Seduced by the Badge

by Deborah Fletcher Mello

  “One hundred percent. Detective Winstead has been working hard for this intel and is still undercover, hoping that we can nail the man we believe has been running this entire operation. She trusts her source, so I do, too.”

  There was just a brief moment between the brothers, a silent exchange between them that solidified the moment. Neither needed to say a word to express what they were both thinking. Armstrong’s cell phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket. He stole a quick glance down at the device. After reading the text on the screen, he sent a message back. He shifted his attention back to his brother.

  “They’ve found something at Tank’s place. I need to head over there before I go back to the station. Do you want to ride with me?”

  “Yeah,” Parker said with a nod.

  * * *

  Danni cleaned up the last of the dirty dishes from what had been an uneventful dinner. Pie had stayed for the pan-fried steaks, buttered green beans and baked potatoes she’d prepared. The two men had talked football, family and politics with Carlo doing most of the talking while she and his brother listened. She hadn’t been allowed to join the conversation. Pie hadn’t been interested, looking bored throughout the meal.

  She’d asked about Ginger, the young woman noticeably absent, and Carlo had told her Ginger was out of town on business. Pie didn’t bother to tell her anything, glaring in her direction instead. She’d become concerned until his phone rang, Ginger checking in and letting him know she was headed back home, her mission completed.

  When they were finished, the two men had disappeared down into the basement of the small home. Danni didn’t think anything of it. Pie was a regular visitor, always disappearing down to the basement, sometimes with his brother, sometimes alone, most times for many hours. It defied the lie he’d told her about not wanting Pie down there disturbing his office.

  She had started down the steps after them but had been admonished to clean up the kitchen instead. Carlo’s tone had been dry and curt, the order indicative of an attitude she found increasingly abhorrent. The dynamics of their friendship had shifted to something she didn’t like. He’d become overly critical, exceptionally demanding and viciously mean. The more he pushed his will on her, the more Danni found herself wanting to push back. This game he was playing was becoming darker with each passing hour, and she was past the point of needing to put the brakes on him. Suddenly she didn’t know Carlo as well as she thought she did, and that had her doubting her own instincts.

  Just as Danni dried her hands on a dish towel, the back doorbell rang. The kitchen curtain was parted just enough that Danni recognized attorney Leslie Harper standing anxiously outside. She dropped low, her heartbeat suddenly racing. From the floor below, Carlo called her name. With stealthy quickness, Danni scooted out of the kitchen and hurried up the stairs. She stood like stone, listening, her mind racing with contingency plans.

  The doorbell rang a second time, the woman outside leaning heavily on the buzzer. Something had her anxious, and she clearly wasn’t leaving before being heard. Danni listened as Carlo and Pie both came bounding up the stairs from the basement. Carlo called her name a second time, annoyance ringing in his voice. Someone pulled open the door, and Leslie’s shrill voice rang through the space.

  “I’ve been calling you,” she snapped. “We have a real problem.”

  There was a thick pause, the air fraught with tension, and then Carlo called Danni’s name from the bottom of the stairwell.

  She didn’t answer, moving slowly backward into the bathroom. When she heard him hit the bottom step, she eased the door closed and leaned against it as she quietly engaged the lock. She waited and listened, heard him moving down the hall into her bedroom. There were a long two minutes of quiet, and then she heard him move back, his steps coming to an abrupt stop. She coughed, sensing Carlo was standing on the other side of the door, his ear pressed to the wood structure listening for her.

  “Danni?”

  “I’m in the bathroom,” she called back.

  “Everything okay?” Carlo asked.

  “Just a little sour stomach,” Danni answered. “I’m going to be a minute.”

  “Let me know if you need anything,” Carlo responded.

  His footsteps were heavy against the floorboards as he hurried back downstairs. She moved closer to the door and eased it open just enough that she could still hear them below.

  Pie was cursing, profanity spewing like water from a faucet. Clearly, he wasn’t happy about something.

  “Your grandfather says you should lock everything down. He also wants you both at his house until we know what we’re dealing with. I’m headed to the police station now, but I won’t be able to see him until after he’s been officially booked. I’ll know more then.”

  Pie muttered something under his breath and cursed one more time. Carlo mumbled as well as he responded with what sounded like a few choice words of his own. The sound of high heels clicked against the tiled floor, and then the back door opened and slammed closed. Danni stood where she was until she heard a car rev and pull out of the driveway onto the street. She blew a soft sigh, sensing that Leslie Harper had left and only the brothers remained downstairs.

  Sliding back into the bathroom, Danni closed the door. She flushed the commode and then turned on the water and washed her hands. When she finally reopened the door, Carlo was standing midflight, waiting for her to exit.

  “I have to run an errand. Do not leave this house,” he commanded.

  “Why can’t I...” she started.

  He snapped. “Don’t argue with me. Just do what I tell you to do!”

  Carlo took the remaining steps in two quick leaps. He rushed toward her, and Danni took a step back, her stance ready in case he struck out. Pie suddenly called his name, yelling up the stairs for his attention.

  “Let’s go,” Pie shouted. “Now!”

  Carlo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Sorry, something’s happened with my grandfather, and Pie and I need to go to his house.”

  “Is he going to be okay? Do you want me to go with you?” Danni questioned, feigning concern.

  Carlo shook his head. “No. It’ll be fine. And I didn’t mean to yell. I just don’t want anything happening to you, and you know these streets aren’t safe at night. I don’t want to have to worry about you. Can you please just stay inside until I get back?” He gave her a weak smile, the gesture feeling very disingenuous.

  Danni hesitated, and then she nodded.

  Carlo gave her another smile, and then he hurried back downstairs to Pie, the two men racing out the door.

  Danni moved down the stairs and watched from the front window as they climbed into Carlo’s car. When they were out of sight, she hurried back up the stairs to get her phone. She had left it on the dresser with her purse. She wanted to call and give Armstrong and the team the heads-up that the family was on the move, spooked by events they had no control over. She knew with a fair degree of certainty that he had made his arrest, Tank behind bars. Now that Pius knew, too, she was quickly running out of time. She moved down the hallway to the bedroom, and then she came to an abrupt halt in the doorway. The dresser top was empty, both her purse and her phone gone.

  * * *

  The task force and a forensic team were tossing Tank’s home from top to bottom. Police officers stood guard on the street in front of the brick house, and the neighbors stood as close as they could to the yellow police tape to be nosy.

  One of Armstrong’s detectives waved him to the shed at the back end of the small lot. Four officers stood inside, bagging and tagging the contents they were pulling from under the false floor. There was a small desk in the corner with a computer and printer, and the walls were papered with images of young girls and women half-dressed or naked and posed seductively for the camera.

  Armstrong shot Parker a quick look over his shoulder. “What do
we have?” he asked, his booming voice announcing their arrival.

  “Detective! Lieutenant!” One of the officers greeted them both with a nod. “We hit the jackpot, sirs. We’ve got video and pictures. And names. He kept records.”

  Armstrong took the folder the man was handing him. Inside were pictures of their last victim, Crystal Moore. There was the copy of a fake passport that had been made for her and pictures of her dead body. Everything Angel had told them was true. He sighed as he passed the folder back to the man.

  “We thought you’d want to see this,” a second officer sitting at the computer said.

  Armstrong moved behind the man, staring where he pointed on the screen.

  “Bryant had an urgent email come in just as we got started.” The officer clicked on the incoming mail folder and then the message at the top of the list. The sender was unknown.

  Armstrong read the message once and then a second time. He clicked on the attachments and felt his breath hitch in his chest. “Are you sure he didn’t see this?” he asked.

  The officer nodded. “He’s got no message forwarding, and I was sitting right here when it came through. I was the first and only person to open it. I called you the minute I saw it.”

  Armstrong stepped aside and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He dialed and put the device to his ear. Parker stepped around him to see what it was his brother had just looked at. On the screen were multiple photos of Danni.

  * * *

  Danni’s police detail was parked too far down the street to see her waving for their attention from the upstairs window. “Oh, cuss,” she muttered as she struggled to raise one of the bedroom windows, which were all sealed tight. Decorative wrought iron gates adorned the outside of each, making the home feel like a fortress.

  Carlo had locked her in, the front and back doors requiring a key to enter or exit. There was no house phone, and he had effectively cut her off from all communications with the outside. She blew a deep sigh, her hands clutching the lean line of her hips. She stood in thought for a brief moment, then hurried back down to the home’s main level. In the kitchen she considered her options, debating with herself if it was time for her to be scared, or not.

  She suddenly noticed the padlock resting on the counter. The door to the basement had been pushed shut, but Carlo had forgotten to secure the lock. Danni moved quickly, checking the driveway first before bounding down the wooden steps to the level below.

  The room was dim, the glow from a row of computers giving off the only light. Danni moved back up the steps for the switch on the wall, and she flicked on the single light bulb that hung from the ceiling. The space felt damp, the concrete walls unusually cool. The barest hint of mildew scented the air. A row of cabinets lined one wall with four computers on a countertop below. Data flicked off and on the monitors, information rolling across the screens. There was a large file cabinet in one corner, a utility sink and, on the other side of the room, a metal cot with a flimsy mattress and blanket. A pair of handcuffs was linked to the foot of the bed frame.

  Danni moved to the file cabinet. There were only a few folders inside, most of the documents pertaining to the coffee shop. There was one folder she found particularly interesting. It held the deeds to some thirty homes and properties in the Chicago area, all filed in Carlo Mancuso’s name, including the house Pie and Ginger lived in and the one on Morgan Street that Danni remembered Ginger saying the girls had been moved to. After reviewing and retaining the addresses of each, she placed the documents back where she had found them. She crossed back over to the other side of the room and opened each of the cabinets. There was nothing there but cleaning products, some hand towels, a tool kit and a host of assorted sundries. She shifted her attention down to the computers.

  Much like the data room that had been at Pie’s house, each computer was following websites that hosted the profiles of girls and women being bought and sold. There was a constantly rotating menu of sexual proclivities for a buyer to choose from. Danni was computer literate enough to know that unlike what she’d discovered at Pie’s house, these websites were being hosted on the dark web, space where data existed on overlay networks that required specific software, configurations or authorization to access. Due to the high level of encryption, it was difficult for law enforcement to trace and monitor illegal operations. Websites couldn’t track geolocation or the IP addresses of their users. As well, the users were not able to get that information about the host. This enabled dark net users to talk, blog and share files confidentially without the fear of being caught. This anonymity allowed for criminal activity such as illegal trades and media exchange for pedophiles and terrorists. After a quick study of the files and screens, Danni realized it was where Pius conducted a significant portion of his business.

  Danni tapped the enter button on the last computer. The screen had been dark, and it loaded quickly. Surprise washed over her expression when her image suddenly filled the screen. The header read Own Her Cherry! She clicked on the content and discovered the web page was for an auction site. There was a photo of her at the coffee shop, Ginger sitting beside her in the background. She was laughing and there was a glow in her face, her youthful expression belying her age and experience. There was also a picture of her at the Balducci party, dancing with a circle of girls. All of them looked like they were celebrating at a high school dance. The last image was of her sound asleep in the bed upstairs. She was wearing a pair of running shorts and a tank top. The bedclothes had fallen to the floor, and she was sprawled on her back. One arm was curled above her head, the other draped across her waist. Her legs were open, one bent at the knee, the other dangling off the edge of the bed. There was a moment of consternation and then rage when she realized her privacy had been violated. She tried desperately to recall when she might have fallen asleep with the door unlocked but couldn’t remember. She turned her attention back to the auction page.

  Bidding for her had already started, the price up to $650,000. It jumped up another fifty thousand as she sat there. She blinked rapidly, trying to comprehend how any man would want to pay that kind of money for anything, least of all her. But there were only two hours left, bids were still coming and the timer was counting down. Delivery was promised within forty-eight hours of payment. Danni started to shake, fear finally taking hold.

  * * *

  Armstrong checked in again with Danni’s police detail. They confirmed that Danni had not left the Mancuso house but that Carlo and his brother had been gone for almost an hour. A check of Danni’s cellular location showed that her phone was currently at the home of Alexander Balducci. He was beginning to worry, but he knew Danni was smarter than most people gave her credit for. She was also a force to be reckoned with, and he doubted that she would have run into any trouble and not tried to signal them for help. He’d sent a second unit to Balducci’s home, just in case.

  The entire team had been called into the station, and they were going through the wealth of paperwork they’d confiscated from Tank’s home. The more they dug into the chasm of dirt, the more the pieces of a very large puzzle began to fall into place. Armstrong asked for warrants to bring the family, Pie and Carlo specifically, in for questioning. He also planned to grab Ginger but would leave her for Danni to vet once she was back in house.

  His investigation of Carlo had uncovered information he hadn’t yet been able to share with Danni. The man’s name on deeds to multiple properties around town had moved Armstrong to escalate the request for search warrants up the law enforcement pipeline, to secure the proper signatures without their needing to provide additional proof. The IP addresses and websites she’d initially given them had been linked to a number of those homes. He knew that he couldn’t execute a search warrant on one home and not trigger the other criminals to shut down the system and run. They all had to be hit simultaneously. He wasn’t willing to risk their cleaning things up and disappearing. That was not
how he planned for them to go down.

  One officer had been assigned to monitor the underground auction of Danni. Twelve perverts were bidding ferociously for the privilege of stealing her innocence. The nature of the auction made it virtually impossible to track down any of their locations. But it was clear that they each had deep pockets and, from the comments, a discerning taste for the very young and pretty. Comments were distasteful and scary, no one shy about sharing their plans for Danni if they were to get their hands on her. Armstrong knew the timing was going to be crucial. He had just over an hour before the auction would end. He needed to hear from Danni before then or he fully intended to go in, guns blazing. Until then he was going to trust that all was well and that she was still able to do her job. With a deep sigh, he grabbed the Crystal Moore folder and headed toward the interrogation room.

  * * *

  Danni hadn’t heard the door open or close, sounds above muffled by the concrete insulation in the room below. Startled, she jumped, turning abruptly when Ginger called her name. Ginger stood in the middle of the stairway looking at her. Her eyes were wide, something like fear crossing her face. She tossed a quick look over her shoulder as she hurried down the last few steps.

  Moving swiftly to Danni’s side, she grabbed her by the arm. “Are you stupid? He will kill you if he finds you down here!” Ginger hissed from between clenched teeth.

  Danni took two steps back toward the computer and tapped the keyboard for the screen to light. “I doubt it,” she snapped back, pointing toward the screen. “I’m worth one million dollars right now, and it looks like that number is growing. I seriously doubt he’ll throw that away just to kill me for being nosy.”

  Ginger shook her head. “Where are they? Pie told me to pick him up here.”

  “Carlo said something happened to their grandfather. They went to his house. Did you know he was planning to auction me off?”

  “You were warned. I told you to leave.”

  “We busted the doctor. I’m sure they’ve found his stash by now. Angel’s already given us a statement. She’s going to testify in exchange for immunity and protection. But you know how Pius is connected to all of this. I really need you to come forward, Ginger. Your testimony would help us put him away for good.”