“Well, he hasn’t broken it off with Valerie yet. Meaning even if I could find a way to talk to her, she’d clam up. Now you’re telling me Scoggins won’t cooperate. I’m stuck.”

“Beth said a girl named Miranda was her successor. Anything like that on the foster list?”

“I’ll check tomorrow,” he said. “So, Allison’s not impressed by the magnitude of this asshole’s offenses?”

“Allison’s got to think about Beth Scoggins’s mental health in the short run,” I said. “Also, right now, I don’t hold much sway.”

“Why not?”

“She saw me in another light and didn’t like it.”

“What light’s that?”

“Deceptive.”

“A woman who still thinks men don’t lie?” he said. “Thought she dug all the police stuff.”

“Until it got too close,” I said.

“You really think it’s useless to talk to her again? Maybe in a coupla days?”

“I’ll play it by ear. Eventually, Beth might decide to go public. Right now Allison feels it would be too much to handle.”

“Eventually Daney’s gonna knock up more girls.”

I didn’t answer.

He said, “Fine. Anyway, after Daney drove away, Demchuk stayed outside and lit up a cigarette. White coat and she’s puffing away. I decided to take the risk, walked up on her in the dark, flashed the badge, scared the hell out of her, she drops her smoke, gets ashes all over the coat. But she recovered pretty fast, got cagey, told me she had nothing to say, headed back inside. I followed her and she yapped about civil liberties and made empty threats and I postured right back and eventually we ended up finding some common ground. Because she doesn’t care for Daney either. Says he’s a greedy fellow.”

“He gets a kickback? She admitted that?”

“She claims nyet, that was never part of the plan, it was just a mutually convenient situation. It started when she put his name on the advisory committee at Sydney Weider’s request. Something about Weider wanting him to have credibility for a movie deal. Soon after that, he started bringing her girls.”

“Demchuk ever suspect he was more than a concerned foster parent?”

“She denied it, but come on, all those abortions?”

“All?”

“The agreement we came to was that when I busted Daney I’d do my best to keep Demchuk’s name out of it. In return, she had to document every Daney ward whose pregnancy she’s terminated and be forthcoming with other information as requested. She had it right there in the computer and printed it out for me. Nine girls in eight years.”

“My God,” I said.

“Like you said, Drew’s underage harem. This guy’s beyond bad news.”