“I’m worried about you, Hope. You know what I see in my job and hear from my friends on the police force.” She didn’t like how uncomfortable Hope looked hearing that. “My friend Lindsay justbroke up a local human-trafficking operation. And it made me wonder about you. I’m afraid you could be sucked into something like that.”
“You mean trafficking people?” Hope’s voice betrayed how outraged she was at the idea.
“Not necessarily that. Maybe something a little shady, like escort work. I don’t know. I just know you don’t seem to have direction… and you have a lot of cash. You disappear and show up back at home late at night. That’s why I had to ask you face-to-face. And it’s only because I love you. Dearly. I know you can see that.”
Hope looked down at her latte. She didn’t say a word.
Claire looked down too and noticed Hope’s footwear. The young woman was wearing what looked to be brand-new, high-end leather sneakers. That didn’t help the awkward silence in any way. Then her niece looked at her with those clear, beautiful brown eyes.
Hope let out a long sigh like she’d resigned herself to confessing.
Claire braced herself for what she was about to hear.
“Okay. I’ll admit I’ve been doing something you and my parents wouldn’t approve of. And I’ve made some money. But I haven’t blown it. I have a bank account with over fifteen thousand dollars in it right now.”
“But how? Don’t mortgage your future for a few dollars. I can help you with whatever you’re going through. You can just walk away from it. I promise that I will support you a hundred percent.”
There was another long silence before Hope said, “Okay. At any rate, I’ve been doing it long enough.”
“Doing what?”
“I’ve been selling ZsaZsa.”
“I’m sorry, what? You mean like Zsa Zsa Gabor?”
“What’s that?”
“She was an actress. It doesn’t matter. What Zsa Zsa areyoutalking about? I’m very confused.”
“ZsaZsa is a form of synthetic marijuana,” Hope told her. “It’s been totally legal—I swear. I’ll admit I might’ve leaned into my looks a little bit to sell at clubs and places like that. But that’s it.”
Claire was taken aback, and it showed on her face. “You’re selling drugs?”
“I wasn’t doing anything illegal,” Hope insisted. “At least at the time. But they just passed a bill in the California Senate to ban ZsaZsa, so I was already planning to quit now.”
Claire couldn’t help but start to cry. Just a little, but it was enough to affect Hope. She started to cry too. Hope stepped around the table and hugged her aunt.
They held each other for a long time.
CHAPTER112
IT WAS DOUBLEthe size of our usual get-togethers at Susie’s. Everyone was here. Including our husbands. And I had brought Alain Creasy. He’d been out of the hospital for a full day and said he felt up to a pleasant happy hour. When I picked him up from his hotel, he looked a little tired, but he was as well-dressed as usual. He wore a blue sport coat over a nice button-down shirt. Somehow he had convinced his daughter he was okay and not to cross the Atlantic.
We talked about the case. We’d recovered eight girls so far. And we weren’t finished looking. Sergeant Davis had new leads on Carly Nash and Katie Dharma. We also had a lead on a sixteen-year-old who’d disappeared from Oakland five months ago. It looked like she might be in Brussels, Belgium.
Alain said, “That is a huge success. Do you know how rare it is to actually save any of these girls?”
Sadly, I was starting to learn. I said, “Nicole Snaff said she’d been tired of living in a little town like San Julio. Jason Cortlandt talked to her about the whole wide world out there. It just made her want to leave even more. She felt like her father was trying tocontrol her. But almost as soon as she fell in with the group in San Francisco, she regretted it. San Julio to San Francisco is hardly the ‘whole wide world.’”
“Did she say why she stayed? Did anyone force her?”
“Not with violence. They kept talking about travel and sent her to a couple of parties. She eventually realized who she was working for. She did a few things she’s not proud of. She said it was a little like being in a cult. There was always someone checking on you and convincing you to work.”
Alain just nodded.
Lorraine came over with pitchers of beer and platters of jerked chicken. I leaned back with Joe’s arm around my shoulders. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. It was wonderful just to hear my friends laughing.
I’d closed out several cases. Yuki’s trial was over, even if it hadn’t ended the way she’d wanted it to. Claire had resolved her issues with Hope. And Cindy was getting an exclusive for theChronicle. She was also really making progress with her book.
