The Perfect Storm_A Thrilling Romantic Suspense

by Madyson Grey

  “Prostitution,” Victoria said.

  “No prostitution happens here,” the manager said.

  “Then what’s behind these curtains?” she probed.

  “Just a woman who does a strip tease. Any customer who makes a minimum purchase in the store of fifty dollars or more, and so wishes, can come back here and observe a strip tease for free. No prostitution whatsoever,” the manager affirmed.

  “If you say so,” Victoria said in a doubtful tone of voice.

  When they came to the end of the hall, there was a back door that led out into a small parking area and the back alley. There was also a door on either side of the hallway. Victoria wanted to know what was behind those doors.

  “This is the entrance to each of the cages,” the manager told her. “The girls enter here, and then walk down a narrow passageway to enter their own cubicle. There is also a small restroom back there for the girls’ use. One on each side.”

  “Is anyone in there now?” Rafael wanted to know.

  “No, the girls don’t come in to work until five o’clock. Then they work until one in the morning. That’s eight hours with a one-hour lunch break,” the manager explained.

  “I guess that’s enough for now,” Rafael said as he turned around in the hallway to go back out the way they had come in.

  He was definitely unimpressed with the sordidness of this type of business, but as he had told Victoria earlier, he couldn’t evict the business without good cause. The fact that they didn’t approve of that type of business was not good cause in the eyes of the law.

  Back in the car, Victoria made notes in the folder about their visit. Then she asked Rafael, “Did you notice the trap door in the floor at the end of the hallway in there? You know, back there between the cages at the back door?”

  “No, I didn’t see that,” Rafael said. “You and the manager were standing ahead of me, and it was kinda dim in there, so I didn’t notice the floor. Why?”

  “Just had me curious, that’s all,” Victoria said. “I wonder if anything shows on the floor plan for this mall.”

  She rifled through the paperwork on the mall until she came to the floor plan. It wasn’t an official blueprint, but it was an exact to-scale drawing of the complex. Together, they pinpointed the storefront they had just come out of. There were three elevations of drawings: the upper floor, the ground floor, and the under workings of the building.

  Underneath the mall building was a space not big enough to be designated a basement, but big enough for a man to get around in to take care of any issues with the plumbing that was exposed down there, the electrical, and other utilities. There were only two ways in and out of the underground maintenance area: one was a stairway that went down out of the mall’s office, and the other was an outside entrance at the west end of the mall. Right beside the adult bookstore.

  “Well, I don’t see anything out of order,” Rafael said. “Except that now I’m curious about that trap door. It’s not shown on any of these drawings. But then, those cages aren’t shown, either. This is just the floor plan. Store owners put up walls and take them down at will in malls like this.”

  “I guess we’ll not worry about it for now,” Victoria said with a sigh. “I just hate that kind of business and would like to find an excuse to evict them. I like sex as much as anybody does, but a business like this just cheapens it, as far as I’m concerned. I feel sorry for the girls who work in there.”

  “It’s a choice they make,” Rafael reminded her. “They could choose another job.”

  “Not necessarily,” Victoria said. “I read a magazine article about strippers and hookers a year or so ago. It said that some girls do it because it pays way more than they can make doing anything else, and they are doing it to put themselves through college. It also said that some are forced into the sex trade by their drug dealers, who are also pimps. It is a form of slavery—sex slavery. If they try to escape, their lives are threatened, so they just stay until they can find a way out.”

  “Some of the guys used to talk about that in the locker room in high school,” Rafael said, remembering. “But I thought that they were just mouthing off. I couldn’t imagine anyone being a slave in the United States in this day and age. But maybe so.”

  Rafael started the car, put it in reverse, and slowly began to back out of the parking space.

  “Shall we call it a day and go walk on the beach for awhile?” he asked.

  “Works for me,” Victoria said, flashing a flirty little smile at him.

  They drove down to the beach, found a parking place, and got out. While they were en route, Victoria had exchanged her dressy sandals for a pair of flip-flops to wear in the sand. The place they had chosen to stop at wasn’t too far from an area where large ocean-going vessels docked and loaded or unloaded their wares.

  Rafael had slung a pair of binoculars over his shoulder that he kept in the car and was using them to look out to sea, and at the ships and dock areas across the channel from where they were. After he had used them for a minute or two, he handed them to Victoria for her to have a turn.

  She looked through the binoculars for a couple of minutes, took them away from her eyes, and then put them back up to take a second look at something across the channel.

  “What do you see?” Rafael asked her.

  “I’m not sure,” she said in a puzzled tone. “It looks like a bunch of people coming out of one of those big shipping containers over there.”

  “Let me see,” Rafael said, reaching for the binoculars.

  Victoria handed them to him and pointed in the direction he should look. He looked for a long moment, watching what seemed to be a bunch of people spilling out of a blue shipping container. From this distance he couldn’t be sure, but they looked to be all women. Illegal immigrants? From where? It was hard to tell at this distance, but he thought their clothing might be Asian, or possibly Indian.

  “Curious, isn’t it?” Victoria asked.

  “Sure is,” Rafael responded, still holding the binoculars to his eyes.

  The people all walked away out of range of Rafael’s binoculars, so he took them away from his eyes, and, taking Victoria’s hand, they began to walk as close to the edge as they could get. It was a beautiful afternoon, and they enjoyed a long walk. There were a couple of interesting little shops that Victoria wanted to explore, so Rafael patiently tagged her through them, trying to admire all the little trinkets that she admired. Stuff like that wasn’t nearly as interesting to him as it was to her.

  Before too long, however, Rafael said it was time to head for home. They still had a long drive, so they wended their way back to the car.

  Lena had supper ready when they got there, thanks to Victoria calling her to let her know when they’d be home. She had pulled out all the stops and had prepared a lovely dinner of steak, baked potatoes, green beans, salad, and a fat chocolate cake for dessert.

  When Victoria walked into the kitchen to see what Lena was doing, she sniffed the air appreciatively and said, “I’m sure glad that my mama is such a great cook.”

  With that, she gave Lena a careful one-armed squeeze, as Lena was pouring milk into three glasses, and she didn’t want to make her spill.

  “Aw, pshaw,” Lena said with an embarrassed grin.

  Chapter 3

  After supper, Victoria helped Lena clean up the kitchen. The dishes went into the dishwasher, and the few leftovers were stowed away in the fridge. On his way to the family room, Rafael told the women to please come to the family room as soon as they were through in the kitchen.

  “I’d like to talk about what we can do with this land we just bought,” he said as soon as the women were settled comfortably.

  Rafael had a notepad and a pen, indicating that he was ready to jot down any and all the ideas any of them could come up with that were possibilities for developing that land into something other than more housing projects or shopping malls. The one rule he and Victoria had already agreed upon is that there w
ould be a bare minimum of buildings erected on the property, and those would only be built if they were vital to the operations of what else would be put there.

  “So, I’m ready for suggestions,” Rafael said. “From you, too, Lena.”

  “I’ve already got down here nature trail, botanical gardens, zip line, and small-scale train,” he said. “What else can we think of?”

  “What about building half a dozen tree houses that kids could play in?” Victoria asked.

  “That would be cool, except for the liability issue,” Rafael said. “If a kid falls and gets hurt or killed, we’d be sued big time.”

  “Oh, yeah, I didn’t think about that,” she said. “What about making the parents sign statements saying that they wouldn’t sue us? Our liability insurance could cover the cost of the medical treatment, but they wouldn’t be able to sue for more.”

  “I’m not sure that would work,” Rafael said. “I’ve heard that those things don’t hold up in court.”

  “Do you have any ideas?” Victoria asked Lena.

  “Well, I do have one,” Lena said hesitantly. “But you might think it’s silly. I don’t know if kids these days would like it.”

  “What is it? Tell us?” Rafael urged.

  “I thought of building a barn, a cute red barn just like in pictures, and then getting some farm animals and having a petting zoo,” Lena said. “So many kids are raised in the city and never get to see farm animals. You could have some calves, lambs, goats, ducks, chickens, a horse or donkey, maybe even a pig or two.”

  “I like that idea,” Victoria said.

  “Me, too,” Rafael said. “I’ve still never been to a real farm. We’d have to hire someone who knows about animals and could take care of them.”

  “It would be fun to have live demonstrations of milking a cow or a goat, give pony rides, and let the kids throw grain to the ducks and chickens,” Victoria said, getting into the idea.

  “Maybe you could even build a replica of an old farmhouse and have people come in to demonstrate old time homemaking skills such as soap-making, canning, doing laundry on a washboard, spinning yarn from wool from the sheep you would have, and gardening,” Lena said.

  “A pioneer farm,” Victoria said. “That’s a smashing idea, I think. What do you think, babe?” she asked Rafael.

  “I think it has distinct possibilities,” he said. “We’d just have to hire people to do all that stuff because I sure don’t have a clue how to do any of it. I don’t even know which end of a cow the milk comes from.”

  The three of them chuckled at his exaggeration. Rafael started writing notes as fast as he could, putting down everything they had all just talked about.

  “It’s gonna cost a lot,” Lena said, always conscious of finances.

  “That it will,” Rafael agreed. “But we can charge admission and recoup some of the operational costs.”

  He quickly scribbled some more on his notepad and then announced, “If we were to raise the rent on each of our tenants in all of our buildings just twenty-five dollars a month, we’d have an extra $67,800 per month. I know for a fact that your dad hasn’t raised rent in over five years. So I think we could do it without causing an uproar. Especially only raising it twenty-five dollars a month. That’s peanuts to what they’re all paying.

  “Then we could put that money towards developing the property,” Victoria said. “That along with whatever other funds we have available.”

  “That’s the thought,” Rafael agreed. “So, what do you think? You want to proceed?”

  “I think we should,” Victoria said. “I think it’s a great idea.”

  “Could I offer just one more thought?” Lena asked timidly.

  “Of course you can,” Rafael said.

  “I’d like to see you offer some kind of discounted or free entrance days to underprivileged children,” she said. “Maybe you could work with the foster care program to have foster child days, or with homeless shelters to bring homeless kids or families out here. Stuff like that.”

  “That’s a wonderful idea, Mama,” Victoria said. “Every child should have the opportunity to enjoy a place such as we are planning, regardless of their family’s ability to pay. We’ll work on that aspect along with everything else.”

  “This isn’t going to happen overnight,” Rafael cautioned. “I’ll have to go to the City and get permits for what we want to do. We’ll have to have an architect draw up plans for the farmhouse and barn, and any other buildings we decide we need. We’ll probably have to tie into city utilities, although I’d like to look into drilling a couple of wells out there. We’ll have to hire someone who knows how to lay track for a miniature train, and a botanist, or several, to create the flower gardens. This will be a major undertaking, not just a weekend project.”

  “That’s for sure,” Victoria agreed. “We’re going to have to be very organized, and start by outlining just exactly what we intend to do, and how we intend to accomplish it. Not the least of which is what do we plan to name this place? I think you’ll have to have some kind of name to put on all the permit applications, won’t you?”

  “At least a corporation name,” Rafael said. “I don’t know about the DBA name.”

  “DBA? What’s that?” Victoria asked.

  “Doing Business As,” Rafael said.

  “Oh.”

  Rafael and Victoria talked until bedtime about their plans and dreams for their new theme park. Lena excused herself early on and went downstairs to her suite. She had just enough time to get in a nice swim before it got too late.

  The following Thursday, Victoria and Rafael met with Doug Bush at Victoria’s childhood home, so that Doug could take pictures of the place, inside and out, and look it over so he would be able to promote it intelligently.

  It felt weird to Victoria to go back there and see the place so totally empty. She felt a little more nostalgic about the place than she expected to. As soon as they drove in the gate, they realized that they would have to hire a lawn care service to keep up the grounds until it sold. In the excitement of moving, learning about Lena being Victoria’s mom, and beginning to make plans for the undeveloped property, mowing the lawns at the old place had simply slipped their minds.

  Doug Bush took lots of photos, took copious notes, and asked a multitude of questions. An hour later, he was finally satisfied that he had all the information he needed to be able to advertise the estate for sale.

  Friday morning on the way to their first building inspection, Rafael told Victoria that he would like to invite his mom over for dinner to show her their new home.

  “That’s a great idea,” Victoria said enthusiastically. “I’m ashamed that I didn’t think of it sooner, but we’ve been so busy.”

  “I know,” Rafael said. “I thought of it when we were first moving in and planned to have her over as soon as we got settled, but the days have just gone by and now it’s been a week and a half already.”

  “Let’s have her over tomorrow,” Victoria suggested. “When we stop you can call her and invite her. Tell her to bring a swim suit and we can swim in the pool, too, if she’d like.”

  After Rafael received his mom’s joyful acceptance, Victoria called Lena to let her know, and ask her if she’d help Victoria prepare dinner.

  “Of course I’ll help, honey,” Lena said. “Be glad to. Do you know yet what you want to have?”

  “No, not yet,” Victoria admitted. “Haven’t had time to think about it. When I figure it out, I’ll call and let you know.

  “And by the way,” she added before Lena could hang up, “would you like to invite your parents over for dinner sometime soon? My grandparents. Wow! I’d love to have them over and learn all about my heritage. Oh! Do they know?”

  “Yes, they know,” Lena said. “I told them when it happened. It wasn’t like I could hide it from them.”

  Saturday morning was a busy time. Victoria cleaned house like a madwoman, and Lena cooked up a storm in the kitchen. After consu
lting Rafael as to his mother’s food likes and dislikes, they had settled on having lasagna, salad, and garlic bread, with blueberry pie and ice cream for dessert.

  Manuela Rivera drove in the driveway right about one o’clock, half an hour before the designated dinner time. Victoria wanted her to come in, see the house, and relax a bit before sitting down to eat.

  Manuela was nearly overwhelmed by the house, the furnishings, and the pool and patio. She had never been inside such a luxurious home before. To think that her baby boy was living in this house just blew her away.

  Over dinner, Rafael asked her if she would like to move over into one of the two houses that were now on the property belonging to him.

  “Oh, son, I don’t know,” Manuela said hesitantly. “I’ve lived in my little house for six years now, and I’ve made friends in the neighborhood. I know my way around from there and can go to the grocery store or the shopping mall without getting lost. If I moved over here, I wouldn’t know anyone, and there aren’t any close neighbors to that house.

  “I appreciate the offer, but I think I’ll just stay where I’m at for now,” she said. “Besides, when Mateo gets out of jail, he wouldn’t know where to find me.”

  “That might be a good thing,” Rafael muttered.

  “Rafael! He’s your brother! And he’s my son, too,” Manuel remonstrated with her younger son.

  “I know, but look at the way he’s treated you—stealing from you, bringing stolen goods into your house, mooching off you. It’d serve him right if he couldn’t find you when he gets out,” Rafael said.

  “I sure don’t want him around my house, breaking in and stealing our stuff again,” he said firmly.

  He still hadn’t forgiven Mateo for breaking into Victoria’s house while they were on their honeymoon, or for the way he had treated their mother.

  “I understand how you must feel,” Manuela said, “but I can’t turn my back on my son. And besides, maybe he will have changed by the time he gets out in a couple of years. You should go to visit him with me sometime, Rafael.”