by Linda Ladd
“You’re safe now,” Novak told her. “This whole trafficking ring is going down, we’re gonna make sure of it. The cops are going to be here any minute. You’ve got to pull yourself together and tell them everything you know about this operation, everywhere you’ve been, who you’ve seen, every single detail you can remember about the girls you were with. They’ll need their names and descriptions, where they’re from, if you know that. Their parents need to know they’re still alive.”
Her face changed abruptly. Fear bloomed behind her eyes. “They killed some of the girls,” she said, practically whispering. “They’d take them outside of the house, right here, in this house, and they’d never come back. My guard told me they cut their throats or locked them up in shipping containers and let them suffocate inside. I don’t know if that’s true, but none of them ever came back. The girls they took out to that yacht were alive when they left here. I don’t even know where we are. Stephen Locke put a pillowcase over my head when we traveled. Are we still in Texas?”
“No. California. Malibu Beach.”
“I knew I was near the ocean. They let me go outside once in a while.”
“I’ve been looking for you since the day they took you. I was so scared, baby.” Frank hugged her close, couldn’t seem to let go of her.
Lucy turned and looked at Novak. She was a pretty girl. Her hair was down around her shoulders, falling in long ringlets. Her blue eyes had an adult look in them now. She’d probably never lose that look. “What happened to that lady named Judith? When I was at this big fancy house somewhere, they kept me locked in a stall in a big garage. She sneaked in and gave me something to eat. She said she was afraid the judge was going to hurt me and that he hurt her. She said she’d come back and get me out if she could, but I never saw her again.”
“That happened in Houston. Judith is Judge Locke’s daughter. He’s the one behind all this. We got her out of there, but she was murdered after we turned her over to the FBI.”
“What about that lady named Leslie Taylor? Did you get her, too?”
Shame and regret hit Novak. His grief over Leslie’s murder cut him deeply. She’d been a good friend to him, a woman he’d once loved, a trusted colleague that had put herself on the line for him over and over, and he’d let her down in the worst way imaginable. He’d never forgive himself for her death. He looked back at Lucy and shook his head. “No, they killed her a few days ago at a safe house in Houston. She was the FBI agent who tried to help us find you. We think a mobster named Hennessey got her and Judith at one of their safe houses. Several FBI agents died along with her.”
Lucy frowned. “No, no way, you’re wrong, she’s not dead. She’s out here with those guys who took me. At first, I thought she’d come to get me because I remembered that she knows you and Daddy. But then I found out that she works for them. She set me up to be taken.” Lucy stopped there, her face slowly flushing with anger. “Then she said that you were trying to find me but would probably end up dead, both of you, so I should quit thinking about getting rescued. She said you’d deserve it, too, Mr. Novak, but that Daddy didn’t. She told me she hoped they didn’t have to kill both of you but that you’d never find me. That was yesterday, but she was here early this morning, too. I was locked in my room, but I heard her voice talking to Jake. That’s my guard’s name.”
Novak’s entire body went rigid. He felt his mind lock up and freeze in a way that hadn’t happened in years. He could not believe his ears at first. Leslie had betrayed him? Even after their history together, the fact they’d been close friends, and then lovers. Blood was rushing inside his ears, drowning out everything else. Anger was taking over his body, his voice, clogging his throat. If Leslie was involved, she’d been the one who’d gotten Judith killed, maybe even killed her herself. She had willingly helped to send Lucy and countless other young girls into lives of slavery. His words finally came, but he hardly recognized his own voice. “Do you know where she is now?”
“No, but I know she lives somewhere around here. One time when they let me out in the yard, I saw her walking up the beach toward us. I think she must live down that way on the beach somewhere.” She pointed south.
As shocked as Novak, Frank turned to him. “What are we gonna do about her?”
Novak swallowed down some of the anger, didn’t quite get it done. “You’re going to take care of Lucy. I’m going to go find Leslie. She thinks she’s in the clear, probably planning a new life with dirty money from selling girls to pedophiles. I’m going to end her before she can enjoy it. I want her behind bars in a Federal prison for the rest of her life.”
“I’m coming with you. You’re gonna need backup. I doubt if she’s alone in this.”
“No way. This is my fault and mine alone. I went to her for help. I trusted her, and I handed over Judith and her children. She played me, Frank. Now Judith’s dead and her children might be, too. It’s all on me. I was a fool.”
“No, it’s on her. Tell the local cops and the Feds what she did and let them find her. Let the law work for a change. When this comes down on them, they’re all going to prison for life.”
“I need you to take Lucy home to Galveston and let me finish this by myself. I need to do it alone. Understand?”
“Of course I do. But promise me you’ll turn her over to the police. We’ve got proof on her now. Lucy and the girls can testify.”
“Sure, I will,” Novak told him, but that was a lie. “I just want to find her and make her admit to my face what she’s done. Then I’ll turn her in, and she can rot in prison.”
Malibu law enforcement showed up exactly twelve minutes later. Novak sat down on a beige couch in the living room and gave a long, detailed statement to the detective in charge. His name was James Hayward, and Novak told him everything that had happened, leaving out no details since the day he’d first spotted Lori Garner running from those men on Bourbon Street. He told him about Hennessey and Calvin Locke and Mike Mickey and Imogene McClure and everybody else remotely involved. The cops appeared skeptical of his story at first and reticent to start accusing a sitting judge, but as he rolled out the evidence and swore he had documents in a safe deposit box in Corpus Christi which would prove his allegations, they began to look interested. They interviewed Lucy and the other girls, and Novak was proud of the way Lucy sat still and answered articulately with Frank close beside her for support. She told an ugly story that actually made Novak want to throw up. Frank had a sick look on his face as she recounted all she’d seen and done, but he had found her unharmed and that was all that mattered to him. The cops called ambulances to transport the girls to a nearby hospital and told Novak that he and his friends could go but that they would be called to testify. Then the questioning process began.
While the cops talked to the girls, Novak took Frank aside. “How about going back to Scottsdale first and making sure Lori’s okay and being taken care of. You know, maybe you and Lucy could keep her company until I get back there. I need to contact the Bureau and let them know that Leslie Taylor’s alive and dirty. Once I find her, they can handle it from that point.”
Frank studied his face, but he knew Novak much too well and too long to buy his lies. “Don’t overdo the revenge, Novak. Remember what you told me. She’ll do time, no question about it. Look, I want her punished more than anyone, more than you, probably, but that’s got to be enough for us to live with. She’ll never walk free again, not after this.”
“Tell that to Judith’s kids, if we ever find them. God only knows where she sent them and to whom. After I deal with her, I’m not stopping until I find them.”
“You’re blaming yourself for all of this. It’s not your fault. You were trying to help me.”
“I brought her in. I told her everything I knew, every goddamn stinkin’ thing. I delivered Judith and those two little girls right into her hands. I’m to blame for everything that happened to her and to the
m. She betrayed me. I want my pound of flesh, Frank.”
“She’s not worth going to prison over.”
Maybe it was worth it to Novak.
It took nearly all day for the police to get things sorted out. They let Frank and Lucy leave after hours of questioning. They ended up believing Mike Mickey was innocent and didn’t know about the crimes being perpetrated out of his office. Much to his relief, they sent him on his way. He immediately called a limo and headed off to find his scriptwriter to pitch his latest movie idea based on a true crime story. Novak wondered who’d play his part in the film.
The cops questioned Novak the longest. When they finally let him go, he found the serpentine sandy trail in the back that led down to the beach. He made his way to the bottom, and then for a long time, he sat down there on the sun-warmed sand, gazing out to sea until the commotion at the house above dwindled and the night became quiet after the cops had locked up the house, strung the crime scene tape, and drove away.
Then he watched the most magnificent sunset he’d ever seen and night gradually fell over the California coast, and the sea turned to ink with only the uneven foaming lines of breaking waves visible in the darkness. That’s when he stood up and started walking down the beach in the direction that Lucy had pointed out. The houses on this stretch of sand weren’t so close together. There were about four or five homes sitting high atop the hills above the beach, and maybe a mile or two down the shoreline, another line of homes sat right on the beach, close together, with all those plate-glass windows facing the restless waves.
When it was pitch black, lights on in windows high above him, he started climbing steps up to the first house he came to. It was smaller than the one where they’d found the girls, not as posh, not as many flowers, and little lawn. He stopped on a landing halfway up when he glimpsed the family who owned the place. They were sitting together at a table on a deck jutting out over the rocks. They were eating dinner. He stayed hidden inside shadows. It was a man and a woman and two little kids. It wasn’t Leslie Taylor. He descended to the beach again.
The next two homes were no-goes. Both had families watching television or eating dinner; both places had kids playing around outside on the decks. Number four was empty and completely dark. He climbed all the way to the top and peered in the windows to make sure. Doors locked up tight, no furniture inside, only vast, empty rooms. Most likely it was a house for sale for millions of dollars.
So he moved down the steps to the beach again and lucked out at house number five. He headed up the steps, keeping low, and finally caught a glimpse of Leslie Taylor. She wore a bathing suit, not much of one, but it was white and almost glowed in the darkness. She was standing high above him at a deck railing. Behind her, he could see a table set with a dozen tall and flaming white tapers. He felt his teeth clamp together, and his fists clenched into hard balls. Lucy was right. Leslie was alive and well and living the high life, no doubt spending money she’d earned betraying Judith and Novak and, worst of all, a young girl she claimed to care about. Lucy Caloroso.
Novak went down on his haunches and took a few deep breaths in and held them. He needed to remain calm. He was so angry that he wanted her dead. He wanted to kill her; he really did. He hadn’t known for sure if that’s what he’d do when he found her, but the rage was pulsating and pushing him to his limits. Even now, he wasn’t sure he could stop himself if he got the chance.
Her steps rose up to the south side of a large rectangular deck, and he was probably out of her line of vision. She was drinking red wine from a long-stemmed crystal goblet. She was standing still, gazing up at the stars. He wondered what she was thinking. Maybe she was congratulating herself on a job well done. Maybe she would continue to do the same thing to other innocent children and their families. Novak started up the steps, proceeding slowly and stealthily. The surf was wild and loud, and she couldn’t hear him. He stopped at the next landing. She didn’t have a clue he was anywhere around, and apparently, she didn’t know that most of her criminal associates were already dead or in jail. He made it to the top before she seemed to sense him. That’s when she suddenly turned around. She went completely rigid for a second, her eyes gleaming in the candlelight as she stared at the gun in his hand. It didn’t surprise him that she remained composed and didn’t run. She had always claimed her nerves were made of steel.
“Hello, Will. How did you find me?”
“Lucy saw you on the beach. I had a hunch, and here we are. Just the two of us. Together again.”
“I should’ve bought a beach house in Santa Barbara instead.”
Novak approached slowly, because he wasn’t dumb enough to underestimate her. She was a well-trained, experienced FBI field agent, and his reticence was rewarded when she grabbed a gun off the table and pointed it at him. His gun didn’t move from where it pointed at the center of her chest. They stood there, aiming lethal weapons at each other.
“Novak, I like you, even after all this, I do, but I can’t let you take me in.”
“I won’t let you get away with murdering Judith and her children.”
“I didn’t murder her. I didn’t murder Susie and Sammi. What do you take me for? Those little kids are fine. I took them to a safe house up in Dallas. The FBI knows where they are and will pick them up, safe and sound. Call and ask them if you don’t believe me. What do you think I am? Some kind of monster? I didn’t want Judith killed, either, but Hennessey wanted to teach the judge a lesson. He suspected he was trying to take over his operations. I suspect that was because of something you told him. Maybe it was you he was getting back at.”
“What about the woman they found at the safe house, the one you tried to pass off as yourself? The one whose face you disfigured with acid and then cut off her head and put it on that gate? The one dressed in your clothes? Who was she? Somebody you didn’t like? Somebody expendable?”
“I don’t know who she was. Hennessey handled all that. I haven’t killed anyone.”
“You might not have done it yourself, but you’re just as much a monster. You get other people to do your dirty work so you can keep your hands clean. If you didn’t murder Judith, who did?”
“I just told you. Hennessey wanted Judith dead and demanded I give her over to him. I had to. His people did the deed, I suppose. I wasn’t there. I didn’t ask what they were going to do with her, either. I wanted out. I wanted to disappear, and that’s what I did. I almost made it.”
“What the hell happened to you? You were instrumental in trafficking little kids, Les. You were putting Frank’s kid in a position where she could be raped or murdered. You had those innocent women murdered.”
“You happened to me. You ruined my career. You know you did. I did what I had to do to get it back.”
“I didn’t make you go bad. Greed and resentment did.”
“So am I going to have to shoot you?”
“I’m not letting you go. You’re going to jail for a long time.”
Leslie didn’t hesitate. She pulled the trigger. He reacted fast, but the bullet hit him in his right side and felt like a hot iron fist had slammed a hole through his body. He was knocked backward, and that saved him from the second bullet. She fired again, but he lunged at her and grabbed her gun arm and forced it upward. He took her down to the floor, but she kept pulling the trigger, the bullets shattering the plate-glass windows behind them. He grappled for the gun and forced it out of her hand, but she was too agile and twisted away from him and was on her feet and running toward the cliff steps.
Novak went after her, holding his side. It was bleeding heavily. She was thundering down the steps to the beach, her spike heels clacking on the wood. Novak ran down behind her. He was almost to her when she spun around. She was panicked now and whirled back around and ran down the next flight. When she reached the next landing, she swung around the landing post but was moving way too fast. When she stumbled, the forward
motion sped up her momentum. She went over in a tumbling somersault and flailed her way down the steps, her scream already muted by the sounds of the sea, but it stopped abruptly when she went headfirst into the concrete retaining wall at the bottom.
Novak made his way slowly down the rest of the way, holding his gun at the ready. He pulled up his shirt, but the bullet had only winged the flesh of his side. He could patch it up himself. He was pretty sure Leslie was dead before he got to her. In the faint moonlight, he could see the position of her head, and it was twisted at an impossible angle as was one of her legs. He squatted down beside her and stared at her face. Then he felt for a pulse on the side of her neck. There wasn’t one. She was gone, and then so was he. He walked swiftly away through the deep sucking sand and headed for the beach houses where he knew there was a restaurant called Gladstone. When he was a good distance from her dead body, he strolled more leisurely. She had fallen to her death trying to kill him. She had paid the ultimate price for her sins, and that was enough for him. He would tell her superiors every detail of her betrayal and make sure she had no reputation left among her colleagues except for one that would be reviled, but he wouldn’t tell them anything else.
Right now, all he wanted was to get back to Scottsdale and make sure Lori Garner was doing okay. Then he was going to give another long, detailed statement naming names and places and crimes committed by Stephen Locke to the Scottsdale police. Then he was going to Austin and turning over enough dirt to hang both Hennessey and Judge Locke. That would end it. After that, they’d both go to prison and he’d pick up his boat and sail home and try to forget everything that had happened for the last couple of weeks. Maybe he’d take Lori Garner with him. The sea was a good place to come to terms with what had happened to them. Maybe she’d like a holiday at sea as much as he would.