|
|
|
Alexander was enjoying a cup of black coffee on the far end of his deck when May topped the steps.
“Good morning, Alex.” She was slightly out of breath and sweating profusely.
“Good morning. Good run?”
“Yes, over an hour. I think I’m still running off the hamburger Bat made last week.”
“He does like to make big burgers. I don’t think he’s lost near as much weight as you have.”
“No, if he makes it to the beach at all, he just walks. He was with me every day at first, now he says he’s working, too much to do. I know he’s just lazy. He is so cute.” May smiled and disappeared into the house.
“So cute?” Alexander laughed aloud. He’d heard Bat called many things, but never ‘so cute’.
Alexander went inside, refilled his coffee, sat on the couch, and turned on his computer. He checked his phone and found one new voicemail. He listened to the message. When it ended, he pressed play again. The second listen left him dumbfounded.
He checked and found three messages from the same number. “I’ll be damned.”
Alexander sent a text to Bat: You have to hear this.
What?
Come over ASAP.
Okay
Bat arrived a few minutes later, more out of breath than May was after her hour run. “What is it?” he asked between deep breaths.
“Listen to this.”
Alexander played the voicemail.
“Son of a bitch,” Bat said after the recording ended. “Is that a practical joke? Did you have someone I don’t know call and leave that message? The truth.”
“No, of course not. Look at me. I get goosebumps every time I listen to it. I’ve got a couple of texts too. It looks like one is the link he mentioned, and the other is an ID and password. I want you to handle it. I don’t want to muck it up.”
“Forward me the messages. I’ll install the app now.”
“Forward a text? I’m not sure I know how.”
“Seriously? How long have you had a phone? Give it to me.” Bat took the phone and opened the message from Reymundo. “You hold your finger on the message like this, a menu will pop up. Press ‘Forward’ then ‘Send’.” He handed the phone back to Alexander. “Try it with the other one.”
Alexander went through the steps to forward the second message. “Sent,” he said. “It’s easy once you know how.”
“The app is installing. Look, I’m going home so I can install the app on my laptop too. It will be easier to navigate. Phones are great, but some of the apps are a pain in the ass on a phone and simple as hell on a computer. Where’s May?”
“In her room. She just got back from a run. I think she’s in the shower. Why?”
“Don’t tell her about this. It could be another dead-end. Give me a while to see what I can find. If it looks promising, we’ll tell her later.”
“Good idea,” Alexander said. “Hey?”
Bat was almost out the door. “Yeah?”
“You shaved.”
“I did.” Bat closed the door behind him.
Alexander leaned back in his chair wondering what had prompted Bat’s new look. He looked at the closed door to May’s room. “Yep. I bet she had something to do with it.”
Alexander refilled his coffee cup, more out of restlessness than anything else. The location of the girls was in the palm of his hand – or the palm of Bat’s hand. The wait was killing him. He looked at his watch. It had been only fifteen minutes since Bat had left.
May came out of her room wearing terry knit drawstring shorts, possibly the same ones she wore a few days earlier, with a large Margaritaville T-shirt.
“Where is Margaritaville?” she asked Alexander.
“What? Oh, uh, it’s a fictional place based on a song. More of a state of mind than a place.”
“How do you mean?”
“It’s a song. ‘Margaritaville’.”
“Oh. Okay. But why is it on the T-shirt?”
“It represents drinking, partying, and having fun. It’s a play on the Margarita.”
“I’ve heard of the Margarita. I’ve never had one. Are they good?”
“It’s a sweet drink. If made right, yes, they’re good. If not, or made with cheap tequila, they can be bad. Like any drink, I suppose.”
“Are you okay, Alex?”
“Yes, why do you ask?”
“I don’t know. You seem, uh, distant.”
“I’m sorry. I’m feeling a little helpless right now. You’ve been here for six weeks, and I’m still no closer to finding your sister than I was when I found you.”
“Yes, you are. You’ve got a phone number. That will help. I know it.”
“I feel good about it too. Right now, it’s a waiting game.” Alexander wanted to tell May about the phone message but believed Bat was right about waiting until they had checked it out before they told her. No need to get her hopes up.
“I know. I wish we could do more. I’ve been here for a long time too. You would probably like it if I was not here.”
“Not at all. Don’t even think that. I enjoy the company.”
“I’m afraid I’m not the best company. I spend hours in my room watching the television. You have so many channels and so many shows to watch. I love watching movies. I noticed you don’t watch the television much.”
“I go in spurts. I’ll watch a while, get bored, listen to music, or go to the beach. Maybe go fishing. In the fall, I’ll watch college football. I enjoy it. I’ll watch teams I don’t even care about.”
“I have never seen your football.”
Before Alexander could reply, Bat walked in. May shrieked, ran to Bat, threw her arms around him, and kissed him.
“Did you tell her?”
“No, I didn’t.”
May looked at Alexander. “You knew?”
“Uh...”
“You knew he shaved and didn’t tell me?” May rubbed her hands over Bat’s clean-shaven face. “It feels so good. Oh my God, you look much younger too. I love it.” She kissed his freshly shaven face again.
“Wow. Had I known it would get this kind of reaction, I would have shaved weeks ago.”
“You should have,” she said, still caressing his cheek.
“Come on, let’s sit,” Bat said, leading May to the couch. He opened his laptop and waited for it to boot up. When the screen came on, he said, “May, I...we have some news. Alexander knew about it earlier, but I didn’t want to mention it until I’d checked it out.”
“What is it?”
“Alex got a call this morning, a voicemail. It was from the captain of the boat you were on.”
“A call? From Reymundo?”
“Yes, from him. He left a detailed message. He said he’d been coerced into bringing the girls here and he didn’t like doing it. He bought a couple of GPS tracking devices for this trip and gave them to two of the girls. He texted Alex a link for the software for the tracking devices, as well as the login and password to get into them.”
“You found where they’re keeping Briana?”
“No...maybe. I could see the history of where the girls went from when they got off the boat until this morning. It looks like the tracker sends a message twice a day with the exact location of the device. As long as the girls have the devices on them, we know exactly where they are.”
“Do you know where they are?” Alexander asked.
“I do. And I gotta say, I’m a bit surprised. They’re on the east side of Houston, off McCarty Street. Those aren’t high-class bars. If they look as good as May says, I’d have bet these girls would be in more upscale places, even privately placed. Maybe it’s because they don’t speak English.”
“I’m not sure why they’re in that area either,” Alexander said. “It doesn’t make sense. No English could be the reason. I think whoever is behind this figured out they could get beautiful Cuban girls easier and cheaper using that smuggling ring, and they’ve been exploiting it. The girls are attractive and vulnerable. I bet they charge a premium for them and have other girls for those who can’t afford the Cuban contraband.”
Bat rubbed his chin. “I’d say you’re right, or at least close. I’m still having trouble believing that’s where the girls are. I hope they’re there, and they didn’t hide the tracker in the SUV, and now we’re tracking the car, not the girl.”
“I forgot all about that area too. You don’t hear about McCarty much. You hear about the Gulf Freeway around Broadway, Telephone Road, the Southwest Freeway around Westpark, and the most notorious, Bissonnet Street between the Southwest Freeway and Beltway Eight. When I struck out on Telephone Road, I just knew they’d be on the southwest side. You have a point. The girls could’ve ditched the trackers, or they could’ve been found. All we can do is assume the girls have them and that’s where they’re at. Even if it doesn’t seem logical.”
Bat opened Google maps and pointed. “Right. The tracker put them at this building. It’s a big pink building. Hard to describe. The top half looks like a house. You know, windows all around. But the bottom is all concrete. It may have had windows, but they’re boarded up and painted over. It has a big parking lot. Maybe it’s a club on the first floor and rooms on the second. The rooms could be for sleeping or sex.”
“Could you tell if they were moved around much?”
“The tracker only calls home twice a day. It’s hard to tell. I did see two pings from different locations on one of the devices, and the other device had one ping from another location. The last two locations recorded for both devices was the pink building.”
“That has to be where the girls are kept. Could you see what the other locations were?”
“Yeah, both were dumpy Hispanic bars on the same street, close to the pink building.”
“Those bars have to be where the girls will be, or where they’re working,” Alexander said.
“Those guys don’t waste any time.”
“We can’t either. I need to go see what I can find.”
“Those places look seedy as hell. I bet they’re rough too. I should probably go with you. May should go too. I couldn’t even pronounce the names of the places. You’ll be lucky if you’ll find anyone who speaks English.”
“I’d love to have a translator, but no, it’s too dangerous. Plus, I think it would look suspicious, me walking in with a girl, asking for a girl.”
“You can say you wanted a...” Bat looked at May. “Never mind.”
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing. What about me going? Strength in numbers?”
“I don’t know. I thought I’d use the ‘need a Cuban girl for my Century Club count’ ruse. I think it works better if I’m alone.”
“If they speak English.”
“That’s a Hispanic area, but it’s industrial, lots of truckers going in and out. It’s also not far from the Port of Houston. They may get enough Anglo traffic so that they speak English.”
“If not, I can use Google to translate some key phrases for me. At least I can look around. That’s all I’m going for. To see if I can find any Cuban girls. We think that’s where the girls from the boat are, but we’re not sure. I need to confirm it.”
“Good point. As of right now, I’m betting that’s where the two girls are. Let’s assume they all are, at least most of them. What’ll we do?”
“My main mission is to find Briana. If I find some Cuban girls, I’ll try to find out if she’s there. May, does your sister have any distinguishing features? Like, is she tall? Thin? Large breasted? If so, I could say I’m looking for a tall, thin girl with large breasts.”
“Hmm...she is beautiful. Her skin is lighter than mine. She has long hair. It was to the middle of her back the last time I saw her. She’d dyed some blond. It was, like, streaked. It might be grown out by now. She was thin – really skinny arms. Oh, wait, she speaks English. Ask for a girl who speaks English.”
“Might work,” Alexander said.
“If she told them she speaks English. May, didn’t you say you didn’t let the guys on the boat know you spoke English so they wouldn’t know you could understand them? Briana might not have let them know she speaks English.”
“I’ll play it by ear,” Alexander said. “I just hope I find a few Cuban girls. If so, they’re going to want me to spend money on them. They should be all over me. I’ll ramble a bit, assuming none of them can understand me, and then, in English I’ll say, ‘Don’t freak out, but if your name is Briana and you have a sister named Mayte, I need to be alone with you.’ If she’s near, it should get her attention.”
“Be sure to pronounce it ‘My day’ and not ‘May tee,’ or she may not trust you.”
“I will.”
“If you find her, what will you do?” May asked.
“I’m curious about that too,” Bat added.
“Again, I’ll have to play it by ear. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Odds are she isn’t at the bar.”
May was on the edge of the couch. “When are you going to go?”
“I was thinking about going...now.”