Klakken said quietly, “There’s no place to hide in here.”
“Then they must be in that locked room in the house, but we’ll need something to break down the door.”
They looked around for a tool of some kind. A shovel and a rake lay against the wall to the left. Behind the pile of junk were a hammer and an axe hanging on the wall. Both looked pretty rusty and someone would have to climb on the pile or dig their way in to reach them.
Klakken looked at JP’s foot. “I’ll do it,” Klakken said. He holstered his gun, stepped up on the stove, and grabbed a hold of a beam. His fingers sank into the cobwebs. He stepped gingerly on a piece of wood that looked like it was once part of a cheap dresser. Then he put his weight on it and pulled himself up. From there he was able to reach the tools. He tossed them down.
JP let them fall to the ground. They were so old and rusty he wondered if they would fall apart at first swing. Klakken hopped down and picked up the axe. JP took the hammer and they started toward the house. Just as they reached the side of the house, headlights beamed as a vehicle turned onto the road toward them. It was about one hundred yards away.
Chapter 56
“You stay on this side, and I’ll circle around the other side of the house. When they step out of the van to unload the girls, we’ll strike.”
“I’ll follow your lead,” JP said.
JP stayed back so he couldn’t be seen from the approaching vehicle. He watched the lights until the car pulled in front of the house. Then he moved forward, staying close to the wall so he could see what was going on. The car came to a full stop and the engine shut down. Both men emptied out of the front and started toward the back of the van. JP dropped his hammer and placed his gun in position. He waited for Klakken to make his move.
“Stop! Police!” Klakken yelled.
JP stepped forward, pointing his gun at the driver who reached toward his pocket. “Don’t even think about it,” JP said. “Hands above your head.” The man raised his hands slowly. JP moved closer. “Now drop them one at a time behind your back.” JP stood about six inches taller than the driver. He had managed to put the first cuff on the right hand just as a bullet sped past his head and into the car window. He saw a man running toward him with a gun in his hand. JP ducked and fired back. The driver flipped around and rammed his head into JP’s stomach, slamming him against the car door. JP brought his right knee up into the driver’s chin and the man tumbled backward. Another gunshot rang out. This one came from Klakken’s gun. JP glanced up, but no longer saw the running man. When the driver tried to stand up, JP booted him in the chest and knocked him back down. Holding him still with his left foot, JP pointed his gun in his face.
“If you even think about getting up again, I’ll knock you so far down in your shoes that you’ll have to pull your socks down to look out.” JP cautiously removed his foot. He flipped the guy over, pulled his hands behind him, and slapped the other handcuff in place. He patted the driver down and removed a gun and switchblade.
“Did you get him?” JP yelled to Klakken.
Klakken came around the corner with the passenger in handcuffs. “The shooter’s down. Stay here with these two. I’ll check on him.”
JP stood behind the van out of the line of fire. From there he could watch both cuffed men on the ground. Neither moved. A few minutes later Klakken returned. “He’s dead. Give me a hand.”
JP looked inside of the van through the driver’s side. He couldn’t see in the back because it was sealed off with plywood. He removed the keys from the ignition and placed them in his pocket. Then he and Klakken walked to the back of the van. JP stood with his gun drawn as Klakken slowly opened the back door. Fifty scared eyes looked out at them. About half of the passengers were young girls, the others older women. They were so crammed in the small space that it was a wonder they could breathe. None of them spoke.
“It’s okay,” Klakken said. “I’m the police. You’ll be safe now.”
That only made them retreat farther back into the van, cramming them even closer together.
“It’s okay, we’re not going to hurt you.”
One of them murmured, “Immigration pigs.”
“I’m not immigration,” Klakken said.
“And I’m not a pig,” JP said.
Klakken gave JP a stern look. “You’re not helping.” He spoke again in a soft, comforting voice. “Look, I know you’re scared, but we’re not here to hurt you or send you home. We’re here to help you.” It took some convincing, but finally Klakken was able to persuade the scared girls to come out of the van. JP was impressed with this kinder, gentler side of his long-time enemy.
They filed out, one by one, and formed a line, just like they had been trained to do. Still few sounds came from the group. JP started to say something, but Klakken looked at him and said, “It’s just as well we have a little order until we can get some help here. I’ll get the sleaze balls and lock them inside the van. You take the girls inside the house. Is there room for them?”
“More than in there,” he said, nodding his head toward the van.
JP went to the front of the line and led them all into the house. “It’s not much, but if you can just find a place to sit, Detective Klakken will be right in.” He looked around at the group to see if he could find Kim-Ly, Jade, or Mae Chu but he didn’t recognize any of them. “Do any of you know a girl named Jade?”
No one answered. “Or Bich?”
Still nothing.
Klakken came in carrying the rusty axe. Eyes widened throughout the room. Several girls shuffled backward. He looked down at the axe and then set it on the table. “Have any of you ever been here before?” Most of the girls directed their eyes to the floor. “I need to know what’s behind that door. We think there may be more girls in there.” An older woman nodded her head.
JP pulled the van keys from his pocket and handed them to Klakken. “Try these. There’s like eight keys on there.”
Shane took the axe outside and then went to the door to try the keys. JP followed him, ready to assist if he needed it. The second key he tried worked. Klakken opened the door very carefully. JP held his breath, afraid of what he might see, afraid to discover a pile of dead bodies.
The room spanned no more than eight by eight feet. There were no windows and the walls were solid, unlike the rest of the house. A small vent in the ceiling let in a little air, but it was stuffy. JP sighed. They were alive, but some were in bad shape. Three girls were chained to the walls. The others huddled together around a young girl who lay in a fetal position on the lap of another. The one who held her pulled the young girl’s torn dress around her to cover her. JP couldn’t see the face of the girl in the lap, but he thought he recognized the girl holding her when she looked up.
“Kim-Ly?” JP asked.
She stared at JP with an inquisitive look and then nodded.
Klakken moved the other girls out into the living room. Using the keys they had retrieved from the van, he opened each of the shackles. The girls ran out and Klakken followed, leaving JP with Kim-Ly and the girl in her lap.
“Is that Jade…er…Bich?”
“Yes,” Kim-Ly said. Jade looked up when she heard her name, but she didn’t say anything.
JP explained who he was and that he knew Sabre would do everything she could to help them. He wasn’t getting through to either of them. “Jade, Quang has been worried about you.”
Jade sat up. “He has?”
“Yes, he has. Without him, we never would have found you.”
Klakken came to the door. “We need to get help and I can do it faster than you can, so you stay here and I’ll go to my car and drive until I have reception on either my radio or my cell. I’ll be back as soon as I can. I’ll check on the guys in the van on my way out.”
“Please have someone call Sabre and let her know I’m okay.”
“Will do.”
JP stayed in the room with Jade and Kim-Ly. After a few minutes, Jade got up a
nd walked into the other room.
“Do you know Mae Chu?” JP asked Kim-Ly.
“No.”
“She is the CASA worker appointed on your case. Did she ever contact you?”
“No.”
It took a while for Kim-Ly to open up to JP. It appeared to be her concern for her daughter that finally gave her the courage to talk.
“How did you get here?” JP asked.
“David told me if I didn’t go with him he would kill Jade and he would steal Emma for his project. Then he threw me in with the young kids.”
“You mean these girls?”
“No, the really young ones.”
“How young are they?”
“I think the youngest is four. The oldest is around eight or nine. He brings them to the U.S. and then keeps most of them locked up until they are old enough to work. Some of them he sells to families who want a child or to pervert guys. They live at a house in Linda Vista where the women do all the repairs for the dry cleaners. The little ones help with that. Some of them learn to do some handwork. It’s mostly easy—boring things, though, like winding thread back on spools. Stuff like that.”
“Did you live there when you were little?”
“Yes, I was seven and Bich was four when we came. We lived there together. At first no one knew we were sisters. When David found out, he used the information to make me do things.”
“What kind of things?”
She hung her head in shame for a few moments, then said, “Sexual things…and to keep me from acting out or running away. He always threatened to hurt Bich if I did anything wrong.”
“Where do the children go when they leave that house in Linda Vista?” JP asked.
“The remaining children who haven’t been sold are brought here for a few days to test them. They’re about eight or nine years old and get to pick apples during the day. If they don’t run off, David has them moved to the ‘carnival.’ Someone called it that because they move all the time. They live in a house for a few weeks with a couple of older girls; then they move to another house. There are always different houses. It’s another test to see if they’ll do what he says or if they’ll run. Bich was at the ‘carnival’ when she came to my house, but he found her and made her go back with him.”
“What does he do with them after that test?” JP feared the answer.
“A very few of us get to work at Muffs. The ones who do are usually the ones David thinks are the prettiest.” She blushed when she said that. “But he always threatens us with something so we won’t run or say anything.”
“What kind of threats?”
“For me it was easy, he always threatened to hurt Bich. I’m not sure what he held over the other girls, but they were all afraid of him.”
“And the others, the ones who don’t work at Muffs, what happens to them?”
“They become hookers or seamstresses.”
“You seem to know a lot about David.”
She dropped her head shamefully. “I was his whore,” she whispered. Then a little louder, she said, “It kept Bich safe. He actually seemed to like me. I knew it wouldn’t last too long and he would choose another girl, but I was hoping by then I would have figured out a way to get Bich out of it all. She wasn’t pretty enough for David’s taste to work at Muff’s, which meant she would be prostituting. She was already past the age for working and he had a fake ID for her saying she was eighteen. The only reason he hadn’t put her out there yet was because I begged him not to.”
“How old is she?”
“Thirteen.”
“And that makes you sixteen,” JP said. His faced reddened with anger and frustration. Had David Leland been there, JP was certain his fist would have found Leland’s face in a hurry.
“Yes.”
“And the baby….Is that Leland’s?”
“Yes.” Kim-Ly stood up. “I better check on Bich.”
“One more thing,” JP said. He showed her a photo on his phone. “Do you know this man?”
“Yes, that’s Dan. He’s David’s brother. I’m not supposed to know that, but I hear things.”
“Is he involved in all this?”
She nodded. “Yes, he does whatever David tells him to do.”
Kim-Ly walked to where her sister lay curled up in a corner of the living room. She sat beside her and wrapped her arms around her again.
JP went outside to check on the prisoners. They were still handcuffed securely to a bar in the van, which had probably been placed there to use when transporting the girls. JP closed the door back up and riffled through the compartments in the cab, hoping to find something to kill the pain in his head and foot. There was nothing, but in the console he found his cell phone, his car keys, and his gun.
Back inside, the girls started to relax a little and some of them began to talk. JP walked among them, asking a few questions. JP showed Mae Chu’s photo to the girls, but no one recognized her. He wondered where she could be and if she were still alive.
Chapter 57
Sabre didn’t recognize the phone number for the call on her cell. “Hello.”
“This is Detective Keith Franklin. Shane Klakken asked me to call you about your friend, JP Torn.”
Sabre’s heart stopped for a second. She feared the worst. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine, ma’am. They don’t have cell reception where they are, but everyone is just fine. Shane said to tell you it’s all over.”
“What happened?”
“I can’t really say. The truth is I don’t know much, but I’m sure your friend will call you when he’s back in town.”
“Thank you,” Sabre said. She took a deep breath. JP was okay.
Before she could set her phone down, it rang again. This time it was Clint Buchanon.
“Is everything okay?” Sabre asked.
“Yes, I’m sorry to be calling so late, but I was driving by your office and saw your light on. I don’t want you to think I’m stalking you or anything weird. I was concerned. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, it’s fine. I had a lot of work to do and it’s been a rough day.”
“I’m sitting outside. Would it be okay if I came in for a minute?” Sabre wasn’t sure if she wanted to see him. When she hesitated, he added, “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have called. This is rude.”
“No. Come to the door. I’ll let you in.”
When she opened the door, Clint Buchanon looked at her sheepishly. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. It’s nice to see a friendly face.”
He pecked her lightly on the lips. For a second she wished for more. He followed her into her office.
“How is it exactly that you happened to be in the area?”
He smiled, “You think I’m a stalker, don’t you?”
“No, but I am a little curious.”
“Okay, you caught me. I’m really lousy with directions and I forgot my GPS. Since you couldn’t go out with me, I decided to take in a movie at the theater in the Gaslamp. Because I’ve been here before, I knew how to get to the freeway from here. I was surprised to see your lights on this late.”
“I was just finishing up a few things for court the next few days,” she said, as she sat down behind her desk.
“You look kind of distressed. I hope that’s not because I’m here.”
“No, it’s been an eventful day.”
He walked over behind her and put his hands on her shoulders and began to rub them. “You are tense. What happened today that has you so worried?”
“That feels good.” She sighed. “My PI is working on a tough case and we lost contact for several hours. I was concerned.”
“And you still haven’t heard from him?”
“A Detective Franklin called and said he was okay.”
“Why didn’t he call himself?”
“JP…that’s his name…JP didn’t have cell reception.”
He kneaded his fingers gently, yet firmly across her shoulders and neck, wo
rking the knots out of her muscles. His touch relaxed her.
“I wouldn’t think anywhere around here would have problems with reception. We have that problem in the open spaces where I’m from, but this is city.”
“He’s a good hour or more from here. You lose reception about half way there.”
“Would you like me to take you to him so you can see for yourself that he’s alright?”
She smiled. “That’s very kind, but that’s not a good idea. The police are involved now so I’m guessing it’s a crime scene. But the detective said everything was okay.”
“Good.” He stopped massaging her, stepped around, put one hand on each shoulder, and turned her to face him. “I’m going to leave so you can finish your work and get out of here, unless you want me to stay until you’re ready to leave.”
“No, I’ll finish more quickly by myself. I’m almost done. Thanks for stopping by.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow.” He kissed her, lips separated, tongue touching hers for only a second. Then he gave her a light kiss on her still parted lips. “Good night.”
Sabre locked the door behind him as he left. She returned to her desk, spent about fifteen more minutes on the case she was working on, closed up the files, and shut down her computer. Then she stacked the files she needed for court the next day. Her phone beeped with a text. The number was local, but unknown to her. It read: This is JP. Had to borrow phone. Franklin said he called u, but I need to see u. Come to my house right away. Important.
Chapter 58
As she drove to JP’s house, she wondered what happened to his phone. Maybe he lost it somehow. What was so important that she had to meet him at his house? It was all very curious, but she was sure he had a good reason. She started to worry again that something was wrong with him, but if he had been hurt he would be at a hospital. She tried to shake off her concerns.
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