“Cherish is mad at him. What if she went to yell at him?”

“He’s okay,” she said. “He goes places.”

“Like where?”

“Places.”

“What kinds of places?”

“Nonprofits.”

“He takes you to nonprofits.”

Silence.

I said, “You help him and the other girls are jealous.”

“Bitches.”

“He trusts you.”

“I get it.”

“Get what?”

Silence.

“You get it so you help him,” I said.

“Uh-huh.”

“What do you get?”

Long silence.

“Valerie? What do you— ”

“Love.”

“You understand love.”

“He prolly went to a church,” she said. “I don’t know the names. I want to shower— ”

“A church.”

Silence.

“Valerie, I know these questions are a pain, but they’re important. Did Cherish get mad at Drew a lot?”

“Sometimes.”

“About what?”

“Not making money.” She let go of the hair, held up a fist, and glanced at the main house.

“She felt he didn’t make enough money.”

“Yeah.”

“For what?”

“She wanted a trip to Vegas.”

“She told you that?”

Silence.

“Drew told you.”

Back to hair-twisting.

“Drew told you Cherish wanted to go to Vegas.”

Shrug.

I said, “Sounds like he talked to you about everything.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Did he want money?”

She faced me. “No way. He was for the soul.”

“The soul?”

“God’s work,” she said, touching a breast. “He got chosen.”

“And Cherish?”

“She did it for the money, but tough shit, he won’t give it to her.”

“Drew has money he won’t give her?”

A smile spread across her lips.

I said, “Secret money.”

She shut her eyes.

“Valerie?”

“I got to take a shower.”

* * *

She clamped her arms across her chest, kept her eyes shut, and when I spoke she hummed. We’d been sitting in silence for several minutes when Milo came out of the cube with Crandall Wascomb. He glanced at me while walking. Escorted the old man out.

He returned with uplifted eyebrows. “Everything okay?”

“Valerie’s been helpful but she and I are finished for now.”

Movement under the girl’s eyelids.

Milo said, “Helpful?”

“Valerie says Drew has money Cherish doesn’t know about.”

Valerie’s eyes opened. “It’s his. You can’t have it.”

“Never heard of finders keepers?” said Milo.

She didn’t reply. Clamped her eyes shut.

Noise from the front of the property opened them.

A uniformed officer came through the gate.

Milo said, “Now it gets noisy.”

* * *

The Van Nuys patrol officer was followed by his partner, then six members of the newly formed downtown crimes-against-juveniles squad arrived wearing dark blue LAPD windbreakers. Five female detectives, one man, each of them bright-eyed and hyped, ready to arrest someone. Shortly after, a Van Nuys sex crimes detective named Sam Crawford showed up looking put-upon. He conferred with the head juvey cop and left.