by John Moore
Maddy and I both breathed a deep sigh of relief. He was badly injured, but he was going to recover. There was no doubt in my mind who had done this to him. It was El Alacran, and I knew he didn’t want to kill Zach. He wanted to scare me. That’s why he dumped Zach at the center. He wanted me to know he was in town and above the law.
“Maddy, let’s go back to the center and get some sleep,” I said. “You can see Zach in the morning. I will be heading to Los Angeles. I would like you to stay at the center while I’m gone and help the girls. Do you mind?”
“No, I was hoping I would be able to stay there for a while. When Zach is finally able to get around on his own, I want to leave New Orleans and start fresh somewhere. I think he will be willing to go now. He’s paid his debt to Jaeger and his Dixie Mafia friends.”
The center was silent when we returned, a quiet calm throughout the house. Mothers had put their young ones to bed, and no one stirred when Maddy and I walked in. I hadn’t realized it was two o’clock in the morning. I needed my rest if I was going to be on my game in Los Angeles. I was happy to know Maddy was staying at the center to watch over the residents in my absence. She seemed older than her years. I couldn’t help but think it odd that Maddy, in her mid-twenties, and Karen, only seventeen, were taking on the responsibility of caring for all of these people. But that’s what good people do. They rise to the challenges placed in front of them, and I wondered if I could do the same.
I had to.
A new day dawned, and I went to catch my 10:00 a.m. flight. I packed fairly light. I just wanted to get Piper and return to New Orleans. I would be in Victor’s backyard in LA. I decided to leave my gun in New Orleans. I just didn’t want the hassle with TSA at the airport in either city. I hoped I wouldn’t regret my decision.
I had mixed feelings when the plane touched down at LAX: excited to see Piper, but not able to relax thinking of Victor’s long reach. I hoped he wasn’t tracking me. I left my phone at the center and hadn’t purchased a burner yet. These were uncharted waters for me. I felt like I was sailing without GPS or even a compass. I walked from the plane, down to baggage claim, but still no Piper. I took the courtesy van to my hotel and checked in to my room. I thought staying close to the airport was the best idea. Still nothing, from Piper. When room phone rang, and I pounced on it.
“Ms. Lee, we have a package for you at the front desk.”
A package? Who could have left me a package? It must have been Piper. I rushed down. The front desk clerk handed me a small box. I opened it to find a cell phone. I went back to my room and waited. Why wasn’t she contacting me? What on earth was taking so long? Finally the phone rang. It was Piper. She said an Uber driver would pick me up in five minutes in front of the hotel. I was beginning to feel like I was the lead actor in a spy movie. All of this cloak-and-dagger stuff unnerved me. The driver brought me to Venice Beach.
I walked along the beachfront, looking at all of the painters, street performers, and small vendors to see if Piper’s face was among them. I saw no one I recognized. The scene did remind me of the French Quarter. Lots of tie-dyed shirts, beards, and long hair. I walked along the car-free street lined with trinket shops. A person could buy a T-shirt with anything imaginable written on the front or back. The air was different too, no humidity and a very pleasant seventy-two degrees.
I passed a shop with plastic and ceramic skulls for sale. A young man with wiry red hair and a T-shirt with “Day of the Dead” printed on the front called to me, “Alexandra, follow me. I’ll take you to Piper.”
Should I follow him? He could be one of Victor’s guys. No way—he was exactly the kind of person I’d expect Piper to send to bring me to her. I followed him away from the beach to a shabby apartment above a small store. He said his name was Breezy. I figured it was a California thing.
There was Piper sitting on a couch in the cramped apartment, a sleeping bag covering the floor beneath her feet. She looked exhausted, her face pale and her hair unwashed. She smiled at me nervously. I held out my arms, and she and ran over and jumped right into them. I held her close, never wanting to let her leave my sight again. Is this what it feels like to be a mother? Holy shit. Now, I had a lot more respect for what so many women go through. Part of me wanted to kiss her, and another part of me wanted to knock her into next week for scaring the shit out of me. I settled on hugging her tightly enough that she squeaked.
Then I extended my arms, pushing her back to look her up and down for damage. Other than the fatigue, she looked intact, her multi-colored hair shiny and stringy. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” I said.
“I’m sorry! I had to. I was imposing on you and Tom. You were both so nice to me. No one ever treated me like that. You seemed to understand me and took an interest in really getting to know me. It freaked me out for a while. Just when I was getting used to thinking I could have a real family, Victor showed up. I knew he would hurt you to get his hands on me. I couldn’t let that happen. So I ran away.”
“That’s crazy, Piper. We are family. Whatever troubles come our way we’ll face them together.”
Piper’s face reddened. She looked down at the floor for a second, and then back up into my eyes as tears ran down her tiny face. “Do you really mean that? You are my family? You won’t leave me?”
I raised my hand and wiped her eyes. “I’m afraid we’re all stuck with each other till the end. I won’t lose you, Piper.”
“I don’t want to lose you,” she whispered.
“Good, that’s settled. Now tell me how you pulled all of this off, you little shit.”
She smiled at me, relieved I wasn’t mad, and she was clearly proud of herself. “I hacked into your phone. I got all of your contacts. That’s how I found Amada. I told her where to park it so we could make a quick getaway.”
“Clever,” I said.
“Once I made it to LA, I connected with my friends in our underground network. We are a group of white-hat hackers who share secret hacking tactics. Some of them used to be black-hat hackers stealing money, crashing sites, and running scams. We don’t allow any of that in our group.”
“I didn’t know clubs like that existed,” I said.
“There are many of them. Alexandra, I want to find my mom. I know she’s all messed up, but she’s still my mom. Maybe we can take her back to New Orleans with us? What do you think?”
I smiled at her and said, “Sure we can. If she will come with us we can take her to New Orleans and get her back on the right track. I’m sure you have a plan to find her and talk to her. Don’t you?”
Piper told me all about her plan. Victor had a site on the dark net, a place that couldn’t be accessed by ordinary browsers like Firefox, Google Chrome, or Microsoft Explorer. Surfing the dark web required a browser like Tor. It could surreptitiously access dark web sites. Victor’s site was a hookup site. It displayed photos of young women who worked for him, and they could be booked for services at the spa. Some he allowed to do out-calls to hotels around the Los Angeles Convention Center. Piper had it set up for a hacker friend to get a room in the hotel and book a hookup with one of the girls for a husband and wife date. Not just any of the girls, one whom she knew she could trust. Sasha, who went by her stage name on the site (Samantha), was one of Victor’s recruits from Ukraine. Sasha missed her family and wanted to get home to her war-torn country. Piper had already put her plan in motion. Sasha was to meet her date tonight.
I told Piper what had gone on in New Orleans since she left. She said Victor was behind everything that happened. He had hacked Jaeger’s phone years ago and followed his every move. That’s how he stayed ahead of Jaeger. Victor bragged about how he was a descendant of the Russian Czar who kicked the Huns out of Russia. Victor hated Jaeger and vowed to destroy him.
Piper summoned an Uber driver to take us to the hotel to meet Sasha. Her friend had already checked in and left passkeys for us at the front
desk. We went to the room and waited for Sasha. We didn’t have long to wait, because Sasha was prompt. I answered the door and she walked in.
“Hi, Sasha,” Piper said, emerging from the bathroom. “I hope you don’t mind that we tricked you into coming. This is Alexandra, my friend from New Orleans.”
“Piper. Oh my God. It’s really you,” Sasha screamed. “You’re all grown up. I haven’t seen you in more than a year.”
The two girls embraced. They looked like sisters reuniting after one being away at school. It was touching, but soon turned to business.
“I can’t stay long,” Sasha said. “My driver is waiting in the lobby for me to finish. What are you doing here?”
Piper put both hands on Sasha’s face. “Tell me, where is my mother?”
Sasha turned pale. She hesitated for a few seconds and then looked at me. She couldn’t look directly at Piper to speak her next words. “Your mother is dead. Victor had her killed and her body taken out to sea.”
Piper began to cry but was still controlling herself. “Tell me what happened.”
“She told Victor you’d run away. He believed it and really didn’t care, until one of the other girls told him about what you could do with a computer and he wanted you back. Your mother wouldn’t tell him where you’d gone, so he did what Victor does. He killed her.”
“But my father received a call from her,” Piper said.
“That was Katerina,” Sasha said. “She was trying to warn you. She paid with her life. Victor had her killed too for double-crossing him.”
Now tears flowed freely down Piper’s face. She wailed and wailed. I knew at that moment that I was going to get that bastard if it was the last thing I did.
After what seemed like hours, Piper finally composed herself. She said, “My mother and Katerina are both dead. There’s nothing left for me here, Alexandra. Let’s go home to New Orleans.”
Chapter Twenty-Two:
Troubles Pile Up
I offered to pay Sasha’s way back to her home country. She refused. She knew if she left the spa, Victor’s Russian Mafia wing would track her down and kill her and her family. She was trapped, a prisoner for as long as she could make them money. I asked her how we could help, and she said she didn’t know yet but she was working on a plan. Something that would make Victor think she wasn’t worth the trouble anymore. I didn’t want to leave it like that, but I couldn’t save everyone. She and Piper hugged and promised to stay in touch under the radar.
Then she messed up her hair and makeup and left the room after one hour, the allotted time for which she’d been rented, no longer a woman but a piece of equipment like a carpet shampooing machine. She had to be returned sustaining only normal wear and tear. Oh my God. What type of world were we living in today? She was a modern-day slave. Sure, it wasn’t state-sanctioned like the slave trade was 150 years ago, but it was tolerated as a victimless crime. No wonder so many girls went missing from the streets. Many became sex workers forced by fear, drug habits, or both to work the streets.
Piper and I returned to New Orleans the next day. We sneaked into the city, booking our trip under fake names and using fake IDs graciously supplied by Piper’s underground friends. I felt like a criminal, but also realized it was the best way to get home safely. Piper was quiet most of the trip. She needed the time to make some sense of the evil Victor had brought into her short life. I’d learned a little about evil myself. You couldn’t just passively let it exist; you had to fight it with every fiber of your body or suffer the consequences. I’d told Victor and El Alacran to go fuck themselves, and I meant it. I was sure they would both be after me as soon as I surfaced.
We drove to the condo first. Sophia had already been to Mexico and back. I introduced Piper to her. They had similar life stories, having both lost their family members to crime syndicates. Sophia’s father was murdered by a Colombian drug cartel, and Piper’s parents were wiped out by the Russian mob.
“Tom is in a prison in Chilpancingo, Mexico,” Sophia said. “The court has set his bond at $100,000 US. Like I told you on the phone, his charges are rioting and resisting lawful arrest. The prosecutor on the case is threatening to up the charges to eco-terrorism. My friends at Interpol believe the prosecutor and other local officials have been bribed to bring these charges. Interpol hooked me up with some of the local honest politicians. They are working behind the scenes to get Tom released to my custody. If the authorities agree to release him to me, he’ll have to return to Mexico to face trial. I wasn’t able to visit him, but he got word that we are trying to get him out. We should know something soon.”
Piper’s mood grew more somber with every word from Sophia’s mouth. “Alexandra, that sounds really bad. Tom is in a lot of trouble. I’ll bet Victor’s mafia or drug cartel buddies are bribing the Mexican prosecutor. We may never see him again. They may kill him in prison.”
“No, little one. They won’t kill him,” Sophia said. “They know Interpol is watching. Killing Tom would bring too much heat down on their heads. My American Interpol friends have put the US Embassy on notice that Tom has been detained. The embassy has made a formal inquiry into the charges. They wouldn’t dare kill him now.”
I wasn’t sure if Sophia was just trying to calm Piper, or Tom was really safe. My experience in Colombia led me to believe he was still in danger. I wanted to scream, feeling so frightened about what might happen to Tom, but I didn’t for Piper’s sake. I kept it together at least for now. We needed to get Tom back to the United States as soon as we could. Piper’s custody status conference was scheduled in a week. It would look bad if Mr. Clark had to report to the court that Tom was in a Mexican prison.
Piper and I left Sophia to head to Sarah’s House. I hadn’t been in touch with Maddy and wanted to get an update on Zach’s condition. Maddy was talking to one of the residents when we arrived, and as soon as she laid eyes on me, she jumped up and ran to greet me.
“Alexandra, Zach is doing better. They’ve already taken him out of intensive care. He’s in a room with a couch. I can stay with him overnight now. I am so glad you are back,” Maddy said, bursting with enthusiasm. “Hi, Piper. Are you OK? We were all so worried about you.”
“I’m fine,” Piper replied. “I’m sorry I worried everyone, and I’m glad Zach’s doing better. Alexandra told me what happened to him. Did he tell you who beat him?”
“He’s not going there. We all know who did it. But what can he say? I was making a drug deal and got beat up? No one would care, especially the police. He just wants to put the whole matter behind him and get out of here,” Maddy said. “Alexandra, a lady from the state came by while you were in LA. I put her card on Ms. McAllister’s desk.”
Lady from the state? Holy shit, that couldn’t be good. What now? I went into Susan’s office and found the card right where Maddy had left it. The lady from the state was Theresa Butler with the Louisiana Department of Family Services. She’d written a note on her card for me to call her as soon as I could.
It was too late to call tonight. It would have to wait till tomorrow. I was too tired to talk to anyone anyway. I used Susan’s computer to check to see if Piper had gotten my site back up on the web. I was a little surprised that it popped right up. The list of missing girls was growing larger by the week. I wondered how many groups like Victor’s were out there and how many of the missing girls were victims of their evil schemes. I had to shut off the computer and cleanse my mind of these disturbing thoughts to sleep. It was difficult, but I simply had to. Piper and I both bedded down in Susan’s queen-sized bed. I wanted her close. After a few minutes of reassuring each other, sleep came quickly to both of us.
Morning arrived with little fanfare. The center was so quiet and peaceful. No one would have ever known there were sinister forces brewing storms in the city. This center should be a place of serenity. These poor women and children had already suffered devastating upheaval
s in their lives, yet evil found this refuge anyway. I guess you really can’t hide from the forms evil takes. You can only fight it.
With these thoughts in mind, I called the Department of Family Services and asked to speak to Ms. Theresa Butler. She was pleasant enough, asking if she could meet with me this afternoon. I must admit this wasn’t what I expected. She seemed genuinely interested in helping me get things back on track at the center. She said her visit was just a formality, something she had to do to complete her paperwork. Whew, what a relief.
I called Jess Johnson, and as usual she was in her office. She agreed to see me if I could get my ass in gear and make it there in the next hour. That was Jess. She was always on a deadline and expected everyone else to be as well.
“Come on, Piper,” I said. “You are coming with me to meet one of the greatest ladies in this city.”
That perked Piper up. When I told her Jess was Haitian, she got even more excited. “Do you think she knows anything about voodoo?” Piper asked.
“Jess knows everything about everything,” I said. “Let’s go see her.”
I had already decided that wherever I went, Piper was going too. I couldn’t risk her getting separated from me again. Besides, I knew she and Jess would hit it off, Piper possessing the right kind of spunk for Jess. We arrived at Jess’s office in no time. I’d been there so many times everybody recognized me. They all looked a little surprised to see me with a teenager. Stares and whispers marked our trek to Jess’s office.
“Trying to make deadline and this damn computer won’t work,” Jess said as she stood behind her chair. A young man with spiked hair and horn-rimmed glassed was seated at her desk pecking away at her computer keyboard. “Who’s that?” she said, looking at Piper.
“Jess Johnson, I want you to meet Constance Sanders. We call her Piper.”
Piper smiled and nodded at Jess, calling on her street smarts to recognize a woman not to be trifled with. Jess sent a return courtesy nod Piper’s way, never changing her game face, and got right down to business. “What can I do for you? You can talk in front of Henry here. He’s in our IT department. I don’t think he understands English.” Henry wrinkled his nose and poked out his lower lip at her comment.