by Nina Bruhns
She unzipped him, then nudged him to raise his hips so she could remove his jeans. His erection, hard and swollen, pressed against her thigh. She reached down and stroked him slowly, an easy up and down motion that had him clutching her to him and rubbing his forehead back and forth against her breast.
“You’re killing me,” he whispered.
Was she? She only knew what he was doing to her. She looked at him. His handsome features pulled taut. His body, muscles now tensed and with a slight sheen of perspiration. His erection growing bigger and harder. In response to what she was seeing, she felt another wave of desire.
She slid down his body to his arousal. As she took him into her mouth, he released a soft grunt. She took him deeper and he said something she didn’t catch. She was too lost in him. Too near the edge.
He eased her from him and in a movement that came faster than his next breath, he lifted her, and rolled onto his back. His biceps bulging slightly, he held her above him. His eyes fixed on hers without blinking for one, two, then three wild beats of her heart. He brought her mouth to his and as he kissed her, hot and wet he lowered her slowly onto his erection.
Mallory gasped at the contact and she heard Gage hiss his next breath.
He put his large hands on her hips, gently lifting her, then lowering her again, guiding her in a rhythm that matched each stroke of his tongue against hers. As far gone as Mallory knew he was, she could feel his restraint. He was holding her back, keeping her from taking him in as deeply as she could, testing her readiness. She was beyond ready. She wanted more of him, all of him and urged him in further.
Finally, he complied and entered her completely. Mallory’s eyes closed and she made a small plaintive sound into his mouth.
Gage increased their rhythm and Mallory eagerly kept pace. She gave herself over to the sensation, fisting her hands in his hair and she climaxed to Gage’s own shout of release and his name echoing in her head.
They kissed softly, a tender caress of tongues, a gentle pressure of lips, then she let her face loll onto his neck. His arm came around her, holding her to him. Mallory slept.
* * *
Mallory looked at the paper she held and read the address. “This is the street, Gage.”
It was just after nine in the morning. They were on the road Rita Castile Freeman lived on. A garbage truck lumbered down the street, making its rounds. Gage fell in behind the truck as Mallory checked house numbers.
“Forty nine. Fifty one. That one. Number fifty three.” Mallory pointed to a neat semi-detached house painted a pretty golden shade. There wasn’t a car in the single driveway, but Gage parked at the curb and they left the vehicle.
The driveway had been cleared of snow, but flakes dusted the small front lawn and sprinkled the eavestrough and shutters.
Mallory rang the front door bell. The sound carried to the porch from inside the house, a sing song chime. The door was opened almost at once.
“So what did you forget?”
The smiling woman who opened the door was an older and softer version of the Rita Castile they’d viewed on the club advertisement. Her face was scrubbed clean of cosmetics. Her hair was cut short in a sassy bob that swung as she tilted her head to one side. She braced the door with one hand and rested the other on her very pregnant abdomen.
“Oh, hi.” Rita smiled. “I was expecting my husband. He just left and I thought he came back because he forgot something. But you’re not him. Obviously. Can I help you?”
Mallory showed her ID and Rita blanched. “I’m Agent Burke and this is Captain Broderick. We just want a couple of minutes of your time. May we come in?”
Rita swallowed visibly, clearly uncomfortable with the request but she backed away from the door. “Yeah. Okay.”
They entered a small hall painted a cheery pink. Small plaques that depicted cartoon characters hung on one wall. On the other, a trio of framed embroidered cloths were centered. The largest embroidery of the three was a house with the caption “Home Sweet Home” beneath.
Rita linked her hands. “Come in to the living room.”
The floral theme and homey atmosphere continued in there. A large glass vase was filled with perky yellow daisies.
Gage and Mallory took places on a yellow couch. Rita perched on the end of a matching chair, her hands now clasped tightly around her stomach. Eyes wide, she watched Mallory then Gage in turn, her distress evident.
Mallory resisted the urge to reassure Rita. She had a job to do. Without preamble, she got to the reason for their visit. “Did you ever work at The Wild Club, Rita?” Mallory didn’t think it was possible for Rita to get any paler, but she did.
“How did you find me? Please, I’m married now. I’m having a baby.” She rubbed circles around her stomach. “My husband doesn’t know about that part of my life. That I was a dancer. He’s very conservative. He can’t find out about that. It would end my marriage.”
“We don’t have any intention of speaking with your husband,” Mallory said. “We just need to get some information from you. That’s all. How long did you work at The Wild Club?”
“Seven, eight months.”
“Did Billy Wilder hire you?”
Rita gnawed her bottom lip. “Aha.”
“Why did you leave the club?”
Rita smoothed an embroidered cushion, then took the fringe between her fingertips and began to pleat the material. “It was a long time ago. A life time ago for me. What can it matter now?”
Mallory kept her response vague. “It may matter a great deal, Rita. Go on.”
Rita licked her lips. “Billy arranged private parties.”
“Private parties?”
Rita nodded. “He’d invite a few of the girls, the dancers, saying that the tips would be more than we’d earn dancing in a month.”
“Did you ever go to any of these parties?”
In a near whisper she said, “I went to one.”
Mallory curled her fingers around the strap of her purse. “What went on at these parties?”
“Dancing for the male guests, then each guy would take one or more of the girls in to one of the rooms in back to party in private.”
“To have sex, you mean?”
Rita gave a slow up and down motion with her head.
“Were all the dancers from Billy’s club?” Mallory said.
Rita lifted the pillow out of her lap and hugged it to her chest. “Not to the one I went. I was the only one.”
Gage had been quietly observing but spoke up now. “What happened after that party?”
Rita turned wide, fearful eyes on Gage. “We were all driven home. That was it.”
The garbage truck stopped at the curb in front of Rita’s house. The motor grinded. Mallory waited out the loud noise, taking in Rita’s information, then resumed the interview. “How long were you working at the club before you went to that party?”
Rita cleared her throat. “I was new, just there a few weeks. I went mostly cause I didn’t want to make Billy mad and look like I didn’t want to fit in. I really needed the job.”
“So you stayed on working at the club after that party?”
She nodded.
“What changed that made you quit work there?” Gage said.
Rita swallowed. “Billy hosted another party, but he didn’t ask me to that one. I figured he was looking for blondes because he asked only the blond girls and I never told him I didn’t want to go again. Like I said, I needed the job.” She took a breath, let it out slowly. “There was another girl who started working there. She was new, like me, and we kinda became friends. Billy invited her, that’s how I heard about it. Billy was real hush hush about this party. He’d never been that way about the other one. The new girl, Caitlin, thought the whole mystery thing was a kick. She jumped at the chance to make extra money. I told her what went down at the party I went to, and that we were expected to put out, but Caitlin said she could take care of herself and went anyway.”
Rita s
topped speaking.
“What happened at that party?” Gage prodded gently.
Rita’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know.”
“Caitlin didn’t tell you?” Mallory said.
“I never saw Caitlin again.”
Mallory leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
“She never came back to work after that night.”
Mallory felt a tightness in her stomach. “Did you ask Billy about her?”
“When she didn’t show up for work the day after the party, I asked Billy if she was sick. He told me she’d cleared out. Quit.”
“You didn’t believe him?”
Rita shook her head. “I knew where Caitlin lived. She rented a room not far from the club and I went there. Her land lady told me a man came by, said he was Caitlin’s brother. He paid the bill for her rent. Took her things. Said that Caitlin wouldn’t be back. She was moving back home with her family.”
“You don’t think that’s what happened?” Mallory said.
“She had a bad home life, same as me. Left home and wouldn’t go back. And, she didn’t have a brother. I told the land lady that, but she said I must have made a mistake and that was that. I knew some of the other girls had also gone to that party with Caitlin, so I asked them if they left with her. They said they had. That they’d all left together. Same as always. But it wasn’t the same. Caitlin was gone.”
Mallory felt saddened at Rita’s response and renewed anger at Billy and Considine. “Did you go to the police?”
Rita laughed without humor. “Are you kidding? I was a stripper and a prostitute thanks to that one party. People like me don’t go to the police. The police aren’t friends to people like me. But Caitlin was my friend. I had to do something. I told Billy that I was afraid something happened to Caitlin at that party. He told me I did the right thing by coming to him. That the safety of his girls is all important and he’d check this out. The day after I talked to him, though, things started happening to me.”
Mallory frowned. “What kinds of things?”
“Crank calls. Hang ups and breathers. Then, one night, I got locked in the laundry room at my apartment building. The lights went out and a man grabbed me, put a knife to my throat. I thought I was going to die.” Her voice broke. “Someone started banging on the door, wanting to come in and wash her own clothes. The guy went out through the utility door.” She closed her eyes. Tears leaked from the corners. “I couldn’t prove that Billy was behind that, but I never went back to the club. Didn’t even pick up my last pay check. I left the city, got a job in a run down out of the way club.”
Cooper’s club, Mallory thought.
Rita was crying openly now. Mallory took a box of tissues from an end table and held it out to the other woman. She plucked one and held it to her eyes.
“You can’t go bringing all this up again.” Rita’s voice was choked with tears. “Like I said, my husband doesn’t know about what I did before we got married.”
Rita began to sob and rock.
“Rita, look at me.” Mallory wasn’t sure the woman heard her as the tissue remained pressed to her eyes and she continued her back and forth movement. “Rita?” This time Rita lowered the tissue and Mallory attempted to calm the woman. “We have no reason to speak with your husband. No reason. Okay?”
After a moment of eye contact, Rita nodded.
“What was Caitlin’s last name, Rita?” Mallory said.
“Dell.”
“Did she say where she was from?”
“Midwest, I think.”
Not a local girl and Mallory wondered if Considine’s trafficking business extended to other states. “What did you hear about the party she went to?”
“What do you mean? Nothing. I told you, she never made it back.”
“Who else was invited?” Mallory clarified. “Where was it held?”
“A couple of girls from the club. I don’t remember who.” Rita bunched the tissue in her fist. “As for the men invited, guest list was private. I don’t even know the name of the man I was with when I partied.”
“Think, Rita.” Mallory slid to the end of the sofa, reducing the distance to the other woman. “Maybe you’ll remember something more. It’s important.”
“I think Caitlin said she heard Billy talking and that the party was going to be on a boat, a yacht. Yeah, I think that’s it. She was excited about that. Said she’d never been on a yacht before.”
“What about the name of the yacht? Did she mention that?”
Rita dabbed her eyes with the tissue. “I doubt she knew. The way things worked, we were picked up, driven to the destination, only finding out where when we got there. I never saw her again.” Rita choked on fresh tears.
Mallory placed her hand on Rita’s. “Are you going to be all right? Do you need us to stay with you for a while or is there someone we can call to come stay with you?”
Rita removed her hand from Mallory’s. “Please just go and don’t ever come back.”
* * *
On the walk back to the car, Mallory raised the hood of her jacket and stuck her hands deep into her jacket pockets to stave off the chill. None of that helped. Her talk with Rita had left her with a coldness that ran bone deep. “Caitlin Dell. I want to run her through the system. See if anything turns up.”
Gage put his arm around her shoulders and drew her to his side. “I’d be surprised if anything does. Sounds like Wilder didn’t miss a step to keep those parties under wraps.”
Inside her jacket pockets, Mallory’s fists clenched. “He just can’t keep getting away with this, Gage. We have to stop him and then through him, Considine.”
They returned to her apartment. After they’d performed what had become their usual check of the place, she logged onto the Bureau’s database and entered Caitlin Dell’s name. “You were right, Gage. Nothing came back on Caitlin.”
“Wilder and Considine were sure to know that,” Gage said. “She was easy prey.”
“No one was even looking for her.” Mallory stared at the screen and felt a deep sadness over that.
In her haste to follow up on Caitlin, Mallory hadn’t removed her jacket when she’d entered the apartment. Gage slid down the zipper and tugged one sleeve off. Turning away from that blank screen she removed the other, then hung the jacket in the closet.
She heard a small beep from her laptop. She went still at the sound. A message? Plopping down in front of her computer again, she saw it. She blinked to make sure that her mind hadn’t conjured the email, so desperate was she for there to be one. But, no, her eyes weren’t playing tricks.
“Gage.”
He came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “What does the message say?”
“Basic greeting. Brief bio. Into weight lifting and body building. Rap music. Having a good time.”
She typed back a description that continued the traits exhibited by the girls in Wilder’s photos and added the reminder that she was nineteen and into music and fun.” She hit send.
Within a few minutes, she received a response. The exchange continued into the early afternoon.
“I’m so tempted to ask to meet,” Mallory said.
“Need to wait for him to initiate contact.”
“I know you’re right but I’m so tired of waiting. Another message.” She sat up straighter as she read. “Bingo. A request to meet.”
“Where?”
“Not there yet. He’s waiting for me to agree.” Mallory typed Yes then hit send.
This time the response held a specific location. She read aloud. “Grandview Park. At the fountain. Four p.m. Will bring the beer.” Mallory replied “See You” with an abbreviated C U.
“Do you know where Grandview Park is?” Gage said.
“Next county.”
“With the weather, won’t be many people there.”
She glanced out the window at the dull sky heavy with clouds promising more snow. “A good isolated choice.”
&nb
sp; “How long to get there?”
“Half hour, I’d say.”
“You familiar with the place?” Gage asked.
“Never been there.”
“Do a search. Bring it up on screen. I want to see if there’s a layout of the area.”
She tapped the keyboard, bringing up a website. Gage sat beside her, clicking on the links. There weren’t many of them and fewer visuals. Mostly, the write-ups touted the natural beauty of the place and the couple of photos showed sprawling green grass under a blazing sun.
Gage took his hand from the laptop. “That was no help to us. If this guy is the one we’re looking for, he’ll get there ahead of the meet time, wanting to set himself up. Box you in so you won’t be able to make a run for it when he makes his move. I want to get there before him. Look the place over. Make sure we can cover you.” Gage checked his watch. “We should leave now.”
* * *
Gage parked on the street, a short distance away from the park between an SUV and a white van and they left the car. The sky had grown darker during the drive here. Mallory looked up at the sky laden with clouds and hoped the snow dump would wait a little longer.
At the entrance to the park, a wooden board held a map of the place. Mallory traced her finger along a thin red line. “By the look of this, the fountain is off a path, into the trees. Away from the main stream of things.”
Gage grunted at that. He took her hand and led her onto the snow covered grounds.
The crunch of snow beneath their steps sounded louder than it should have due to the absence of other sounds.
“This place is deserted,” Mallory said. “Not even a bird or squirrel.”
Gage looked around, then back over his shoulder. “So far, the only exit point I’ve seen is back the way we came.”
“The path forks up ahead. That could be another way in or out of here.”
“Our guy could approach from that fork.” Gage rolled his shoulders. “Let’s see if that path also ends at the fountain.”