Voices In The Walls: A Psychological Thriller (Michael Gresham Series)

by John Ellsworth

  Bashar shoots me a look. I'm sitting in the front passenger seat of the cab. I can feel his eyes linger on my face.

  "Do you want me to just shoot him for you?" Bashar asks quietly.

  I laugh, thinking he's making a joke.

  But he isn't. He reaches beneath his seat and produces the biggest handgun I've ever seen.

  "What in the world?" I exclaim. "What's that for?"

  "Protection. Driving a cab is very dangerous work. If someone tries to take me into the woods and murder me at least I'll have one chance to save myself. But I'll also use it on your husband for the right price."

  Bashar will shoot Jana if I pay him enough? He’s not making this up. He'll really do it. I hesitate.

  "Well?" he says. "Do you pay me or does he get to go on living?"

  "I have money," I say. "I'm thinking."

  "Think faster. What you told me about him makes me very angry. Your husband is a devil. He is Satan."

  "I agree. He is a devil."

  "So, pay me five thousand dollars and he will cease to exist."

  "What would you do?"

  "Follow him until he goes into a parking lot. Then hide one car over. When he returns to his car I simply step up behind him and shoot him twice behind the ear and once in the chest. It's very clean and efficient."

  "That's very appealing. That's better than I can do."

  "Well? What do you say? Do we have a deal?"

  "Let me think, Bashar. Please."

  Not much else is discussed. Then, two hours later, we enter Cook County. A roadside sign welcomes us to the largest county in Illinois. Once again there is a gas stop and a fill-up then we are moving again. At Interstate 70 we head west. I have no idea where we're going but some of the names of towns along the freeway are familiar to me. It's not that I have memories of them, nothing like that, but I know I've heard the names before.

  At last we take the off-ramp and head into Palatine. We run along a country road for several miles and then come into the town itself. At the second light, we turn left and are soon crossing the Metra train tracks and continuing on. Several miles out from Palatine we come to a roadside motel, now defunct. Evidently it was bypassed by new road construction and went under as a viable business. Jana's vehicle pulls into the motel’s parking lot and I instruct Bashar to drive on past. They will see us if we follow, so we continue on down the road. As soon as we're out of sight, we turn around and creep back to the motel. Jana's car is still there but it is empty now. It is parked at what was once the motel office. No other cars are parked at that building.

  I point to the right and Bashar wheels his taxi into a dimly lit strip mall. There is a nail salon here, a Liberty Tax, an Asian market, Pete's Pizza and Pool, a computer repair shop and a bagel store. A few other cars are nosed into parking slots so we won't be the only ones there. Bashar backs into a slot and now we're facing the motel directly across the street. We can easily spot Niles' car—and any others—as traffic comes and goes.

  Over the next several hours we notice one thing. Cars do come and go at the motel. The rooms they go into look random to us, but I begin to realize those are probably rooms occupied by Jana's young girls. The men don't tarry there; they go inside, do their business, and come back and leave, usually in about thirty or forty-five minutes, tops.

  My insides are churning. I'm fairly certain we've located Trang. She will be inside one of those rooms, forced to perform sex acts for money.

  It is a disgusting and painful reality that settles over me. I believe Bashar realizes it too. What little he does say is angry and is directed at Jana for perpetrating such horror in the lives of human beings. Bashar wants to shoot Jana and set the girls free now. No waiting, just walk in and shoot him and tell the girls they can leave.

  But I can't have that. First I must be certain Trang is here. If she is, we'll make our plans. But if she isn't, then we have more detective work to do. Either way, I'm taking the long view and I settle into the passenger seat, ratcheting it back into a reclined position.

  Now we'll just wait.

  50

  Danny

  When the sun comes up, Bashar and I are still parked across the street from the motel. We remain there until just after ten o'clock, when Jana comes alone out to the SUV, climbs in, and pulls out of the motel lot.

  "Let him go," I tell Bashar, who starts the engine and asks to follow. "Him being gone means Trang is probably in there alone. This is a good time to try to talk to her."

  "How will you do that?"

  "Straightforward, Bashar. I'm going across the street and I'm going to start knocking on doors. If she's there, I'll find her. Give me your hat, please."

  Bashar hands me his Cardinals hat. I pull it low across my eyes. It hides my blond hair.

  I swing open my door and head for the road. Traffic is high speed along this stretch, so I find myself and my walker scrambling hard to make it across without getting squashed by an 18-wheeler. But I make it and decide to start with the door farthest from the motel office. Niles is still in there and I definitely don't want to let him see me.

  The room number is 114. I step up onto the sidewalk and knock. Voices can be heard inside but no one answers. So I knock again, louder this time.

  A very pretty young girl opens the door and stands there gazing up at me. She is short, and I am certain she is Vietnamese.

  "I'm looking for Trang. Is she in there?"

  "No Trang. Wrong room."

  "Is she in this motel?"

  "Down there," the girl says, pointing back toward the office. I turn and look. The last thing I want is to go down by the office.

  So I ask her. "Would you go and get her for me? I'm here to help her. And I'm here to help you, too."

  She eyeballs me suspiciously. "I don't know about it, but if you say," she says in a sing-song voice. "I will go ask her. If you pay me."

  "How much?"

  "Twenty dollar?"

  "Fine, fine."

  I pull a crumpled wad of bills from my jeans pocket. "Here's twenty. Now go, please. But don't tell anyone I'm here, okay?"

  "Okay."

  She stuffs the bill inside her sweatshirt and heads off down the sidewalk.

  Five minutes later she returns. Five minutes after that, Trang appears from inside the office and steps out beneath the overhang, looking toward me. I raise my hand and wave. She nods and starts walking toward me.

  The messenger pulls me into her room. "Be in here with Trang," she says. I thank her.

  Then Trang enters the room. She realizes it's me and rushes over and embraces me.

  "You came!" she cries. "You said you would come!"

  I hug her back and we hang on like long lost sisters. Then we part and appraise each other.

  "I want you to come with me," I tell her. "We can go somewhere and make plans to get all the girls away from here."

  "Oh, no, Jana hurt my friends if I go."

  "Let me worry about Jana. He's not going to hurt anyone."

  "Jana is very mean. He makes us sell our ass and gives us two dollars."

  "He pays you two dollars every time you're with a man?"

  "That right."

  "How much does he get?"

  "Two hundred."

  “Here’s your chance to get away. I've got a car across the street. I’ll come back for your aunt and everyone else.”

  Trang goes to the motel room's window and parts the blinds with her fingers.

  "Taxi is yours?"

  "Yes. Let's leave now!"

  A pained look takes her face. "I cannot go. My aunt is here. I cannot leave her."

  "Where is she right now?"

  "In Niles' room. She with Niles."

  "Great. How about I pay Niles and buy her back. I'll do that for both of you."

  "Okay."

  We leave the room and walk to the office. With every step the hair on the back of my neck prickles. An inner voice tells me I shouldn't be doing this. The same voice tells me to bolt and r
un. But I don't.

  Trang leads us inside. She goes up to the counter and rings the bell.

  Sure enough, a sleepy-looking Niles appears in the doorway leading to the back room living area.

  “No, Danny!” he cries. "You shouldn't be here!"

  "I know. We're leaving. I want to buy Trang and her aunt from you. How much do you want?"

  "Ten-thousand-dollars. Apiece."

  I pull out my wad and clumsily paw through it. “There’s not enough. How about I make a down payment and come back with the rest after I get to the bank?"

  He rubs his cheek. "Sure. Leave the money. And the girls. Come back when you're ready."

  "I don't think so. I think I'll take Trang now and come back for her aunt. You keep my money in the meantime. That way we're both protected."

  He takes a deep breath and leans his elbows on the counter.

  "Jana is on his way back any minute. But I always liked you. I’d leave now if I were you."

  "Not without Trang. I swore to her I would help her."

  "And you tried and it didn't work. So leave now while you can."

  I turn to Trang. In the slant of morning light coming through the front window she looks all of twelve. Perfect skin, perfect posture, wide mouth with perfect teeth. I want so much to restore her innocence, to protect her, to set her aside for herself when she reaches an age where she can claim herself as her own. I want that for her.

  "Niles, I have a gun. Don't make me go get it."

  He laughs. "Go, get out now. We've all got guns, girl. What are you thinking? Now listen, I'm trying to protect you, Dania. I'm telling you it's not safe here. Just take yourself back across that street to that taxi, get in, and drive away. Jana isn't five minutes from here right now."

  "No can do. I'm taking Trang."

  Niles suddenly lunges, grabbing Trang by the wrist. He pulls her back behind him, pushes her through the door to the living quarters and kicks the door closed behind him.

  "Now go. This is the last time I'm going to say it, Dania, then I'm going to hurt you. Jana wants to see you dead. There's not much I can do to help you if he comes back and you're still here."

  I turn and look behind me. The prickly hair on my neck is screaming out for me to start running. I know Niles is right; I know Jana will kill me.

  So I give in. Without a gun and without money to buy her freedom, I am helpless to move Trang out of this terrible place.

  Back across the road I crab with my walker, jumping into the taxi and ordering Bashar to drive.

  "Where to?"

  "Just go!"

  51

  Michael

  Word from the hospital reaches me that Danny has fled. Where she has gone is anyone's guess. I call Marcel, my investigator, and set him to tracking her down. Marcel at one time worked for Interpol tracking down very bad people and there's no one better qualified to find Danny than him.

  Marcel's first step is to submit the name of Dania Gresham to the World Bank's Findex database. A hit is instantly returned, revealing her new account at Bank of America. Her most recent transaction is a ten-thousand-dollar withdrawal from the BOA branch in Schaumburg by the mall. Two days earlier. He knows she could be anywhere in the world by now, especially with that amount of money, but his sixth sense tells him she is still in Chicagoland. So he checks the utilities database. Sure enough, electric service has been established in Dania's name in Schaumburg. The address is given as well.

  Marcel drives directly to the Schaumburg address and finds a four-plex at the location with one car out front. It is a blue Honda Civic at least ten years old with a current registration sticker. He parks his white van. From a distance of fifty yards his spot commands a view of all vehicular and pedestrian traffic coming and going from the location.

  For two days he sits on stakeout, hoping for a break. But then he reports to me that during his entire time on location there has been zero traffic coming or going, neither vehicular nor pedestrian.

  We meet back in my law office. Marcel is wearing jeans and a gray sweatshirt and looks like he's missed the razor several days running. His eyes are bleary and he is chain-smoking in my non-smoking suite.

  "Nada, nothing, zip, zero."

  "But it's the address where she's had the electrical hooked up?"

  "Electric and water. Both now. I even crept over and looked in the windows in the middle of the night. There appears to be furniture."

  "But no Danny."

  "No. What do I do, boss? Go back?"

  "Hmmm. Let's talk about that. Why would she take on a four-plex in the first place?"

  "My guess? She's into some kind of religious or social cult. Some group of people looking for a place to crash."

  "That sounds like a good first guess."

  "All right," Marcel says, "I can certainly work with that. Does she go to church?"

  "Not regularly. She converted for me. I didn't require it and we didn't have a church wedding because I'm divorced, of course. But she just wanted to do it to honor me."

  "Damn poor reason to join a church," Marcel opines. I don't argue with him.

  In the end, we agree to run our stakeout another forty-eight hours and then hire it out to some PI. Marcel is too important to me to leave in a car parked on some city street any longer.

  Now we can just wait.

  Surely, Danny will appear.

  52

  Danny

  Jana's attempted murder and insurance fraud are both Detective Tingo's cases so he follows his fugitive to Chicago. His intention is to run him to the ground, make an arrest, and transport back to Madison County for prosecution on both charges.

  I'm relocated in Schaumburg when Tingo comes to my apartment. I'm living in a corporate hotel on Garden. I've also rented a four-plex in Schaumburg for the Vietnamese girls when I help them escape Jana.

  Tingo comes to my room late at night as I have emailed him and told him where Jana can be found. Killing Jana myself is looking impossible because he’s surrounded by other men who work with him. I am confident they all carry guns and would kill me without a second thought if I came for Jana.

  "What's the lay of the land where Jana's holed up?" Tingo wants to know. "Do I need to take the sheriff in there with me?"

  I tell him I don't know. And I really don't. I saw Niles there and earlier I saw Jana there. Whether they have any more pimps lurking around, I just don't know.

  "And how are you getting along, Danny? Dr. Milligan was very upset when you ran away from the hospital."

  "I'm getting along just fine. One of Jana's girls needed my help and I couldn't wait any longer."

  "What is that girl's name?" Tingo asks. He has produced a notepad.

  "Trang Anh Nguyen. She's twelve."

  He looks at me then makes a quick note in his book. Then he shakes his head.

  "Danny, do you remember Nurse Trang?"

  "Yes, she was very good to me."

  "Does it sound odd to you that she has the same name as your girl?"

  "I hadn't thought of that. But odd? It happens. Two people have the same name all the time."

  "Then let's talk about Jana. I've done some snooping around. The Jana Emerich who was in prison and then released by the district court. He's moved to San Diego. Did you know that?"

  "So what's he doing back here?"

  "That's just it. My sources tell me he hasn't been out of California in over a year. Yet you see him here. In fact, you're telling me he's in Palatine at an old motel even as we speak."

  "Just go look, Detective Tingo. That's all I'm asking."

  "I plan to. But here's one more item for you. In your email you told me a taxi driver by the name of Bashar brought you to Chicago? I've done some looking. We've found that Mr. Bashar actually works as a respiratory therapist at the hospital in Alton where you were a patient. He recognized your picture and said you used to take long walks around the ward and that you would often stop and talk to him. Does that sound like something you once did?"


  I stop him. I don't need to hear any more of this. Raising my hand, I begin to back away.

  "Stop!"

  "Why stop, Danny? Can't we talk about this like two old friends? Dr. Milligan wants you back at the hospital. They were just getting ready to release you to long term. Doesn't that sound like something you'd like to try?"

  "Not at all. I'm telling you Jana is in Chicago. And he's running a motel full of juvenile prostitutes. Doesn't that sound like something you need to look into?"'

  He opens his hands. "I have no jurisdiction here, Danny. That's a local crime for local law enforcement, I'm afraid."

  "Well, you better leave now."

  "I want to ask you to come with me, Danny. I can have you back under Dr. Milligan's care in just a matter of hours."

  "Jana must be dealt with first."

  He gives me what I can only describe as a very sad look. Then there's a long sigh escaping from his lips. "Okay. Then I guess I'm done here. Oh, wait. One more thing. There's a Denny's about a half mile from here, back toward the freeway. Would you meet me there if I brought someone who wants to talk to you?"

  "Who would it be?"

  "Dr. Thomas."

  I love Dr. Thomas! He was my first doctor after my terrible accident.

  "Of course I'll meet with him. I love that man!"

  He has a free day this Friday. Can we meet at Denny's at nine Friday morning?"

  "Done! I'll be there."

  "Fine."

  He lets himself out my door and I can hear him walking off down the hallway, whistling as he goes.

  It was a tense visit because I was afraid he was going to force me to go back to the hospital. Is he ever wrong about Jana. The guy is here and he is operating and people are suffering because of him.