‘Not when we go to the sexual crimes squad of the LAPD with Amber and get her to tell them her story … as you should have done the moment you picked her up at the mall.’

‘But the first thing she told me – after letting me know that she’d been Kelleher’s sex slave since she was fourteen – is that she was not giving birth to this baby made in captivity. If I’d gone to the cops –’

‘I know why you decided to do what you did – which was, first and foremost, to get this young woman to a safe place. The fact still remains: she is a minor. And –’

‘Stop fucking repeating yourself.’

‘I respect the work you are doing,’ Elise said. ‘I am more than impressed by your willingness to live dangerously for Amber … though you’ve certainly terrified your father with all this daredevil stuff.’

‘It’s not daredevil work,’ she said, ‘it’s crucial work.’

‘It can still get you killed,’ I said.

‘I’m like an alley cat,’ Klara said. ‘Nine lives.’

‘You know that’s nonsense,’ Elise said. ‘If anything were to happen to you it would destroy your father’s life.’

‘I think my poppa can talk for himself.’

‘Then listen to me’ I said. ‘You now have one of the most powerful men in Los Angeles pissed off at you. Which is serious shit. Look at what happened to that poor security guard who called you when Amber ran into her. Has she been seen since?’

Klara shook her head, looking more than anxious. Then:

‘As soon as she’s had the abortion I’ll go to the cops and have Kelleher put away forever.’