April said, "Huh?"
Susan said, "I'll go with you, April."
"If I don't like it I don't have to stay, do I?" April said.
"No," I said.
"Okay. I'll talk to this lady," April said.
Chapter 33
It was about two thirty in the morning. April was asleep on my couch. I was showered and aspirined and retaped and lying in bed beside Susan.
"Is this crazy?" I said.
She turned her head on the pillow and looked at me and said, "I think so."
"You think it will work out if she goes home and you try to arrange therapy?"
Her eyes were lovely, dark and deep. "No," Susan said. "I don't think it would."
"So the best we can do is give her a chance to sell her body less often for more money," I said.
Susan was quiet.
"I know how much you care about your job and your profession," I said to her. "The kid doesn't understand, but I know what it took for you to say you'd go visit the madam with her." "I can't put the profession ahead of the people it's supposed to serve," Susan said. "It would be like teachers who care more about education than students."
"Because it's right doesn't make it easy," I said. "I admire you quite a lot."
Susan's eyes were much closer. "You made me what I am today, big boy."
"And I did a hell of a job," I murmured.
Susan rested her head against my chest. I turned the light out with my free hand.
"You think she'll stay with Utley?" Susan murmured.
"Yes," I said.
"You think her parents would really care if they found out?"
"They shouldn't find out," I said. "They'd think they were supposed to care, but in fact, I think, they'd be relieved. We'll work up a story for them."
"You think the Child Study Department would give me extra credit for field work on this one?" Susan said, her voice had that fading liquid quality it got as she was falling asleep.
"I think they would get a sack full of rocks and form a circle about you," I said.
"They might be justified."
"Yeah, but who'd throw the first stone?"
Susan made a snuggling motion with her face and pressed her nose against my chest. I closed my eyes. I could feel the heavy darkness settle.
"Spenser?" Susan's voice was remote now. "Yeah?" "Do you think we're doing the right thing?" "If I knew that," I said, and my own voice was far away, "I could throw the first stone."
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