“Everything at the school was geared toward preparing the girls for sale.”
A knot formed in my stomach and I pushed my scone away, feeling nauseous. “So the school was a front for the trafficking ring.”
She nodded. “The woman running it was kind of a religious nut. She made it sound like the girls would be honoring god orfulfilling some kind of duty by serving the men who would buy them, but really they were just selling them to be used.”
“Was that what the ceremonies were for?” I asked.
She nodded. “It was like… an auction. And there were other auctions too, some of them overseas where men would kind of… trade the girls they’d already bought.”
My stomach turned again. “This is so fucked up.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Did the… buyers come to the ceremony?” I hated calling the men who trafficked girls ‘buyers,’ like they worked for a department store and were procuring inventory for the next season, but I didn’t know what else to call them.
“They appeared on video,” she said. “There were no names. Just faces and bids.”
“Bids?”
“For how much they were willing to pay for each girl,” she said.
“Jesus.” I leaned back in my chair, processing everything she’d said.
“Yeah.” I sensed there was a lot she wasn’t saying, but I hardly knew her. It wasn’t my place to push, especially when she’d already been generous enough to meet me. “There was one thing I noticed. The guards all had the same tattoo.”
“What kind of tattoo?” I asked.
“An ax. Its handle was made out of sticks.”
“Sticks?”
She nodded.
The image teased my memory, like I’d heard of it before, like maybe I’d seen it before, but I couldn’t place it. “That’s… weird.”
“It was all weird,” she said. “I’m sorry I don’t have more to tell you.”
“That’s okay. I just appreciate that you were willing to talk to me.”
She took a drink of her coffee and licked her lips. “You probably won’t listen — I didn’t — but you should think twice about digging into this, especially after what happened to you. You could be putting yourself in more danger.”
“Is that why you stopped?” It wasn’t an accusation. It sounded like Lilah had been through hell and back. She’d done her part to get the authorities involved. No one could expect any more of her.
“Something like that,” she said.
It was obvious she didn’t want to say more, and I didn’t blame her.
Because the people who’d run me off the road — the people who’d had my parents killed — were obviously part of something dangerous and far-reaching.
And Blackwell Falls was somehow right at its epicenter.
27
VIGO
I watchedCassie through the window of the coffee shop, moving around behind the counter, chatting with customers and laughing with Drew, the guy who worked the afternoon shift at the coffee shop.
I’d been glad to learn he was gay. I wasn’t the jealous type but I didn’t love the idea of Cassie working day in and day out with some guy who wanted to get in her pants.
