by Nikki Rose
I spotted the threadbare couch that the police said they’d found Jess lying on. “What happened to you, Jess?” I murmured.
“Don’t think she can hear you.” Mrs. Burgess startled me and I whirled around to see her standing in the doorway. “Sorry, dear. Didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
“It’s okay. I just wasn’t expecting anyone.”
“I saw the door open and wanted to check on things. It’s a pity that such a beautiful young girl let herself get so involved in drugs that she overdosed.”
“Yeah.” The police were keeping quiet about the murder investigation for now. It was much easier to get people to talk when they thought it was just a drug problem, not murder. “You know how she was doing before she died?”
“She wasn’t very friendly with me after I called social services on her. I feel terrible to have done that, but what else could I have done when Belle was out wandering the halls in the middle of the night?”
“You did the right thing, Mrs. Burgess.” I sighed, feeling my guilt still teasing the edges of my mind.
“So did you.”
I looked into her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“There’s no sense feeling guilty about leaving her. Her death was not your doing.”
“How’d you—?”
“An old woman knows these things.”
“Tell me, Mrs. Burgess. Did you happen to notice Jess having any visitors before she died?”
“Her mother came by a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t stay long though. I think that boyfriend of hers scared her off.”
“Boyfriend? Do you know him?”
“He was no one for you to be jealous over.” She leaned toward me and whispered conspiratorially, “He wasn’t nearly as handsome as you.”
I gave her a reassuring smile. “No worries. I’m not really the jealous type. I’m just looking for anyone who could give me an idea of her state of mind before she died.”
“Oh, well, he was over just about every day. I think he was bringing her drugs. And he didn’t seem like a very wholesome young man, if you know what I mean.”
“I do. Did you happen to get his name?”
“Matt, I believe. Yes, Matt G… González, I’m pretty sure.”
“Matt González?”
“I heard someone yelling over the phone one day when I was passing by him. They called him ‘González’. I’m almost certain.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Burgess. That’s very helpful.”
“You’re welcome. You know I’ll do whatever I can to help you out. Lord knows, you did enough for me over the years.”
“All I ever did was fix a leaky pipe or toilet once in a while and change a lightbulb when it was needed.”
“You did more than that lazy old super ever did.”
“I didn’t mind at all. Here… Let me give you my cell number, in case you ever need anything—or if you remember something else about Jess before she died.” I wrote down my name and number on a scrap of paper I found in my wallet and handed it to Mrs. Burgess. She excused herself and went back to her place.
I pulled out my phone and called the office to talk to tech. “This is Anthony Parker. Yes, I need some help on something…unofficially. I need you to look up a Matt González, who is living in the area… Yes… Try under Matthew González… Still nothing? Okay. Thanks anyway… Yeah, let me know if anything comes up.”
I hung up and jammed my phone back into my pocket. My only lead coming up cold was not a good start on this investigation. There was so little to go on. If Jess had any friends in this new life of hers, they’d all seemed to scatter like roaches the moment the light shone down on their world.
I took a little time to search around the apartment. I knew Jess better than the cops did. I had to be able to figure something out. “If you were hiding something, where would you have put it?”
I went into the kitchen and began pulling out drawers and searching underneath them, until I found a bag taped under one. I took out the plastic bag, which was filled with white powder. Having recently seen Jess, I had little doubt that it was a stash of coke. It would explain her recent weight loss.
A pile of papers on the kitchen counter caught my eye. There was a notebook with a number scribbled on it, along with the letter ‘T’. I pulled out my phone then dialed star sixty-seven to hide my number before dialing.
“Hello?” a groggy-sounding girl answered.
“Hi, I’m trying to reach T.”
“Just a sec. I’ll get him for ya.”
Okay, so T was a guy. “Thanks.”
“This is T,” the gruff male voice said.
“Hey, T, my name is Derek. Look, man, I’m sorry to bother ya, but I was looking for Jess and she told me if I ever couldn’t get a hold of her to give you a call.” I hoped that would be enough to get more info out of him.
“How do you know Jess?”
“Oh, she and I are just…acquaintances.”
“Ah, I see. Yeah, my girl Jess was always popular with all her acquaintances.” His voice shifted. “Look… She’s booked solid for the next month, but I tell ya what. I’ll hook you up with my girl Angela at the discounted price of what Jess usually charged. Angela is one of my top girls, so I’m doing this as a favor to you.” He reminded me a little of a car salesman, the way he threw that pitch.
“Angela, huh? If she’s so good, why isn’t she booked up like Jess?”
“You’re a smart guy, D. I like that. Angela is one of my prime girls. I don’t want her getting too worn out, so I keep her fresh for our VIP clients.”
“Sounds like a deal I can’t afford to turn down. I’m gonna be staying at the motel on eighth. Can you have her there in two hours?”
“She’ll be there.”
The phone clicked and I checked that he’d hung up. Jess had been working as a hooker? I couldn’t believe it. How could she have fallen so far? This guy T knew more than he was letting on. He said Jess was booked up for the next month—not that he couldn’t get in touch with her, not that he didn’t know where she was. He’d flat-out lied to me and done it with a long-term timeline, which meant he knew she wasn’t coming back. He knew she was dead. I just wondered how much he wasn’t saying. Am I really about to meet a prostitute at a motel while Rachel waits at home for me? Something about it felt wrong, even though I’d never actually sleep with that Angela girl. I had to meet with her, though. She might have known Jess and could possibly give me some information.
I walked out of Jess’ apartment building and leaned against the exterior wall, looking around. Who killed you, Jess? What did you get yourself into? I had two hours to make it to the motel and it would only take me twenty minutes to get there. I planned to arrive early, set up a few mics and cameras before the girl got there. That still gave me about an hour to get ready.
I turned in to the motel parking lot half an hour before the time to meet Angela. I took out my phone to call Rachel before going to check-in.
“Hello?” That sweet, sexy voice made me second-guess my decision to be there instead of home with her.
“Hey, sweetheart. How are my two favorite girls doing?”
“We’re good, just cooking dinner. Are you going to be home in time to eat with us?”
“I doubt it. I got a lead today that I need to follow up on, so I might be late.”
I heard her frustrated sigh through the line and hated myself for being the cause, but this was too important to let slip through my fingers.
“Sweetheart?”
“I’m here. Sorry. I just hate you being gone so much of the time. We miss you.”
“I miss you too. I’ll be home as soon as I can, but this is a major lead. I could be looking at making some real progress tonight.”
“Okay, just be safe, please. I want you to make it home to us.”
“I will.”
“I’ll see you soon.”
“See you soon.” We hung up. I was an idiot for not being home with my beautiful fiancée and dau
ghter instead of meeting with a hooker in a run-down motel off the highway.
I had switched out my wallet with my alias’ and got out of the car. I had to get into character. I was no longer Agent Anthony Parker, special ops. I was Derek Jones, a sleazy john who did things like hire prostitutes and meet them in rundown motels that rented by the hour.
I ran my hand through my hair to mess it up and adjusted the brown leather jacket I kept in my trunk, then headed toward the motel office. A bell chimed to announce my arrival and a large man whose shirt was at least two sizes too small for him sat behind the counter.
“Hey, man, what can I do for you?” The guy turned in his chair but didn’t get up to greet me.
“I need a room.”
“Well, you came to the right place. You lookin’ for a double or a queen?”
“Either will do the trick.”
“How long are you needing it for?”
I shrugged, trying to appear casual. “Couple of hours.”
“Oh.” I could almost see the understanding spark in his mind. “You’re looking for the hourly special. Well, we got a couple of queen beds available for our hourly rate.”
“Queen it is, then.”
“It’s twenty-five dollars an hour. Has to be paid upfront.”
I pulled out a fifty-dollar bill and slid it over to him.
“You in need of a referral for entertainment during your stay?”
“It’s taken care of.”
“Okay, then. Here’s the key. Check-out is in two hours.”
“Thanks.” I took the key and walked out to find room number seventeen.
The accommodations were minimal at best—a bed, dresser and a small table that rocked when I bumped it. The TV didn’t work. I guess most people didn’t check in to watch TV for a couple of hours. I only had about twenty minutes before the girl would be there, so I went to work, quickly placing the bugs around the room. I’d review the footage later to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
Once the bugs were set, all I had to do was wait and hope she would be open to questions. It was a long ten minutes until there was a quiet tapping on the door. I jumped up and had to slow myself down. I opened it and was surprised by the sight before me.
“Angela?” I studied the petite young brunette who stood there. I wasn’t even sure she was legal. She was a tiny little thing, frail and timid but dressed in a skirt that barely covered her ass and a shirt halfway unbuttoned.
“Yes, hi. I…um…got the room number from the guy in the office. May I come in?” She glanced back into the parking lot and I noticed a man sitting in a car, eyeing us close.
“That your pimp?”
“Something like that, yeah.” She fidgeted with her skirt. Had she ever done anything like this before? She seemed so new.
“Come on in.” I gently led her into the motel room and closed the door, making sure to lock it behind us. Her eyes widened as she looked up at me. I was easily twice her size. If I had been looking for what she expected me to be, it was no doubt she’d have been in for a rough evening. Lucky for her, I just wanted information. “How old are you, Angela?”
“Eighteen.”
“Okay, and how old are you really?” I casually pulled out one of the chairs, turned it to face her and sat down in hopes of making myself seem less intimidating.
Her jaw dropped and she looked down at the floor. “Just turned seventeen.”
“How long have you been doing this?”
“About six months.”
“Never gets any easier?”
She shook her head from side to side and kept her eyes low.
“How’d you get into this business?”
“I’m supposed to get the money first thing. It’s a hundred bucks for the hour.”
I handed her two hundred-dollar bills. “Sit.”
She looked wide-eyed at the extra cash and sat on the edge of the bed. “Are you into that freaky stuff?”
“What?”
“Usually those are the only ones who pay extra—you know, if they want to do something weird.”
I scowled. “Why are you doing this? Do you not have a family somewhere that’s missing you?”
She shrugged, but it seemed I’d struck a nerve, the way she started fidgeting.
“We had a fight and I ran away. I thought it would be fun on my own, but I ran out of money fast. I met T at a party and he said he could help me.”
Shit, she looked like she was going to cry.
“That was six months ago.”
“Why not go back home to them?”
“I don’t know if they’d want me back now. How could they forgive me? Why do you care? You’re wasting time you paid for, asking about my family.”
“I’ll make a deal with you.”
She looked at me suspiciously. “A deal?”
“Yeah. I just paid you for two hours of your time. For one hour, I’m not going to touch you. I’m just going to ask you questions and you are going to answer each one as honestly as you can. Once we’re done, you are going to go tell your handler out there that we had such a wild time and I was so satisfied that I doubled the payment. What you aren’t going to tell him—or anyone—is what we actually talk about in here tonight. If you agree to that, I will double what I’ve already paid you, and you use that money to buy a bus ticket home.”
“Four hundred dollars just to answer questions?”
“Yeah, but you have to promise to use the extra two hundred to go home and never get into this stuff again. This is a rough line of work for a pretty young girl like you.”
“Are you a cop?”
“I’m just a guy looking for answers. Do we have a deal?”
“Yeah.” Tears welled up in her eyes and I thought she was going to burst into hysterics before I ever got to the questions.
“Okay. You know a girl named Jess who worked for T?”
“Yeah, I knew Jess.”
Knew. Past tense. She knows something happened to her.
“You know, I’d originally requested her, but T said she was booked up for the next month. She’s not really booked up, is she?”
She shook her head from side to side and her eyes glossed over as her lip quivered.
“Do you know what happened to her?”
“Sort of.”
“Tell me what you know about her. Everything. Remember…honesty or no more cash.”
She took a deep breath and looked like she might jump right out of her own skin before the words started to spill. “Jess wasn’t like me. I was desperate for money, for food, a place to stay, protection. T offered that, but for a price, one I’ve regretted ever since. Jess seemed to love the attention as long as she had her coke. She needed the money for drugs that she got from some guy she was seeing. He hooked her up with T so she could make the money to pay him back. T used to say it’d be faster if he just injected the cash right into her veins.”
“The guy she got her drugs from… Do you know his name?”
“She mentioned it once. Tried to hook me up, but I’m not into that stuff. His name was Matt.”
“Did Jess have trouble with anyone? A customer, maybe? T? Or this Matt guy?” I noticed her subtle shift. She was holding back. “Total honesty, remember?”
“I overheard Jess telling T that she needed more clients or ones who paid more. He said that as messed up as she was, he couldn’t get her more clients. ‘Not many guys want to fuck a beanpole with no curves.’ That’s what he told her. Jess seemed…desperate for more money. She said she owed it and was on a deadline.”
“Did she say who she owed?”
“I assumed it was that Matt guy. She always talked about needing to pay him to get her fix.”
“Do you know anyone else Jess was involved with? Any of her clients or any more info on this Matt guy?”
“I only met him once. He wasn’t from around here. He had an accent. He was a scary-looking guy, scrawny but with a wild look in his eyes—something that sent prickle
s up my spine and told me to keep far away from him.”
“Is there anything else you can think of? Matt’s last name? A distinctive marking or tattoo? Anything at all?”
She shook her head from side to side. “That’s all I know, honest.”
I found an old scrap of paper in my wallet and scribbled down my number with my real name. I didn’t want to give her my card, in case someone else found it, but at least she’d have a way to contact me. “Take this and hide it. Call me if you think of anything else.”
“I will…Anthony?” She looked at me curiously as she read the paper and tucked it in her pocket.
I gave her a knowing smile and nodded. “Thank you for your help, Angela.”
“They killed Jess, didn’t they?”
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”
“I hope you do. You seem like a really nice guy, Derek.” She raised her eyebrows and accentuated the name.
I chuckled. “You seem like a good girl who just got off on the wrong path. Go home to your family. Tell them you messed up. I bet they’ve missed you. It may not be an easy road, but I have a feeling they’ll forgive you eventually.” I handed her the extra two hundred. “Don’t forget… Hide that money. T should be so impressed that you brought in double what he charged that he’ll never think to question there would be more. As soon as you can get your stuff, you get out of there and go to the bus station. Understand?”
“Yeah.” She stood from the bed and I walked her to the door. “Oh, wait.” She smiled, walked over to the bed and tossed the blankets around before walking back. “Gotta make it look legit.” She lifted up on her toes, messing up my hair then messing hers up too.
“Clever girl.” I leaned in and brushed my thumb across her plump, overly glossed lips, smearing the bright red and leaving a worn look.
I removed my shirt, tossed it onto the bed and unbuckled my belt.
She grinned up at me before I opened the door. T still sat in the car watching the door. We had to make things look good. We couldn’t risk him suspecting anything. I wondered if he gave this sort of protection to all his girls or if this was special because I’d first asked for Jess.