a nut.A psycho.Belongs in there with the Blues.So maybe your wayisthe only way to make this all stop.”She searched Emily’s face.“So what do you need?I can back you up about her taking my bribes to keep my girls out of the trial.But I’m done with her.She’s got to go down.”
The bell rang shrilly on the wall above their heads, and Emily startled.June didn’t.
“The problem is, I’m going to need more than your word on the kickbacks,” Emily said.“The bribery is one thing, but that will still be your word against hers, I’m afraid.”The word of a brothel madam.
June opened her mouth to protest, but Emily cut across her.“I need actual evidence of the kickbacks for this to stick.There must be some kind of paper trail in her office.Patient files, something.I need to get in there to find it.”Her pulse was racing.“I approached Eliza about this, told her who I really am.”June’s eyebrows popped.“She’s a thief, a repeat offender.I’m sure she could be of great use if she were willing, but she’s not.”
“Why not?”
“She claims this place is better than her home, and from what she’s told me, she may be right,” Emily said with defeat.“She wants to stay in here as long as possible.”
“Well, we gotta offer her something better, then.An incentive.”
For a woman with no education, Emily was continually impressed by June’s vocabulary and cleverness.She was evidently intelligent.
“I tried,” Emily said.“I told her she could come stay with me for a while.”
June frowned.“Mmm.Didn’t work, did it?”
“No.”
“That’s because you don’t know that girl.”
Emily was stung.“I’ve been her friend since—”
“But I think I might,” June continued.“I’ve got an idea.Meet me in the recreation room after supper.”
And before Emily could respond, June swept out into the hall.
CHAPTER 29
EMILY
December 15, 1961
Day 179 (4 to go)
Around seven-thirty, Emily and June found Eliza in the noisy recreation room, where she was playing cribbage with another inmate.
Eliza looked up from her game to see Emily and June standing over her.She made a face so irritable that Emily nearly laughed.As much as Eliza’s lot in life had forced her to grow up early and fast, sometimes her petulance betrayed her immaturity.Though Emily knew it would infuriate her to know that.
“Need to talk to you for a minute, kid,” June said in a tone that left little room for argument.Eliza rolled her eyes, but set down her cards without sparing a glance at her opponent and stood, leading them out of the room.Emily followed June, in awe of her ability to convey her authority like that.It was a brand of confidence Emily could only aspire to, and she wondered whether it was innate or learned; if she herself could ever move through the world the way June and—in an undeniably more collegial way—Doris Anderson did.They both seemed cut from a cloth that was usually reserved for the creation of men, not women.A fabric woven from entitlement and inborn self-assurance on a great loom constructed eons ago, exclusively for Adam’s sons.
The sounds of harsh, competitive laughter and rattling Yahtzee dice faded as they entered the cool hallway.The three women turned a corner at the end of the hall, and Eliza pulled up short beside a row of empty cells, entering one that must be hers.Emily glanced around, but they were mostly alone.Nearly everyone would be in the rec room or waiting in the queue for their revolting bath at this hour.
