Chloe's Rescue [The Black Iris Club 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic)

by Skye Michaels

  “What do you want to do, detective?”

  “Do you have any idea where Antoinette Marie could be keeping the girls when they are not on the street? Oh, and do you have a picture of her from before that you can send me?”

  He cleared his throat. “I’ll see what I can do about a picture. Needless to say, she’s not on my living room mantel. Antoinette Marie was never arrested with her cousins. She’s much too smart for that. I can have my men look around and try to get a fix on the kids, hopefully without alerting anyone to the fact that something is up. I haven’t seen her myself, so she might either be out in the bayou in one of the family compounds, or she might be living in New Orleans. Believe me, if I’d seen her, I would have noticed.”

  “Please do that and keep us advised. My partners and I will be happy to come up to Louisiana for a joint operation to bring her in and bring her back to Florida for prosecution on the murder and kidnapping charges. If you get the opportunity to scoop her up, do it. I will forward you the Florida arrest warrant and current pictures.”

  “Will do. I’ll ask around quietly and get back to you. Keep a good hold on the Beaudreau cousins. They are slippery bastards, and I believe they managed to escape custody once or twice. Of course, then it was small-time stuff and not a homicide.”

  * * * *

  When Chloe called Kaylin to update her on the Antoinette Marie Beaudreau a.k.a. Anne Marie Harrison-McGrath situation, Kaylin put her on speakerphone so Del could hear the details also.

  “At least we now have her real name and a general direction to move the investigation. I sent the arrest warrant and current photograph up to Chief Rousseau, and he sent an old picture back to me. It’s definitely Anne Marie. No question.”

  “Chloe, you’re the best. We’re going to use this information to see if we can shake anything more out of Dan McGrath, but honestly, I think he might not have known what his lovely spouse was up to.” Kaylin hesitated for a moment. “Do you want to be in on the interrogation when we drop this information on him?”

  “No, thanks, Kaylin. I think I’ve had enough fun for one day. I’m going home to lick my wounds. Tomorrow is another day.”

  “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry. That had to be about the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

  Before Kaylin could say more, Del added, “If you want me to tune him up a little for you, I’m available. Hey, we usually only do that with suspects, but I can stretch the protocol to defense counsel in this instance.” Chloe knew he was just trying to lighten her mood with a little humor, but the situation had gone way beyond what a little joke could soothe.

  “Thanks, Del. You’re a real buddy, but I can handle tuning him up myself if I decide to do it—and I just might. I’ll forward you the photograph Chief Rousseau sent me. I don’t know where he got it so quickly. It is an old picture, but it looks just like her. Good luck, guys. Let me know if anything else turns up.”

  * * * *

  John and Dan were waiting in the interrogation room when Kaylin and Del walked back in. Kaylin and Del sat down in chairs across the scarred oak table, and Kaylin opened the folder she had brought in with her and laid a picture of a young woman and two young men down in front of Dan McGrath and his defense counsel. “Antoinette Marie Beaudreau in 1992 at age eighteen in St. Martinville, Louisiana, with her two cousins, Jean Louis Beaudreau and Phillip Beaudreau.”

  Dan looked stunned. For a few moments he just stared at the picture. “I never saw pictures of Anne Marie from her teenage years. Come to think of it, she always avoided photographs if she could without making a scene. We all just knew she didn’t like to have her picture taken. She was twenty when we got married. I had just graduated from law school. I was twenty-five and madly in love.”

  Kaylin obviously decided to throw him a bone. “Well, apparently she did an excellent job of transforming herself from bayou brat to Fort Lauderdale Barbie in just a couple of years.”

  Dan laughed sadly. “That didn’t happen all at once. She worked diligently on losing the heavy drawl and becoming the wife of an up-and-coming young attorney. I thought she was doing it for me. Maybe she was doing all of this for me and the kids.”

  “Maybe she was, Dan, but her methods of saving the family fortunes leave a lot to be desired. She was destroying other people’s kids in the process.”

  “I don’t know anything more to tell you. I had no idea…Can I go home to my kids? They have to be terrified.”

  “Yes, we’re not going to charge you as an accessory right now. That might change if we come up with any evidence tying you to these crimes.”

  “You won’t. There simply isn’t any. I’ll cooperate in your investigation in any way I can if it will help recover more missing girls.”

  Del and Kaylin stood up. “You’re free to go. I’m afraid your personal files and all the electronics will have to be held in evidence. Hopefully you have backups for the computers and can get the office back up to speed quickly.”

  John and Dan stood up as well. Dan looked like a broken man who had aged ten years in a few hours. John felt sorry for him. The wife he had loved and spoiled was gone as though she had died. Now he had to explain to his kids that their mother was gone as well. How did one handle something like that?

  John stopped in front of Kaylin. “It appears that I’ve been an ass again. Is Chloe here? I’d like to try to apologize.”

  “No, she’s not here. I doubt she’s ready to hear an apology from you, but you can always try.”

  * * * *

  Chloe Carlton’s bungalow in the Victoria Park section of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Saturday night, September 13, 2014, 7:30 p.m.

  Chloe made it up her front walk, through the door without closing it, and collapsed on the sofa in her living room. She needed a glass of wine in the worst way, but she didn’t think she had the strength to walk into the kitchen to pour one.

  Steve, her next-door neighbor, knocked on the screen door. “Hey, girlie! Long time no see. Eric and I are throwing on some steaks. Why don’t you come over for dinner? You look beat.”

  “Oh, Steve, you guys are lifesavers. I was just thinking I didn’t have enough energy to get up and get a glass of wine. I’ll change and come over. Thanks.”

  When she had taken a quick shower, changed into a soft, flowing caftan, and was ensconced in “her” peacock chair on Eric and Steve’s patio with a glass of wine in her hand, she finally started to relax. These two guys always buoyed her spirits. “So what’s new in law enforcement?” Steve had an insatiable curiosity about police work and loved to hear her stories.

  “I guess I can tell you about my day. It’s going to hit the newspapers tomorrow anyway.” She proceeded to relay the details of the human trafficking ring and the events of the last couple of weeks. She knew how they loved a dramatic story, so she jazzed it up just a bit for them. But really, the rescue of five teenaged girls from forced prostitution and she and Kaylin being held hostage by the kidnappers was enough drama even for Eric and Steve.

  “Girlfriend, your life is just too exciting.” Eric got up to turn the steaks on the grill. Just then they heard a car door slam next door. “I think you have company, honey.”

  She had an inkling who that might be, and she wasn’t ready to face him. “Never mind. I’m here for a rare steak, and I’m not ruining my appetite with a confrontation with J.J.”

  “Are you sure? Mr. Hunky is certainly delicious. You might want him for dessert.” Eric was laughing at her.

  “I don’t think so.” In a low voice she told them about what J.J. had said at the McGrath residence.

  “That bastard. How could he even think something like that about you?” Eric looked incensed.

  “Well, he didn’t think Anne Marie could possibly be involved in kidnapping young girls, but he was perfectly willing to believe I was a self-righteous, jealous bitch with a badge.” She knew the pain showed on her face and in her eyes. She looked away and took a sip of wine. “I don’t think I’m up to talking to him right
now.”

  “That’s okay, sweetie,” Steve said. “We’ll just be quiet for a few minutes until he leaves.” They heard the knocking on her door. Finally, they heard someone get into a car and drive away.

  Eric continued with the gleam of mischief that she was accustomed to seeing in his eyes. “You might want to reconsider eventually if that catfight screeching we’ve been hearing from next door is anything to go by. It might be worth your while to give him a hard time for a bit and then forgive him.”

  Now she was embarrassed. She had hoped the guys were out and about that day she and J.J. had spent at her pool. Well, apparently they weren’t. It seemed that gay guy friends were just as much of a pain in the ass as straight girlfriends. They all knew too damn much.

  They enjoyed the steaks, drank copious amounts of wine, and Chloe finally tottered home after midnight. Well, tomorrow was Sunday, and she could sleep in. Thank God.

  Chapter Twelve

  The Sistrunk Outreach Shelter, Sistrunk Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Monday morning, September 14, 2014, 9:00 a.m.

  On Monday morning, Chloe, Kaylin, and Del visited the five girls at the Sistrunk Outreach Shelter. They needed statements and identifications to proceed with the prosecution of the Beaudreau cousins and to move the investigation of Anne Marie forward. Chloe couldn’t get used to thinking of her as Antoinette Marie.

  Jayden Lane brought the girls to the conference room. They all still had haunted looks on their faces. They were clean, had new jeans, T-shirts, and hoodies, and had been checked over medically, slept, and been fed. Jayden had a comforting, no-nonsense attitude that discouraged hysterics and made the girls feel safe. She was a godsend as far as Chloe was concerned. Her presence would make taking the girls’ statements much easier.

  “How are they doing, Jayden?”

  “Pretty good, all things considered. They are tougher than they look. I’m more worried about the other girls who may have been taken and are thinking no one is looking for them or gives a damn about them.”

  “We’re working on that with authorities in Louisiana where we think Anne Marie McGrath, the dark-haired woman, took them to work as prostitutes around the casinos and where she might have gone to ground.” Chloe filled Jayden in on who Anne Marie had turned out to be.

  “That’s incredible. I can’t believe a mother would do something like this. I should not be surprised by how rotten people can be, but I always am. There are a lot of bad people out there.”

  “She apparently comes from a Bayou family well-known to law enforcement up there for their criminal activities. When I spoke with the police chief in St. Martin Parish, he knew exactly who I was looking for.”

  Kaylin added, “She wanted to bolster her family finances at the expense of a lot of homeless girls. It’s unconscionable. She didn’t want her comfortable life, or that of her spoiled rotten kids, interrupted by the financial reverses of the economic downturn. It’s too bad she didn’t tough it out. It looks like her husband had a handle on the situation and will turn it around eventually.”

  The girls gave their statements and identified both Antoinette Marie a.k.a. Anne Marie and the Beaudreau cousins. Each of their stories was similar. The dark-haired woman with the shiny black Mercedes had stopped them on the street and offered to take them out to lunch and to buy a new outfit. She had smiled at them and seemed kind. She was pretty and wore nice clothes and jewelry. They had gotten into the car, the woman had locked the doors, and driven off. By the time they realized they were not going to get lunch and new clothes, it was too late. They had met her two enforcers and were imprisoned in the shipping container.

  A tall, red-haired girl named Katie Smith related what had happened to Mitzi Jones. “Mitzi tried to fight her way out of the container when the two guys brought us some hamburgers and fries. They pushed her, and she fell and hit her head. We didn’t know what to do after they locked us back in the container and we couldn’t wake her up. Finally, we realized that she was dead. They moved us to a warehouse the next day, and left Mitzi’s body behind.”

  The facts of what the girls had endured were horrific enough. The thought that Mitzi had died without the benefit of any medical help and then they had left her body to rot in the container horrified everyone in the room.

  After the girls had all given their statements, Chloe, Kaylin, and Del went upstairs to Jayden’s office. When they were settled with cups of her excellent coffee, Jayden said, “I hope you can find the other girls. This is a nightmare. I’ve been aware of the problem of human trafficking for years, but this is the first time it’s hit so close to home.”

  “What is going to happen to the girls?” This thought had been torturing Chloe since the girls had been found.

  “I’ve been in contact with the Department of Children and Families. They are going to contact social services in the girls’ various hometowns to see if something can be worked out to reunite them with their families. Each case is different, and a reunion may not be appropriate for each girl. If not, hopefully they will go into a group home or foster family where they can continue their educations. There is also the possibility that they could be sent to the Florida Girl’s Ranch until they turn eighteen. Some girls stay there until they’re twenty-two. It’s an excellent facility. I hope they don’t end up back on the streets. After the scare they’ve had, maybe it can all be worked out.”

  Del advised, “We need to keep in contact with them. They will have to testify against Antoinette Marie, Jean Louis, and Phillip. I want to see those three, and possibly any of their relatives who are helping to run the prostitution ring in Louisiana, go down and go down hard.”

  * * * *

  The following week passed slowly. Chloe, Kaylin, and Del were in a holding pattern on the trafficking investigation and on edge. They wanted Anne Marie in custody. The Beaudreau cousins had not confessed, provided the location of Antoinette Marie’s bolt-hole, or given a statement so far. Apparently the Beaudreau family ties were strong. They might be able to wring something out of them with a plea deal but were reluctant to offer them a reduced sentence or a free pass under the circumstances.

  Basically, they had to wait for the police in Louisiana to get a lead on Antoinette Marie and her relatives. They put some undercover vice officers out and about the various casinos and had some sightings of prostitutes who appeared to be underage, but hadn’t come up with the location of the ring’s lair. Bringing in one confused teenager who might or might not be part of the trafficking ring was not going to break the case. They were hoping to catch them picking the girls up at the end of the night and follow them back to their home base.

  Chloe had managed to dodge J.J.’s phone calls, texts, and unexpected visits. She was spending a lot of time at work tightening up the case against Antoinette Marie and helping to review the files that had been confiscated in the McGraths’ home and the law firm. She was also spending time with Kaylin, Jack, and Del, and occasionally sleeping over at Kaylin’s house when Kaylin spent the night at Jack’s penthouse in the JDB Building.

  So far, except for the fact that he had purchased a load of distressed properties in highly leveraged transactions, there was nothing to connect Dan McGrath with the trafficking ring. Chloe hoped that he was not involved for the sake of his own children. When the shocking news had hit the local television stations and newspapers, it was a high-profile story—Fort Lauderdale socialite involved in murder and kidnapping of runaway kids and an out-of-state prostitution ring. It was the top story on television every night. Dan McGrath had sent his children to stay with his parents in Los Angeles to avoid some of the limelight. Needless to say, they were crushed, missed their mother, and their comfortable lives had been torn apart. Chloe could relate to that. Her life had been torn apart again as well.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Law offices of McGrath, Loveless, Scott, Jones, Balman & Temple, LLP on Las Olas Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Friday afternoon, September 19, 2014

  John T
emple had gone to work every day that week. He was dazed by the events that had taken place last Saturday, but he was attempting to help Dan McGrath keep the law firm afloat. They had been able to retrieve the firm’s computer data from their cloud account and get the system back online. The television and newspaper headlines were not encouraging clients through the door, and their billable hours had dwindled at an alarming rate. John was thinking he might have to take his paralegal and secretary and abandon ship to start his own firm. Tying his name to this scandal was not going to be good for his career long-term. He hadn’t decided what to do about that yet. He did know that he would not abandon his friendship with Dan McGrath, who had brought him into the very profitable firm and been his mentor over the years.

  On top of all of that he missed Chloe. When they had gotten back together it had been as if they had not been apart—at least for him. He knew that Chloe had not been one hundred percent back onboard, that she hadn’t completely trusted him, and she had taken a “wait and see” attitude. But he had been making excellent progress in that direction and now this. His guts were in a twist over the ugly words he had spoken to her. He should have kept his big mouth shut and just listened to what she had to say. Instead, he had let his anger, worry, and feeling of betrayal speak for him before he had the facts. On top of all that, he had finally figured out what she meant to him, and it was a fuck of a lot.

  Unfortunately, it was becoming more and more improbable that Anne Marie was innocent. The overwhelming amount of evidence against her, not to mention the eyewitness identifications, made that all but impossible. And then there was her history in Louisiana and her less-than-upstanding family. He just couldn’t take it all in.

  John didn’t know how he was going to straighten this out with Chloe. She had managed to handily avoid him and his every effort to contact her. Maybe he would make one more attempt to catch her on her way into her house tonight. It was worth one more try. Short of stalking her, he wasn’t going to be able to see her face-to-face to apologize for words he knew were totally undeserved and cruel. She had been doing her job—an important job—and her suspicions had been proved correct. She had saved five kids from a horrible future and possible death at the hands of a woman he had admired but who had turned out to be a monster. He was having a hard time wrapping his head around those facts. The beautiful, accomplished, and very socially adept Anne Marie McGrath had actually done this. It blew his mind.