“Does the problem relate to your brother’s murder?”
“It might.”
“Then you ought to go to the police with it,” Gregor said. “There are two excellent officers on the case, Frank Margiotti and Marty Tackner. I could get you their phone number.”
“I’d like to talk this out first, if you don’t mind. My instinct, under the circumstances, is to keep my mouth shut. Not because I give a rat’s ass about the gentleman involved, you understand, but because I’m afraid it might jeopardize my work, and my work—”
“Your work is what?” Gregor asked. “What do you do?”
Anne Ross Wyler looked surprised. “I’m sorry. I thought everybody knew. You must read even fewer newspapers than I do. I run a safe house for child prostitutes. Adelphos House.”
Gregor straightened up abruptly.
“You have heard of it,” Anne said. “We really do get a lot of publicity, on slow news days. It is almost impossible to find anybody who hasn’t at least run across our name.”
It wasn’t that, Gregor thought. Of course he’d heard of it before. He just hadn’t made the connection. From the first moment he’d heard of the explosion at Holy Trinity Church, hours after it happened, because when the church blew up he was busy witnessing the murder of Tony Ross, he’d been trying to find a connection, and now, out of the blue, here it was.
“I’ve heard of it around here,” he said. “One of the church groups was going to do volunteer work there. I’m not sure of the details.”
“And Father Kasparian came to see us on the night Tony was murdered, yes,” Anne said. “We’re always desperately in need of volunteers. We’ve got children living in the house. We’ve got a whole contact and ID thing going. We have to contact the families, even though many of them are abusive. Then we have to protect the girls when the families want them back.”
“Girls?”
“Most child prostitutes are girls between the ages of eleven and fourteen, yes. They learn to make themselves up in a way that the johns can make the excuse that they certainly looked eighteen. Although the johns know, of course. I’m sorry. I’m afraid I tend to lecture. Most people think of child prostitutes as eight-year-olds, and there is some of that, but not as much as the media might make you believe. Do you think we could go somewhere and sit down? I’m afraid I’ve had an exhausting few days.”
Gregor waved her toward the living room. She went in and looked around, without seeming to take much in. This was a woman who did not waste time on appearances. “Sit where you like,” Gregor said. “Would you like some coffee?”
He had those coffee bags that worked like tea bags. Bennis had bought them for him so that he could offer coffee to people while she was out, and not be in danger of killing somebody.
“I’d prefer tea, if you have any,” Anne said.
Gregor went into the kitchen and got the Red Rose. Then he put the kettle on to boil and took out two cups with saucers. If Bennis were here, she’d put the whole mess on a tray and bring it in like a maid.
Anne Ross Wyler appeared at the kitchen door. “Why don’t we just sit in here? You won’t mind, will you? I spend all my time at Adelphos House in the kitchen.”
“I won’t mind,” Gregor said. He was actually relieved.
Anne sat down at the kitchen table and looked around. “Very nice. We have a mutual friend, don’t we? Bennis Hannaford.”
“You know Bennis?” The kettle was already whistling. Gregor poured water into cups.
“She knew Tony better than she ever knew me,” Anne said. “I was better acquainted with her sister Anne Marie. That was a mess, wasn’t it? I do manage to read the papers some days. Maybe my problem is that I always read them on the wrong ones.”
Gregor put the cup with the tea in it in front of her place at the table. He put the cup with the coffee in it in front of a chair on the other side. He put down cream and sugar and spoons. He didn’t think Bennis could have asked any more of him, although Lida could have, and would have, if she hadn’t taken over the enter tea ceremony herself.
“Well,” he said. “Why did you come here instead of going to the police? And you do realize I’ll send you to the police, eventually. If you’ve got some information, you have to talk to them, whether you like it or not.”
“Oh, I know. And I do have some information, although possibly not the kind of information they’ve been looking for. One of the things I do, at Adelphos House, is take pictures of the johns.”