Chapter 28 Emily #2
“You,” June Jones barked. “I need to talk to you.”
From her usual spot at the isolated breakfast table with Annie, Emily’s brow furrowed. June loomed over her, mouth pinched so tight it looked as though she was struggling not to scream aloud.
“Uh,” Emily said, wondering what on earth she could have done to aggravate the madam this time. “Sure. All right.” She gestured for June to sit beside her, but June shook her head.
“In private,” she said, glancing at Annie, who looked exasperated.
“I’ll be right back,” Emily told her, rising.
“Emily!” Annie protested. “Why do you keep—”
“I won’t be long,” Emily promised. She hated the way Annie looked at her as she followed June out of the dining hall, as though she were being led off to the brothel.
Emily followed June past the matrons—who didn’t stop them, Emily noticed—into the currently empty Classroom 2, and June shut the heavy metal door behind them, sealing out the ambient noise from the dining hall and corridors before looking at Emily square on.
“Do you pay off the matrons, too?” Emily asked, only barely sarcastic.
June ignored the comment and exhaled, infusing Emily’s lungs with the stale stench of cigarettes. They were contraband, but somehow it didn’t surprise her that June had managed to get herself excused from rules the rest of the inmates were bound to.
“Stone’s no use to me anymore,” June said baldly. “So I’ve decided it’s time to help you with your story.”
Emily’s heart leapt. She’d been expecting some sort of reprimand or threat, not this. “Are you serious? Why? What’s changed?”
June chewed her upper lip and was silent for a moment, regarding Emily.
“I was paying her to leave my girls alone, like you said,” she admitted.
“The two that came in here with me are promising, the men like ’em a lot.
I got to keep ’em clean. And that racket Stone’s got going on…
” She paused. “Anyway, she named a price and I paid it and now she’s gone and doubled it, the bitch.
I can’t pay it, and I’m not one for a shakedown, either way.
Doesn’t sit well with me, you know what I mean? ”
Emily nodded. She’d never been extorted, but could imagine how a woman like June would react to it. She paused, then decided to squeeze more information out of the crack that had just appeared in June’s armour. “What happened between you?” she asked. “Why the change in your arrangement?”
June let out something like a growl. “Nothing to do with me. She just needs more money. Trying to fix all her brother’s bullshit, the fool.”
“What…bullshit?” Emily pressed, the unfamiliar curse awkward in her mouth.
“Oh Christ,” June swore. “See? That didn’t kill you, did it?
” She laughed, shoved Emily playfully in the shoulder.
“Anyway, Stone’s brother’s a drunken louse, gambles away the family’s money—including her inheritance—even comes into my place every so often.
She’s been trying to keep the collectors at bay for years, so she’s been taking these kickbacks from the drug companies for testing their medicines on the girls here.
That’s why she was so easy to bribe. Needs the cash. I told you, it’s all about the money.”
Emily was reeling. “But—how did you find this out?”
June scoffed. “God, you got a lot to learn, kid. You gotta get out there more, understand how things work. How people work. You want to get the real measure of a woman, get her drunk on cheap wine and she’ll spill her guts like roadkill.”
Emily blanched at the imagery.
“Oh don’t look so shocked. Anyway, Stone’s adamant on her price, thinks she can get away with it because she doesn’t know I’ve got you up my sleeve.
” Her lips twisted, smug but hostile. Emily had known June Jones was not a woman to cross, but seeing her ire on display was still disquieting.
“And the truth is, Stone is a nut. A psycho. Belongs in there with the Blues. So maybe your way is the only way to make this all stop.” She searched Emily’s face.
“So what do you need? I can back you up about her taking my bribes to keep my girls out of the trial. But I’m done with her. She’s got to go down.”
The bell rang shrilly on the wall above their heads, and Emily startled. June didn’t.
“The problem is, I’m going to need more than your word on the kickbacks,” Emily said. “The bribery is one thing, but that will still be your word against hers, I’m afraid.” The word of a brothel madam.
June opened her mouth to protest, but Emily cut across her.
“I need actual evidence of the kickbacks for this to stick. There must be some kind of paper trail in her office. Patient files, something. I need to get in there to find it.” Her pulse was racing.
“I approached Eliza about this, told her who I really am.” June’s eyebrows popped.
“She’s a thief, a repeat offender. I’m sure she could be of great use if she were willing, but she’s not. ”
“Why not?”
“She claims this place is better than her home, and from what she’s told me, she may be right,” Emily said with defeat. “She wants to stay in here as long as possible.”
“Well, we gotta offer her something better, then. An incentive.”
For a woman with no education, Emily was continually impressed by June’s vocabulary and cleverness. She was evidently intelligent.
“I tried,” Emily said. “I told her she could come stay with me for a while.”
June frowned. “Mmm. Didn’t work, did it?”
“No.”
“That’s because you don’t know that girl.”
Emily was stung. “I’ve been her friend since—”
“But I think I might,” June continued. “I’ve got an idea. Meet me in the recreation room after supper.”
And before Emily could respond, June swept out into the hall.