Safe Place to Hide || Chenford / The Rookie

Chapter 18

The question of whether they'll be riding together that day ends up moot because Lucy manages to escape patrol altogether. Her contributions to the investigation into Beyond Crystals and Tamara's shooter are being lauded by the detectives, and Angela decides it will be valuable for Lucy to listen in on questioning throughout the day.

It's mid-morning and Lucy is watching a frazzled middle-aged man tug uncomfortably at his tie as he tries to explain away thousands of dollars in crystal purchases when Rita places a hand on her shoulder. Lucy turns to look at her.

"Well, it seems your appearance at the party yesterday really rattled our friends Scott and Cara; they are trying to cut a deal and ready to sing like birds about Jayce and the many atrocities he's committed. We're bringing them into Interrogation 3; I thought you might like to watch."

Lucy hops to her feet, unable to suppress her excitement at how close they are getting to breaking the case. "I would. Thank you."

And Rita isn't exaggerating, Scott and Cara don't hold back as they explain every detail of the Beyond Crystals operation — how Jayce structured the company, how he brought in clients, Cara's role in recruiting young women, the cut that each of them took home for every successful "date" facilitated through the purchase of a crystal, up to a concrete confirmation that the amounts collected absolutely did increase for overnight dates. In conjunction with statements from some of the girls confirming that there was sexual activity taking place on these dates, this final revelation has Angela jumping to her feet, "That's enough for us to get a warrant. I'm going to go call the judge."

"Tell me about how Tamara factors into all of this," Rita finally asks, once they've walked through all aspects of the escort business from multiple different directions.

Cara nods, looking uneasy, but clearly aware that there's no point in clamming up now that her heavy involvement in the core operations of the escort service is known. "I mean. It's what you'd expect. I met her through Scott, obviously. And she's a pretty girl with pretty friends, and she was always in need of money; Scott was always telling me she could never make rent on time. So I figured why not give her a chance to make some real cash?"

Rita raises an eyebrow but says nothing at Cara's characterization of the situation.

"Look. I was having a decent amount of luck recruiting from the community college, but some of the guys... well, they had more youthful tastes. So as soon as she turned 18 — I never, ever recruited anyone under 18," her eyes are wide and earnest, and it almost seems like she's waiting to be praised for her virtuous recruiting practices.

Rita's gaze is icy as she looks back at her, "Thank god for small favors. You were saying?"

Cara looks momentarily flustered, "I invited her to a pool party. Asked her to bring friends. Said it was a local business looking to hire models and influencers."

Scott finally chimes in, "And that's all it was. For Tamara. She posted some ads and made enough money to finally start to cover her portion of the rent. Cara and Jayce were clear on that; believe what you want, but I didn't actually want my cousin going out with any of these guys."

Cara nods, "Right. It was mostly just so I could get an in at her school — start recruiting some — well, you know."

"So Tamara wasn't involved with the escort service, but her friends, Marissa and Jenna, they were?"

Cara nods, "Yes. And honestly, I thought Tamara's involvement would result in more leads, but she started to act weird about it after the first few events. The other girls, though, they were interested in real money. And things were fine until... honestly, I don't even know how Tamara found out for certain. She didn't really come to any events after the first one. And things are kept pretty under wraps for obvious reasons, but one of the girls must have told her about the dates. Because Tamara came home one night and she was absolutely livid. She screamed about using her to get to her friends; said I was taking advantage of them and putting them in danger by pimping them out. It was honestly kind of overdramatic," Cara rolls her eyes. "At the end of the day, these girls were 18 — they were adults and they were making the decisions about which men they wanted to see. Everything was consensual. We were just playing matchmaker, really."