We got to the end of the road and turned around. Cortnie parked her car and turned off the lights. “What do you think? Did you see any cars?”
“Nope.” I told her what I could see as I quickly snapped pictures from my camera. Then I scrolled back through the pictures, and we looked at them together.
Cortnie pointed at the LCD screen. “See, that tall fence goes all the way around the house. I’m not sure if it’s to protect them from outsiders, from the noise of farm equipment, or something else. That fence isn’t new, either. It’s probably been there as long as the house has.”
We looked through a few more pictures. “There aren’t any cars on the property right now, so that means I drop you off and drive away. Are you good with that?”
In the dim light from the glow of the camera screen, I saw Cortnie nod.
My stomach flipped. I didn’t know if Cortnie’s nerves were rubbing off on me, or if something else was making me feel ill at ease. Most surveillance we did was in neighborhoods or parking lots. Not so easy to stand out, and very easy to blend in.
From where we sat, we couldn’t see the target. The pavement dipped slightly as we approached the fields. Even though we had made a U-turn and were facing the house, we still couldn’t see anything more than the trees that lined the fence along the road.
“No one can see us, so I’ll just use the interior light and prep from here. I don’t want someone to drive by, see us parked near the railroad tracks, and think they should come and help us. The last thing we want to do is draw the eyes of the cops.”
Cortnie reached up and flipped a switch for the car’s interior lights. “I can set this equipment up by braille. I’ve got my night vision goggles, so I can get a better look at everything, because I don’t have close-up surveillance of the fence. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to squeeze in between the trees to get to the fence and set up the cameras. But the trees will be good cover while I mount the cameras.”
“Do you think you can camouflage the cameras well enough that they won’t be noticed?”
“They aren’t that big. Maybe an inch around at the lens. The brackets will sit on the outside of the fence, so unless somebody is walking around in the bushes in the daytime, they shouldn’t be noticed.”
That was good. This was some very expensive equipment, and I didn’t want it being noticed and trashed. I also didn’t want it tracked back to us.
Cortnie opened her door and got out of the car. I got out as well, leaving the door open. I went around to the back to see if I could help Cortnie with her set up.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked.
“Just get in the driver’s seat and be ready to go. I set this up back here so it would be easy to pull out the items I need to do this quickly. I set it up as if I’d be going in by myself, and have to get in and out as quickly as possible.”
“You’re going in by yourself,” I reminded her.
“Right, but I mean as if I was driving the getaway car, but it was miles away.”
“It will be miles away,” I said.
“You’re getting on my nerves,” she hissed.
I chuckled. The easing of tension was palpable.
“Okay. I’m here for you if you need me.” As if she didn’t already know that.
Just as I got to the driver’s door, I heard Cortnie say, “Since you’re with me, Mimi, if I have extra time, I’m going to climb that fence. It’ll be a good way to test the surveillance, and if no one’s home, I’m going in that damn house.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “Cortnie, that’s not part of the plan. I only have my handgun. That’s all I have to protect you if something goes wrong.”
Cortnie shrugged. “Like I said, I’ll only go in if it looks like the house is empty. But remember, you can’t stay parked near the house; you have to drive back up to the road.”
“Why don’t I just drive back here? No one can see the car from here.”
No. You’re going to go up to the packing plant right near the railroad tracks, next to the biggest building. No one will notice the car from the road. Only someone driving up Somo Road will notice.”
She’d been working out the details of this stakeout longer than I had. She knew more about the area. I had to defer to her.
“Okay, let’s do this.” I sat in the driver’s seat and close the door.
Less than a minute later, Cortnie climbed into the passenger seat of the car with night vision goggles pushed up to her forehead. She wore a black backpack that she pulled around to the front of her as she sat down.
“Here, this is for you. This is how will keep in contact. We can’t have our phones lighting up as we call each other.” Cortnie handed me a headset.
I put the headset on immediately.
“Testing, testing,” she said.
I gave her a thumbs up. “Loud and clear.”
“Normally, I’d use our cell phones, but I don’t want any light.”
Into the speaker of the headset, I said, “Roger that.”
My hands were almost shaking as I turned the key and put the car in gear. I didn’t understand what made me so nervous, but I knew the people we were watching had a lot to lose, and they wouldn’t hesitate to dispose of someone who interfered with them.
I drove with one hand, and adjusted the headset over my ear with the other.
“We’ll test these when I get out of the car. If I don’t hear from you within fifteen seconds of talking to you, I will assume we don’t have contact, and I’ll call you on the phone. If you don’t hear from me within a minute, turn around and come get me,” she said.
I drove back toward the house, and slowed just enough to let Cortnie step out of the car without me actually stopping. The plan was to let her out, and she’d stay across from the house until she could no longer see my taillights. It was pitch black and I could not see her once I drove away.
As I drove off, I heard Cortnie’s voice in my ear. “Radio check.”
“Roger that,” I said.
I drove to the building Cortnie had designated, turned out the headlights and parked right next to the largest building on the property. Once I was settled, I checked in again.
“How’re you doing out there?”
A whisper came into my ear. “I’m on the backside of the house. I’m trying to find a way through the trees and bushes to get to the fence.”
“Keep me posted.”
Cortnie whispered back, “Will do.”
I kept looking at my watch, not wanting to bother Cortnie. After ten minutes, I couldn’t wait any longer and checked in again.
“How’s it coming along?”
For a moment, I didn’t hear anything. My heart raced.
“I’m at the fence. There are lights on at the back of the house. I’ve got to get this one installed and get to the other side of the house.”
I took a deep breath. “Do you see any movement?”
No response.
I waited. Still no response.
A minute must’ve gone by, before I heard my earphone crackle. “No movement. Radio silence. I need to get this finished and get out of here.”
My mind drifted over many subjects while I waited to hear back from Cortnie. I took in my surroundings as I waited for her to tell me it was time to pick her up. I thought about the failed vacation, about the lives that Nick and I had chosen, and about my friends. It came to mind that the only friends I had were work friends. I guess that’s what happens when you work fifteen plus hours a day, five to six days a week. If not for Nick, I don’t think I would have any friendships outside of my business. It was a somber thought.
I checked my watch. Too much time had gone by. Twenty minutes was too long to go radio silent. It wasn’t as if someone was going to hear me talking to Cortnie. She could just click her microphone and let me know that she heard me. I checked in again.
“Just checking in, Cortnie. Are we getting close?”
Nothing. I figured her fingers we
re busy setting up another camera to hold steadily in place, so I waited. I tried not to panic.
Ten minutes went by and still no response.
I tried again. “Radio check. Just click the button so I know you hear me.”
I didn’t wait long this time. Two minutes.
Nothing.
I looked up when I saw headlights headed toward me. That was weird, I didn’t remember seeing any cars along the road. And Somo Road was a dead end. Could there have been a car parked behind one of the buildings? Or one of the fences? There were three outbuildings on that property. Did we miss something?
The car drove by me at normal speed and went over the railroad tracks. I tried to start the car I was in and get close enough to see the license plates, but the car was already headed north on 101 by the time I got close to the street.
“Damn it.”
That was it. I called for Cortnie again. Damn that girl. By this time, my heart was in my throat. My spidey sense told me things were not as they should be. She’d never leave me hanging.
I wasn’t waiting any longer. I flipped the headlights on, turned right and drove back up Somo Road to the house. I didn’t care if I had to get out and scream Cortnie’s name at the top of my lungs.
The thing about farmhouses is that they usually have a driving path around the perimeter. I cut the lights and drove slowly around the outside of the property. There were no fresh tire tracks that I could see, but I was driving with no headlights. I could barely see, other than the yard light from the house. There were no cars on or near the property. Something looked different from the first time I drove by. I couldn’t place my finger on it, but there was something.
Ten
Charles
It turned out the place Max had picked to eat was a homemade version of Denny’s, with twenty-four-hour breakfast, burgers, and a multitude of other items on the menu. Even though it was late in the evening, Max and I both had omelets. We didn’t speak much about what we were doing while we were eating, because we were starving. The best thing about this place was the coffee, fresh and hot.
The waitress placed a plate of apple pie à la mode in the middle of the table and handed both Max and me a spoon. I picked up my spoon and dug into the hot apple pie, scooping some vanilla ice cream with it.
Max took a sip of coffee, but didn’t reach for the pie. “You know, we should bring the FBI in on this. They probably have connections to the Russians that we don’t know about.”
I swallowed my pie and thought for a moment before speaking. “If they’re in on it, and they know something, then why haven’t they shut them down? What reason could they possibly have to let them continue to prostitute these young girls?”
Max finally gave in and picked up his spoon. The pie was almost to his lips when he said, “They’re always going for the bigger fish. I just don’t want to be stepping on anyone’s toes. This is my job. I think I’m going to let you go back out on the street and continue to look. I’m going to make a few phone calls. I need to see what I can find out. Make sure we aren’t going to blow something wide open that needs to stay shut.”
I barely nodded my head, not sure if I was disappointed in Max’s stance, or if he was right. If the FBI was looking at these people, they needed to hurry up. Bigger fish, my ass. The idea for me was to get these girls out of there.
We didn’t speak much as we finally finished the apple pie and drank the rest of our coffee. We parted ways in the parking lot. Max was still sitting in his car as I drove back up to International Boulevard.
Max was definitely right about the traffic getting heavier as the night went on. And I was right about the BMWs, Mercedes, and other fine cars. At this time of night, my Spyder didn’t stand out quite so much. I wasn’t sure if I should sit on the side and watch traffic go by, or cruise up and down the boulevard to see where the girls were hanging out.
It seemed as if the girls traveled in groups. I don’t know if that was for safety, or if their pimps required it. You would think, for better business, that they would spread out and not fight each other for the next guy soliciting them.
In the next forty-five minutes, I saw everything. There was a sixty-year-old white woman with short choppy hair that looked to have patches of scalp exposed, wearing just a tube top and miniskirt. She wore flip-flops on her feet. There was the usual round of twenty-something to forty-something hookers, just like what you’d see on TV or in the movies. And then it happened. I decided to cruise the long way around, and came up to the cigarette store. In the parking lot, I saw three teenage girls. They didn’t look as animated as the other women I saw on the streets. In fact, they looked lethargic. These had to be young girls on drugs.
I pulled into the parking lot of the cigarette store and waited. I rolled down my window in case someone decided to come up and talk to me while I was making my plan. What my plan was, I didn’t know. I needed to get a closer look at these girls without approaching each one of them individually. Too much interest would scare off their pimps, who would round up the girls and take them elsewhere. I held my phone up, trying to look as if I was interested in a phone call, a game, or something else on my screen, but I let my eyes wander. The three girls I’d seen earlier were huddled together but not talking. They were also not looking for business. I didn’t know if this meant they weren’t really hookers, or something was up.
It was about another minute before I heard shouting. The girls scattered, making their way to the sidewalk, and waving down cars as they passed. Someone must have reminded them that they had their keep to earn. One girl who looked to be about sixteen already had a black eye. Apparently, she’d either mouthed off, or hadn’t made enough money the night before. It made me wonder why they waited so late to come out if they were trying to make several thousand dollars a night. Then again, they may have started the night somewhere else, and just got here. I kept a close eye on the girls, but none of them looked like Yolanda, so I stayed back.
My cell phone rang and it was Max.
“I did some checking, Charles, and we need to back off.”
I couldn’t believe Max was telling me to back off. I didn’t respond.
“Did you hear me, Charles? We need to step away.”
“What is so important that we need to step away?”
The urgency in his voice should have let me know that this was not the time to question him.
“They’re within days of busting a huge sex trafficking ring, Charles. If we step in and mess this up, we could screw up months of investigative work. They gave me the total numbers and between them, they’re looking at taking down at least three rings under one cartel, the ringleader, and about fifty girls will be taken off the streets.”
I found myself taking shallow breaths and trying to calm myself. I forced a deep breath. “Is it guaranteed they’re going to take this ring down? Because if they aren’t, I’m staying.”
I could almost hear Max shake his head. “Nothing is guaranteed. But if we get too involved, and we give away their position, we could ruin everything.”
Just as I started to respond to Max, I saw another girl hit the streets. I’ll be damned if they didn’t cut Yolanda’s hair off.
“Forget it, Max. I think I see Yolanda. No purple hair though, they’ve cut all her hair off. So much for thinking that they wouldn’t want her to look like a boy.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” Max asked. “Don’t go after her.”
“I already told you, if I saw her, I wasn’t leaving without her.” I hung up the phone.
My phone buzzed as I slipped it into my pocket. I didn’t even pull it out to see who is calling. I knew who it was. I was in no mood to talk to Max right now. I just had to find out how to get Yolanda in the car and take her with me.
I rolled up the window, opened the door and got out. Even though I planned to lure the young girl to my car, I figured it was best to approach on foot. If I got busted by the local cops, so be it. I’d have Max come and get me.
The three girls who arrived early were still fairly close together, even though one had disappeared for a few minutes and then came back. The new girl, Yolanda, stood off to the side. She was short, frail, and look like she was freezing her ass off. Her hair was shorter than shoulder length, in an uneven cut, and she wore a skin tight sleeveless shirt and cut off shorts. The espadrille shoes on her feet looked too big, and she had trouble walking the street in them. Was it the shoes giving her trouble or was she so doped up it was hard to walk?
I approached her from behind. I didn’t want to scare her off, so I moved to the right and came up to her on the sidewalk from the side.
“How much?” I asked her.
She looked up at me with large sad eyes, and said “Fifty bucks for a blow job.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, I realized I’d made a huge mistake.
Eleven
Mimi
I threw caution to the wind and turned on my headlights. If someone saw me, they saw me. I pulled the flashlight from the console of Cortnie’s car and started shining it in the trees. I didn’t see her equipment, and I didn’t see her. Then I wondered if she had even one camera set up. I got out of the car, walked around to the back, and opened the hatch. This was where she had the rest of the camera equipment. We were going to do a test run as soon as she was ready, so everything was set up. I moved the screen and turned it on and saw nothing. There was a camera pointed at the back door of the house, but no movement. I lowered the screen, close the hatch and got back in the car. Where was she?
I knew at that moment I should have called for backup and that I’d be sorry if I didn’t, so I grabbed my cell phone and as much as I hated to do it, I called Nick.
The phone rang three times, and while I was waiting for him to pick up. I held my breath. I figured he’d be testy with me, thinking I was going to be mad about something, because I was calling so late.
Trespassers Will Be Prostituted. Page 8