Because Athena was eating for two, and Leo was a ravenous little über-baby, she piled her plate high before handing it to the marshal and following him using her cane. They stopped at a small conference room on the mezzanine level. He opened the door and set her food on the table. “I’ll be outside if you need me.”
Elijah was sitting at a little, round table holding a cup of coffee with both hands like he was praying over it. A saucer next to him held a couple slices of dry whole-wheat toast. His hair was much whiter than in his photo. He was staring at a document next to his coffee, like he couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
Next to him, Norma Nelson sat with a bowl of plain oatmeal. Athena was glad to see her again. They’d shared a few tense moments together and lived to tell the tale. Even better, Norma knew the case’s details inside and out, so she could keep Elijah on track.
Neither prosecutor looked particularly happy, maybe because both seemed to be on diets. Athena hoped that was the reason, and not that the two weren’t getting along or they’d discovered a gaping hole in their case.
Poor Elijah. How could DOJ have yanked the guy out of LA, shipped him to Wyoming, and expected him to jump into an unfamiliar attempted murder trial the next day?
That was outrageous, but she blushed warm when she remembered that she’d told Judge Trujillo that she wanted to maintain the original trial date. She’d put Elijah into this impossible spot, not some nameless muckety-muck at DOJ.
Both lawyers were concentrating so deeply that they hadn’t seemed to notice Athena’s arrival. She cleared her throat.
They both started.
Elijah gave her a smile Louie Armstrong would’ve been envious of. At least he wasn’t feeling too much like a fish out of water.
“There you are, Athena,” he said. “I’m Elijah Montgomery. I been readin’ about your shenanigans over the last several years. Can’t make no sense of it. You seem to be livin’ dangerously, girl.”
She set down her tray and shook his hand. Then, she hugged Norma who was beaming at her.
“Mind if I stuff my face while we talk?” she asked them both. “I’m starving.”
“Nope,” he said, “and I might swipe one of yo’ pieces of bacon.”
His saucer of toast and her oatmeal look pitiful, so she gave each of them two slices of bacon.
The rest of her breakfast went down quickly while she answered his questions about her past. Luckily, it quickly became obvious that he’d exaggerated how confused he was.
“I’ve already told Elijah,” Norma said, “about how you worked out your direct testimony with dear Trish.”
Norma had taken meticulous notes, but unfortunately, they hadn’t survived the explosions at the safe house.
“Between you and me,” Athena said, “I’m sure we can recall most of it. My story is pretty simple.”
Elijah nodded. “That’d be divine. I’m a simple man.”
The two women walked through Athena’s direct testimony from the beginning. Right before they got to the gunshot to Athena’s head, Elijah stopped them. “Perfect so far, but hold up. What were you thinking right before you opened that there door at the top of the parking garage?”
His question came out of the blue. “Oh, I’m not sure I can remember.”
“Think back. I don’t gotta know, but it surely could help. That bein’ the last instant of yo’ life when you’ll ever be normal again. Might be a good idea to dwell on that happy thought for a minute with the jury. Then, bam! We whack ’em with the horror that followed. That way, we’ll all get shot together.”
Norma grinned, and Athena got it, too. Elijah knew how to make a jury feel like they were in that garage with her.
They’d sure as hell suffer. She knew that better than anybody. Just remembering that night and her incredibly painful recovery always brought tears to her eyes. She rarely let herself think about it anymore. And when it came to mind accidentally, like it still did every few days, she distracted herself as soon as possible.
Sitting there, her whole body stiffened. What had been going through her head the instant before she had been knocked out cold? When she woke up, she was forever blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, and she’d lost some control of the entire left side of her body.
Her mind remained blank. “Listen,” she said, “I need a couple of minutes to work on that. Not sure I can get that memory back again.”
“Take all the time you need,” Elijah said. “I got hours of reports to read still.”
She steeled herself and cast her mind back to that horrific night. She’d hurried up the stairway. Why?
She’d loved the iced tea at dinner with her friends. And it had gone through her quickly, like it always did.
Why had she parked at the top of the garage? It was to protect her new Accord from door dings. It seemed to take forever to climb the stairs.
“I drank too much iced tea at dinner,” she said. “I went to the ladies’ room on the way out of the restaurant, but it was dirty. So, I decided to hold it till I got home. Big mistake.”
Elijah burst out laughing. “Perfect!”
His right hand froze in midair for a moment. “Let me check something.”
He pulled a folder out of a thick litigation bag and fumbled through some papers.
The man snickered. “Yeah, that’s perfect. When the EMTs first reached your body, they found a pool of blood surrounding your head and a puddle at your waistline.”
Athena’s face warmed. “No, you’re not going to talk about that in court.”
He smirked. “I danged sure will. That’s an experience we’ve all shared. Everybody will be standing next to you when you get shot.”
The three lawyers worked through Athena’s testimony about the actual shooting until Elijah’s phone pinged. “Oops, about time for court. You stay safe here, girl. Norma or I’ll call you at our lunch break to update you on what’s happenin’. Plan to testify first thing tomorrow mornin’. Tonight, we’ll run through your practice cross-exam. Fair warning—I take no prisoners.”
Chapter 15
Maude’s farm
By morning, Maude felt more kindly disposed toward Kane. He’d reminded her why she’d been attracted to him in the first place. He was better in bed than the other men she’d slept with. And the more she thought about his get-rich-quick scheme, the more she loved it.
That didn’t mean she was about to get rid of Dawn. The bitch knew too much to lose control of her. But she and Kane could go hunting.
Maude was thinking about the possibility while she lay in bed. Kane’s hand remained clamped onto her ass.
She whispered, “The only way I’ll consider your plan is if we’re full partners. That means you tell me everything.”
He let go of her and frowned. “I’m just saving you a bunch of messy details. What else do you need to know?”
“Who’s going to buy these girls, and how much will they pay?”
Kane didn’t respond for a moment. Finally, he said, “That’s exactly what I’m trying to protect you from. The guys who run these sex rings are rough, connected to organized crime. You don’t want to know about them. Better to have plausible deniability.”
Maude was smarter than he thought. Kane was trying to take advantage of her ignorance. “No problem, find somebody else to mooch off of.”
Kane groaned but didn’t move. “I like it here, and you weren’t complaining last night.”
“You weren’t taking advantage of me then. We’ll either be equal partners in this new deal, or we’ll go our separate ways. No more sneaking around and lies.”
“Nobody’s lying or hiding anything.” He tried to roll onto her.
She kept her arm up to block him. “Who’d you sell Dawn to and for how much?”
“No sale, not really. He hasn’t even seen her. Nothing is final until the buyer sees the babe.”
Maude struggled to control her temper. He needed to realize she
wasn’t going to let him run his scheme alone. But she could be patient. Instead of arguing, she kept him from rolling onto her.
After minutes of struggling, he groaned. “If I tell you everything, you might cut me out.”
She suppressed a snicker because she had thought about it. But she knew enough about grabbing bitches to realize it was a two-person job. “Here’s the deal. We always hunt together. When we catch someone, we take her to the buyer together. And we split the money right then.”
“Fine,” Kane said with a growl in his voice. “Move your damned arm. We’ll seal the deal with a kiss.”
“Not until you answer my questions. And I want to meet the buyer.”
Through gritted teeth, Kane said, “Diesel Curtis offers the best price for the hottest girls. He says he might be willing to pay thirty grand for Dawn, depending on what kind of shape she’s in. He’s seen the TV news stories about her.”
Thirty grand instead of twenty? What a bastard. But Maude didn’t throw that back in his face. Just reminded herself he’d con her every chance he got. But if she kept her wits about her, they could both make a shitload of money. And by the time Rufus came back, Kane would be expendable. She moved her arm up out of his way. “Much better. Now, show me how happy you are with your new partner.”
-o-o-o-
After breakfast, Maude sent Kane and the girls out to work. Although it was cold, and snow was coming soon, the fields needed cultivating. Skye had told her she knew how to drive a tractor. The harrow attached to the back would break up the soil and chop up the young weeds already growing. Dawn could hoe the tight corners in the fields and other niches where the harrow wouldn’t go. And Kane could supervise them from a lawn chair.
While the girls stayed busy, Maude would visit Curtis, the pimp in Greeley. She and Kane had already talked to him, and he’d agreed to meet Maude. She told him she needed to see his operation to understand better what kind of girls he’d like to buy. That happened to be the truth, but Maude also wanted to meet the main customer for her and Kane’s new business venture.
-o-o-o-
Cow Palace Public House
The prosecutors headed to court to finish picking a jury. Athena returned to her suite to spend some quality time with Hagrid. Then, the guard took the mutt out to do his business and brought him back a few minutes later.
Back to finding Skye and the others. Athena locked the door and set to work looking for every organic farm and ranch in northeastern Colorado. They all had to be certified by USDA, so Athena hacked into the agency’s network system and prepared a list of more than eighty certified businesses.
Then, she cross-checked that list of addresses with the list of vehicle registration addresses for white Silverado pickups. She found twenty-nine matches.
Next, she compared those addresses to the DMV drivers’ license registry, looking for large, dark haired men. That gave her three matches, but unfortunately, Beau and his various helpers had already eliminated all of those potential suspects.
Athena blew out a deep breath. Somewhere along the line, she’d made at least one wrong assumption.
Which evidence is most helpful? That had to be the video of the truck driven by the kidnappers and the videos of the same truck on I 76. The mottled red canopy was almost certainly unique, but she didn’t know how to find it. The next best evidence was the organic potting soil on Sophie’s hand, and that evidence pointed them in a particular direction.
Athena reviewed her logic, and the most precise useful evidence was the potting soil stains. That evidence gave them less than a hundred targets while there were thousands of white Silverados on the road. She shipped the list of thirty-nine organic farms with Chevy trucks off to Beau along with an explanation of why he ought to look there first.
-o-o-o-
FBI Denver Field Office
As soon as Beau received Athena’s list of farms, he divided it up with the two CBI investigators and headed out to check the closest name on his list. As before, the main open question was, did the white pickup at a particular location have a mottled red canopy? And while he was there, he’d look for Dawn and Skye.
Like the kidnappers, he drove northeast from Denver on I 76. When he reached US 85, he turned north, generally following the South Platte River toward Greeley.
While rolling down the highway in his FBI-issued SUV, he called Erin Dunbar to check on Mingus.
“He’s still in the hospital, and sleeping peacefully,” she said. “Mingus’s condition has improved considerably, thank God, but he hasn’t remembered anything more about the kidnapping.”
Beau was disappointed but not surprised. The guy was lucky to be alive. He’d struggled so hard to help earlier, and that reinforced Beau’s determination to find the man’s daughter alive and safe.
Beau reached the first targeted organic farm, outside a small town called La Salle. He got as close as he could while remaining on the public road. After whipping out his binoculars, he searched for the truck and quickly found it. The vehicle was parked in front of an old log cabin. No canopy, and the living quarters were barely large enough for one person. Beau didn’t see how the owner could’ve stashed three women somewhere, so he scratched that location off his list and moved on.
-o-o-o-
Red Dragon, Greeley
Maude pulled into a parking lot in front of an old brick warehouse situated on the outskirts of town. The outside was covered with dust, and the roof showed lots of patches. The building seemed abandoned, but one car was parked near the only entrance, a rusty, gray door. A faded sign on the building said Randolph Distributing Company.
A small camera peered down on Maude as she stood before the entrance. Before she could hit the buzzer next to the doorknob, a gravelly voice spoke from a small intercom. “What?”
“Antelope. Maude here for Diesel Curtis.” He’d given her the password earlier.
A buzzer sounded. She opened the door and walked into a poorly lit vestibule with black walls. Before she reached a door at the opposite end, the voice said, “No weapons, cameras, or electronic devices. Return them to your vehicle.”
She did, even though she wasn’t keen on being alone and defenseless in a mob-run whorehouse. Toughen up. Can’t be helped.
On her second attempt, she made it all the way through the vestibule and was buzzed through another door. It opened into a large, dimly lit room with a circular bar on the left. A series of small tables with comfortable chairs surrounded the bar.
The bartender was a scantily clad, statuesque redhead who was watching a Victoria’s Secret fashion show on a large TV hanging down from the ceiling. The room’s walls were painted scarlet and covered with posters of naked women in suggestive poses. Classic rock played in the background.
On the far side of the main room, a hallway led to a number of doors, like a wing of a hotel.
A short muscular man with a bald head cleared his throat next to her on her right side. He stood at a pedestal that held up a laptop computer.
“I need your driver’s license,” he said.
Maude took it out of her purse and handed it to him.
He swiped it through a slot in a small box next to the laptop. “Can’t be too careful these days.”
A moment later, he nodded and returned her license.
“Go to that door marked Private. Knock first.”
She walked over and realized the open area smelled like the fragrance counter at a department store. A mixture of different scents. She knocked on the door, and a deep voice she recognized as Curtis’s said, “Come on in.”
The oak-paneled room inside the door reminded her of a lawyer’s or an accountant’s office. Curtis stood behind a massive oak desk piled high with papers. He was a tall, stout man with short, curly, gray hair. He walked around his desk, shook her hand, and waved a small electronic device about the size of a deck of cards in front of her. “No bugs. Can’t be too careful.”
“No
problem,” she said. They no doubt had to be paranoid in their line of work.
“How is it outside?” he asked. “I can hardly wait for spring.”
Maude wasn’t the chatty type. Tamping down her nerves, she said, “I’m sorry, but I have a bit of a time problem. I hope you won’t mind if we get straight to business.”
He shrugged again. “Up to you.”
“I’m a businesswoman, and I always like to meet the people I’m working with. With luck, we’ll have a long, mutually productive arrangement.”
He smiled like she’d told a funny joke. “Sure.”
Maude wasn’t sure how to get to the point, so she just blurted out, “Kane tells me you have definite ideas about the kind of women you need. Is he right?”
He shrugged then spread open his hands, as if he was explaining the obvious. “Our clientele are mostly farmers and oil hands. They tend to be relatively young and well-paid. All day, they face a dangerous, demanding job, and during their free time, want to relax. Throw back a few beers. Cozy up to a woman who reminds them of their girl back home. Lots of these guys are from small towns. Plenty of Texans.”
That was helpful. Dawn would fit right in, but Maude couldn’t risk letting her go. “I get it, college girls, perky blondes, lots of giggles, and great figures. Former high school cheerleaders.”
Curtis beamed. “There you go. Kane said you were smart. I’ll take as many as you can find. Willing to pay up to thirty grand each for the cream of the crop. Like that gal, Dawn Miller.”
Maude didn’t want to admit having her, despite what Kane must’ve already said to Curtis. “I don’t know her, but I’m sure we can find you similar fresh faces.”
“That’ll work, too. Cash upon acceptance.”
He said it so casually, like he was negotiating the purchase of ground beef for his restaurant’s kitchen instead of buying a living human being. Not that she was any saint, but at least she felt bad about what she had to do. The fucking FBI had ended her life as a farmer, at least for a while.
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