“I want to help in whatever way I can,” she said yet again, struggling to sit up straight when McFadden reappeared. “I’m so sorry I didn’t report her right away. But she just told me about this the other night.”

Over the course of the evening, Paulette had recounted her history with Georgina. They’d met three years ago when they were both waitresses at a diner outside Atlanta and had gotten friendly during their cigarette breaks. They’d started hanging out at bars and often went shopping together. One day when they were driving home from the mall, Georgina pulled a blouse out of her oversized purse that she had stolen from one of the stores. Paulette couldn’t believe it. Georgina convinced her it was easy, she had to try it herself, and when Paulette was successful at her first attempt, it became a game for them. But when Georgina had several days off in a row, she’d get in her car and go away alone. She’d told Paulette that she was so used to being a loner, there were times when she needed to be by herself. Two nights ago, after a day of heavy shoplifting, and an evening of even heavier drinking, Paulette and Georgina were in Georgina’s apartment admiring all their loot. It was then that Georgina excitedly told Paulette what she did on those trips.

“When she showed me the brand she used to burn the guys’ skin, I felt sick,” Paulette had said.

“You knew she was going on another trip but you didn’t report her until we tracked you down today on the shoplifting charges,” McFadden responded.

“I wanted to! And I would have. But I was so scared. I’ve been a wreck since Saturday night. I’ve barely slept. How can I call the police when Georgina’s got all these clothes we stole in her apartment, some with the security tags still on them?” Paulette paused to catch her breath. “She had this new job. She was so surprised that they hired her because she’d lied so much on her application and résumé. She told me she didn’t have any business experience so she had to make up places she’d supposedly worked at before. Her new company must not have checked out any of it. Anyway, since it was a business trip I was hoping she’d be with the people from her company and wouldn’t do anything bad. But she can be so unpredictable. Sometimes she was so much fun and would be laughing really hard and other times she got really scary and mean. I couldn’t even be sure what she told me about the guys was true, because she can be such a liar, and I had no proof, but now that they’ve found the pictures, I don’t know why she didn’t show them to me.”

“They’ve found pictures, and the young man she is with is in terrible danger.”

“I know,” Paulette whimpered. “It’s my fault. I should have called the police. I knew I’d end up in big trouble, but I was even more scared of Georgina getting revenge. I don’t care about that anymore.” She put her hands up to her face as if to protect herself from pain. “I was also afraid because I’d told her about things that had happened in my life that were very personal. Things that I would never want anyone else to know. You take a big risk when you confide your secrets to people.”