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Kit didn't leave for his Los Angles trip until the following day, and I'd decided I needed to accept his offer of a short vacation. The last few days had taken their toll on my ability to think rationally. I had today to do some research and put a few ideas in play. When I got back, I could go after the bigwigs who were getting rich from their prostitution ring. Normally I wouldn't bother hunting them down, and what they were doing wouldn't upset me much if all their women were volunteers, but I couldn't stand by knowing they were forcing children as well as women to participate. I certainly couldn't let what they'd done to John go unpunished.
First, I called Kit. I was surprised at the depth of the happiness in his voice when I told him I'd love to tag along for some fresh seafood. We arranged for him to pick me up at five the next day. That would give us plenty of time for a leisurely supper before we had to be at the airport.
My next call was to Connie. When I said hello, she said, “Wow, you just caught me in time. I came home for some clean clothes and was on my way back to the hospital.”
“I won't keep you long. I wanted to find out how John's doing and figured you'd know, or at least tell me more than the hospital.”
“You probably won't be too surprised to hear John is being John and demanding to be allowed to go home. He looks like the walking dead. With one arm in a cast, his feet in bandages as big as his head, and tape binding most of his torso because of four broken ribs and a punctured lung, he isn't really mobile yet. I've been calling him The Mummy, but I don't think he's amused. He'll be fine when everything heals, but the hospital is planning on keeping him for four or five days and then he's supposed to spend a couple of weeks in bed once he gets home. I don't look forward to trying to enforce that rule.”
“That's what I wanted to hear. I won't keep you because I know you are in a hurry to get back. Tell John I said to get well.”
“Whoa, wait just a minute. I can't tell him I talked to you and only give him that short message. The first thing he said when he woke up was, “Where's Tav?” Now he bugs me every thirty minutes about when he can expect to see you. Even though there's nothing about you in the official story, privately he credits you for saving him.”
“Okay, you can also tell him that he can call me when he's ready to tell me what it is or where it is. Until then I wish him well.”
“I know for sure I will never, ever understand the two of you, but I also know it won't do me a bit of good to try. So, I'll pass on your message. Strictly from me, thank you for everything!”
I had no idea if my message would push John to tell me what he had that got him kidnapped in the first place, but since he was going to be laid up for the foreseeable future it might. I had the key he'd left for me, but it was no help without knowing where to use it. One way or another, I didn't intend to let him keep the information to himself much longer.
Next, I moved to the computer. I wanted to try and find a link from Dalton and the mayor's son, Dennis, to anyone else in the higher levels of our fine city or state government. I was busy hacking my way through information I had no right to access when the doorbell rang.
I opened the door and found Cassie Wainright standing on the porch leaning on one crutch while she waited for me to let her in. I invited her into the upper portion of the house, settled her comfortably with her foot up on a stool, and made us each a cup of coffee. After a few sips she said, “I came by mainly to see if you were all right, but I guess I wanted to talk, too, and there isn't anyone but you I can be honest with. If I’d known how good your coffee is, I might have come just for that.”
“I'm glad to see you're up and around. I couldn't tell how seriously you'd been injured last night.”
“The wound isn't bad, and besides it’s my fault it happened since I zigged when I should have zagged. The bullet went all the way through the fleshy part of my thigh. It is pretty sore, though, and the crutch makes getting around easier. Listen, I have some questions about last night. First and foremost, who were those guys we shot anyway?”
“You should have recognized the same two I did since you followed them from the warehouse to that building. I never saw the other two until we jumped down out of the tunnel.”
“Don't play dumb! Of course, I recognized them! You know full well I'm asking who they worked for and why they kidnapped John. Just exactly what was going down under that place?”
“Look, Cassie, you're a private eye. You do work for clients, and they pay you for your time. You did a good thing last night and helped save an honest cop's life, but there are no paying clients here and your involvement in this thing is over. John is a cop. He hunts for bad guys, and it seems like he must have known something these bad guys wanted to know. Other than that, just let it go.”
“I suppose I don't have much choice, since I can see you aren't going to tell me anything else, but I know there is more going on here. You knew those guys would lead you to John, so you have to know more, but you're right, this isn't my type of thing. I'm not the police and I don't want to be.”
“Did you have any trouble with the police last night? After all, they did find you with four dead bodies and a kidnapped cop.”
“Amazingly enough, I didn't get much hassle. I told them I got an anonymous call saying they saw someone being dragged into a tenement at that address, and when I decided to check it out, several people were running from the building, and one fired at me. Other than that, I found the same thing they saw when they arrived. It was a good thing you took my gun with you, though. If they'd found a fired weapon, I wouldn't have gotten off so easily. Their main question was why I'd been the one to get the call. I told them I'd done some work for a client near there in the past, so maybe someone in the neighborhood remembered me. I think because a policeman was saved, they weren't asking a lot of questions.
“The papers aren't saying much. Have you heard anything about John's condition?”
“I talked to his sister. She says he's going to recover, but he's a mess right now. I think it's a good thing we got there when we did. I guess I should thank you for sticking around, but if you'd taken off when I told you to, you wouldn't have gotten shot.”
“True, but if I had it to do over, I'd do the same again. What we did last night saved a man's life. On that note, I'm gonna take off. I have about a million things to do today, and I think I'll go by and visit John if they're letting him have any visitors.”
“Take care of yourself, and if you need backup anytime, I guess I owe you one.”
She laughed, “Yeah, at least one.”
I closed the door behind her with a sigh. I didn't think she'd just forget about last night. I could see she was curious about me. She knew I wasn't a cop or PI, but she didn't have a clue about what I did for a living. As good as she was at her job, she would still have a tough time finding out anything unusual about me. There had never been much on record about my past, and I'd long since made what little there was disappear. Anything current she'd find was just the routine information every citizen had on file. I put her out of my mind and returned to the computer.
After several hours of research, I hadn't found anything to tie anyone in the government to Hector Dalton, but I still believed that if Dennis were involved, his father, Mayor Clampton, was also. He'd always cleaned up his son's messes in the past and I couldn't see him changing now.
Tonight, I would try and pay a visit to Dennis's apartment. I didn't think he spent much time at home in the evenings. His drinking, gambling, and party habits were well documented in the news. In the meantime, I notified the guys at the warehouse that they needed to maintain their stakeout. I wanted to know for sure why that one building stayed unrented. Next, I dug up one more person to keep tabs on Dennis's activities. If this investigation got much bigger, I was going to run out of people to hire, but I needed to know how those two men were connected. I wanted to find proof Dalton was using children and unwilling women as prostitutes, and I wanted to know who his accomplices were. I also intended to find out why John was kidnapped and what the mayor's involvement was. As I thought about my goals, I realized I was angry, really angry. I had no intention of backing off until I brought down the whole dirty group. I couldn't single-handedly stop prostitution, nor did I want to, but I intended to stop this group from victimizing children.
My final phone call was to one more PI. Jeff Cline wasn’t a friend, only an acquaintance. I considered him a prime example of what a PI should not be, but he was an expert with a camera. Right now, that was what I needed, so even though it would cost me dearly, I knew it couldn't be helped. Tomorrow night the Domino Club was having a big grand re-opening, and I wanted Jeff to photograph the men who would arrive unnoticed by the herd of newscasters covering the big hoopla at the front door. I warned him twice to be sure he wasn't caught.
Deciding I had everything in place for now, I spent the rest of the afternoon reading a novel and packing for tomorrow's trip. Around eight-thirty, I put my book aside and began getting ready for my visit to Dennis Clampton's apartment. Dressed in a clean black outfit, I opened the safe to gather the necessary equipment. I had a pegboard on the back of the door that held labeled keys. Many of them I had copied in the same way I'd copied Dennis's. Some of them had already been useful and others might be in the future. As I pulled the key I needed tonight off the board, I was drawn by the key John had taped to his message. I looked it over carefully. I’d already decided that the filigreed top and delicate shape indicated that it had originally belonged to a woman. What secret could such a delicate key hold? As I stared at the pattern, my eyes picked out an ornate “C” artistically worked into the filigree, and once I realized it was there, I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before. The “C” could represent tons of things, but I was positive it stood for John's sister's name, “Connie.” It was good Kit and I weren't leaving until tomorrow evening, because I knew what I'd be doing tomorrow morning.
Reminding myself to concentrate on one thing at a time, I hung John's key back on the pegboard and pocketed the one for tonight's objective.
Unfortunately, I hadn't been able to find Clampton's unlisted home phone number, so I couldn't call before entering to make sure no one was in the apartment. I did know his kind of nightlife didn't get started until around ten-thirty or eleven, so I began watching his building at nine-thirty. I could have had his tail alert me when Dennis left home, but I hoped by already being there I might get a look at some of his cronies in case I ran into them in the future. I was surprised he didn't live in one of the new glass-and-chrome high-rises. His place was in a development where there were several sets of four buildings grouped around a small compound containing a pool. It was definitely high-end, and rather than an apartment it was probably a condominium. Each building was a separate dwelling, which made life much easier for me. I settled down to wait in a large hedge stretching across the front of the building next to Clampton's from which I could see his front door clearly. There was a large toad hiding in the hedge with me, and it kept me entertained by alternately glaring at me and croaking loudly trying to attract a mate. At ten-twenty, Dennis and two other men about his same age walked out into the driveway, climbed into his BMW, and drove away. I saw the man I'd asked to tail him pull out of a nearby drive and follow Dennis's car. The man was good, because I hadn't spotted the tail while I'd watched from the hedge. I would recognize the two men who left with Dennis if I saw them again. I waited another twenty minutes to give anyone else in the apartment a chance to leave. When it seemed like it was a good bet there was no one else around, I scooted out from under the hedge, highly offending the toad, and casually walked to the front door. Using the key, I was inside in seconds.
The room was pitch-black, and I stood just inside the door trying to let my eyes adjust while listening for any noise. The place was so silent I could hear a clock ticking in a room close by, but the room was so dark I was totally blind. I remembered that when I'd been watching from outside, I'd never seen any sign of light from inside the condo. I suspected all the windows had blackout curtains. I risked turning on my small flashlight to check. The small glow proved me correct about the curtains, so I flipped the switch, turning on a bright overhead fixture. I almost screamed in surprise until my eyes finally began to adjust, and I realized the person facing me was my own reflection in an ornate full-length mirror. Forcibly calming down, I quickly walked through all the rooms to be sure I was alone. Satisfied the place was empty, I began my search downstairs.
On this floor there was a kitchen, dining area, and laundry room on one side, and an office, living room, and large media room on the other. Off both the kitchen and the media room there were bathrooms. Upstairs there were only two bedrooms and a bath. Every room was loaded with overpowering, dark leather furniture. Everything was expensive, but each piece clashed with the next. The mishmash of styles made the room seem odd. There was no sense of comfort, only the feeling of money poorly spent.
I searched all the other rooms, leaving the office for last. There was nothing of a personal nature anywhere except for a wall rack containing hundreds of DVDs in the media room. As I checked out the titles, I found nearly half of the films were porn. Even more interesting was the fact most of them had been produced by Dalton Studios. I spot-checked a few, only to be sickened by their raw, violent nature. At the far end of the rack was a small section with nine unmarked discs in unlabeled cases. Putting these in the machine one at a time, I was hard pressed not to lose my supper. These were not only raw and explicit, they were graphically detailed and bloody snuff films. I hoped they were faked, but the detail and realism led me to believe otherwise. As well as being sickened, my anger increased ten-fold. I picked one of the other discs at random, put it in the unmarked case, and used the labeled case to take one of the snuff films. Then I decided to grab one of the porn films produced by Dalton as well. With those tucked in my kit, I headed for Clampton's office. I knew I was spending too much time in the condo and needed to finish my search quickly.
When I approached the office, the door was locked. This was promising, so I picked the lock and entered, shutting and relocking the door behind me. Here more effort had been made to personalize the room. The back wall was covered with Clampton's legal degrees, awards, and framed newspaper articles about cases he'd won. Working as quickly as possible, I rifled through the desk and the bookcase. I tackled the file cabinets last. They were locked, but the keys were in his desk drawer. Inside I found detailed files on cases he'd tried in court, and even though I knew these would probably make fascinating reading, they were closed cases, so not what I needed. I was on the next-to-the-last file cabinet, but I had already been in the apartment ten minutes longer than the time I'd allowed for my search. Knowing I should skip the rest of the files, I pulled out one last drawer. The label here indicated that the files in this drawer were personal rather than more case files. Quickly scanning the names, I found a thick folder on Hector Dalton and thinner one on Dennis's father, the mayor. I didn't want to steal the files because if Dennis noticed they were missing it would put him on his guard, but I'd been inside the condo over two hours already. Thinking the information was too important to pass up, I took a risk and began photographing each page in Hector's file as quickly as I could. I'd finished his file and was about half way through the mayor's when I heard the front door open. Shit, couldn't a risky gamble ever work out in my favor?
Cramming both files back in their correct position, I quietly closed the drawer and pushed the lock on the cabinet. Now there was no evidence I'd been there, except for the small problem of how I was going to get out of this room. The one door where I'd entered was the only exit, and there wasn't even a window. I could hear people talking but couldn't make out the words or determine where they were in the house. I was headed for the door, hoping I could sneak by whomever was out there, when my early warning system went into overdrive. The hair on the back of my neck tingled and my heart rate went up. On full alert, with all my senses working overtime, I could sense someone outside the office door. When I heard a key scrape in the lock, I'd already flicked off the light switch and was stuffing myself into a small coat closet to the right of the door. It wasn't the season for wearing a coat, so I had a fair chance of going undiscovered. There were several coats in the small closet with me, and my brain was trying to convince me there wasn't enough air to breathe. It wanted to push the panic button and get out of that cramped space immediately. I fought off the urge and tried to quiet my breathing.
Now I could hear voices clearly. There was no way to know if the people in the room were the only ones in the house, but the voices indicated there were two people in the office. One I quickly recognized as Clampton's, and the other was a woman's voice.
After a quiet moment she said, “Come on, baby. There's more where that came from. Can't your nasty old business problems wait until tomorrow? Let’s just go to bed.”
I thought it was a great idea, but Clampton said, “Look, bitch, keep your pants on. You can go to bed anytime you want, but I have a court date in the morning, and I have to get a few papers together.”
I expected his brutal comments to upset her, but she must be used to his crude ways because she said, “Ah, baby, don't be mean. You know you want what I'm giving away. You want this and you want this one too. I can see your big old dick getting bigger. You can play with your nasty old papers in the morning, but right now you need to play with me.”
I thought I might throw up, and I expected to hear him smack her around, but he just groaned. The next sound I heard was the door slam and then silence. I waited a few minutes to be sure the room was empty, and then as quietly as possible I dragged my cramped limbs out of the tiny closet. I gratefully filled my lungs with fresh air and walked to the closed door to listen for any sound coming from the hall. Hearing nothing, I carefully eased open the door. Seeing nothing, I walked into the living room. The lights were on, even though I'd turned them off earlier, and I could hear movement upstairs but there was no sign anyone was down here. The front door was the closest and probably safest way out, so I began working my way across the living room.
I was dead center of the brightly lit room when I heard someone say, “The boss's dumb bimbo sure has him pussy-whipped. I'll admit she's got a rack on her, but so do a lot of broads. I don't get why Dennis thinks she's so special.”
The instant pressure around my heart didn't bring on the expected heart attack. When my brain kicked back in, I realized the voice had come from the direction of the kitchen. Throwing caution to the wind I moved as quickly as possible to the front door and quietly eased my way out into the night. I was gone so fast I never heard the second person in the kitchen speak. I was almost to my car before my breathing returned to normal and my heart stopped trying to get out of my chest. Hopefully, in the future when I'd used up the time I'd allotted for safely completing a mission, I'd have the sense to scram. On the drive home I lamented the fact that I hadn't gotten to search the upstairs, but at least I was sure I hadn't left any evidence of my visit behind.
Tomorrow evening, Kit and I were supposed to leave for California, and I still had two big chores I wanted to accomplish. I needed to put the pictures of Dennis's papers in the computer and check them thoroughly for useful information, and I needed to search Connie's house to see if I could find what the filigreed key I'd gotten from John opened. I should do the computer work tonight, but I was so tired I knew I'd make a mess of it, so I vowed to get an early start in the morning and went to bed.
I slept almost dream-free except for one short flashback nightmare just before I woke in the morning. I wanted to jump right up and get started on the day's projects, but I forced myself to think through the dream first. I was determined to face these memories rather than run from them.
Like most of my nightmares, I'd had this one before. In the dream I was in bed. This time only Clive had come into my room. I must have been almost thirteen at the time. When my court-awarded guardian had finished using my body in the most degrading ways he could think of, he said, “To add a little extra spice to your life, I think you'll be happy to hear your time with us is almost over. You're getting too old to be much fun. I have a special last night planned for you. See, now you have something to look forward to.”
He wasn't lying about the age part. The girls they'd held before me were all younger than thirteen when Clive and Alice had dumped their shattered victims in the middle of some large anonymous city. He did fail to mention the surprise they planned for me was murder rather than letting me go. I'd overheard their conversations, and I'd watched their need for violence escalating. My escape plan was already well underway, but I needed to complete it quickly and be gone before they were ready to kill me and take in someone new. I was sure they would never let me see my thirteenth birthday. As so often before, I contemplated telling someone about what was happening to me, but I knew Clive and Alice would kill me before anyone could act. I wasn't sure why, but I wasn't ready to die.
I lay in bed a little longer, letting the painful memories fade into the past, and then I showered and went to the kitchen for coffee and something to eat. It wasn't long before I carried my second cup of coffee into the office and began transferring the pictures of Dennis's papers from my cell phone to the computer. When I had them all entered and ready to read, I checked the clock. I had almost an hour and a half before Connie left for work. I picked up the first document and began reading. An hour later I had completed reading the file on Hector Dalton, and I'd learned many more details about how vile the man was, but only one additional bit of information I hadn't already suspected. Five days ago, he had let Dennis Clampton buy his dead partner's half ownership in the Domino Club. The same report confirmed that Hector had inherited Nick Tanner's share of the club. I knew he didn't need the money, so I suspected he'd taken on the mayor's son as a partner to keep the mayor in check. Our illustrious mayor had objected, but they'd overcome his reluctance by blackmailing him with pictures of him taking advantage of the club's entertainment. There were copies of those pictures in Mayor Clampton’s file, but I'd have to read the rest later.
It was time for me to drive to Connie's house, so I'd be there in time to watch her leave for work. I needed to be sure she was gone before I entered. This time I wouldn't even have to pick the lock, because a copy of her key was hanging on the board in my safe. I'd long since copied her key in case I ever needed it. I copied as many keys as possible, never knowing when they'd come in handy, but I'd never expected to use this one.
Connie left for work right on time. I waited fifteen more minutes on the off chance she'd forgotten something. When the odds were good she wasn't coming back, I visually checked the area, and, not seeing a soul, I walked to the front door and used my key. I didn't expect to be there long, because I was pretty sure I knew what I was looking for. The less I'd need to poke through Connie's things, the happier I'd be. If I found what John had hidden, I didn't think she'd miss it, because I was sure she hadn't ever been told she had it. In desperation John might have hidden something in her house, but he'd never have given her the added burden of worrying about it being there.
Once inside, I went straight to the master bedroom. Sitting on her dresser was a large hand-carved jewelry box. This was what I was looking for. I'd believed all along that the key was for something ornamental of this type, and once I'd recognized the “C” worked into the filigreed top of the key I knew where to look. The box wasn't locked, and I hadn't expected it to be. The key was John's way of telling me where the information was, but he wouldn't have locked the box because Connie might have noticed. Just to be sure, I tested the key in the lock. It worked perfectly. Once I retrieved the information, I would give the key back to John. I couldn't leave it there, because I didn't know where she normally kept it. Mixed in with the jewelry in the bottom tier of the box was a small flash drive. It had to be what I was looking for, and I put it in my pocket. Connie and I weren't friends, but we managed a mutual respect, and I hoped she would never know I'd been in her home uninvited. Returning to my car, I made the return trip alternating between wondering what the drive contained that had almost got John killed and thinking about my upcoming trip.
I was running out of time before Kit was due to arrive, so I only allowed myself one quick look at the information on the flash drive before carefully locking it in my safe. The information I was hiding away could put the mayor, two congressmen, and probably the governor in jail. The drive even contained evidence that Hector Dalton was involved in importing women illegally and forcing them into prostitution. No wonder he was willing to do anything to get the drive from John. The time would come to use it, but not until I was sure I could bring down the entire prostitution ring in the process.