As soon as Cindy got to the safe house, things in her life started to change. During this period, she cleans up and gets off drugs. She gets out of “the life” of pimps and ‘ho’s. The change is palpable. Flothe just hopes it will last. Not everyone cleans up forever.
Cindy Paulson
“There was at least one irony about the safe house where Cindy Paulson was staying. It wasn’t that it was a Christian family taking in a prostitute. It wasn’t that Flothe got her to go there only after an escape from a pimp. What was ironic was that this Christian family went to the same church as Darla Hansen.
Under this family’s influence Cindy started to clean up her act. She called her parents and let them know her whereabouts. She stopped wearing the multiple layers of make-up, the eyeliner dark as night and just as thick. She helped make dinner, helped with vacuuming the house and the laundry. She started to become a real person again, at least as far as Flothe was concerned. She was even going to town and shopping with the family.It was during this period that Frank Rothschild met with Cindy to discuss her testimony. Flothe was glad it hadn’t taken place sooner. He could hardly imagine what Rothschild would have thought had he seen her fresh out of the topless club, or at her pimp’s place on Government Hill. But now they had her off the street. She was skookum and ready to testify. This thing might work after all.”
Excerpt From: Walter Gilmour & Leland E. Hale. “Butcher, Baker.”
Skookum is a Chinook Jargon word that has historical use in the Pacific Northwest. It has a range of meanings, commonly associated with an English translation of “strong” or “monstrous”. The word can mean “strong”, “greatest”, “powerful”, “ultimate”, or “brave”. Something can be skookum, meaning “strong” or “monstrously significant”. When used in reference to another person, e.g., “he’s skookum”, it conveys connotations of reliability or a monstrous nature, as well as strength, size or hard-working.
Purchase Butcher, Baker