Free Dead Even by Mariah Stewart

involved in conversations with the people in town. And that you are not to call attention to yourself or to the girl in any way.”
    “Certainly not,” Genna responded defensively.
    “People in Linden are naturally curious about the Valley of the Angels.” He softened slightly at her obvious offense. “And there are those who cannot accept that what we do here, what we do for these girls, we do from love, with only their best interests at heart. There are those who are suspicious of our motives, those who would take the girls away from here, but what would happen to them then? They’d simply run away again, just like they did from their own homes, their own families. The last thing I want is for any of these girls to be exploited by someone on the outside. A careless word—”
    She held up her hand. “Please. I understand. And I assure you that the girls’ best interests are my own. We’ll be very discreet. We’ll simply have our little treat, and we’ll be back before the dinner bell rings.”
    “Then go ahead, Miss Ruth.” He watched her gather her wrap around her. “Any idea about who might be the first lucky little girl?”
    “I think perhaps Eileen.” Genna smiled. “She wrote a very lovely paper on submission.”
    He nodded approvingly. “Excellent. I’d like to read it.”
    “I’ll have it brought right over.”
    She’d left his office with her heart pounding, her stomach roiling. He was a disgusting excuse for a human being. He rescued girls off the streets only to clean them up—no one wanted a girl who looked like a junkie or a prostitute—to be sold into slavery, trading one form of hell for another.
    And yet, how clever, preying on girls who don’t want to be found, and dealing only with men who’d been investigated as carefully as modern technology would allow. Prescott’s finances, so far, had withstood scrutiny, since his fund-raising efforts were so successful. Who could refuse a man who showed the before-and-after photos of the young girls he’d rescued from the streets? Besides raking in money from the sale of the girls, he brought in thousands each week in donations.
    But once the first hints of the girls’ eventual fates had begun to leak out, the FBI had looked for a way to get inside and determine if the Valley of the Angels was in fact a front for trafficking children. Genna had demanded the assignment, and even her reluctant husband could not deny that she was the best qualified for the job. As a long-time friend of Anne Marie McCall, finding Julianne Douglas living within the compound walls had been a huge bonus for Genna personally.
    No one had spoken of the girls who had disappeared in the night, except to say that they’d been chosen to do the reverend’s work. That none of the other adults in the compound seemed to question this seemed absurd to Genna, but then, if they’re all involved in this together, perhaps not. . . .
    Well, it was her job to find out all she could about who was involved and where the girls were disappearing to. She still had to determine exactly what role Jules Douglas played here. She’d confirmed that he was there, had even seen him several times, though she’d not recognized him at first. These days, he sported a beard and slightly longer hair than he’d had in the old photographs Annie had produced, and he’d walked with a swagger she hadn’t expected. He seemed more arrogant, more aggressive than she’d imagined, and physically, he was taller, stronger, a far more imposing figure than she thought he’d be. Somehow, she’d expected a man who was quiet, reserved. The man she met at the compound was anything but. The Jules she met in the Valley of the Angels was nothing short of intimidating.
    If she could prove that he was actively involved in laundering the money, and that he knew where that money was coming from, she could make yet another case for a long prison term for Mara’s ex-husband. After all he’d put Mara and Annie