“Why’d you tell us Ginny Jones was missing?” Kimberly asked the girl. “If we’re not supposed to know that name, why bring it to our attention?”

Delilah/Ginny wouldn’t look at Kimberly. She was staring down at her lap, twisting the hem of her jacket over and over again.

“I’m the only one left alive,” she whispered. “One by one, bit by bit…” Her head finally came up. “I wasn’t lying before. I do want better for my baby. I want this…I need this to end. I thought, if I could just get someone to pay attention. To care about us. I’m just so tired.”

“What is this?” Sal pressed gently. “Start at the beginning, Delilah. Tell us what happened, and maybe we can help.”

“It’s my fault,” the girl rambled. “He pulled over. I accepted the ride. I had no idea. Some guys get violent, you know. Gotta slap a girl around to get their rocks off. But this guy…He doesn’t want to hit a girl. He wants to own her. Destroy her. And then he kills her. That’s what makes him happy. Breaking you.”

Sal and Kimberly exchanged glances. Sal got his mini-recorder going. Kimberly took the lead.

“When did you accept his ride?”

“Lifetime ago,” Delilah replied dully.

“Winter, spring, summer, fall?”

“Winter. February. My mom had locked me out, least I thought so, and I was cold. He appeared in his fancy SUV. I thought I’d gotten lucky.”

“What year, Delilah?”

The girl frowned, seemed to have to think about it. “Long time. One, two…two years ago. Before graduation. I was going to go to beauty school. Everyone thought I was a loser, but I had plans. I was gonna be a hairstylist.”

“So it’s February 2006,” Kimberly supplied. “It’s late at night…”

“After eleven.”

“You’re…”

“Couple blocks from my house. Walking. On the main road, you know.”

“Your mother locked you out?”

The girl’s lips twisted. “I was with Tommy. Missed curfew. The jackass.” Her mouth trembled, she looked as if she was going to cry again, but caught herself, pulled it together. “Mom said if I messed up again, she was gonna teach me a lesson. I got home, things were locked up tight. I thought she’d finally gone and done it. So I hit the road.”

“So you’re walking, it’s cold, and a vehicle appears. What kind of vehicle?”

“I already told you. A black Toyota FourRunner with silver trim. Limited Edition.”

“And the driver?”

“Dinchara, like I said. Red hat, Eddie Bauer clothes, fancy SUV. Why does everyone assume that just because I’m a hooker, I can’t tell the truth?”

Kimberly decided to ignore for a moment that, in fact, Ginny had lied several times. “So you first met him two years ago?”

“Yeah.”

“When he picked you up.”

“Yeah.”

“What happened next, Ginny?”

The girl’s eyes glazed over. She shivered, looking at pictures only she could see. “He played a tape.”

“A tape?”

“Yeah, in his car. It was a recording…of my mom, dying. He made me listen to it again and again. Her screaming and screaming and screaming. And giving him my name. Goddamn bitch. Right up until the bitter end, she couldn’t do nothin’ right. Goddamn, pathetic, miserable, sorry bitch.”

Ginny sniffled, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand. She curved her other hand around her belly, rubbing her thumb absently over her unborn child. Making silent promises to her baby? Wondering if she could do any better than her own mother had?

“What happened to your mother, Ginny?”

The girl frowned at Kimberly. “He killed her, I told you that.”

“Did you see anything? Where he did it? What about her body?”

“No, I just heard the tape. Trust me, that was enough.”

“And then?”

“Then he smiled. He said, ‘Your turn’s next.’ He said, ‘Welcome to the collection.’”

“What’d you do, Ginny?”

“I bargained, that’s what I did,” the girl said hotly. “I talked my sorry ass off. Promised him the best goddamn blow job of his life. But that made him laugh. ‘ ’Course you’re gonna do that, Ginny,’ he said. ‘You’re gonna make all my dreams come true. Then I’m gonna carve your skin from your scrawny white neck and feed you to my pets.’

“He brought out this knife like I’d never seen before. Long and thin and silver. A filleting knife he called it. And then, God help, I did do everything he asked of me, while he sliced up my arms and legs, all these bloody little cuts all over the place that hurt. Damn, they hurt. Then he pulled out a jar.

“Inside was a long-legged black spider with bright red markings. ‘Black widow,’ he told me. ‘Venom is fifteen times more powerful than rattlesnake venom. Bite itself doesn’t hurt. In fact, some people don’t feel a thing. At first. Then you get this sharp pain in your belly, I’m talking solid, double-you-right-over stomach cramps. And you start to sweat at the same time your mouth goes completely dry. Your eyes swell shut. The soles of your feet start to burn, your muscles catch on fire.’

“‘You spend days in agony. Hunched over, convulsing, vomiting, praying for death. There is an antivenin, but that’s assuming I have a change of heart and take you to the hospital, and what are the odds of that?’ He grinned at me. ‘Normally, the female black widow indulges her violent instincts by eating her mate. But I’ve discovered that the smell of blood gets her quite excited. Why don’t we find out?’

“He started unscrewing the cap and I…I begged. I’d do anything he wanted. Anything at all. And then I realized, I was dead. Because my mother had said all those same things and look at what he’d done to her.

“Just as he removed the cap, it came to me. Begging was what turned him on. More I screamed, more I sealed my fate. So I shut up. And when that black widow came creeping out the jar one leg at a time, I took her right into my palm and let her sit. I talked to her. I thought of her as a pet and you know what…It worked. She crawled up my arms and touched my lips with her legs. She was gentle, you know. Almost curious.”

Ginny touched her mouth with her own fingers as if in memory.

“Then, real coolly, I lifted her off and replaced her back in her jar. And I looked the man in the eye and I said, ‘She’s beautiful. Show me another.’

“He flipped me on my back and fucked the living daylights out of me. So goddamn hard I thought he’d break my ribs. Then, when he was done, he sat back in the driver’s seat, lit up a cigarette, and I knew I’d survive. I just had to learn to really like spiders.

“We struck a deal. I’d hook for a living. He’d take fifty percent of the money. I’d keep my mouth shut. He’d let me live.” Ginny’s mouth twisted in a sour smile. “And that’s how it’s been. Once a month, he shows up. Quick fuck, pay up, and we’re done for another month.”

“He’s your pimp?” Kimberly asked incredulously.

Ginny gave her a look. “Pimps provide protection services. Dinchara doesn’t protect. Some guy beats the shit out of me, stiffs me on the money, what does Dinchara care? He’s more like an enforcer, shaking me down once a month. So that no matter how hard I work, I’ll never get ahead. No matter what I do, I’ll never escape. He kept his first promise, right? I’m a specimen in his collection. My terrarium is a little larger than most, but it’s a cage just the same, and he and I both know I’m not getting out.”

“Anyone ever witness one of these transactions? You paying him?” Sal wanted to know.

“’Course not! He’s not an idiot.”

“Anyone see the two of you together?”

Ginny shrugged. “He comes into the clubs, that’s how he finds me. Just like any customer. People have seen him, but I doubt too many have seen him, if you know what I mean.”

“He have other girls?” Kimberly asked evenly.

Ginny hesitated, her gaze averted again. “I’m not sure.”

“Not sure, or won’t tell? Come on, Ginny. We’ve come this far. In for a penny, in for a pound.”

“Hey, remember the terms of the deal. Living means keeping your mouth shut.”