I CHECKED OUT the place on Duke St. It was the closest to my house, so I walked over there. It was a bust, so I called a cab and went out to the place on the east side of town. It was a unit in an industrial business plaza. The apartments were a bit run down, but no one seemed to mind around here. Most of the other units were storage, or auto mechanics, or woodworking shops. The sign out front of their unit was just the word “Ontario” and a business number. Probably not even theirs. I couldn’t imagine what kind of business these guys would register to give them a patina of legitimacy. Imports, maybe?
There was a glass commercial door set into the front of the unit, but it was papered up on the inside. I tried the door, but it wouldn’t budge, so I walked around the park, looking for something heavy. I was quietly regretting throwing away the rebar from earlier.
I found a two-foot piece of galvanized pipe tossed behind a dumpster and returned to the door. There was no one else around, and no security cameras that I could see. I took a big swing at the door, but the pipe just bounced off with a loud clang. Rather than try again, I waited to see if there was any reaction from the inside.
Sure enough, the door opened, and Reece came out, holding a gun. His nose was bandaged up, and his eye was swollen. I immediately pulled the same trick as I did with the bartender. The gun went clattering into the parking lot and I brought the bar up to his face. I went lightly this time, trying not to kill him, but maybe knock him on his ass. It had the desired effect.
I grabbed him by the shoulders of his shirt and dragged him inside. As I dropped him unceremoniously on the floor, I turned and faced another gun. This time, it was Macey who held a gun on me. This one looked new. A shiny black automatic handgun. I slowly raised my hands.
“Keep your hands up, asshole!” he said, holding the gun square on my chest.
“Okay, okay. You’re in charge, bud.” I looked him up and down. He was terrified: his hand was trembling, and I could tell he was just a hiccup away from accidentally giving me a new hole to breathe through. “Easy does it.”
“What do you want from us? Money?”
I looked at him like he was an idiot. Then I softened my look. I took a deep breath and let it out again. “I just want to know where the girl is.”
“Which one?” he said, laughing.
“There have been others?”
“It’s been a hell of a week.”
“Okay, the most recent one. Molly.”
He fidgeted a little as I took a step closer. He looked like he was about to drop the gun. “We didn’t mean to … I didn’t—”
At that, I lurched forward and grabbed the gun away from him. I turned the gun on him, and he put his hands up. I motioned him over to Reece and had him drag his buddy to a shabby couch on the near wall.
The inside of the unit was drab and bare, lit by a bank of overhead fluorescent bulbs. There was a small thrift store coffee table and the shabby brown couch on one wall of the narrow unit. A big screen LCD television was opposite. There were lab tables a little farther down, scattered with glassware and hotplates. Boxes filled up the remaining space.
After Reece was on the couch, he started coming to. I yanked the power cord off the back of the television and threw it over to Macey. I had him tie Reece up, then I sat down and asked them some questions.
They told me the story. Molly was one of many they’d lured with drugs. Free at first, then more expensive until they could use sex as a payment. They would prostitute them out, then either sell them outright, or discard them when they were no longer useful.
Molly knew of their motives right from the start. She saved up the drugs, rather than take them, and then started evading her dealers—ghosting them outright. They had plans to blackmail her mother with pictures. But when they found her at the club, they got a little reckless with the ketamine, and she vomited, fell over, and never woke up.
They panicked, snuck her into their car and dumped her in an old factory basement near the edge of town. They figured that was the end until I came around.
Macey seemed really upset about what they did. Reece, not so much. To him, she was just another kid they could use and throw away. I asked Macey where this factory was. Reece protested, but I bonked him on the nose to shut him up. I then checked his knots, then tied Macey up as well.
I called Lacroix outside and informed him of my location, including the two suspects, plus drugs and equipment. But the girl wasn’t anywhere nearby. He said he’d be right over and that I should wait for him. I told him I had one more trip to make. Then we could talk.