by M. Z. Kelly
“Yeah, I’m gonna need years of therapy—or a big bowl of ice cream—to get past all this.”
An hour later, the sergeant came by and told us we could call it a night. Walsh then went off to pat his officers on the back for a job that Max and I had done.
John Wilkins, one of his detectives, stopped by to thank us for helping out. “Over two dozen collars,” Wilkins said. “Not bad for a night’s work.”
“Glad we could help out,” Max said. “Nothin’ like being meat on parade.”
I tried to take the edge off Max’s comment, telling Wilkins, “It’s been a long night.”
I’d already changed, and spent a few minutes chatting about the night’s activities with Wilkins as Max went over to a trailer to get into her street clothes. I found Wilkins to be a nice guy, who only wanted to get the night’s action over with and get home to his wife and kids.
I was packing up my belongings when I thought about Maria Ramirez and the other girls who were out there somewhere being held prisoner. I mentioned her to Wilkins and what happened to Peter Baylor. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything about Baylor having been in some kind of conflict?”
“It’s more like a territorial war,” Wilkins said. “There’s a lot of tension on the streets, guys going at it for control of the sex business.”
“Have you heard any names mentioned, besides Baylor’s?”
Wilkins was a middle-aged detective, who looked like the job was wearing on him. He sighed and brushed a hand through his thinning hair. “I’ve heard the name Howard Landon a time or two. He’s supposed to be a new guy in town, a bidder for the girls, with lots of money and street smarts to back up what he’s doing.”
“Any idea where this Landon guy hangs out?”
“Not sure, but rumor has it he’s working with one of the locals who has a lot of political clout. The guy’s name is Bobby Angelo.”
THIRTY-ONE
“I’m here to clean you up and make you presentable,” the woman, who said her name was Tanya, told them. Maria thought she was probably in her thirties. She was heavyset, with a hard edge to her voice. “You need to shower and dress, then I’ll do your makeup.”
Maria and the other girls had been moved again during the night. This time they had been brought to a place that Maria thought might be a warehouse. They were in a room with empty shipping pallets and stacks of old furniture. The place smelled rank, like something in a refrigerator that was spoiled.
Despite some of the girls thinking they were better off with their new captors, Maria knew that wasn’t true. These men had killed Peter and Danny. She had no doubt they also planned to sell them to the highest bidder. Christina also knew that, but told Maria she would no longer try to escape. One of the men had taken her away during the night. Christina hadn’t said exactly what had happened, but Maria was sure she’d been beaten and raped.
Maria waited her turn before entering the room adjacent to the main warehouse. Tanya ordered her to strip off all her clothes and get in the shower. She got five minutes under lukewarm water, but still felt like she wasn’t clean.
“Get out and dry off,” Tanya ordered, tossing her a towel. “And hurry up. I don’t have all day. Put on the black dress, no underwear.”
The dress she’d been given wasn’t like anything Maria had ever worn before. It was black, cut low at the top, and hit her mid-thigh. She was also given a pair of spiked heels. Maria didn’t know if she could even walk in the heels.
“I can’t wear this,” she said, holding up the dress. “Is there something else I can put on?”
Tanya came over and glared at her. She brought a hand up, slapping her hard. “Do as you are told. Any further resistance, and...” She turned to the man leaning against the doorjamb. “...you will regret it.”
Maria saw the man smiling at her. She knew if she resisted, he would hurt her—or worse.
She spent about twenty minutes with Tanya while she roughly dried and styled her hair. She then worked on her makeup. When she was finished, Maria looked at herself in the mirror. There was so much makeup, she didn’t even look like herself. It was the same for all the other girls—lots of makeup, and short dresses.
When Tanya was finished with her, the two men who had taken them from Peter and Danny came into the room. They spent several minutes just walking around and looking at them.
“What’s your name?” the man, who she remembered was named Diego, asked her.
Maria thought he might be around forty. He had long hair, earrings, and a gold watch. “Maria,’ she said, not looking at him.
Diego reached over and took her chin, turning her to face him. “Listen to me carefully, Maria. Some men will be coming soon. They will be looking at you and the other girls. I promise you they won’t touch you, providing you cooperate.” His gaze moved over to the other girls. “You must all do exactly as they say.” He looked back at Maria. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
He patted her bare shoulder. “Good girl.”
Maria shrank back from his touch, causing him to laugh. After a few minutes, the men were apparently satisfied with what they saw and left.
“What’s going to happen?” one of the girls said, as Maria came over to her and the other girls.
Maria sat down, folding her knees up to her chest and hugging them. “I’m not sure,” she lied, saying a silent prayer for herself and the others.
THIRTY-TWO
Max and I got home a little after two. We were making our way up the steps to a side door that led inside the caretaker quarters when we saw a shadowy figure hunched over in the cemetery.
“You see that?” Max said, pointing to the man, who was about a hundred yards away.
“He looks like he’s digging.” I turned to her. “Do you think it could be the Phantom?”
She pulled out her weapon as I did the same. “Let’s go find out.”
Max had a small flashlight that illuminated the ground as we made our way through the cemetery. The man was turned away from us and didn’t see us approaching. When we were within a few yards of him, we stopped, and Max called out, “Police! Show us your hands!”
The man was startled as he turned toward us. He dropped the shovel and put his hands in the air. “Don’t shoot, for God’s sake!”
We got closer and realized it was Thorndike. He was dressed in black, wearing a watch cap, and was digging a hole near one of the graves.
“What the hell you doing out here this time of night?” Max demanded, as we came over to him and lowered our weapons.
He lowered his hands, his voice full of irritation now. “I’m just…I’m testing the ground. Since the weather warmed up, I was hoping to do some burials.” He looked at the ground where he’d been digging. “I’m afraid it’s still too frozen, and I’ve got bodies stacking up.”
We put our guns away and released a breath. “Couldn’t this wait until morning?” I said. “Why are you digging around in the cemetery in the middle of the night?”
“I’m an insomniac. I…I couldn’t sleep.”
I looked at Max, thinking there must be more to the story. She had already turned away from the odd little man, muttering something about trolls and vampires.
After we got home, I went straight to bed and slept in late, since Max and I had the next day off. When I got up, I saw that Max was in the kitchen with Amy. My friend had a big smile on her face, and her voice was animated as she chatted with Max.
“You’re way too happy for this early in the morning,” I said, coming over and pouring myself a cup of coffee.
“I’ve got a date,” Amy said, her voice pitching even higher.
“With who?”
“Amy’s gonna see that jolly good plumber, Jake,” Max said. “She’s gonna have herself a jolly good time.”
“Jake and me are gonna play this weekend,” Amy agreed, excitedly.
“You mean you’re going to a play?”
“No. We’re go
ing to play.”
“I don’t think she’s talkin’ about going to a playground,” Max said, her dark brows shooting up. “And I got me a feelin’ this playing around involves Jake laying some pipe.”
My brows inched together as I looked at Amy. “You don’t even know this guy, and…”
She laughed. “We’re just going to pal around, maybe go by his gym, then get something to eat. I’m not going to jump into bed with him, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Just don’t get...too...involved right away,” I said. “You’re in a vulnerable situation because your marriage ended.”
She laughed “Thanks, mom.”
We all took seats at the breakfast table, where Max and I mentioned finding Thorndike digging in the cemetery in the middle of the night.
“Doesn’t surprise me,” Amy said. “I don’t trust the little creepazoid.”
“Maybe he’s the Phantom,” Max said.
I considered that possibility. “He’s weird as hell, but I can’t see him killing anybody.”
Max and I then told Amy what we’d learned from the Vice cop last night. “He says there’s a sex trade war going on,” I said. “A guy named Howard Landon has moved in, bringing lots of money to the table. He’s working with Bobby Angelo, who, he said, has a lot of political contacts.”
“It’s the first I’ve heard of Angelo being involved in the sex trade,” Amy said. “That puts a whole new spin on things.”
“I got the impression Angelo is the go-between for this Landon guy and whoever he has taking the girls.” I looked at Max. “You ever heard Landon’s name mentioned when you were working the streets?”
“No, but he sounds like a big fish in a big lake. When I worked the streets, I was fishing in a small pond for guppies.”
“I’m gonna meet with Edgar this morning,” Amy said. “Why don’t you two come with me?”
“I’m gonna go work the neighborhood where Maria Ramirez and the other girls were held,” Max said. “Maybe somebody saw something.”
“What about you?” Amy asked me.
I stood. “Give me a few minutes to get ready, and I’ll go with you.” I started to leave, but stopped, my eyes holding on the bank of freezers against the wall. I gave voice to what I’d been thinking about for a couple days. “I’m going to need to go see what’s in the freezer first.”
They followed me over to the rows of freezers holding the dead bodies that lined the wall of our apartment. “I know the chances of finding my mother in one of these is a long shot,” I said, “but I’ve got to be sure.”
“You really gonna open them all up?” Max asked me.
I took a photograph of my mother, taken when I was a little girl, out of my pocket and showed it to them. “This is one of the few photos I have of her. You guys can help me check out the bodies, if you want.”
“She looks just like you,” Amy said, looking over my shoulder at the photo.
Max exhaled, her gaze moving over to the bank of freezers. “So, if we find your twin in one of them boxes, we know it’s your mama.”
We all took turns, opening the freezer doors and examining the bodies. We were on our third body when Amy let out a yelp.
“Did you find her mama?” Max asked, going over to her.
Amy had taken a step back and grimaced. “More like a zombie.”
Max and I examined the body that was in the drawer. It was badly decomposed, with part of the jaw missing, exposing her teeth. The corpse did bear a resemblance to a zombie, at least the TV version of the ones I’d seen on The Walking Dead.
We closed the drawer and continued our work. Twenty minutes later, we’d taken a look at all our dead roommates, not finding anyone that resembled my mother.
“At least you now know you’re not living with your dead mama,” Max said. “If your mama was in the fridge, you’d need years of therapy.”
Amy agreed. “You’d probably become a serial killer and dress your victims up to look like your mom.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve both been watching way too much TV.” I thought about the Phantom and his interest in girls who had been in drug programs. “Do you know whatever happened to the Phantom’s investigation?” I asked Max.
“The feds got involved and took over. Far as I know, it’s probably in their open unsolved unit.”
“I think I’m going to pay a visit to both the drug program my mom was in and the feds when I have a chance, find out whatever happened to the investigation.”
The worry lines on Max’s wide forehead deepened. “You sure that’s a good idea? We don’t want the department knowing you’re investigating things.”
I shrugged. “What I do on my own time is my business. Besides, if the Phantom did have anything to do with my mother’s disappearance, I owe it to her to find out.”
I headed for my bedroom, telling Amy, “Give me twenty, then we’ll go see Edgar.”
***
Edgar Lemon worked out of a bar in the East Village. We found him in a back booth that he called his office with a drink in his hand, even though it wasn’t noon yet. Amy’s on-again, off-again assistant was pushing sixty, bald, and overweight. From what I knew, he’d retired from the police department a few years back amid allegations that he’d abused a drug dealer.
After we said our hellos and slid into the booth across from him, Edgar regarded me. “I heard you killed the alien, ended up in Blue.”
I’d only met Edgar a couple times, but he always made a habit of annoying me. “I didn’t kill anyone. He slipped on the ice and fell into a dumpster.”
The big ex-cop tipped up his glass, then belched. “If you say so. Either way, from what I heard, you took out the trash.”
I was irritated and let Amy take over, filling him in on our search for Billy Cornelius, his brother’s apparent relationship with Suzanne Angelo, and Bobby Angelo working as the middle man in the sex trade.
“Supposedly, a guy name Howard Landon has moved in, making bids on the girls,” Amy said, after giving him the background.
“Heard about Landon,” Edgar said, jiggling the ice in his glass. “He’s a big deal in Philly. Bad news if he’s working his way up from there.”
“What do you know about Angelo possibly working with him?” I asked.
Edgar sniffed and ran a hand under his bulbous red nose. “Angelo’s been expanding his trade, working his way into lots of bad shit. Rumor has it someone was skimming the profits from his numbers racket. The sex stuff is new for him, but it doesn’t surprise me.” He looked at Amy. “So, your client is really balls deep with Angelo’s wife?”
“We followed Suzanne. She and Dr. C hooked up in a midtown apartment.”
“If Angelo finds out, your client is a dead man, and you won’t get paid.”
“That’s part of the reason we’re here. His brother, Billy, was running numbers with Asia Trainor, who worked for Angelo. She’s the one who ate it for taking the profits for herself. Our guess is that Billy’s in the wind, probably for also skimming money to pay off his drug debts. We need to find him so we can get paid.”
“The other reason we’re here is to find the missing girls and get them out of the sex trade before they’re sold,” I said.
Edgar drained the rest of his drink. “You don’t have much time, then. They’ll probably be bought and sold in the next day or two and be on the circuit.”
“That’s where you come in,” Amy said. “We need your help to try and head that off.”
Edgar didn’t respond, instead lifting two fingers, signaling the bartender for another drink. We waited while the barkeep came over. I had my doubts about Edgar Lemon’s ability to help us. While the ex-cop had a lot of street contacts, he was a drunk with a bad attitude.
After he drained half his drink, Edgar’s rheumy gaze came over to us. “You need to get inside, maybe get a piece of the action on the girls. I know somebody who can probably help.”
“Somebody who knows Angelo?” Amy asked.
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“More like somebody who knows somebody who knows Angelo.” He sniffed. “Let’s call him ‘Spike’ for the purposes of this discussion. Spike’s gonna want a deposit.”
“How much?”
“Five bills, to start. He’ll probably work for a couple G’s, once the job’s done.”
Amy looked at me. “Shit, that’s most of the expense money Dr. C gave us.”
“What about Billy?” I said to Edgar. “What’s your plan for Spike?”
“Once we’re inside with Angelo, Spike will make some inquiries, find out if Angelo’s people know if he’s hiding out under a rock somewhere or is already at the bottom of the Hudson.”
After a moment, Amy met my eyes again. “What do you think?”
I sighed. “I think Spike’s the only play we have.”
“Damn, I hate being broke.” She looked at Edgar. “I’ll get you the money this afternoon.”
Edgar slammed down the rest of his second drink and looked at me. “The Jinx.”
“What?” I said.
“That’s what they’re calling you, on account of what happened to the alien and your training officer. Just thought you should know.”
THIRTY-THREE
“The Jinx,” I muttered to myself, after Amy and I left Edgar’s “office”.
Amy signaled for a cab and said, “I’m sure it’s just somebody running his mouth off. Let it go.”
As the cabbie came over, I said, “Easy for you to say.” I sighed. “Somedays I think I’m not cut out for law enforcement.”
She smiled as she opened the door to the cab. “You could always go to work for me. We could call ourselves Tina and Amy.”
“Who?” I said as we got in the cab.
“We could be like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in that movie Sisters.”
I laughed. “I’ll let you know if I ever get that desperate.” She frowned. “I mean…I just don’t think I’m cut out to be a PI.”
Amy gave the cabbie our address. I asked him to let me off at New Beginnings drug program, then told Amy, “I’m going to do some checking, see if they still have records on my mom being in the program.”