by John Moore
No sooner did I ask myself this question than my phone rang. “Alexandra, this is Inspector Jaeger. I’d like you to come to the police station and clear up some matters for me. Do you mind? Maybe this afternoon if that is convenient.”
I hesitated for a moment. Should I call Mr. Amato before I answered? That would be the cautious action to take. Screw it. I was on my own and I knew it. I made sure my voice was cool and composed. “I would be happy to; let’s say around three.”
“That will be fine,” Jaeger said.
I hung up and let loose a few vicious words into the air. Oh, how I wish I would act directly on my feelings! But I had responsibilities. Piper. I wondered how Piper was dealing with her foster family. I checked my blog. She’d hacked my site like I’d asked and left me a private message.
“Hey, I’m with my foster family. They are cool. They’ve given me my own room and a macked out computer. I have full lightning speed access to the Internet. I’m good. Don’t worry about me. I can hang here for as long as you need me to. I’ll stay in touch. If you need me to do anything for you on the web, I won’t have any trouble getting it done. Love and miss you, Piper.”
Was the answer to my self-directed question ever really in doubt? Fight and fight hard was what I was going to do. I was going to fight for my family. They couldn’t have Piper, they couldn’t keep Tom, and they couldn’t put me in jail. Even though Susan wasn’t my family, they couldn’t have her either. And I was going to start by going to the dark side of the city to look one of its demons in the eyes. I strapped my .38 to my ankle, put on some pants with loose-fitting legs, and struck out for the French Quarter.
I walked into Clinton Cunningham’s strip club early in the morning. Just like the last time I was here, people were drinking and a dancer feigned obscene acts with a pole on the stage. This was the dark side of New Orleans. The side where people with no destination parked their lives, counting the days until there were none left to count. They drank every waking hour of every day, numbing the pain of lives littered with uncorrected mistakes. Clint was the mayor of this city, hidden in plain sight. No one cared what these people did as long as it didn’t hurt the tourist industry. It had its own ecosystem operating in the shadows.
I marched into Clint’s office. He sat behind his desk with two goons occupying two of the three chairs in his office. He continued counting a stack of dollar bills as I sat in the chair directly in front of him. I knew he wasn’t worried about me taking his money. I occupied a different world than him. I lived in a world of strict rules, honesty, and fair play. His world didn’t concern itself with those pesky concepts. Might, power, and position held the seams of his shadow world together.
I sat in silence for a minute or two as he finished counting. He looked up at me and said, “I thought I’d see you soon. Things not going so well for you?”
“You know what’s happened to me. You know Jaeger is trying to frame me. Are you a part of his plan?” I asked.
“Ha, ha, ha,” he laughed. “You know, for a smart girl, you sure are stupid. You’ve gotten yourself caught up in a game you don’t know how to play. You were fucked before you even knew it.”
“Why don’t you tell me what the rules are then if you know so much,” I said with a disdainful expression on my face.
“I’m not trying to frame you. I’m trying to do the same thing you are. I am fighting for survival. My men don’t have an education but have street smarts. Women who have self-image problems, drug addictions, and mental problems, who can only make a living selling their bodies? I give them a world to live in. Not a pretty world like yours. Just a place for them to survive. You know what else Miss High and Mighty? They are happy to have it.”
“I need you to call Jaeger off of my ass,” I said.
Clint looked around at the two goons and told them to leave the room. When we were alone, he said, “We come from different worlds, but we have something in common. We live in New Orleans. Jaeger and Ivanovich aren’t from here. They are fucking with our world. So, at least for now, we are on the same side. I will tell you this. If you continue to be Miss Goody Two Shoes, you’ll get your ass handed to you. Wise up. Bend the rules till they almost break if you want to survive. Use what you have and hit them below the belt. I won’t hurt you, but I won’t help you either. I’ll give you this advice. Be careful who you trust. Things aren’t always what they seem. You’re a smart girl. You’ll figure it out. Now get out of here unless you want to see things that will give you nightmares.”
I walked out of his office into the New Orleans sun, still puzzled what he meant by “things aren’t always what they seem.” The heat dragged me from my thoughts to the need to find shade or air conditioning. This was summer sun. It wasn’t ten o’clock yet and sweat beads formed on my forehead as soon as the thick air hit me. Clint wasn’t going to be an ally in my fight, but he wasn’t coming after me either. I took some comfort in knowing he didn’t put a target on my ass. Jaeger was another story. He was going to be hard to shake. I needed some good advice to figure out the best way to deal with him.
Jess Johnson had to be my next stop. She would make sense out of the players in this game. She’d dealt with the dark side of the city for more than thirty years. Just like always, I walked through the halls of the Times as though I was just another employee. No one made eye contact with me, though there were a few distant smiles. They knew my situation. For God’s sakes, this was a newspaper. Nothing went on without them knowing.
“Come in and sit down,” Jess said as I stood at her door. “You look like you could use a cup of coffee.” She summoned an intern to bring us each a cup. Weird, I thought. We still drink coffee in the middle of the hot days of summer. And we still love it.
“Jess, Alric Jaeger is trying to charge me with letting an establishment for prostitution and accessory to murder in Tiffany’s death. It’s all bullshit. Jaeger wants to use Piper to smoke out Victor, and he knows I’m in the way.”
“I know. They’ve taken Demetre off of the investigation. We had dinner at my house last night. He disclosed the evidence they have against you. The charges are bullshit. There’s just not much he can do. Jaeger’s got the chief’s ear. He’s letting Jaeger run with the investigation. The politics are thick on this investigation. The mayor wants to run for governor. Historically, New Orleans’s politicians don’t do well in Baton Rouge or North Louisiana. He thinks if he shows the public he’s cracking down on trafficking in women, he’ll get some support in those areas of the state. He might be right too. You are unfortunate collateral damage.”
“Have your reporters turned up any information that may help me?” I asked.
“They’ve been conducting extensive background research on Victor Ivanovich and Alric Jaeger. I don’t know the details yet but it seems Jaeger has a blood vendetta against Ivanovich.”
“I know. He blames the Russians for what happened to his family during World War II.”
“The Russians were afraid that the Germans living in Russia would turn against the Russian government, so they deported millions of Germans, and many of them died during the exodus. The Russians claimed they were all Nazi sympathizers.” That was more than I had known, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t worry about crimes against long-dead people. Not when Tom, Piper, and I were in grave danger.
Jess went on to tell me Jaeger had a legitimate reason to investigate Victor’s criminal activities. Victor’s group hacked into several German banks, stealing millions of Euros. The banks put pressure on the German authorities to pursue Victor. Jaeger was more than happy to take up the cause. The rumors were that he’d get a fat reward from the banks if he brought Ivanovich to justice. It would be enough for him to retire anywhere in the world. I could see the attraction. If he got Victor, he’d end his career on a high note. He’d be a hero in Germany. Not to mention he’d be set for life financially. Rewards like that would tempt lesser men.
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I asked Jess to check into his family ties. I felt like there was more to Jaeger’s motivation than what we knew. His pursuit of Victor was definitely personal. But it was also a long time ago for him. Something told me the exploitation of women got under his skin in a way that the hacking and drug trade didn’t.
I so enjoyed talking to Jess. She was a rock for me. Nothing fazed her. She assured me if we had to go down we’d go down fighting. I wasn’t interested in going down at all. My family was at stake. Time flew by and I remembered I had to drag myself to the police station to meet with Jaeger. I said farewell to Jess, hoping I’d see her again without bars separating us.
The afternoon sun beat down on the streets without mercy. Summer was in full bloom. People walking the streets move slower this time of year. Most try to stay indoors. For the first time I observed the street people who couldn’t get out of the heat. They had nowhere to go. How could they handle it day after grueling day? I wondered. These were the bottom 1 percenters. They searched for places to hide from the midday sun. Unlike the goons I’d been associating with, they wanted shade to avoid the scorching sun, not to hide their criminal acts.
I was surprised when I entered the police precinct to find smiling faces greeting me. Several officers whispered, “We’re with you,” as I walked by. Isn’t it funny how the person on the front lines knows what’s really going on when the brass doesn’t have a clue? Maybe the ones in control know but have personal agendas they cloak in veils of righteousness. It felt good to know these uniformed officers still believed in me.
Jaeger directed me to the interview room. I knew what that meant. He didn’t want me to clear up anything. He wanted to interrogate me. I knew how this process worked. He would try to convince me he was my friend looking out for my best interests at first. Then, when my guard went down, he’d hammer me with evidence or an outright lie to get me to confess to something. I braced myself for the roller coaster he was about to put me on.
“Tell me how long you’ve known Susan McAllister and the circumstances of your involvement with her and the murdered girl, Tiffany,” Jaeger said.
I told him the entire story of how Sarah introduced me to Susan and her work at the Center for Abused and Battered Women and Children in LaPlace, Louisiana. I related all of the details of Sarah’s murder, my inheritance, and my donation of Sarah’s house to the center. I was sure he knew it all, but I played along with his cat-and-mouse game. I made the story take twice as long as it should have, just to fuck with him.
Jaeger listened without interrupting. He sat stone-faced, not reacting to any part of the story. He was a seasoned investigator. He showed only the emotion he wanted me to see. I edited my story, making sure I didn’t reveal any information that might be harmful if Victor heard it. I knew he’d cloned Jaeger’s phone and could have someone listening to our entire conversation.
Next he asked me to tell him how I came to be awarded custody of Piper. Once again I provided the details I thought he needed to know. I held back the existence of the recording on Ethan’s phone. I decided I would rather play that card at a later time.
After I had given him all the information he asked for, his tone changed. He became hostile and gruff. “Ms. Lee, are you involved in the prostitution business?”
I wanted to kick him in his old, worn-out balls so hard they ended up in his foul mouth. I controlled myself, fighting my natural farmgirl instincts. “Never,” I answered.
Jaeger displayed a forced smile, revealing his tobacco- stained, wide-spaced teeth. He plopped some photos in front of me in what he must have thought was one of those gotcha moments. “How is it then you were photographed visiting known human traffickers?”
I picked up one of the photos with my right hand as I sat back in my chair. I studied it carefully to figure out where the photographer had hidden. I wanted to make sure I knew where the photographer was in case I visited Clint’s strip club or Victor at Gino’s Restaurant again. After a few moments, Jaeger grew impatient.
“Well, Ms. Lee, do you have an answer to my question?”
“You know as well as I do, Inspector Jaeger, that there is a demonic battle raging for control of the dark side of New Orleans. My family and I are caught in the middle. We are not participants in the war like you, Inspector Jaeger. We are innocent bystanders. I will not allow myself or any of the people I love to become victims or collateral damage, as you military types say. Why was I meeting with Clinton Cunningham and Victor Ivanovich? I went to confront the demons where they lived. I wanted to look them in the eyes and see what types of monsters I had to deal with, much the same as I am doing now with you. As long as these demons threaten my family, I will chase them from the shadows where they dwell, into the light to fight them on my terms, to the death if necessary. Does that clear things up for you, Inspector Jaeger?”
He was stunned by my candor. I had caught this seasoned interrogator off guard. He had no immediate response. Before he could regain his composure, I received a text from Piper. She sent me a copy of an article from a London tabloid. I scanned it quickly. The gossip rag featured two underage prostitutes who’d accused Jaeger of extorting sexual favors from them. The girls were both Romanian and probably working for Victor. Interpol pulled him back to Paris pending an investigation. No charges were filed, and Jaeger wasn’t disciplined. I started to understand Jaeger’s obsession.
When he finally found his stride again, he said, “Ms. Lee, I understand collateral damage better than you think. You are playing a game you can’t win. You’d better back off and let me take care of Victor Ivanovich.”
“As long as my family is in danger, I’m not backing off of anything. This isn’t London,” I said as I rose and walked out of the room without glancing back at his astonished face.
Chapter Twenty-Six:
Where Demons Dwell
I couldn’t decide if Jaeger was a closet pervert or another victim of Victor’s devious mind. He looked to me like he could be either one. He definitely wasn’t a clean cop. He’d been involved with the Dixie Mafia and drug cartels. I couldn’t help but think that once he’d climbed in bed with them he picked up some of their habits. He sent Zach to see El Alacran, knowing the dangers. He didn’t blink an eye when Zach was beaten within an inch of his life. Even Clint kept Jaeger at arm’s length. No, I thought, there’s no doubt he’s a dirty cop. He knew I wasn’t involved in Tiffany’s death, but he was willing to arrest me just to use Piper as bait. I wondered exactly how he was going to use Piper. There were too many mysteries circling around me to come to a conclusion.
I went to the condo to chat via the web with Piper. She was really good at this web stuff. She linked her computer and mine so we could video chat. I sat in front my computer at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. She was in her bedroom at her foster family’s home. She toured me through the room with the camera on her phone. This had obviously been a boy’s room at some time. There were posters of football players, MMA fighters, and Louisiana’s own Britney Spears decorating the walls. Absolutely no pink anywhere, but there were plenty of blues and blacks.
Piper smiled from ear to ear as she looked at my face spread all over her computer screen. “Alexandra, I miss you so much. These people are nice, but I want to be with you and Tom. Have you heard from him?”
“Not yet. Sophia’s in Mexico, so I’m sure we’ll hear something soon. Don’t worry, we’ll all be back together soon.” I only hoped I wasn’t lying to her.
“So, let me tell you what I’ve found out since I sent you the text. There were two girls in London who accused Jaeger of trying to extort sex from them in exchange for having their prostitution charges dropped. They were only sixteen years old. I hacked into the computer of the creepy tabloid that reported the story and found all kinds of cool stuff. The tabloid had recordings of the telephone messages from Jaeger setting up meetings with the girls. His messages said if they cooperated with him
and did him favors he’d drop their charges. His tone was so lecherous I was totally grossed out.”
“That’s pretty good, but it’s not exactly a smoking gun. He may have been talking about their legitimate cooperation in exchange for dropping charges. Police and prosecutors do that all the time,” I said.
“True. The girls’ names and cell phone numbers were in the tabloid’s records too. I got in touch with both of the girls. They were really pretty cool. I told them what Jaeger was putting us through, and they really dished on him. They didn’t have anything to do with Victor. That was just a cover Jaeger used to hide his true intentions. They spoke to the tabloids because they were paid big bucks to tell about all of the British politicians they were sleeping with. They were promised anonymity. I’m sure the promise didn’t include hackers like me,” she said, giggling at herself. “They aren’t in the game anymore and don’t want to be exposed. Interpol didn’t believe their allegations about Jaeger because the tabloids had paid them for the story. So it all went away for Jaeger.”
I thought for a minute while I sipped my coffee. “I’ll bet Jaeger thinks Victor put the tabloids on the story. Or maybe he just thinks they were Victor’s girls. Just added fuel for his vendetta against Victor.”
“There’s more,” Piper said. “Seems Jaeger has a granddaughter who is a high-priced hooker. I tracked her down using some special software my friends and I hacked into and improved while I was living in California. His granddaughter goes by the name Ms. Kitty and has a website on the dark web.”
“Dark web again,” I said.
“The dark web or deep web is actually the majority of the Internet. They are sites hard for Google to index because they’re either changing all the time or they require interaction. These sites are designed to be inaccessible to ordinary browsers. They offer nothing for the search engines to hook onto—the opposite of your average commercial site, which spends loads of money on search engine optimization: registration, keywords, and so on. With the dark web sites, you have to know the exact address and sometimes passwords. It’s all word of mouth.”