I tried to put the thought out of my head. I was being paranoid. I pictured Diamond seated in front of a bank of computer screens, monitoring his various properties, and seeing me, or at least my Jeep, parked behind Holly’s cottage. I imagined him ordering up one of his helicopters and that it’d come swooping down on me like some drone or giant bird of prey. I took a deep breath and exhaled. This was ridiculous. And, there was nothing I could do about it, not now. Instead, I continued to push Holly for more information about the boat, how big was it and who was onboard.
“Does Diamond have Gabi Garrison on the ship? Is she there with the other girls?”
Holly’s eyes shifted nervously to me then back at the traffic ahead. We were headed west on the ninety-one, toward the marina. She didn’t answer.
“Is that where Diamond’s hiding her?” I pressed.
“I don’t know! I don’t know, okay? I mean, maybe. Like I said, I don’t ask questions. All I know is he told me they’re shipping out and to bring all this stuff for the girls.”
Her hands gripped the wheel, her small frame leaning forward against the steering column as we weaved our way in and out of traffic. She nearly sideswiped an airport shuttle van as we raced toward the end of the Marina freeway and took the final exit on to Lincoln Boulevard on two wheels. I got the feeling Holly wasn’t just nervous; she was petrified of being late.
“Where’s the boat, Holly? Is it docked here at the Marina? Or,” I crossed my fingers, “twenty-six miles across the sea, in Catalina?” I didn’t think my stomach could handle a boat ride to Catalina. I could already feel it starting to churn. Just the thought of rocking in the water had me feeling nauseous.
“It’s anchored in the harbor, just outside the marina. Diamond’s got a couple of goons. He calls them his goon-squad. Overpaid flunkies who work for him. They guard the boat and keep it ready to go. There’ll be a dinghy and a pilot waiting behind the Chart House.”
I considered trying to call Tyler and telling him what I was up to and that he should call the police, but as I reached for my cellphone, Holly put her hand on top of mine.
“Don’t. I know you want to, but I don’t trust anyone, Carol, particularly the police. You don’t know who Diamond’s connected to. He’s on the police commission. He knows everyone. I’m not taking any chances.” Holly’s eyes locked on mine like a trapped animal. The fear in them was almost palpable. I put my phone away and grabbed the nurse’s cape from inside the bag.
“I guess I should put this on now.”
The cape was a rare vintage blue and red wrap. I imagined one of Diamond’s girls had worn it with not much else. I pushed the thought from my mind and put the cape over my shoulders, thankful for the warmth. The cool sea air was starting to come in and the temperature fell. I held the nurse’s hat in my hands.
“Look, once we deliver this stuff, I’m outta here. Anything happens between now and then, you’re on your own,” Holly said.
I glanced back at my watch, thankful Sheri had thought to loan it to me. If I weren’t home in time for dinner tonight, I’d be up for bad mother-of-the-year. But, thanks to the watch’s internal GPS tracker, at least Sheri would know exactly where I was, and just how fast my heart was beating.
“Come on, Holly, what could go wrong?” I tried to sound reassuring. “We get on board, you introduce me as the nurse, I meet the girls, pretend to take a few temperatures, sneak a couple of pictures with my cellphone, and we leave. Simple as that. Besides, Diamond’s not going to be there, and even if he was, what do you think he’s going to do, make us walk the plank?”
CHAPTER 33
Holly was right. The faceless man piloting the dinghy didn’t seem to care who I was or why I was there. He had a scarf wrapped around his neck and wore a Dodger baseball hat low on his forehead, as though he was trying to keep his identity a secret as much as I was my own.
Without so much as a hello, I climbed into the dinghy, a motorized inflatable not much bigger than my bathtub at home, and pulled the nurse’s cape close around me. Whether it was the cold chill coming off the water or my nerves, I wasn’t sure, but I craved the security of the wrap about my shoulders. I moved as far forward as possible and sat down, unable to stop shivering.
Holly and the pilot quickly unloaded the boxes from the back of her Mini Cooper until the entire craft seemed to almost sink beneath its weight. By the time they were finished, I could easily dip my fingers into the ocean without leaning over and my stomach was beginning to react to the up-and-down motion of the boat.
I closed my eyes and put my head between my legs. I tried to imagine Eric with his arms around me. When I’d feel seasick aboard the Sea Mistress, I’d lean up against him and we’d look out at the water together. In his arms and beneath her big white sails swelled with the wind, I felt like I could almost tolerate the motion of the water slipping beneath us. But even the thought of Eric holding me wasn’t working now. I stared out at the horizon and wrapped my arms about my body. The biting sea air whipped against my face and stung my eyes. My head felt dizzy, my stomach like a yo-yo, bouncing and bobbing, as the boat sped away from the marina. I tried focusing on the horizon, not the rolling waves coming at me. With enough willpower, I could maybe mentally walk myself through the worst of this.
I forced myself to concentrate. Tyler always said a good reporter follows the facts. He loved to lecture me. Don’t wait for the story to come to you, Carol. No matter where the facts lead you, follow them. I laughed to myself. I was doing that just now. Too bad he didn’t know. I wished I’d called. I thought of the sign Tyler hung above his desk. GOYA/KOD. Get off your ass/knock on doors. Well, here I was, Tyler, seasick and headed out of the harbor. How about that for knocking on doors?
I focused on the missing girls. Their lives depended upon my finding them. If Diamond moved them before I found them, I might never reach them, and they’d be gone forever. I had no idea what I was I was getting into. I didn’t even know if I could trust Holly. But I had to do something.
Up until Monica’s death, it had never occurred to me that sex trafficking was something that actually happened here in the United States. I always thought things like that happened elsewhere, in third-world countries, where women were little more than chattel. But after Bessie Bixby bravely announced on the air that she was certain her granddaughter, Leticia, and her best friend, Brandy, had been kidnapped by sex traffickers, it blew open an entirely new discussion. Detective Browne, who couldn’t talk about Monica’s case specifically, spoke in generalities about what he feared was the very real problem of sex trafficking in Hollywood. The girls he believed were all targeted based upon their looks, their desirability, and just how easily they could be kidnapped and in most cases, forgotten.
“Runaways,” he said, “girls escaping abusive situations, girls from poor sections of town, didn’t get the attention of the media like a rich girl from west side of town might.”
Girls like those he believed had been targeted weren’t working some hot-sheet motel downtown or some sleazy brothel. Girls in the trade were most likely housed, fed and clothed in a safe house. For the first time in their lives, they may have had better accommodations than they had ever known. Suddenly they were in the company of rich men, going to fancy parties, wearing expensive designer clothes and traveling in circles they never dreamt possible. And it was likely, he said, they wouldn’t run away because they were either too afraid, or convinced they had a better life with their captors.
I had no idea what Diamond’s boat might look like, but as we slowed, I was awed. Ahead was a massive four-story white cruiser, twice the size of the Sea Mistress, maybe a hundred and fifty feet long. It looked like a party boat, the type of craft people rent for weddings and office parties. But I knew better. This was no amateur operation. On the top of the boat was a communications tower with a satellite antenna that looked like it could have relayed signals from here to Mars. On the s
ide, in large black letters, was the ship’s name, Sweet Dreams.
I had a basic understanding of ships, but it was very limited and only what Eric had taught me. The top deck, or the sundeck, was located directly beneath the bridge. Multicolored flags hung from the ship’s masts to its railing, as though to welcome its visiting clientele.
Beneath the sundeck was the mid-deck. It included a series of small French balconies, obviously leading to staterooms, where I assumed the girls were being held. The doors were all closed and the windows darkened. At the end of the mid-deck, or at the ship’s stern, was the poop deck. This was a ridiculous term Eric told me had nothing to do with one’s bodily functions, but on ships like this, frequently provided a play area.
I could see a small sauna and jet skis with a lifeboat tucked neatly to the side of the ship. Beneath the mid-deck was the lower deck, or what I assumed from the smaller, round, portal windows, was the crew’s quarters. Below that was the orlop deck, or the bottom of the ship, where the ship’s cables are stored. I wondered if that’s where I might find Gabi. It’d make an ideal prison. My heart sped up at the possibility.
I looked back at Holly. “So this is it, huh?”
She leaned towards me, the sound of the motor and the wind whipping though our hair, nearly drowning her voice out.
“Yeah, this is it. No matter what you think about Diamond, the ship’s amazing. Used to be an old World War II minesweeper. He completely redid it. You’d never know. It’s like a floating nightclub.”
“Only it’s not,” I said.
“Yeah, it’s not.”
We pulled up alongside. I don’t know what I expected, but a rope ladder definitely wasn’t it. From above me, someone had tossed the ladder—a rope with wooden steps—that rolled down the side of the ship, like a venetian blind, into our dinghy. Our pilot grabbed it, then tossed another rope up to the top deck, maybe forty feet above my head, and waited for it to be secured. Then he nodded to me.
“Climb.”
CHAPTER 34
Climb? I looked at Holly. This is it? This is how we get onboard? She grabbed the Louis Vuitton bag, like it was no big deal, and started up the rope.
“Really, I’m supposed to do this in high heels?” I hollered.
“Just don’t look down and, whatever you do, don’t look back.”
I had no choice. I buttoned my nurse’s cape, secured the cap on my head and carefully grabbed the rope in front of me. It was damp with seawater. I took a deep breath and placed a very unsteady foot onto a slim wooden foot-bar and focused my eyes solely on Holly’s cowboy boots just inches above my head. I tried as best I could to dodge the oversized Louis Vuitton bag that was nearly hitting me in the face as I followed her up the ladder.
When Holly got to the top, she screamed. I watched helplessly as two sets of tattooed arms leaned over the railing and lifted her out of sight.
I stopped. I was too afraid to move. I stared helplessly up at the empty steps above me then quickly down at the ladder behind me. There was no escape. The dinghy pilot had moved the small inflatable boat as soon as Holly reached the top and black water formed small whirlpools where the boat had been. The ladder, with only me on it, bounced aimlessly against the side of the boat. It was too far to jump. Swimming would be impossible. The water too cold. The distance too great. I had nowhere to go but up.
Slowly I put one foot in front of the other, then just steps from the top, two pair of strong arms reached across the railing, exactly as they had with Holly, and roughly pulled me aboard, depositing me on deck like a piece of unwanted baggage. I hadn’t even gotten my bearings; my legs were still crumpled beneath me when I heard my name.
“Carol, my dear. Again?” Diamond grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to my feet, then wrestling with my wrists, turned me around to face him. “We really have to stop meeting like this.”
I struggled helplessly to free myself from his grip. My nurse’s hat came off and fell like a wounded bird back toward the water. My eyes followed it, then I looked back at Diamond.
“Nice to see you too, Doctor.”
“I’m sure it is.” He pulled a nylon rope from his pocket and started to bind my hands together as he spoke. “You shouldn’t look so surprised. I can be anywhere I want to be inside of forty minutes. But then, I’m sure you know that.” He nodded to the chopper sitting atop the helipad behind the control tower, its rotor blades barely visible. From the angle we had approached the big ship, I hadn’t seen it. “It’s the future, Carol. Certainly you’ve heard me talk about it. Too bad you won’t be around to enjoy it.”
Then securing the knot with a heavy yank of the cord, he ran his heavy hand down the lapel of my cape, coming to stop just above my heart. “A nurse, huh? You couldn’t have done better than that?”
Next to me, Holly was struggling. A man, twice her size, had his arms around her small frame. She was no match for his strength.
“Why does that surprise you, Doctor?” I could feel my body quiver in the cold air, or maybe it was his touch, but I refused to let him see me shake. I stood up straighter, my voice stronger. “I would think with your penchant for disguise, Mr. Gable, you might appreciate that.”
“Actually, I do like the blue and red nurse’s cape, Carol.” He stood back and taking one side of the cape in his hand, held it out from my body, studying me. “It does something for you. A little like Red Riding Hood.”
“And I suppose you’re the Big Bad Wolf?”
“Oh, we could have fun with that now, couldn’t we?” He put his other hand on the back of my shoulder and pulled me close to him. His head just inches from my own.
I spit in his face.
“My, my, well now, it’s quite obvious as a nurse you don’t follow instructions, do you?” He pushed me away and took a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped his cheek. “Too bad you just didn’t stay home and recuperate. I could have sailed away with my cargo and been gone, and you’d never find me or my girls. In certain parts of the world, what I have to sell is considered exotic—bringing an even better price than what I’m getting now. But now that you’ve interrupted me, I suppose we have to see how good of a nurse you really are. Perhaps we should start with the sight of blood.”
He laughed and nodded to two of his cohorts. “Get their cellphones, and take Holly down to the hold. As for Miss Childs, escort her to my suite, and make sure the door’s locked from both the inside and out. I wouldn’t want Red Riding Hood here to get out and get lost. She and I have some things to discuss.” Then turning back to me, he said, “I can’t wait to hear your story. I’m sure I’ll find it quite amusing. Too bad no one else will ever hear it.”
I’d hidden my cellphone, best as I could, in the front pocket of my jeans and Diamond’s henchman had no trouble patting me down and finding it. I yelled as he took it from me and handed it to Diamond.
“You want to know something about cellphones, Doctor? It’s why you’re never going to get away with this. Monica’s friend has a copy of an audio file she sent to your cell. Dear Mr. Gable. Sound familiar?” I paused and waited for some sort of recognition on his face. He glared back at me, his eyes narrowed.
“She sent it to your cellphone. The one you used to talk with her...for pleasure...Monica told her you had two. One for business, and the other one for...what did she say? Fun?” I laughed nervously. “I had a copy sent to the station. Monday morning, it’ll be all over the air, along with Monica’s friend saying how Monica sent it to you right before you took her out and killed her. Pushed her out of your helicopter, over her parents’ home, ’cause you wanted to settle a score with her father.”
“You mean this phone?” Diamond took a cellphone from his pocket and held it out over the side of the boat. “You think I’d be stupid enough to save something like that? Well, not anymore.” He tossed it overboard. We both watched as it hit the water like a rock and sank. “No
w get them out of here.”
I watched as Holly was hustled down below the main deck. My last visual of her was her eyes—big and terrified looking back at me as though I were her final hope. With my hands bound in front of me I tossed my head confidently, a nod of camaraderie. We were in this together. I hated this guy and hoped my fury inspired her to know we weren’t going down. Not without a fight.
If there were any of Hollywood’s Missing Girls on board, I didn’t see them, as I was escorted down the steps from the top deck. Daylight streamed in through the ship’s windows to the deck below, illuminating a large open club-like area.
At the far end of the room was an elaborate wooden bar with crystal glasses hanging above it and a fully stocked shelf of wines and liquors behind it. In the center of the room were cocktail tables surrounding a large stage, and in the middle of the floor—I couldn’t believe it—was Marilyn Monroe’s star. He’d stolen it. With all his money, he wanted her star here on his ship. And surrounding the star were three, long slim, floor-to-ceiling poles. Pole dancing? I didn’t get a chance to ask.
I was hustled through the room and down a long hallway toward the front of the boat to Diamond’s suite, where I was shoved through the door.
I tripped over my own two feet as I stumbled into the room and fell into a small swivel chair. Behind me, I heard the door pulled shut and the lock click into place.
I glanced down at my hands, bound with white nylon cord and nearly laughed out loud. Diamond, you fool. In his haste to bind my hands he had tied a loose fitting clove hitch instead of a more secure constrictor knot. I knew the difference instantly. Charlie and I had spent one summer studying various knots and their uses for a Boy Scout’s program.
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