He called the number, and was surprised when she answered.

“Hello?”

“Sarah Manning?”

“Yes, who is this, please?”

She sounded breathy, as if she was in a hurry. It occurred to him she might not know that Ana Markovic had been murdered, but she did, and didn’t seem particularly upset.

Cole said, “I’d like to sit down with you for a few minutes, Sarah. I have some questions about Ana.”

“I don’t know. I’m at school.”

“East Valley High?”

“Cal State Northridge. High school was two years ago.”

“Sorry. This won’t take long, but it’s important. I understand you were close with her.”

“Did they catch the people who did it?”

“Not yet. That’s why I need your help.”

She was slow to answer, as if she had to think about it.

“Well, okay, like what?”

“In person is better.”

“I’m really busy.”

Cole studied the picture of Ana and Sarah in the flapper outfits. Cole didn’t want to ask about prostitute sisters and Serbian mobsters over the phone, especially since these things might turn out to be lies.

“It’s important, Sarah. You’re on campus? I can be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Well, I guess so. I’ll have to cut class.”

Like it was the end of the world.

Sarah described a coffee shop on Reseda Boulevard not far from campus, and told him she would meet him in twenty minutes. Cole hung up before she could change her mind.

Twenty-two minutes later, he found her seated at an outside table. She was wearing pale blue shorts, a white T-shirt, and sandals. Her hair was shorter than in the high school picture, but otherwise she looked the same.

“Sarah?”

Cole gave her his best smile and offered his hand. She took it, but was clearly uncomfortable. He nodded toward the deli.

“Would you like something?”

“This is just weird, that’s all. I don’t know what I can tell you.”

“Well, let’s see where the answers take us. When was the last time you spoke with her?”

She thought for a moment, then shook her head.

“A year. Maybe more than a year. We kinda drifted apart.”

“But you were close in high school?”

“Since seventh grade. We all came from different elementaries. We were the three musketeers.”

Cole flashed on the picture of the three girls on the soccer field.

“Who was the third?”

“Lisa Topping. I thought about Lisa while I was waiting. You should talk to Lisa. They stayed in touch.”

“Black hair, purple highlights?”

Sarah cocked her head, and seemed engaged for the first time.

“Yeah. How’d you know?”

“Ana had a picture of the three of you in her room. She had a picture of you and her dressed like flappers, too. That’s how I found your name.”

Sarah stared at him for a moment, then looked away. She blinked several times, and her eyes grew pink.

Cole said, “You sure I can’t get you something? Water?”

She shook her head, glancing away as if eye contact was painful.

“No, I’m just-I don’t know-”

She suddenly reached into her purse and came out with her cell phone. She punched in a number, then held the phone to her ear. Voice mail.

“Hey, honey, it’s me. There’s this guy here, his name’s Elvis Cole and I guess he’s working with the police or something, he wants to know about Ana. Call him, okay-”

She covered her phone.

“What’s your number?”

Cole told her, and she repeated it. Then she put away her phone.

“She’ll call. It’s her you should talk to.”

“Purple hair.”

“Not anymore, but yeah. She goes to school in New York, but they stayed in touch.”

She seemed sad when she said it, and Cole wondered why.

“Great. I will. But you’re here, and you’ve known her since the seventh grade, too, so I’ll bet you can help. My understanding is she lived with her sister. Is that right?”

Sarah nodded, but stared at the street.

“That’s right. Her parents were dead. They died when she was little. Back in Serbia.”

“Uh-huh. And what was her sister’s name?”

Cole made as if he was poised to take notes. He had two objectives. He wanted to see if Rina’s story checked out, and, if so, he was hoping to learn something that might help find Darko.

Sarah said, “Rina. I think her full name was Karina, with a K, but we called her Rina.”

So far so good.

“You knew the sister?”

“Well, yeah. They lived together. Kinda.”

“What’s the ’kinda’ mean?”

Sarah suddenly shifted, and grew irritated.

“Dude, I’m not an idiot. I know you know. Rina was a prostitute. That’s how she paid the rent.”

Cole put down his pen.

“Did everyone know?”

“Ohmigod, no. Just me and Lisa, and we had to swear. Rina didn’t want anyone to know. She didn’t even want Ana to know, and Ana only told us because she had to tell someone. It was demented.”

“Her sister being a prostitute.”

“Yes! I mean, we were kids. We thought it was cool, like this glammy, sexy Hollywood thing. But it was creepy. After a while when you thought about it, it was just gross.”

She wet her lips and looked away again, and Cole sensed this was probably why they had grown apart.

“Did Rina see clients at home while Ana was there? Is that what you mean?”

“No, nothing like that. She would go away for a few days. I guess she worked at one of those places. She would go away for a few days, and then she would come back.”

Sarah made an exaggerated shiver.

“Yuck.”

Cole wondered how many people knew, and how far word had spread.

“Did you and Lisa tell anyone?”

Sarah glanced away again, and it took her a while to answer.

“We wouldn’t do that to her. She was our friend.”

“You ever hear them mention the name Michael Darko?”

“I don’t know. Who’s Michael Darko?”

“How about where she worked, or who she worked for? You remember anything like that?”

“Nothing to remember. Rina wouldn’t tell her anything about that part of her life. She absolutely refused to discuss it. Forget about us. She didn’t even know we knew. She wouldn’t tell Ana. It was like an open secret they had. Ana knew, but they didn’t talk about it.”

“How did Ana know if Rina wouldn’t talk about it?”

“Rina got arrested. Ana always thought Rina was a waitress or something until this time Rina called her from jail. Ana got really scared. That wasn’t until, like, ninth grade. I wanted to tell my mom and dad, but Ana totally freaked out. She made me swear. She said she’d never speak to me again if I told. So she came over and stayed with me for a couple of days like nothing was wrong-just like a regular sleepover. That’s how we explained it. Then she stayed with Lisa. She was really scared, ’cause she didn’t know what was going to happen, like, what if Rina went to prison? What would she do?”

Cole counted backward to ninth grade, and compared it with Rina’s arrest record. The year matched with the date of her first arrest.

Cole sighed. Ninth grade meant she would have been fourteen. A fourteen-year-old girl home alone, not knowing whether her only family and sole support was ever coming back. She would have been terrified.

“And nobody knew? Just you and Lisa.”

Sarah glanced away again, nodding.

“What about the other Serbian kids? Who were her Serbian friends?”

“She didn’t have any. Rina wouldn’t let her. Rina wouldn’t even tell her about the people they left behind.”

“So all she had was you.”

Sarah nodded again, looking lonely and lost.

Cole tried to read her, and thought he understood what she was feeling, both then and now.

He said, “Hey.”

She glanced over, then quickly away.

“Sounds like Rina was trying to protect her. I think you were trying to protect her, too.”

She didn’t look at him, but he could see her pink eyes fill.

“I should’ve told someone. We should have told.”

“You didn’t know, Sarah. None of us ever know. We just try to do our best.”