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The drive from Telephone Road in Houston to Bolivar Peninsula took longer than Alexander expected. Traffic on Interstate 45 southbound was extraordinarily heavy. One idiot not paying attention rear-ended another car in the center lane and, instead of clearing the lane, the two parties exchanged information in the middle of the road. Traffic was backed up for miles. All it takes is one idiot.
When Alexander finally arrived home, he was tired, hungry, and irritable. A quick shower helped the tiredness. A glass of twenty-one-year-old Glenfiddich helped the irritableness, as well as the hunger, to a certain extent. He’d find something more substantial after a few drinks.
Halfway through his Scotch, Bat and May came in through the French doors. It’s not that Alexander didn’t enjoy the company, but he’d been enjoying his privacy.
“We saw you come home,” Bat said, closing the door behind him. “You were gone a while. How’d it go?”
“Did you find any girls from Cuba?” May’s eyes were full of hope.
“I’ll answer the easy question first,” Alexander said. “May, no, I’m sorry I didn’t.”
It was like a lightbulb turned off in May’s eyes. They went dark and cold.
“But I don’t feel it was a wasted day. I had an interesting conversation with a kid on Telephone Road. I got the impression he knew everything that went on in the area. Unfortunately, he hadn’t heard about any Cuban girls working in the clubs. He did say he’d check around and call me if he found any.”
“How the hell did you manage that?” Bat said. “To get him to agree to call you if he found any Cuban girls?”
“I did as you suggested. Told him I was trying to join the Century Club. I explained it, and he ate it up. I’ll bet he’s already made a list of girls he’s had from various countries. He probably checked to see if any working for him were from a country he needed and added her to the list. He looked like he was having a slow day.”
“I can’t believe that line worked,” Bat said.
“Frankly, I was surprised at how well it worked. The kid was bartending. He was dubious at first, thought I might be a cop. After I explained the Century Club, he wanted to help me add to my count. He even asked me what Latin countries I needed. Said he may have a girl from one. I told him maybe another day, I was only interested in a Cuban girl today.”
Bat laughed out loud. “That is too funny. I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.”
“So I wrote down the number of the burner phone you gave me. He was eager to help. I bet he calls everyone he knows and asks if they know where to find a girl from Cuba. I hope he doesn’t make such a deal of it that he spooks whoever has the girls.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that. It sounds like he’s well known,” Bat said. “I doubt he’d rouse any suspicions. On the other hand, had you hit every bar in town known for having, um, working girls, and asked about Cuban girls, especially without a backstory, yeah, it might have raised some eyebrows.”
“I only went to one other bar up the street. I saw two people: the bartender, and one bargirl, uh, barwoman. They were Asian. I talked to the woman alone. I told her I was looking for young girls. She thought I meant very young, started to get pissed off at me. I explained, not that young, girls around twenty or so. Honestly, I don’t remember if I told her I was looking for a Cuban girl or not. I started with young. The woman I was talking to was near my age.”
“That’s interesting. Kind of bizarre. I can’t picture older women in that line of work. Prostitution seems like a younger girl’s profession. You’d think they would grow out of it at some point.”
“You’d think. As long as they can make money doing it, I guess it beats working at Walmart. She told me no girls...she may have said ladies. No ladies that age work in the bar. She asked me if I wanted sex. Said the young girls were no good at sex, if you want good sex, go with an older woman.”
Bat laughed. “What’d you say?”
“I agreed with her. Told her I appreciated the offer, but I was interested in a younger lady.”
“She was okay with that?”
“Yeah, seemed to be. She asked if I wanted a blow...uh, oral sex, for fifty dollars.”
“I know what a blowjob is,” May said. “You can say the word. In Spanish, it is la chupada or mamada.”
“Certain words a gentleman doesn’t use in the presence of a lady. That’s one of them. But thanks for letting me know I can if I feel the need.”
“That’s why in Cuba they say Cuban sandwich. When you are in a group, you can’t just ask a girl to give you a blowjob. You say, ‘I’d like a Cuban sandwich’.”
“May, you never cease to amaze me,” Bat said.
“The woman said it would be the...excuse me, May, best blowjob I’d ever had.”
“So?” Bat said.
Alexander looked slightly confused. “So, what?”
“Was it?” Bat giggled like a pubescent teen and slapped his knee.
“It was.”
Bat went quiet and it was Alexander’s turn for a belly laugh.
“Very funny,” Bat said. “But seriously, why not? You’re unattached. A woman her age, that has to be how she makes a living. I doubt anyone is forcing her into the lifestyle. It’s not any different from, say, taking a woman on a date, buying her a meal, drinks, and maybe a movie or show, before taking her home and having sex. You’re cutting out all the BS.”
“It’s not exactly the same,” Alexander said. “Girls don’t date just for a meal and drinks then have sex to pay for it.”
“Sure, they do,” May interjected. “Well, some do. I mean, they might like the guy, but if a guy treats them well, they’ll have sex with him, so he’ll ask her out again.”
“Really?” Bat asked.
“Yeah,” May replied. “Well, not all girls, all the time, but some of the girls, some of the time.”
Alexander wondered if May knew she’d paraphrased Abraham Lincoln, or at least a phase attributed to Abraham Lincoln.
“That’s what other girls told me. I never did that. They’d say if he was cute and spent a lot of money on them, they’d be more likely to sleep with him. I don’t know if they would sleep with a guy they didn’t like, or if he was creepy or weird, just for a meal.”
“And that’s the difference,” Bat said. “A prostitute will, or has to, have sex with whoever pays. Maybe some can be selective, but the girls we’re looking for don’t have the luxury of being picky.”
“I agree,” May said. “The point was, instead of a guy spending fifty pesos on a meal, some girls would rather have the money and hop in bed if that’s what the guy wants and the girl doesn’t mind having sex with him.”
Alexander’s head was spinning. “I think I need another Scotch.” He walked to the kitchen and poured a drink – a less expensive single malt. “I think we got off the subject. I’m not even sure what the subject was anymore.”
“I believe the Asian lady had offered you sex for money,” Bat said. “And you took her up on the offer.”
Alexander laughed again. “No, I didn’t. She was convincing, but that’d be a bit hypocritical.”
“Considering the circumstances, I think so. Were you able to pass out any of those fliers?”
“Yeah, I stopped at several bait shops near the Texas City Dike and left a stack. I told them the boat might have a kidnapped teen on board. They all were willing to help out. With a little luck, some fisherman will spot the boat and contact us.”
“Man, that would be fantastic. What do you think the chances are?”
“If the boat comes in soon, good. I’d bet those guys are checking out every big yacht that comes up the channel. It won’t surprise me if we get a couple of false sightings. The longer it takes, the less the chances. I think they’ll forget about it in a week or two.”
“That’s true,” Bat said. “I hate putting it this way, but I hope they make it back soon.”
“And someone spots the boat and contacts us.”
“What if we hear about the boat, and we see them off-loading the girls to the guys in the SUVs? What are we going to do? Do we call the cops? You have a plan?”
Alexander nursed his Scotch for a moment. “I don’t think we should involve the cops. Not yet.”
“Why not?” Bat asked.
“Here’s what I’d think would happen. It’s all speculation, but if these guys have any brains at all, which they must to carry on this operation as long as they have, then they probably have a contingency for every possibility if law enforcement – either cops, FBI, or Coast Guard – stop them. If the cops showed up when they were off-loading the girls, the boat captain would say he was hired to take the girls on a party cruise. You know, drive up and down the channel, into the bay, turn around, do it again. May?”
“Yes?”
“Didn’t you say they made all the girls put on cute party dresses before they got off the boat?”
“Yes, they did. The dresses were pretty. Very sexy.”
“So, the yacht’s been chartered for a party. Maybe a birthday or a bachelorette party. They were to bring the boat to the dock at a scheduled time. The girls are to be picked up by limos – the big black SUVs – and taken to a nice restaurant for dinner. After dinner, they were all coming back for another boat ride and were sleeping on the boat.”
“Brilliant. The boat captain’s in the dark,” Bat interjected. “He was simply hired to drive them around. None of the girls spoke English. He knew it was a girl’s party, nothing else. Alcohol would be served. That’s why they chartered a boat. None would be driving home after drinking, and no possibility of getting busted for underage drinking. The captain might get in some hot water for serving them alcohol.”
“Exactly,” said Alexander. “And he’d say they brought the booze on board.”
“Like I said, brilliant.”
“Let’s say the girls have already gotten off the boat. They’re in the SUVs and they get stopped. I’d bet dollars to donuts that the drivers of those SUVs have Uber licenses. They were simply hired to pick up the girls and take them to a restaurant. I bet they even have a fake Uber account, with the fare in it for a destination somewhere close to where they’re taking the girls.”
“The cops wouldn’t charge the Uber drivers with anything,” Bat added. “No proof what they said wasn’t true. Heck, the cops might even buy the story and let the girls go.”
“Since none of the girls would have any sort of ID, I doubt it. They might take them to the station to identify them. The girls would likely have been told to say they’re fifteen or sixteen, and one of the girl’s moms, or dad, or big brother arranged the soiree. The police would try to get ahold of their parents. These guys might even have a couple of couples ready to act as parents to get them.”
May was impressed. “You guys may have it figured out. You think that’s what they would do?”
“I’ve never done any human smuggling, but that’s what I’d do,” Alexander said. “It didn’t take me long to think it up either.”
“But you’re a cop. An ex-cop. Maybe you know the system and, by knowing it, can think logically about how to beat it. The SUV drivers may be dumber than a box of rocks. Their plan, if they get pulled over, might be to jump and run.”
“It’s possible, but if they run, they lose the girls. They lose the SUVs, and if they’re carrying any drugs, they lose those too. That’s a big amount to lose. By telling the cops they’re Uber drivers, hired to pick the girls up and take them out to eat, they get off scot-free. Even if drugs were in the car, they plead ignorance. Not much the cops can do to them. The girls get busted, the drugs taken, but the guys drive off unfazed.”
“Again, it’s brilliant. I’m sure they have some variant of that story to tell in case they’re stopped.”
“Whether they tell a story and maybe lose the girls, or cut and run like you said, either way, we don’t find the other girls. We don’t find Briana.”
May’s eyes teared up slightly. “What do we do? How do we find my sister? Are we ever going to find her?”
Alexander rattled the ice cubes in his drink, wondering if he should refill it. “May, I have a good feeling. I know it doesn’t sound like it, but I think we’ll find her.”
“But how?” May asked.
“We have to be at the dock when they deliver the next load of girls. We take two cars. I’ll follow one of the SUVs. You and Bat will follow the other.”
“You think it’s a good idea? Having May come with us?”
“How’s your Spanish?”
“Good point. My Spanish is awful, but it’s better than yours.”
Alexander laughed. “I think they will split up. Go separate ways. In case one gets stopped, the other makes it. We’ll follow both. Actually, we don’t need May. I want to find out where they take the girls. Once we know that, we can figure out our next move. It would be nice to have someone who speaks Spanish. You never know what might happen.”
“That makes sense. Not much the two of us, or the three of us could do. Once we know where they are, maybe where Briana is, we can figure out how to get her out. If we’re only going to follow them, should we risk bringing May?”
“You’re probably right. But what if we find some Hispanic girls in the area, like at a convenience store or just standing around. They may or may not be Cuban, but if we could talk to them, they might be able to give us some info. We’d have May to talk to them.”
Bat nodded. “Makes sense to me. May, are you up to it?”
“I am so up to it!”