by Stacy Green
“No,” I managed to choke out. “It’s raining, it’s late. I won’t let you put yourself through that.”
“You shouldn’t be alone.”
“I’m not the one who’s lost my child,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”
“Come over in the morning and hang out with me,” Kelly said. “We’ll eat something really fattening and watch movies. You can pretend to forget about all of this, at least for a few hours.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I wrestled my tears under control. “Thanks for offering to come over here. That means a lot.”
“You’re welcome. Oh, before I forget, I have a bit of good news. Well, it’s not good, but it’s better than what’s going on.”
“What’s that?”
“Slimy Steve got himself busted at work.”
“The electronics scam?”
“I wish. He got caught spying on the girls’ locker room at the gym where he works. Apparently he’d found a way to peek at the youth swim team girls.”
“Was he arrested?”
“Nope. Gym declined to press charges, but hopefully one of the parents will get their head out of their asses.”
Sudden, unrelenting exhaustion cascaded over me. “I suppose we’ll call that a positive for the day. Thanks for telling me.”
“Get some rest,” Kelly said.
“I promise to try.”
Zombie-like, I stumbled to the bedroom, threw my smoke-laden clothes in the hamper, and collapsed on the bed.
At precisely 2:22 a.m., my eyes flew open. Through a confused tangle of thoughts I wondered, for a brief moment, if I’d been out drinking and the events of the last twelve hours were no more than a hangover induced nightmare.
I’d been dreaming about Slimy Steve swaggering through Chetter’s this summer, wearing a too-tight shirt meant to show off his toned body. The shirt bore the name of a gym. He’d bragged to the bartender about his job allowing him to see hot women sweat.
I’d left my phone in the living room. Half-naked and shaking, I managed to cross the dark apartment without falling.
“Lucy?” Kelly’s groggy tone was laced with worry. “What’s wrong?”
“Slimy Steve’s gym,” I rattled. “What’s the name of it?”
“Philly Fitness. Why?”
“Jenna Richardson had a member’s sweatshirt. I saw it when Chris and I were there the other night.”
36
I’d like to say everything happened very quickly after that, just like in the movies. But instead of a radiant burst of light, the realization was more like a hazy forty-watt bulb hanging in a dingy basement. Motionless, wearing nothing but my underwear and still smelling vaguely of smoke, I stared into the emptiness of my apartment. I tried to tell myself this was all painful coincidence, that Occam’s razor was full of shit, but even as I tried to push the idea away, every fiber of intuition I had left screamed for attention.
The most logical explanation is usually the correct one.
Right under our noses, while I scrambled around chasing leads created by my own demons.
“Lucy.”
I’d forgotten Kelly was on the phone.
“Do you really think it’s possible?”
Her mother’s words flooded back to me. “Kailey took swim lessons over the summer. Jenna has a picture of the two of them, when she finished her lessons. I don’t know if it was at the same gym, but she loved the water.”
I couldn’t think straight. My brain stalled on the idea that I’d let Steve get away the night before Kailey disappeared. Fortunately, Kelly picked up the slack.
“I can call my contact at the department, see if I can find out which Philly Fitness location Steve worked at. If that doesn’t work, I can backdoor my way onto his Facebook page. He’s always been careful not to post anything suspicious on there, but it may have work information. And we’ve got to find out which location Jenna attends.”
“How long will that take? And how are you going to find out which gym Jenna went to?”
“I’m not. You’re going to ask her.”
I didn’t want to go near Jenna right now. Giving her a false sliver of hope seemed incredibly cruel. “I can’t. Now that there’s a body, police aren’t holding out a lot of hope. She’s been told her daughter is likely dead. We could be wrong. I can’t get her hopes up like that. But she works at Girard Medical Center. It’s not very far from her place in Poplar, and I think there’s a Philly Fitness around there.”
“Everything I do is going to take time, and I doubt I can find out anything about Jenna.” Kelly refused to budge. “You’re either going to have to ask around or ask her. Wait.” In that single word, Kelly’s business-like tone turned unsteady. “Did you say Girard Medical Center?”
My nerves ratcheted to the sky. “Yes, why?”
“Because that borders West Girard Avenue. Steve’s apartment–the one he keeps up and we always figured was his child porn palace–is on North Marshall. I don’t know the neighborhoods like you do, but I remember that night this past summer, when you tailed Steve to his place. You called me from a little deli at the corner of Marshall and Girard and went on and on about their chocolate pie. Steve had gone in to eat, remember?”
I did remember. Nothing about the restaurant was special; in fact, their floors were dirty and the napkin holders had a month’s worth of grime. But the pie had been delicious. I’d parked my car and followed Steve on foot that night, from his place to the restaurant and back.
My heart cartwheeled against my ribcage. “He walked along West Girard.” My voice was toneless. “Which is only a few blocks from Kailey’s street in Poplar. Their neighborhoods border each other.” The facts piled up in my mind like a teetering Jenga board: Steve working at the same gym, spying on the swimmers, Kailey’s swim lessons, her age fitting his preferences, the proximity of their homes. “God, it’s been right in front of me!”
“We don’t know that for sure. I’ll call my contact at the station, the guy who told me about Steve’s being fired.”
“Wake his ass up.” I glanced at the clock. Anger at my failure spurred me out of bed. “It’s almost three a.m. A lot of gyms open at five. Once you know for sure. I’ll go in and see if I can find out exactly where Jenna’s membership is. If I can’t, then I’ll ask Jenna.”
“The more time we waste–”
“Believe me, I know. I’ve already wasted too much. But I’ve got to know we’re right about the Philly Fitness location before I talk to Jenna. Find it, please.”
“What are you going to do? Why don’t you call Todd?”
“And tell him what? How can I explain what we know without getting us in trouble? And we don’t know anything for sure.”
“So what are you going to do?” Kelly demanded. “You can’t go over to Steve’s alone.”
“I’m not going alone.”
37
Rain sheeted against my windshield. Wipers on high, I sped through a sleeping downtown, cursing at the small numbers of cars out who dared to slow me down. I didn’t have any right to ask for Chris’s help, but I planned to do it anyway. He hadn’t answered his phone, which didn’t surprise me.
Guilt kept trying to creep into my head, to scream at me for not seeing who had taken Kailey all along, but I shoved it aside. I needed confidence right now.
I parked as closely to Chris’s building as possible, but I’d forgotten my umbrella, and by the time I got to the door, I was soaked and freezing. The rain was heavy and cold, stinging me like miniature icicles. I rang his buzzer repeatedly.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me.”
“You have got to be kidding. It’s something like four a.m. Not to mention what a mean hyp–”
“I don’t think your mother took Kailey,” I cut him off. “It was Steve, the guy I was after when you first met me. The one at Chetter’s. He works at Jenna Richardson’s gym, Philly Fitness. And he just got fired for peeping in the girl’s locker room during swim practice. Kailey t
ook lessons at Philly Fitness last summer. We need to find out if it’s the same location Steve worked at.” Breathless, I waited.
Maybe I was reaching, refusing to admit defeat. Maybe this was all a string of ugly coincidences.
“I’ll be down in five minutes.” Chris’s growl was replaced by brisk control.
“My car’s parked down the block on the right.”
Five minutes later, he banged on my passenger window, and I quickly unlocked the door. He dropped into the seat, soaked as well. His hair stuck to his head, his glasses fogged and dripping. He pulled the hem of a white t-shirt out of his hoodie and quickly cleaned them off. “What’s the plan?”
“I just heard from Kelly. Steve worked at the Philly Fitness on Girard, directly across from Girard Medical Center, where Jenna works.” My stomach knotted at the words. I should have stayed on Steve, shouldn’t have been so preoccupied with Justin that I didn’t make the connection when I saw Jenna’s sweatshirt.
No time for a pity party right now.
“Is that the gym she’s a member of?”
“That’s what we need to find out. Kelly is having trouble hacking into Philly Fitness’s database. It’ll be faster if we do the legwork.”
Chris agreed we should avoid talking to Jenna unless we had to. He also thought we should go straight to Todd.
“Not yet,” I said.
“If we find Kailey and you take care of Steve, how are you going to come out of this unscathed?”
“I don’t know. We can move quicker than Todd. He can talk to Steve, but he needs the damned warrant to find out anything. Even if he can get it, that’ll take a few hours. We could have Kailey by then.” I’d deal with the repercussions later. This wasn’t about my winning or redeeming myself. This was about saving Kailey–if she was still alive–as quickly as possible.
“Fine. Then promise me once we know he’s got Kailey and she’s safe, you’ll call Todd. That you won’t use Lucy Kendall justice.”
I shot him my nastiest glare. “You were all for my justice a few hours ago.”
“This is different. You do that, and there’s no way you’re not busted.”
“Would you really care?”
His mouth slipped into his signature cocky grin. “Very much so.”
Pushing back my emotions, I turned onto Girard Avenue. “Keep an eye out for Philly Fitness. And don’t worry, I don’t plan on going to jail.”
The gym was easy to find, its lights already on at 5:00 a.m. Across the street, an ambulance sat in Girard Medical Center’s emergency bay, lights flashing and medical staff rushing around. Probably an early morning accident aided by the rain.
“They can’t give out member information,” Chris said as we headed inside.
“I know. But hopefully one of us can charm it out of them.” I jerked my chin toward him, and he rolled his eyes. But his surly expression flashed to sweetness as soon as we opened the doors.
The girl at the desk looked young, college-aged, and extremely tired. She smiled at us, her eyes lingering on Chris. I nudged his elbow.
“Hi,” he said to the girl. Erica, her name tag read. “I wondered if you could tell me if my friend is a member here?”
“Sorry, that’s against the rules.”
“Yeah, I figured.” He leaned across the counter, licking his lips and smiling at the girl. Her hand fluttered to her collarbone. “But I just need to know if this is the right place. We’re thinking of paying for a month’s worth of yoga classes for her birthday. She’s a single mom.”
“That’s really sweet.”
“Anything I can do to help her out.”
Erica’s hands inched toward the keyboard. “I just, I really can’t.”
I took my cellphone out of my pocket and scrolled to the copy I’d taken of the picture of Jenna and Kailey at the pool. “See this little girl? She’s missing. This is her mother, Jenna. She’s a nurse across the street, and she’s frantic about her daughter. Now, you don’t have to tell me if she’s a member here. But have you see this woman in this gym?”
Erica looked at Chris, who nodded. She glanced around.
“I’ve seen her, working out in the morning, two or three times a week, every week for the past year. But not in the last week.”
I’d almost hoped this would be another dead end. I’d be partially absolved, and I wouldn’t have the toughest decision of my life ahead of me. “Thank you.”
We raced back into the rain.
“Now what?” Chris’s eyes watched me with trepidation. “Do we call Todd?”
“Not yet,” I said. “We’ve only got circumstantial evidence, and I don’t want to pull him away from Martha just yet. Let’s get something concrete first.”
“So?”
“Now we head to Steve’s apartment.”
38
There is an adrenaline rush that comes with closing in on a predator. The hours spent researching, figuring out his routine, deciding on the best time to attack are a build up of aggression, so that when it comes time to strike, I wasn’t thinking about anything but completing the job. At least, that’s how it worked before I watched Brian Harrison die. Now I was a jumble of nerves, all knotted up with worry. I felt frail and yet jacked up.
“Are you just planning on knocking on the door?” Chris drove. I’d handed him the keys without a word. I needed to clear my head, figure out the best move.
“Yes. He lives in an old complex. Cheap rent, he’s not always there. Kelly and I think he uses it for his den of sin. Perfect place to keep Kailey.”
“We can’t ask him to buzz us in.”
“No. We’ll have to play it up, pretend to be new residents. Get someone to hold the door for us.”
“That could take a while,” Chris said.
“Then we wait. Turn left on Marshall.”
My phone rang with Kelly’s call. A sliver of instinct flared; Kelly preferred to text. She’d found something big. I didn’t bother with false preamble. “Yeah?
“Lucy!” Kelly’s voice was shrill, shaking. “I found Kailey. On a website. He’s selling her, right now.”
Scalding terror rushed through me, stealing my breath and making my stomach burn. “Chris, pull over. Kelly, how?”
“I was trolling, looking to see if I could find anything in the Philadelphia area, any connection to Steve. One link led to another, and there’s a site, an auction site. Sellers upload pictures and videos, and buyers get to choose.”
“Videos?” Acid boiled in my stomach, making my throat burn. “Of what?”
“Different things. None are overtly sexual–they’re careful. There’s a lot of talk about natural habitat. That’s what Kailey’s video is about. Here, I’ll email you the video. Just…prepare yourself. Call me back.”
“What is it?” Chris pulled the car into a parking lot.
I could barely manage to spit the words out. “Kelly found a video of Kailey. She’s for sale.”
He stared. My phone beeped, signaling the email. Wordlessly, I cued up the video, leaned closer to Chris so that he could see, and pressed play.
A second or two of nothing, and then, a blurry image of a room brought into sharp focus. It was very small, maybe eight feet by four feet. A closet, I realized. Bedding was carefully arranged on the floor: pillows, quilts, and sheets in varying shades of pink. A little lamp sat in the corner, the only source of light. Several toys were scattered in the small space, and sitting in the middle of it all was Kailey Richardson.
She wore different clothes than the ones she’d been wearing when she was abducted. A summer dress revealed her muscled legs, and her hair was down around her shoulders, carefully brushed to a shine. She sat with her chin resting on her drawn-up knees, arms tight around her legs. A protective little ball. Eyes large and filled with fear, face pale and tear streaked.
Lettering flashed at the bottom of the video. “Bidding ends at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Cash only, pickup arranged by seller.”
Vomit shot
up my throat. I opened the door and dry heaved, dropping my phone onto Chris’s lap. The cold, wet air rushed into my lungs, and I turned my face skyward, welcoming the misting rain.
“Jesus Christ,” Chris said. “How could someone do that?”
“They’re inhuman. That’s why we need to put them all down.” I slammed the door and took the phone back, quickly calling Kelly.
“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” She jumped right back into our conversation. “The electronic scam he’s being investigated for is just a tiny part of his empire. You’ve got to call Todd right now. All the information about the website is included in the email for the police techs. Implicate me if you have to, I don’t care. We can’t let this little girl be sold.”
I felt like I was standing on the precipice of a dark hole and trying to decide whether to jump in or find something to walk across. “The email you sent it from, have you protected it? Is it traceable back to you?”
“I don’t think so. The I.P. address isn’t local, but there are ways around that,” Kelly said. “We don’t have time for me to go into them, but trust me. I’d bet my life he’s got her right there in that shitty apartment.”
I didn’t have a choice. This was beyond my twisted need for justice. No way was Kailey Steve’s first sell. “I’ll call Todd, and I’ll forward the email.” I checked the time. “But I’m not waiting around for them to get their legalities lined up. We’ve only got an hour and a half before the sale is over.”
“Just be careful.”
I promised her I would.
“Todd won’t sit on this,” Chris said as soon as I ended the call.
“He’ll have to get a warrant,” I said. “Even if he lights a fire under a judge’s ass, we can be quicker. And the evidence I’ve got on Steve is circumstantial, especially since we can’t prove this feed is from the city. His techs can try to trace the signal, but that takes time. She doesn’t have it.”
I called Todd and prayed he’d answer.
“Lucy,” he grouched into the phone. “I really don’t have time for this. We’re waiting on the DNA results of the child from the fire and–”