Page 105 of 2045 Clementine Lane: Catherine

Seeing that this is going to be a full conversation, Sade sits down at Mani’s desk. “The first time, we wereon patrol in Echo Park and literally drove past a hooker giving a John head on a public park bench.”

“And the next time?”

“It was…” Sade clears her throat, “moreorchestrated.”

“Drug bust?”

“We never actually gathered enough for an arrest. But yeah, she was a potential lead. We needed to bring her in and ask her some questions about her pimp.”

“And your probable cause?”

Sade sighs deeply. “You know how this works, Lieutenant.”

“I do. You found condoms on her person, andlegallythat was reasonable grounds for bringing her in.”

“Yeah,” she admits.

Hearing the defensiveness rising in her tone, I lean forward in my chair. “I’m not passing judgment, Sade. Finding condoms is how we’ve trained you to conduct a search or make an arrest within the bounds of the law.”

“I don’t know where you’re going with this, Flint.”

“Assume you’re a working girl.”

“Okay.”

“You know that the only thing separating being caught with a John and being arrested for solicitation and prostitution or being fined for,” I wave my hand and pick, “disorderly conduct, is having condoms in your purse.”

She sees where I’m going. “I stop carrying condoms.”

“Exactly.”

She’s quiet for a moment. “It’s an impossible situation to police.” When her brown eyes meet mine, I can see the caution in them, so I remain quiet, giving her time. “But you know as well as I do that separating out the working girl from the girl just blowing her boyfriend in a public space for kicks is as easy as sorting the prisonersfrom the camp guards. Working girlslookdifferent. Theybehavedifferently. And, by the way, if I was on patrol and I caught a civilian giving her boyfriend head in a park, I’d still take them both in for public lewdness or disorderly conduct. I don’t want to have to watch that shit. And kids on the street shouldn’t have to either.”

“It’s not the fact that they’re breaking the law that I’m arguing with,” I insist. “I’m just realizing how messed up it is that we’ve taken away their literal protection—against chronic diseases, against unwanted pregnancies. Against being victims of men.”

“Yeah, but you know what the answer is...”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It never is,” she agrees. “But there arechoicesthat have been made by the time a woman ends up there.”

“Yeah.” But I don’t quite have the same conviction I used to. Extending my hand for the papers Sade is carrying, I change the subject. “What have you got?”

“We followed up on Lizzie’s last date.”

“The one she stood up? On June eleventh?

“Yup.”

“And?” I look down at the papers in my hand. There’s a letter from the IRS and another from the social security administration.

“He doesn’t exist.”

“What? I thought Antoinette ran the background search?”

“She did. But all of it was pretty basic. Where he worked, credit, property ownership—that type of thing.”

“But?”

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