Across the Deep

by Lisa McGuinness

  A woman police officer had been on the scene and had gotten into the back seat with her. Claire stared down at her hands, refusing to look at her.

  Her beautiful blonde hair was drab and oily; her face was covered in heavy makeup. But still, the officer could tell how young she was. It had taken her hours to convince Claire to give them Nick’s name and the address of their apartment, but by the time they got there, he was gone.

  Claire looked up, blinked away her thoughts, and made herself focus on the current moment. The leg pain was making her mind wander, so she tried to concentrate. She wondered if Grace had returned to Hope Bakery yet. Had she discovered they were gone? She hoped the bakery surveillance cameras had captured a good shot of them being dragged out of there, and caught the make of the car. If they had that, they had a fighting chance. She thanked God for the camera; knowing that it might have caught them on film gave her hope.

  “I have to go out for a while, but don’t think of trying to escape.” Aanwat reached into his duffle bag and pulled out

  two rags.

  “What? Where are you going?” Suda asked.

  He paused, contemplating whether to tell them he had taken Simone and was going to get Tea, and then decided to tell a partial truth. The corner of his mouth turned up slightly, showing that he was pleased with himself. And he was. His plans had gone better than expected. Soon he and Suda would get out of San Francisco.

  “I have an errand to do. It’s important to keep us safe.” Aanwat told Suda. The timing was bad, but he had to take Tea out of play while they got away. And he had to do it now because now was the only time he knew exactly where he could find him.

  He went to the bed, where Suda had been sitting and bound her hands together and then looped the rope around her ankles, making it impossible for her to get up without forcing her to bend in an unnatural, painful angle. If she stayed still, she would be fine. Then, he lifted her head and as gently as possible, pushed the rag into her mouth. He then moved Claire from the chair where she had been sitting to the bed and repeated the process, but more deliberately and forcefully. They were both on their sides, bound, immobile—wrists and ankles wrapped in rope.

  “Don’t try to get out,” he told Suda first in Thai and then repeated it to Claire in English.

  “I have the bakery lady.”

  “What?” Suda tried to ask, confused. Her mouth stuffed with the gag so she couldn’t get the words out.

  “The bakery lady,” Aanwat said again, agitated. “And I know you don’t want me to have to hurt her. I will though, if you make even one noise.”

  “S’mo?” Suda tried to say Simone’s name, but it came out muffled.

  “The one in charge,” he said. “The one working with Tea.”

  Claire tried to follow what was being said. Was Suda trying to say “Simone” or just something that sounded similar in Thai. Inwardly she screamed in frustration but had to content herself with simply glowering at Aanwat instead.

  Aanwat tucked his gun into the back of his jeans and zipped on his jacket. He had been watching a lot of American television while he had been in town and he liked feeling as if he were in one of the shows he had watched.

  “I’ll be back,” he said first in Thai and then in English and shut the door behind him.

  Chai

  Chai had been feeling a heightened sense of impending change for days. He could tell Aanwat was up to something. He pondered that fact as he sat at the table in the office near the San Francisco cargo port and watched men pack heroin into bags of rice and then slip the packaged rice into cardboard boxes, which were then packed into wooden crates. If only he could find out the name of the man behind the operation, he could arrest him and get out. He felt stymied and filled with self-doubt. Was he missing an opportunity? How could he infiltrate further? This case needed movement soon. He got up and walked out the door, needing to stretch his legs and get some fresh air.

  He looked toward the edge of the port and was surprised to see Aanwat himself walking toward him. He squinted his eyes menacingly at him as he got closer and was surprised to be met with a reciprocal stare. The guy had surprised him; that was for sure. He had more grit than expected.

  “Tea,” Aanwat said in passing and kept going, walking toward Chakrii’s office.

  Chai nodded in return and then walked toward the water.

  He paced outside for a long while, breathing in the mixture of air and ship fumes; thinking over his next move and realizing he didn’t have one. It was just a waiting game until something broke and that could be weeks, months, years. He couldn’t stand the thought of continuing the charade. The smell of the exhaust combined with oil was a distinct scent he knew he would remember long after this assignment was finished. He hated it. He thought of Simone and Hope Bakery with its inviting smells of coffee and bread. He stared out over the water to the horizon. It was blank and gray—indistinct, like the progress he was making.

  The water was choppy and the wind whistled around the containers. The noise of the loading gear ground out the noise of approaching steps as the massive machines lifted containers weighing thousands of pounds onto awaiting ships.

  He was about to turn back when he felt the unmistakable pressure of a gun against his spine and froze.

  His mind flashed. Who was holding the gun? Was it an organization man or was it Aanwat, whose gun he knew wouldn’t fire? Had his identity as a police officer been discovered? If so, his life was most likely over.

  “What do you want?” Chai asked, hoping to discover the identity of the person who held the gun.

  “Come with me and you’ll know soon enough,” he heard Aanwat’s voice speaking in Thai. Relief flooded through his body as he realized who it was. He mistakenly believed that the weapon being pressed against his spine was the gun he had provided for Aanwat, which he’d purposefully jammed to prevent a bullet from escaping the chamber.

  “Aanwat,” Chai said, “what are you doing?”

  “I know about you. You’ve had Suda all this time.”

  “What are you talking about?” Chai stalled.

  “I saw her, and I saw you.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Walk,” Aanwat said and directed Chai to move toward the storage container where he had left Simone.

  Aanwat clenched his jaw. This was the most vulnerable part of the plan. The walk to the container would take several minutes, and he knew Tea was well trained and brutal. He had to stay focused, and he had to keep the gun pressed against Tea’s spine, or he might try to grab it. If they got into a physical fight, Aanwat knew he would end up on the losing side.

  Chai compliantly walked in front of Aanwat, allowing the pressure of the gun to determine the direction they took.

  “Two things to know,” Aanwat told him as they walked. “I have your girlfriend. If you try to escape, I will kill her.” He gave that a moment to sink in. “Also, you should know this gun isn’t the one you got for me. This one will shoot.”

  “What do you mean? The one I gave you was fine.”

  “I went to a gun range. And it’s a good thing I did because finding out it wouldn’t shoot was valuable and worth every bit of money I spent. You …” Aanwat couldn’t find the word he wanted, so instead he spit on the ground.

  Chai’s mind was now sprinting through all possible scenarios, discarding some, quickly filing others as possibilities. Who did he think was his girlfriend, and how had he discovered so much?

  “Look, Aanwat, you’re confused. I don’t have a girlfriend, and I have never even seen Suda. You’re mistaken.”

  “I saw you through the window. You were there, Suda was there, your girlfriend was there.”

  “Where?”

  “Bread shop. I saw you. I saw her. I saw your bakery lady girlfriend.”

  “Did you follow me?”

  “Yes,�
�� he lied, knowing that would hurt him far more than the truth. “And it was easy.”

  Chai clenched his jaw. How could he have missed Aanwat tailing him? A sense of shame washed through his body. And now he had Simone. Chai wouldn’t be able to cope if anything happened to any of them because he had led Aanwat to them. How? He internally screamed at himself, but he wouldn’t give Aanwat the satisfaction of seeing his emotions.

  “Look, the bakery lady isn’t my girlfriend, so you can let her go. She has nothing to do with this.”

  “She is in on it. Suda has been living there. You two have been hiding her there. Is the bakery a brothel? Has Suda been working?”

  Chai paused, trying to gain some time to assess the situation. Should he say “Yes” and offer to cut him in or tell him the truth and see what happened? He wasn’t sure which play to make, so he decided for the time being to simply continue being steered by the gun at his back. Time was what he needed. He wanted to get to Simone.

  “How much farther?” Chai asked.

  “Not far,” Aanwat said. He stopped within sight of the shipping container but decided not to tell Chai which one it was so he could keep control of the situation. “Throw your phone over there.” Aanwat nodded to an empty patch of cement between the rows of containers.

  Chai’s fury barely allowed him to do Aanwat’s bidding. He clenched his teeth to keep himself from saying something to provoke Aanwat’s anger, but his fingers formed a fist in hopes of having a chance to land a punch if Aanwat let down his guard for even a second. He told himself to keep his anger in check because Aanwat had Simone. He was the one who got her into this situation in the first place, and he would do anything to make sure she wasn’t harmed for helping him.

  He sighed, reached into his back pocket for his phone, and unceremoniously tossed it where Aanwat had directed.

  “Now your gun.”

  Chai hesitated. This would be his last chance to gain the advantage. He visualized himself wheeling around and smacking the gun out of Aanwat’s hand. But he had underestimated the man before and didn’t want to do so again when both Simone’s and Suda’s lives were in danger.

  He reached behind him, unclipped his gun, and then tossed it.

  “There,” Aanwat indicated a specific container, and they began to move toward it. He knew this was the moment it could all go wrong. If the bakery lady was dead, Tea would kill him, even without his gun. Aanwat didn’t know how, but he knew without a doubt that it would happen.

  “Open it,” Aanwat said and nodded to the lever that held the door closed. He heard Simone begin to yell from the inside. Both relief and dread coursed through him. He was relieved he hadn’t killed her, but he was afraid she would try to get out when the door opened.

  Chai recognized Simone’s voice screaming for help, and his heart froze. He really did have her.

  His instinct was to turn and punch Aanwat in the face, but he couldn’t be sure Aanwat wouldn’t get off a shot before his fist landed. And with the gun trained on Chai’s spine, he wasn’t willing to risk it. Instead he slid back the lever and opened the door.

  “Simone, it’s me,” he said before swinging the door open.

  “Stop,” Aanwat told him, indicating that the door was opened as far as he wanted.

  “Chai!” Simone came forward. He took in her swollen face and the fact that she was holding her left arm in her right. His intense look told her that he was intently controlling his emotions.

  “Are you okay?” he asked calmly.

  “I think my shoulder is broken,” she said quickly and frantically, “but aside from that I’m all right. My head hurts.”

  “Enough talk. Get in,” Aanwat said.

  Chai slowly began to step in, only to be shoved from behind, forcing him deep into the container. Before he could regain his footing, the door closed and the lever slammed into place.

  Simone and Chai

  Simone let down her guard and started to cry from the pure, overwhelming relief of Chai’s presence.

  “I don’t know why I’m crying now that you’re here,” she told him. “I was being brave before, but …”

  “Shhh, it’s all right Simone.”

  “I can’t believe you’re here,” she told him. “I know I shouldn’t feel relieved because now you’re stuck here, too, but I do. I thought I was either going to die here alone or end up dead in some foreign port when the container got unloaded.”

  “Come here,” he said and then wrapped her into a bear hug. “Neither of us is going to wind up dead,” he reassured her, not entirely believing it himself but resolved nonetheless. “We’re going to get out of this. I just have to think about a solution.” She could feel his chin moving against her shoulder as he spoke. The feeling of his arms around her gave her a sense of security, and she forced herself to stop crying before she embarrassed herself by actually heaving out tears and snot. “Start by telling me what happened,” he said.

  She recounted the little she remembered.

  “He clearly wanted to take us out of play,” Chai noted.

  “Do you think he has Suda?” Simone hiccupped, in the aftermath of her suppressed crying jag.

  “We have to assume so.”

  Simone sighed. “I agree.”

  “Was Claire there when you left?”

  “Yes. Hopefully she was able to call the police if Aanwat got to Suda.”

  “The fact that I didn’t get a call before Aanwat took my phone tells me that probably didn’t happen. Was Grace home?”

  “She was when I left, but I know she had stuff to do today. I don’t know when he showed up since I was apparently out cold.”

  “Listen, he won this round, but it’s not over,” he rubbed her arm. “How would you have known you were about to be attacked?”

  “Still.”

  “It would make me feel better if I knew Grace had been at the house.”

  “Does this shipping container belong to the organization? Do we have to worry about them finding us here and killing us?”

  “No, so that’s one good thing at least. And it’s not in the ‘immediate loading’ section of the shipping yard, so at least we’re not in imminent danger of being put on a ship.”

  “Good.” Simone attempted a smile, but it came out more like a grimace, which Chai could hear more than see.

  “In the meantime, come sit with me,” Chai said. He leaned against the wall and drew Simone back so she could lean on him for comfort.

  She rested against him and breathed out some stress. She was angry and frightened for Suda, but she was no longer as frightened for herself.

  They sat in silence for a while. Both thinking. The seconds ticked by like hours.

  “How did you end up being a cop anyway?” Simone asked after a while, thinking about how crazy her life had become since he showed up at her door with Suda.

  Chai chuckled, “It was either become a cop or end up in jail myself, I think.”

  “What?” Simone instinctively turned to look at him although he was only a dim outline in the darkened container.

  “I was a bit wild when I was younger.”

  “That surprises me. I’m not sure I can see it.”

  “I didn’t entirely fit in. Smoked a lot of weed. Tagged.”

  “Tagged? No. You?”

  “Oh, yeah. I started blowing off school and hanging out with some kids who weren’t going in a good direction. My parents were not having it, though. They made me keep going to youth group even when I fought it. My father walked me right to the door and made sure I went in. I was livid, but messing with my father, who was very strict, was never a good idea, so I went. In my junior year, I got paired up with a mentor who happened to be a cop. He got me on another path, and I never looked back. I went to college and then to the academy. I’m grateful. The life the guys in the organization live is bleak.
Empty. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

  “I can see how that would be the case. I think about that sometimes when I visualize the men out there trafficking girls. Not just the men, but also the women who recruit. The women who see other girls as commodities to keep themselves off of the streets. The whole thing.”

  “If we could just stop the demand,” Chai said.

  “If we could stop the demand,” Simone agreed, “it would all go away.” She rested her head back on Chai’s shoulder and sighed.

  “I wonder what’s happening out there.”

  “I wish I knew. I usually check in with my department contact around now, and the fact that I haven’t will set off alarm bells. He’ll tell the captain, and hopefully the captain will send someone over to check on Hope Bakery. I talked to the captain after I realized Aanwat had been to the bakery, so she’s in the loop, which I’m very glad about now.”

  “How did it go over?”

  “Not great. The fact that I hadn’t reported having Suda,” he paused. “You can imagine. I’m on seriously thin ice, but she was happy Suda was taken out of play, so there was that at least.”

  “Your captain’s a woman?”

  “Yep, she’s seriously badass. We all respect her. She’s no nonsense.”

  “You kept Suda safe for a long time,” Simone said. “You saved her life. That’s got to count for something.”

  “It won’t if Aanwat has her. Instead it will have been reckless for nothing.”

  “We have to have faith that she’ll be all right.”

  “Yeah. You’re right,” Chai said, sighing and leaning his head against the container wall.

  “Tell me about Claire,” he said after a few moments of the two thinking their own thoughts. “How did she end up at Hope House?”

  “We usually don’t tell the survivor’s stories, but I don’t think Claire would mind, and this is an extenuating circumstance,” Simone said. A vision of Claire when she’d first arrived passed through her mind. “You should have seen her,” Simone began. “She was covered in bruises, hair dirty, and the most horrifically bad attitude I have encountered in any of the girls to date. Who could blame her? Her mother had either overdosed or been killed—Claire isn’t sure which—and the poor girl had been being pimped out for years. It was heartbreaking.”