“Okay.” Eve started to rise. “Let’s just—”
“I’m not finished! Sebastian asked me to go to Dallas, so I did, and when I did, she and Peabody had dozens of faces, young girls like you, on their board. Girls they’re trying to find, to help, because nobody in this nasty damn world cares more. Consider yourself lucky she’s the one who stood over your friend, who’s working to find out who hurt her and killed her, because she won’t stop until she does.”
She took a long breath. “This is my home. And you won’t sit here and speak to my friend that way. Apologize.”
Eve started to speak again, got a laser flash out of Mavis’s eyes, and kept silent.
“Jesus, lady.”
“I said apologize.”
“Fine, sure. Sorry. Jesus.”
Now Eve got to her feet. “Here’s an idea. How about the rest of you get some air, and give Dorian and me the room for a few minutes?”
“Sebastian said he’d stay with me.”
“And I’ll be right outside. I think some air is just the thing. You’ve vented your spleen, Dorian, now be the smart girl I know you are, and listen.”
“Peabody, you, too. A few minutes,” Eve added. As she waited for the room to clear, she sat again.
Let the silence hang.
Dorian broke first.
“Man, she’s like totally whacked. I thought—”
“Say another thing about Mavis Freestone,” Eve invited. “Go ahead.”
Dorian shrugged, looked away.
“I’ve got a feeling,” Eve said, “just a feeling right now because I don’t have any firm data, that Mina would’ve stood up for you that way. I’ve been friends with Mavis a long time. Busted her the first time I met her.”
That got a glimmer of interest. “No shit?”
“She was grifting back then. Older than you, but she’d have recognized your mother. So would I. Anyway, we’ve been friends a long time. You and Mina didn’t have that chance. They tried to frame you for her murder.”
“What?”
“They tried to make it look like you killed her. Planted some of your blood on her body. That’s how we ID’d you.”
Dorian bared her teeth. “You think I killed Mina.”
“Is that what I said? I said they tried to make it look that way. I’m good at my job, and so’s my partner. No, I don’t think you killed Mina. I know you didn’t. If she meant a damn to you, help me find the ones who did so I can stop them from hurting all the others.”
“I don’t know!” The tears rolled now. “I can’t remember mostly, and I don’t know anyway.”
“Tell me what you do know, what you do remember.”
“I got away from her, and I got to New York. I liked it. I can take care of myself, I can. I was. I found places to sleep.”
“You hooked up with Sebastian?”
“Not then, no, no. That was after. I was just walking, and they got me, and the next thing I knew … Can he come back? Can Sebastian come back? Please. I already told him when I remembered. When he showed me Mina’s picture and I remembered. He can help me.”
“All right, but no more bullshit, Dorian.”
Eve went to the open doors, signaled. “We’re all good here.” She waited, then put her arms around Mavis. “Appreciate it,” she murmured. “But you were pretty scary.”
“She better straighten up or I got more.”
“I’ve got it. Keep calm for Number Two.”
Eve went back, sat again. “Tell me.”
“I felt sick and dizzy, and I was in this room. Like a hospital room or something. And—God—Sebastian. Can you, please?”
“She told me when she came to, she was naked, strapped down, and there was a man—he was the doctor they used—examining her. Verifying virginity, taking blood.”
“I fought, and I screamed, but they gave me something else and I passed out again. Then I was in another room, and I had on some kind of nightgown, but I was strapped down again, and she was there.”
“Who?”
“Auntie. That’s what we had to call her. She was in charge of the Academy.”
“The Academy.”
“They kept us there. You couldn’t see outside, you couldn’t go outside. You got locked in at night. She said I belonged to the Academy now, and if I was good, if I obeyed the rules and improved myself—shit like that?—I’d be treated really well. I’d have good food, good clothes, I’d learn manners, learn to be well-groomed. I’d eventually get my own pretty room, my own private bathroom. I’d be educated.