Page 48 of Home Again

Her lips curled in distaste. “Yes, well, we can’t always choose our relatives, now can we?”

“I take that to mean you’ve met my grandfather,” Sebastian said.

“Yes, I’ve had the displeasure. Is this the reason for your visit?”

“Yes, it is.”

Her hands that had been folded in her lap now moved to clutch the arms of her chair. “Do you have any specific questions?”

“There are a couple of things that I want to know. I don’t think they’re related. First, do you know if there is anything that my grandfather could have been doing that would have gotten him blackmailed?”

Her head tilted. “You mean besides the obvious, that he was paying for sex?” She sighed. “And before you ask. He was never one of my customers. He went for the blonde, blue-eyed girls, but I was hired for some of the parties that he hosted.”

Sebastian gave her an easy smile, attempting to be both encouraging and sympathetic. Before he could ask a question, Gideon did.

“Can you tell us how those parties worked?”

“They were coordinated by Etta Rose. She would call us. She never left a voicemail, never sent a text or an e-mail.” The woman took a small sip of her tea. “I liked the woman, I met her in person twice, I liked her. She was a sharp businesswoman, but also very kind. I never felt pressured.”

Sebastian glanced over at Gideon, then back at Mrs. Lattimer. “How were you approached to work for her?” Sebastian asked.

“It was actually one of my sorority sisters who approached me. At the time it seemed like a miracle, because two weeks prior one of my larger grants had just fallen through.”

“How did your sorority sister know about this? Had you told her?” Gideon asked.

“No, I hadn’t. To this day I wondered how she knew the exact time to talk to me about the escort service. Only my parents knew about me losing the grant money, and how I wouldn’t be able to attend the next semester.”

“We actually think that somebody working with Etta Rose might have had access to financial aid, student loans, and needs-based scholarships and grants records,” Gideon told her.

She took another sip of her tea, then nodded. “That would explain it. Like I said, Etta Rose seemed pretty savvy.” She smiled at Sebastian and Gideon. “What else do you want to know?”

“So you were contacted for your assignments by telephone call? Was it Etta?”

“No, it wasn’t Etta. It was a woman who always said she was calling on behalf of Etta. She never gave me her name. I always knew to pick up the call because the number always showed up as private, and when I star-sixty-nined them to get the number it never worked.”

Sebastian and Gideon grinned.

“Etta’s assistant would tell me the place and time I was to arrive, and who the client was. I always received money transferred into my account upfront. Usually, I worked twice a month.”

“And Lazar?” Sebastian asked.

“I worked two parties for him. They were at a mansion on Highland Road in Baton Rouge, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember anything more than that.”

“That’s just fine,” Gideon assured her. “What can you tell us about the parties?”

“There were probably twelve girls hired for the night, but if I had to guess only three paired off with anyone. Instead, this was all about making the men feel like they were big deals.”

Sebastian frowned, and she must have seen his expression.

“So we all arrived first. We were dressed in cocktail dresses, nothing too slutty. Our job was to, and I quote, act like ladies. There were no servers there, just Etta’s girls and Lazar’s guests. The caterers had left by the time we had arrived, the bar was all set up, so we served the food and drinks and made sure all the men felt high and mighty. It wasn’t a real bed of roses, because there were about twenty of them, and they were all political types who kept having private conversations amongst themselves, so you had to know when it was appropriate to check in with them, and when to stay back. It was quite the balancing act.”

“I bet it got worse as the booze started flowing,” Sebastian sympathized.

“You got that right.”

“Where was Lazar in all of this?” Sebastian asked.

“Oh, he was always in the great room, playing to an audience.”