“Allison’s protecting her.”

“Maybe you could— ”

“I can’t.”

Silence. “Okay.”

I said, “How’d you get onto Demchuk?”

“The more I thought about that clinic the worse it started to stink. Daney gets minors aborted there, the bills are probably padded, and he’s listed on the board with a fake divinity degree. I ran the same search you did, found out who the boss was and that she was brought up on fraud charges. I did a little more background, learned she’s Ukrainian, had to take the licensing exam three times before she passed. So now I’m figuring some Russian scam and I call a guy I know at the medical board. From what I can tell, abortion’s always been Demchuk’s thing, she started doing it the minute she got licensed. First at other clinics, also run by Ukrainians, then she started her own place nine years ago.”

“Women’s Wellness.”

“The main wellness is hers,” he said. “It’s strictly Medi-Cal, she’s into high volume, rakes it in.”

“She claims to be nonprofit. All those fund-raisers.”

“What that means is Demchuk filed as a nonprofit and lists herself as an employee. She takes a huge salary, and the clinic never makes it into the black. What got her in trouble six years ago was sloppy record-keeping that led to some duplicate billing. She claimed clerical error, ignorance of what her staff was doing, got a sixty-day suspension of Medi-Cal billing privileges.”

“Slap on the wrist,” I said. “The right friends?”

“Her husband’s a big-time immigration lawyer, contributes to politicians.”

“Hence the fund-raisers.”

“Hence. I dropped in on her an hour ago. She’s pulling seven figures but the décor’s plain-wrap.”

“That probably tugs at contributors’ heartstrings,” I said. “You found her working late?”

“The lights were on and Demchuk’s Mercedes was the only vehicle in the parking lot. I woulda kept going except I noticed another vehicle parked up the block. White Jeep.”

“Daney was there?”

“Extremely there. Chilling in the front seat, eating something, and from the way his head was moving, listening to music. I circled around and positioned myself half a block down. Twenty minutes later Demchuk comes out with a girl who’s walking kind of shaky. Daney gets out of the Jeep, puts his arm around the kid, guides her in, and they drive away. I recognized her. The girl Cherish was trying to teach math.”

“Valerie Quezada. Sixteen years old with A.D.D.”

“Obviously he likes them young and vulnerable. The thing is, her body language said she liked him, too. Putting her head on his shoulder. Before she got in the Jeep, she kissed his hand. And this is right after she’s had an abortion.”

“Beth Scoggins said his manner was gentle, solicitous, flattering. Until she got pregnant, then he got stern and broke it off with her.”