“All right, all right, I’m thinking here,” Harrison said. “Listen, I may get a message to a guy I know by the name of Mikhail Vasiliev. Mikhail is also a brigadier in the Ivanov clan, but he’s higher up than Alexander. In fact, he’s right under Yuri Ivanov. I think I’m going to have to have a word with him. I’m going to tell him that he needs to tell Yuri to drop Carl as a partner. I have enough dirt on the entire Ivanov clan that if I really wanted to, I could start cooperating fully with the FBI. They’re already offering me protection in exchange for my giving testimony about what happened to that government official, and everything else that I’ve been involved with over the years. I’m going to tell Alexander that I’m going to take that deal unless he tells Yuri to drop Carl.”
“Is that going to work?” Regina asked excitedly.
“Of course it’s going to work. Listen, Yuri has business alliances everywhere. He cuts ties with people all the time. He’s pretty cold-blooded when it comes to the people that he cuts ties with, even if they’re making a lot of money, as I’m sure this ring probably is. All I need to do is give the word that I’m about to sing, and I’m being protected heavily back here, so they can’t get to me. I give that word, and, within a few days, you’re going to find that Yuri is no longer partnering with Carl. That’s going to leave Carl vulnerable. I still don’t think he’ll be prosecuted for what he’s doing, because he has too much crap on everybody in town. But, without the Ivanov family to back him up, I think that you could get the girls out of there safely.”
Was it really going to be as easy as that? This guy just gives the word, and Carl no longer has an enforcer on his side?
Could she trust Harrison? The better question was, what choice did she have? This guy was literally the only game in town as far as she was concerned. She had to put her faith in him, because that was the only way that her and Avery’s plan was going to work.
“Thank you for doing this.”
“No. I need to thank you for coming to tell me about what my daughter is doing. And I need to thank you for getting her out of there. I’ll do anything for her. And, if you ever see my wife, you tell her that I’m coming for her when I get out. I don’t play that shit.”
At that, he got up from the table, and shook Regina’s hand. “You just sit tight. You give me a couple of days, and, I can guarantee you that the Ivanov family is not going to play a factor in the Carl Williams sicko ring. And then you can be free to take the girls out of there and do whatever it is you need to do.”
Regina smiled as she got up and left the pod, and made the long walk to her car in the parking lot of the prison. While she was not going to count her chickens before they hatched, she felt confident that something was going to happen. At least, the first step was going to happen. She was going to get girls out of there, and Avery was going to file a lawsuit on their behalf.
For the first time since the entire mess got started, Regina actually felt hopeful.
Chapter 16
Avery
I stood there in shock, until I opened the door to Paul’s office. There were people milling about, and I went up to the receptionist desk. “Um, I have to report, um, an accident.”
It was then that the police arrived in the office. After Paul’s body hit the pavement below, there was a lot of pandemonium, and the cops were called immediately. Paul was evidently identified by his prosecutor’s badge that was in his wallet, which led the cops straight to the District Attorney’s Office.
Since I was a witness to what happened, I had to go down to the police station and give them my statement. I was shaking and in shock, and there was a part of me that was feeling extremely selfish about the entire situation. Now that Paul was dead, what? What was going to happen? How was I ever going to find out who exactly killed Becky all those years ago? I kicked myself mentally. I should not have been so aggressive with him. I should’ve simply told him what I had, and just left it at that. Did I really have to tell him in such explicit detail exactly how things were going to go? Could I not foresee that he was going to be backed into a corner, so that he knew that it was either he be murdered by a member of the Ivanov clan, or he would be exposed for the entire world to see? I gave him absolutely no way out. Well, that wasn’t right. I did give him a way out, and that way out was straight to the pavement of Third and Broadway.
I got down to the police station and answered questions for the next two hours. However, I did not tell them what I did to precipitate him jumping out that window. I knew that if I did tell them that, I would be guilty of criminal extortion, at the very least. If they were going to be really creative about it, they could probably charge me with Paul’s murder. There was no way that I was going to risk that, so I lied to the cops. I told them that I didn’t know why Paul would’ve jumped out the window. Perhaps he had some kind of deep-seated guilt about what he did to me all those years ago, and he couldn’t live with himself, so, when he saw me in his office, it just tripped him.
The cops seemed satisfied with what I told him.
“Well, Ms. Collins, your story about him prosecuting your case checked out. I just had an assistant do some research on what you were telling me about how he was responsible for you being falsely imprisoned, and she produced this newspaper article for me. It talks about how you were let out of prison, and how the prosecutor in the case had apparently concealed evidence. I’m going to take you at your word that that might’ve been the reason why he jumped out of the window while you were there in his office. This is not the end of the investigation, I hope you understand. I’m going to have to speak with some other witnesses. But, for now, you’re free to go.”
As I left the police station, I felt the heavy burden of what I just did. I just lied to the cops. I was responsible for a man’s death. Granted, it was the man who was responsible for my imprisonment, but that did not make make me feel any better about his fate. And there was a part of me that was terrified that the cops were going to find out the truth about what really transpired in that office - they were going to find out that I was extorting Paul at the time when he jumped out that window. I was going to always have to be looking over my shoulder, afraid that the cops were going to come to my door anytime and arrest me for making criminal threats.
Maybe even arrest me for his murder.
Chapter 17
When I got in the car, I turned on my phone, and I saw that Regina had called me several times.
I immediately called her back when I got in my car. “Yeah, Regina, what’s up?” I asked her.
“You’re never going to believe what just happened today.” She proceeded to tell me about her visit to Harrison in prison. I got excited as she spoke, but not as excited as what I should have been. My enthusiasm was muted by what I just did, and the fact that it was uncertain that this entire plan was going to work anyways. I thought I had a fool-proof plan with my extortion idea. It turned out to boomerang on me in the worst way.
And I might never find out who killed Becky.
“Okay, listen, you keep me posted on the progress,” I told her. “I want to know when the girls are safe to get out of that compound, and then I have to come up with a plan to get them out of there. Then we’ll go from there. In the meantime, I need you to do some research for me.”
I told her about what Paul told me about Carl’s airtight alibi for Becky’s murder. I needed her to verify that, and she said that she would.
I arrived at my condo, and was greeted by my two girls, Harlow and Lola, my beautiful boxer puppies. They were thrilled to see me, as usual, their tiny little docked tails wagging violently as they surrounded me. Harlow went and got her leash, which was hanging on the doorknob, brought it over to me and dropped it at my feet, and then went into a play bow, her butt up in the air, her front paws crouched down. Lola, for her part, dashed into the bedroom, and brought out my tennis shoes in her mouth and dropped them at my feet.
In spite of myself, I had to smile and laugh at their antics. They were so
smart. They knew that the leash and the tennis shoes meant that they were going to go out for a walk on the beach to see all their puppy friends.
“ I see you girls are giving me some unsubtle hints about where it is you want to go.” I went down the hall, and knocked on Aidan’s door. I knew that he was home, because the girls were home. My arrangement with him was to pick the dogs up at their doggie daycare when he was finished with his work for the day, if he finished before me. Since he usually got off right at 5 o’clock, and I usually worked later than that, he was usually the one who ended up bringing them home.
“Come in,” he called when I knocked on his door.
I opened up the door, and he was laying on his bed, a magazine in his hand. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked me.
“Nothing. I just wanted you to know that I’m home, and that I’m going to take the girls out for a walk.”
“Cool. Hey, I saw on the Internet that that dude, that Paul Sharpton dude, bought it. He jumped out the window.”
I swallowed. “I know.” I decided not to say anything else about it, because I was too raw, too numb. He was going to find out in due time that I was present when Paul killed himself. But at that moment, I just couldn’t talk about it.
“That’s all you’re going to say? You know? I mean, that guy ruined your life. I figured you’d be dancing a jig. Anyhow, if you’d like to smoke a bowl later on in celebration of that guy being wiped off the face of the earth, I’ll be up for it.”
I had to smile at that one. Aidan needed no excuse to smoke a bowl with me or anybody else.
“I just might take you up on it.” And that was the truth. I didn’t usually get into smoking marijuana. But, tonight, I was going to need something to take the edge off. There was just something about knowing that you were responsible for a man’s death that makes you really want to not look at yourself in the mirror ever again.
I got the leashes on the dogs, and the three of us headed down to the beach. It was 7 o’clock, the end of a long day, and all I wanted to do was relax in front of the raging surf and try to forget what happened that day. It was strange, really. When I was laying in my prison bed, I dreamed about this guy’s death. My fantasy was that he would die in a fire, or by drowning, or some other terrible way of going. I definitely did not want him to have a painless death. I wanted it to be painful and protracted.
Yet, now that his death was a reality, and I had to see it with my own eyes, and I knew that I was the cause of it, it was different. My fantasies about getting back at him by making him die slowly were just that – fantasies.
I wondered if I would ever be able to look at myself in the mirror again.
Chapter 18
I met with Regina the next evening. I was going to confess to her what I did. I had to tell somebody. Christian already knew, of course. After all, he was in on our entire scheme. He was my partner in crime, so to speak. He, like me, was stunned about what happened. About how it ended. And, like me, he realized the implications of Paul taking the easy way out. That meant that there still was nobody to prosecute Carl’s ring. It also meant that the mystery as to who actually killed Becky would continue, because Regina did look into Carl’s alibi for the time that Becky was killed, and, just like Paul said, it was airtight. He was in Geneva for an international conference. Regina did her due diligence, spoke with 10 people who were at that conference, and all of them confirmed that Carl was there. She found, online, evidence that he had purchased a round-trip ticket, with the help of Christian’s hacking. She found out the hotel that he was staying at, and he had signed in and out of that hotel.
So, it seemed as if trying to convince somebody to prosecute Carl for Becky’s murder was not going to happen. But I still was not convinced that his ring was not behind it. In fact, that was still my focus. I just knew that Becky’s death was somehow related to that ring.
The two of us met at Il Fornaio, an old-school Italian restaurant on the other side of the Hotel Del. It was an upscale place, and Regina and I were able to get a seat that looked out onto the ocean. Our seat was in an enclosed deck, with wicker chairs and white tablecloths on the table.
“What is it with you and fancy places?” Regina asked me when she walked into the restaurant.
“I don’t know, I just like this place. My favorite thing is the Pollo Toscano.” I was a purist, and the free range rosemary chicken combined with the potatoes and vegetables was something that was my idea of heaven.
Regina just shrugged. “Hey, there’s pizza on the menu, so I’m all good.” She scrunched up her nose as she looked at the menu. “But, even the pizzas are fancy here. White truffle oil on a pizza? Just throw some pepperoni on there, and I’m good.”
I pointed out the fradiovolo, a pizza with Italian sausage, mushrooms, bell peppers, red onions, and tomato sauce. She was right. The pizzas were fancy, but that particular one seemed like it was most traditional.
Regina nodded her head. “Yeah, that sounds good. Anyhow, you and I gotta talk about what our next move is.” She then proceeded to tell me about her meeting with Harrison. “I want to go see him tomorrow, and see if he talked with his friend about getting Yuri out of that ring, and then I’m going to have to figure out if Yuri really is out. And if he is, we’re golden. I’ll admit, I was afraid that if I started rounding up the girls to get them out of there, Yuri was going to send his goons after me and them. I mean, I don’t care if he sends his goons after me. But I didn’t want to put their lives in danger. But take Yuri out of the formula, and I think that we can go ahead with getting them all out of there.”
“Yes. And then it’s just a matter of my filing a lawsuit against Carl. With the attendant publicity that such a case would garner, combined with the fact that his clients will be terrified that they’re going to be exposed, and I think that that will be the nail in the coffin. I mean, Carl’s going to have bottomless pockets to pay these girls, but that’s really not the point. Sunlight is the point. That, and the fact that the girls really need to be compensated. All of that’s the point.”
The waiter came around and took our order, and I ordered a bottle of wine for the both of us too. “Now, on to our next problem. Carl obviously was not personally behind killing Becky. How are we doing to figure out who did?”
Regina bit her bottom lip. “I don’t know. I’ll keep trying to turn over every rock in that place. Even if Carl himself wasn’t behind it, I have a feeling that somebody’s gonna know what happened to her. I think that you and I agree that Carl might not have been directly behind it, but his dirty paws were in there somewhere. We just have to figure out where.”
“Okay. The first thing that you need to do is to figure out if Yuri is out of Carl’s orbit, and if he is, then you’re going to have to figure out some way to talk to every one of those girls and make them feel comfortable with leaving. I know that a lot of them probably are concerned about how they can live outside of that compound. I have to agree that they are probably right to be worried about that. Some of the girls are runaways, and they might be returned to their parents. Others were on the street for other reasons. And they’re going to have to go into the system. All of them are minors, and, obviously the ones who were pressed into doing that by their parents, they will also have to go into the system. I know that they’re scared and won’t want to do that, but we have to convince them that there really is not a choice.”
“Well, hopefully, most of the girls will have some kind of a relative who might be able to take them in. I have to admit, I’m worried about every one of them,” Regina said.
And then Regina told me Britney’s story. It was probably one of the most heartbreaking stories I had ever heard in my life. “Well, I feel badly for her as well. And I know that maybe for her, staying at that Carl compound would be the lesser of two evils. But, we’re going to have to figure it out. Anyhow, I think we have to come up with a plan to make this entire thing foolproof. In other words, we have to make it to where the business collapses on its
elf. And then Carl will ask all the girls to leave.”
As Regina and I enjoyed our delicious Italian food by the sea, we hashed out a plan that I thought was a good one. If everything worked out, getting the girls out of there would be a cinch. What happened next, of course, with the girls’ situation, was anybody’s guess. But it had to be better than what they were doing now.
Chapter 19
The next week, I found out from Regina that Yuri had, in fact, dropped Carl as a client. “We better strike while the iron’s hot, or at least while Carl does not have an enforcer behind him. It’s only a matter time before he finds somebody else to take over the job that Yuri was doing, and our window will shut on our fingers.”
So, I found myself scheduled to go to Carl’s mansion. I made an appointment with him, telling him that I was being sent to try to clean up the situation. At that point, Carl apparently was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying desperately to find somebody else who would run interference for him in the outside world. I had the unenviable task of going to tell Carl that the jig was up, there was nowhere to turn, and it was time to pack it in.
But, the day before I was scheduled to go to Carl’s place, I got a phone call from Regina. “Listen, I need you to come over here. I got this guy over here at my house. I need you to check him out. If you can check him out, it might help matters.”
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