“Yes, and it’s worth over twenty thousand dollars according to the jewelers at the mall. I took it to three places to make sure, and the lowest appraisal they gave me was twenty thousand.”

“Could a pimp afford something like that?” Delores asked Mike.

“Depending on how many girls he has in his stable, sure he could afford it. But he probably didn’t buy it from a jeweler and he probably paid a lot less than twenty thousand for it. Chances are it’s stolen property and he bought it from a fence.”

“Is there any way you can tell if it’s stolen?” Michelle asked.

Norman shook his head. “Not according to the jewelers at the mall. I asked about that. Sometimes you can identify stones by the type of setting they’re in and this one is simply embedded in the tooth. And that means there’s no way to identify it from the setting. The only other way anyone can trace the background of a gem is if it has some distinguishing characteristic like an unusual color or cut. All three jewelers agreed that this diamond doesn’t have any distinguishing characteristics.”

“I think he probably stole it,” Delores said. “Either that or one of the girls in his . . . What did you call it, Mike?”

“Stable.”

“Yes, stable. That’s really a denigrating term, isn’t it?”

Hannah nodded. “Yes, it is, Mother. I don’t think pimps really care if their girls have low self-esteem.”

“It probably works in their favor,” Michelle said. “Otherwise, the girls might decide they could do something better with their lives and leave.”

Hannah happened to be watching Mike when Michelle made her comment. The corners of his mouth twitched in laughter, but he didn’t comment.

“They can’t leave, dear,” Delores said, addressing Michelle. “These girls depend on their pimps for their very survival.”

Michelle frowned. “Then what happens when their pimp dies? If we’re right and the dead man was a pimp, what happens to the girls in his stable?”

“They’re up for grabs,” Mike answered. “There’s always another pimp in the wings who’ll take them on.”

“But can’t they run away before that happens?”

“They could if they had somewhere to run and the money or the means to get there. But most of them don’t have that desire. They stay where they are and do what they’ve been doing all along. Most of them are so beaten down by their circumstances that they don’t even think of trying to get out.”

“That’s just sad!” Michelle said.

Mike nodded. “You’re right. It is sad. Life on the street is never easy.”

They were all silent for a moment and then Delores posed another question. “Is it possible that one of the girls in the dead man’s stable stole that diamond from a client?”