When they first arrived an hour ago, Sam had gone up to the front door alone and knocked. There was no answer, and a small dog barked incessantly from the interior. Sam checked the garage through a window; there was no vehicle. The house had a silent, empty feel. He returned to the car and called the office to research Victoria Christopoulis’s immigration status—she was in the United States on a vacation—and he had her passport flagged.
“Maybe we should call Sonia,” Trace said, “and get her take on this.”
Sam liked Trace, but he was young and overeager to please his boss and seek her approval. “We’re okay for now. We don’t have anything to report, not of substance. Let’s see what happens.”
Ten minutes later a Mercedes pulled into the driveway. Sam peered through binoculars at the figure in the driver’s seat.
An attractive, middle-aged woman with dark red hair and excessive makeup drove. The garage door went up and she pulled in, and Sam lost sight of her.
“Shall we talk to her?” Trace had his hand on the door handle.
The woman was familiar, but Sam didn’t know why. “Hold on.” Where had he seen her? Dammit, it was just outside his memory.
“Sam?”
It wouldn’t come if he forced it. “Let’s talk to her. Casual. Inform her of Jones’s murder, ask the last time she saw him, see what she says. Nothing about trafficking.”
“Got it.”
Sam turned the ignition and drove the car down the street, parking in front of the Christopoulis house. “Let’s go.”
“Don’t bullshit me!” Sonia slammed her fist on the conference room table. Gleason blinked rapidly. He should be scared. Sonia was in no mood to play nice with criminals. And he was sitting here lying to her about Weber Trucking.
“You’re the only person who knew we were asking about Weber Trucking,” she said. “You alerted them.”
Gleason shook his head. “No. I didn’t. Check my phone records. Check my emails.”
“I’ll do that, with your permission,” Sonia said, waiting for him to balk.
He didn’t.
Dean sat casually on the edge of the table while Sonia stood, palms down on the surface, glaring at Gleason.
Dean was cordial, but firm. “You can see where we are having a problem believing you didn’t alert someone to our investigation.”
“I see what you’re saying, really, but I didn’t talk to anyone. I answered your questions, worked here until eight, nine at night, went home, and came back at eight this morning. This is a busy time of year for us.”
He was telling the truth about his whereabouts, Sonia knew, because they had had an agent sitting on him all night. But she didn’t believe for a second that he hadn’t told someone.
“Three women are dead,” Dean said calmly. “In a warehouse owned by Weber Trucking.”
“That’s awful.”
“They were illegal Chinese immigrants,” Sonia snapped. “Kidnapped and brought to this country by Omega Shipping—another of your dead boss’s clients. Where does that leave you? Either dead, or an accessory. So tell us exactly who you talked to and what you said.”
“You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
He was lying. His skin was pale except for his bright-red cheeks. He tapped his fingers on the table and kept looking from Dean to Sonia and back to Dean with a wide-eyed innocent stare. Sonia wasn’t buying it. But nothing she said could make him talk. It infuriated her. She was usually much better at getting suspects to tell her everything they knew.
Maybe Toni was right; she was too close to the case. Yesterday, Gleason had hit on her. She should have played off that; instead, she’d let her anger and dislike of the man impede her judgment. Why hadn’t she seen it before?
Her phone vibrated. She glanced down at the number. It was restricted.
“Get your cell phone and call your phone company to give us permission to access your phone records here and at home, or we’ll get a warrant.” Gleason shifted uncomfortably. “Now,” she commanded.
Gleason jumped out of his chair and scurried from the room.
“Sonia—”
“I have a call. He doesn’t need to listen in.” She answered. “Hello.”
“I gave you everything I have.”
Charlie.
“I need to meet with you.”
“You can’t believe I’d fall for the oldest trick in the book.”
“Charlie, I’m not going to arrest you. I give you my word. I need ten minutes, that’s it. I have a picture taken in Mexico. I think you can help me identify these people.”
“How can I trust you?”
Sonia wanted to scream. Instead she said, “Think back, Charlie. Have I ever lied to you? Ever? No! You lied to me right, left, and upside down, but I have always been honest, to my detriment. Dammit, you owe me! Five minutes of your fucking time and you walk away. This one time, I won’t follow. But I swear to God, if you burn me I’ll hunt you down and you’ll be in prison or you’ll be dead. I need you just this once to listen and tell me the truth.”
She took a deep breath. Dean was staring at her, an odd look on his face, and it made her feel uncomfortable. As if he had just now seen the real Sonia Knight and didn’t like what he saw. She turned her back to him. She didn’t want to blow it with Dean, there was something about him she couldn’t shake, but she couldn’t change who she was. She didn’t think she’d ever find anyone who could look at her and accept her, warts and all. Did she think Dean might be the exception just because he knew so much about her and hadn’t already walked away?
Right now, she would do or say nearly anything to get Charlie to look at the photo of her father and the others and identify the man, or woman, who’d killed Jones and the Vegas. That person was starting up a far more ruthless human trafficking ring than even the vile Xavier Jones had created. Her experience and the little evidence they had told Sonia her instincts were right. And trusting her instincts had saved her life, and her career, many times over. Her instincts were all she had left to trust.
“Where are you?” Charlie asked.
“Downtown.”
“Twenty minutes, Raley Field. River Cat dugout. Don’t be late, there’s a game tonight. I’ll be gone in thirty, and I’m not coming back.”
“Charlie, please—”
He hung up.
Sonia swore. “He’ll meet.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Of course! We need that information.”
“Where?”
Sonia didn’t want to ask, but she had to. She’d promised Charlie that she would give him a pass this time. She had to believe that Dean would support her decision. “You’re not going to try anything?”
Dean’s lips tightened. “I told you I wouldn’t.”
“I’m sorry, I just—”
“You don’t trust anyone.”
“That’s not true.” But he was right. She had a hard time with trust.
“Then it’s just me you don’t trust?” She felt the hurt and anger behind his softly spoken words.
“Of course I trust you.” She wanted to. God, she wanted to. “More than anyone,” she added honestly.
“Then you need to trust my word.”
Was trusting Dean that hard for her? Hadn’t he proven himself? Why was she fighting it? Not everyone was Charlie. Not everyone was her father.
“Raley Field. Twenty minutes.” She saw that her brief hesitation hurt Dean. She wouldn’t have hurt him for the world—and now, she didn’t know if she could take it back. God, she wanted to. She didn’t want him angry with her. “Dean—”
He interrupted. “We’d better get over there. Is it close by?”
“A couple minutes.” She took his hand, squeezed, and dropped it as Gleason walked back into the room with two cell phones and said, “I gave Pac Bell permission to talk to you and faxed them the signed authorization. I swear, I didn’t talk to anyone with Weber Trucking yesterday. You’ll see.”
; “Thank you,” Sonia said. “We’ll be in touch.” She walked out, and Dean followed.
In the elevator, he said, “I have your back, Sonia.”
She tensed. Charlie had said the exact same thing to her before he had sold her.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you, you know that,” Dean said.
“I know,” she said softly.
“What is it then?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me. Don’t clam up. Tell me what you’re thinking.”
Sonia didn’t like being yelled at or ordered around. She stood toe to toe with Dean Hooper and said in a low growl, “Charlie told me he had my back, too, and look what happened there.”
His face darkened. “I can’t believe you’re comparing me to that bastard.”
Sonia stepped back. She couldn’t believe she had said that either, especially on the heels of their recent conversation upstairs. She hadn’t meant it. God, she didn’t mean it. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled lamely.
The elevator doors opened and they walked out in silence. Sonia didn’t know what to say or do to fix it, but she feared she’d lost something important.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
The River Cats minor league baseball team was playing at six that evening at Raley Field, and at three in the afternoon there were already employees and vendors showing up. Along the main entrance were places to eat and drink; inside everything was clean and well maintained. It was one of the nicest stadiums Dean had been in, though he’d admit that he hadn’t been in many over the years.
Dean didn’t know whether the team was already on-site. He wasn’t expecting trouble, but any time he went into an unknown situation he was cautious. It had saved his life, and the lives of his fellow soldiers, during his years in the Marines, and it had helped avoid danger when he was in the field for the FBI.
Dean showed his badge and told the security guard they wouldn’t be long. “When do ticket holders usually start to arrive?” Dean asked.
“We don’t open up the gates to the public until ninety minutes before game time. But there’s a high school singing the national anthem, and they’re already here getting ready. The players start arriving two hours before. Is something wrong? Should I notify management?”
“Just routine.” Dean was getting concerned. He didn’t like this arrangement, but being in the open stadium minimized the risk of being surprised. Still, there were civilians around, and that always increased the chances that something could go wrong.
They walked to the wide mezzanine level that curved around the back of the stadium, offering shade from the heat and a view of the field, plus access to all seating levels, restrooms, and food. A groundskeeper was walking the field and someone else was working near the scoreboard. But aside from employees in the corridor, the interior of the stadium was empty. Dean couldn’t see if there was anyone in the shadows of the home team dugout. He hated sending Sonia in there alone.
“He’ll know you brought someone,” Dean said. “You’re not so reckless as to walk into this alone. I’ll stand back, let you do the talking.”
“You would be a threat to him,” Sonia said. “He won’t come. I need him to look at this picture.”
“Do you think he knows that’s your father?”
“It’s not something I like to discuss, even though everyone and their brother in this business seems to know.”
That bothered her, Dean realized. The lack of privacy. Most people could dismiss a bad childhood, or simply not discuss it with their peers, but colleagues usually knew only what you told them. For Sonia, her childhood case had been high profile and well known among law enforcement. She didn’t shy away from her past, but she didn’t wear it on her sleeve, either.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Dean said.
Sonia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them they were troubled. “Charlie might know what name he’s using, but if he knows this man I doubt he knows its my father. Since no one could find him twenty years ago, it makes sense that he would be using a different identity. But Xavier Jones knew him, and Thomas Daniels—both men who worked out of northern California. I’m going to do this right. One step at a time. First, the case in hand. Then my father.”
Dean lightly rubbed Sonia’s arm. He greatly admired her inner strength. “I’ll help you any way I can.”
She gave him a half-smile. “That means a lot to me, Dean.”
He reiterated, “Whatever happens here, whatever you learn, wherever you find your investigation headed, I’ll be with you every step.”
Her eyes glistened, then she blinked the emotions away. She opened her mouth to say something, then looked away, unsure.
He put his fingers on her cheek and turned her to face him. “You have my word.” He kissed her softly, but felt surprising power between them in the light touch. It was a jolt of knowledge, something far more than he expected. “Be careful.”
She whispered, “I know you have my back.”
Dean felt the sincerity and weight of the trust she’d just placed in him. He skimmed his hand over her cheek, realizing this hadn’t been easy for her.
“I’ll watch you go down, then I’ll find a place to keep an eye on the dugout. Text me if you get in trouble.”
She cocked her head. “If I’m in trouble, I’m not going to take time to text you.”
He pulled her phone out of her belt and typed his phone number into a blank message, then locked the phone. “Just press unlock and send. You can probably do it in your sleep.”
“Thanks.” She put the phone back in its pouch, then jogged down the stairs and leaped over the small fence that led to the field.
Dean wished he hadn’t reacted so poorly when Sonia raised her hackles earlier. She’d simply reacted from her gut. She tried to backtrack, but Dean’s ego had been bruised. He’d thought after last night she would know he was not only on her side, but capable of assisting her on all levels of this investigation. He should have cut her some slack from the beginning, knowing trust didn’t come easy to her. But when she had compared him to that bastard Charlie Cammarata, Dean saw red. He didn’t lose his temper often, but for a moment he was blinded when he should have understood it wasn’t personal and, in fact, she’d been sharing something important with him. That she’d been betrayed and disappointed and was looking to him to prove that she could believe in him, trust him, love him.
She wanted to believe, but life had taught her differently. She wanted to trust, but people had proven they couldn’t be trusted.
Dean would die before he disappointed her again. He never wanted to see the doubt in her eyes, the disbelief.
Their relationship may be just beginning, but they shared something valuable. Dean felt it deep down where he rarely allowed himself to look because it had always been empty. With Sonia around, he no longer felt the emptiness.
When Sonia slipped into the dugout, Dean maneuvered around the stadium and reached the stairs that led to a private observation deck on the first-base line. While it afforded a good view of the dugout, it was a little farther than he would have liked.
Movement to his right had him leaning against the back wall of the stadium. A group of teens dressed in identical attire descended noisily from the observation deck toward the field. He pulled the teacher aside and identified himself. “Can I ask that you hold off a moment?”
“Is there something wrong?” the young woman, who didn’t look much older than her students, said.
“No, but my partner is checking into something. That young man over there”—he gestured toward one of the larger students—“can I borrow his T-shirt?” The shirt had the name of their school in white on blue.
“Um, would it help if I just gave you one of the extras?”
“It would help a lot. Thank you.”
“When can we go down?”
“I’ll let you know. Not more than thirty minutes.”
He took th
e shirt from the teacher and stretched it out. It was an extra large, but still clung tightly across his shoulders. Fortunately, it was square cut and concealed his sidearm nicely.
“If you’re going to use a disguise, I don’t know if that will help much.” She handed him her clipboard, then the River Cats cap from her head. “You can borrow these.”
“Thanks, ma’am.”
As soon as Sonia reached the dugout, she heard noise at the top of the bleachers where there was a semi-enclosed booth high up from the first-base line. A large group of teenagers dressed in blue-and-white T-shirts congregated, but they stayed in the bleachers. Good, she didn’t want to have any more civilians to worry about.
She looked over the dugout—fairly secure. No doors or access point except through the front. The area was quite large—she’d never been in a dugout before. There was a ramp and stairs that led to it, and it was set back a bit from the field. Private. Surprisingly quiet. The dugout was in the shade, the sun behind the stadium. Even now, in the heat of a Sacramento June, the temperature was comfortable.
There was no reason for Charlie to hurt her, but she liked knowing her escape options. She could run out anywhere along the dugout as long as she leaped over the railing, or slid under it. Good. And it would be fairly easy to get to the bleachers or across the field. Not that she needed to escape. As she walked the dugout, her senses sharpened and she twitched. A million needles pricked her skin and she began to sweat. She took a deep breath, not letting her anxiety—she refused to call her fear of dark, enclosed places a phobia—take control. The needles went away, but her eyesight and hearing still felt heightened and she was jittery, as if she’d had too much caffeine.
She blamed her father for this fear. After he had sold her she’d been stuck in the back of a dark truck for nearly two weeks, allowed out only under cover of night and then watched by heavily armed guards. And in the basement, where Izzy was murdered. She hated being underground. The dark, the bugs, the foul, moldy smell—she felt as if she were thirteen again. Trapped. The dugout had been dug into the ground and the fresh earth reminded her of a new grave. That was what was getting to her. Damn Charlie. But she couldn’t blame him completely; he didn’t know. She didn’t talk about it, she had never talked about it, hoping that by ignoring her reaction it would go away.
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