The Girl on Prytania Street: A gripping psychological thriller with a shocking twist

by Kira Saito

  “Wow, chandeliers and everything,” Chris said taking in the crowded restaurant.

  “I know, right? I’m surprised that the trees don’t have chandeliers hanging off them. It seems like every other place in this part of town does.”

  “Kate, over here.” Richard waved us over to a table. Anita sipped on a glass of wine looking as elegant as ever with her shiny hair and designer cocktail dress. I wondered how much Richard had told her and how much of it she believed.

  “Hi, Kate. It’s nice to see you looking so well.” Anita gave me a pearly white smile and extended her hand. I shook it politely and tried not to compare myself with her. I envisioned her face covered in slices of pepperoni as it has been last night. This gave me confidence to go through with whatever the night would bring.

  “It’s nice to see you, Anita, Richard.” I gave him a small nod.

  “Who is this handsome young man?” Anita asked eying Chris.

  “Hi, I’m Chris.”

  After some polite small talk and a few glasses of wine, the atmosphere was relaxed but I was nervous.

  “So what line of work are you in?” Anita asked Chris as she eyed him from behind her crystal glass of Merlot.

  “I do a little bit of this and a little bit of that,” Chris said as he grabbed a shrimp off of the platter and devoured it.

  “What exactly?” asked Richard.

  “Well, I don`t want to brag but I am a pretty damn good photographer, writer, advertiser and seller. In my line of work you`ve gotta know how to do it all.”

  My blood froze at his words. Richard eyed Chris intently with a clenched jaw. “What kind of pictures do you take?” Richard asked.

  “Oh, mostly people doing every day things. I love catching people going about their daily routine expecting it to be another day, another ordinary day and then boom that magic moment when something way out of left field happens.”

  Anita smiled. “That sounds very interesting. I bet I can use someone like you in one of my organizations.”

  I took a large sip of wine. Only if she knew…

  “I’ve always admired the Catsberg empire. Salt of the earth type people with all of the money in the world, now, you can’t get any more ironic than that.”

  “You`re too kind. Richard, isn`t he kind? Kate, you must be over the moon. You`ve landed quite the catch.”

  “We`re not…” Chris cut off my protest of disgust with a kiss. I wanted to scream.

  “I`m the lucky one.” Chris gave Anita a small wink.

  Thankfully, Richard gave me the go signal. “Excuse me, I have to use the lady’s room.”

  “Would you like me to escort you?” Chris asked.

  “No, that’s alright. Keep these two lovebirds company.” I gave him a small smile and headed towards the bathroom. Once I was sure that Chris was distracted, I took a turn and sprinted out of the restaurant.

  The summer air was hot and sticky as I ran towards the house. Once in Chris’ room, I quickly downloaded every shred of evidence that I could find onto my pen drive. The minutes felt like hours as they dragged into one another. After I was sure all the evidence had been downloaded, I took the computer back to my room and shoved it in my suitcase. Its disappearance could easily be explained away as a robbery. Proud of myself for not screwing up, I popped two pills to calm down my wild pulse.

  I headed down the street making up some story as to how I needed some fresh air.

  “Hey, come over here.” A voice called.

  “Charlene? You again? Where did you go last night?” The little girl stood by the cemetery gate dressed in the same costume as last night.

  “Look, I can help you, you’re in hiding because a man tried to do some very bad things to you, didn’t he?”

  She smiled. “You’re getting better at this.”

  I thought back to the pictures and how Zoe and Charlene’s shots had been next to one another. Had Zoe ever met Charlene? “Did you know my daughter?” I asked walking towards the gate.

  “Catch me if you can and I’ll tell you all that I know.” She sprinted into the darkness.

  I followed her. “I don’t have time for games. I want to help you, but I need answers first.”

  I walked deeper and deeper into the cemetery, the smell of the flowers surrounded me, the humidity was thick as the Spanish moss that brushed the top of my head.

  “It will be worth your while,” she teased as we walked further into the cemetery.

  “Charlene, listen, I can help you. I know the people who are hurting you. I can bring them to justice.”

  She giggled. “You are so funny.”

  The heat, bugs and maze of tombs began to dance as I tried to keep up with Charlene. “I can`t see you!” I screamed in frustration after a good ten minutes of chasing her.

  “Kate, are you okay? Richard asked me to check up on you. We saw you run into the cemetery through the window.”

  I turned around and was relieved to see that it was Anita and not Chris. “Anita. I’m fine.” I stared at her trying to assess how much Richard had told her.

  “Richard told me everything. You are so brave. Did you manage to get the files?”

  I let out a sigh of relief. “I did.” I held up the pen drive.

  “That’s amazing. You don’t know how many people that evidence is going to help. With my connections, we can start the country’s largest organization aimed at taking down traffickers and helping the victims of this horrible practice, but we have to put that man behind bars first. Let’s go back to the restaurant and finish dinner,” she urged. “We can`t let him know that we`re on to him.”

  “I will in a minute. I know this will sound crazy, but I swear I saw Charlene Dubois out here.”

  Anita’s smile dropped as she walked towards me. “Everyone in the country is looking for Charlene, if she were alive, she would have been found by now.”

  “Please believe me.” I pleaded praying that I wasn’t seeing things again.

  Anita reached into her purse and pulled out a gun which I assumed was protection against any potential muggers. My assumption changed when she pointed the gun at me. “Kate, you’re crazy and no one will believe you. Now, give me that pen drive.”

  “Why can’t you wait until we…” My journalistic side was suddenly triggered and through my haze, I began to put the puzzle pieces together. “You’re working with Chris, aren’t you? Your charities and saintly image is a front, isn’t it? Does Richard know?”

  She was eerily quiet as she continued to walk towards me. Coming face to face with the woman who was responsible for my daughter’s disappearance set the adrenalin flowing and any fear I had completely vanished as I reached for the gun. “You bitch, I’m going to kill you!” I screamed as we both struggled to gain control of the gun.

  “Sweet, juicy, delicious, that’s how my clients described your daughter,” Anita taunted. “I’m offering to put you out of your misery, isn’t that what you wanted? Poor pill popping Kate, that’s how Richard described you.”

  Rage filled me, and I pulled on the gun. A shot rang out and blood covered my hands. I realized that the blood was coming from Anita’s head where the bullet had hit. She fell to the muddy earth along with the gun. I screamed realizing that I had just killed one of the most important woman in America. Whose side would the police take? Mine or hers?

  In a blind panic I sprinted through the graves. “Kate.” I felt Richard’s arms around me. “Jesus, you’re covered in blood. What the hell happened?”

  I leaned into his chest and sobbed wildly. “Richard, it was Anita, she’s the one who pimped out Zoe, her organizations are a front for a pedo ring. She attacked me, and I defended myself … She’s dead, Richard … The monster who hurt our baby is dead … You have to help me … You have to protect me; the police will never take my side. You believe me, don’t you, Richard?”

  Richard started to sob as he held me. “Kate, tell me that you’re lying, tell me that you’re making this up or it’s a side-effe
ct from popping one too many pills.”

  “God, I wish I was.” His hands slowly stroked my hair and then my neck until they were firmly closed around it. “Richard…”

  “You’re very good at lying, aren’t you?” His eyes were wild and full of fury, exactly as my attacker’s had been last night.

  “Richard, what the hell!” I screamed as I tried to claw his hands off me.

  “She never was my daughter, was she? You lied to me for thirteen years, you had me believe that Zoe was ours. I told you that I would always protect you, but you know how much I hate lies, don’t you, Kate?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Does the name Nigel Thomas ring a bell? You promised me that you ended things with him, but it continued, didn’t it? It continued even after you promised me that we’d look out for one another. You tricked me, Kate, you tricked me into believing that another man’s child was my own. The funny part is you thought that I would never find out, but I did. The truth always has a way of coming out.”

  He was right. I had tricked him. I had been scared, terrified of him finding out that Zoe wasn’t his and even more terrified at the prospect of raising a daughter on my own. Nigel had rejected me and hadn’t wanted anything to do with the baby. I told him I would get an abortion. I hadn’t been able to go through with it. I had lied to two men and my baby was the one who had to pay the price for my sins. “How did you find out?”

  “I’m a powerful man. News gets around town fast. Of course, I heard rumors over the years, but I always trusted you blindly until someone presented me with proof that you were nothing but a liar.”

  It took me a few seconds to realize that this mystery person had to be none other than Anita. That bitch had deserved to die. “What did you do, Richard? What did you do to our baby?”

  “Our baby? No, Kate, your baby. The reason she ran out of Zen’s Pot that day was because she saw me outside the window. She was running away from me and what I would ask her to do, but I managed to catch her. You didn’t seem to notice how much she despised me at the end, did you? I had groomed her right under your pathetic nose.”

  “You bastard! You bastard! How could you hurt her to get back at me? You’re sick!”

  “Oh, not to simply get back at you, but to make up for lost time and wasted opportunities, you see as soon as I pimped out Zoe, bigger and better contracts came crawling in, Anita made sure of that. The big boys, they have very particular tastes and Zoe happened to be very very popular in their elite circles.”

  “Where is she?” My voice was hoarse, faint. I could feel life leaving my body when Richard’s hands dropped from around my neck. Someone had distracted him by throwing a rock at his back.

  “Kate, come over here! Trust me, please.” Charlene stood under a statue of an angel. I ran towards her and Richard followed me. “Take my hand, Kate.” The girl urged. I reached for her hand she pulled me away from the statue.

  A shot rang out and Richard fell to the ground, his leg wounded by the mystery shooter. My legs were frozen, lifeless and numb. I watched as the gigantic angel statue began to tremble and then as it tipped over and crushed Richard’s body. I watched my husband struggle under the weight of the statue but didn’t make a single effort to help him. I looked on with satisfaction as every last ounce of life was drained from his body. He pleaded, begged, and screamed as the grim reaper beckoned him to the other side. It was a death that Zoe would have labeled as poetic. It was a death that had been too good for the asshole. It had been too quick, almost merciful.

  “Sugar, are you okay?” Chris ran towards me, gun in hand.

  “Stay away from me! I know everything. I know who you really are, I found the files on your computer.”

  He grinned. “I thought you might have. Why do you think I left my computer unprotected? Such an amateur mistake.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I’m exactly who I say I am, Kate, I’m a reporter. Okay, I may have some unethical ways of extracting information. I’ve been watching your husband for quite some time. I had suspected that Anita was dirty for years and I was right. There had to be a reason why she chose to make Richard her next husband. He was talented in knowing what the top dogs liked the most, he catered to all their senses and desires. Richard’s restaurant isn’t only a restaurant, it’s where all of the country’s elites go to fulfill their nastiest desires. I’ve been hacking their system for years, trying to expose them. I’m pretty sure they killed Jay Simmons to pin the blame on you. What I found shocked me, pictures, names, prices, the evidence is extensive, but it doesn’t amount to much if no one does something useful with it.”

  “You lied to me about the bearded man, you made me think that I was crazy!” I accused not sure what to believe anymore.

  “Guilty as charged. Nate is my photographer; he catches people in the act. I had him follow you to make sure you were clean. You have no idea how deep this hole goes and how many people are involved. There are dirty doctors, lawyers, politicians, the list goes on and on. I’m sorry, but I had to protect our work. We’ve been on this case for years. I’m sorry, Kate. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Kate

  Two shadows which belonged to Madame Queenie and Mrs. Dubois emerged from behind the tombs. I realized that Charlene was still standing beside me. “Good job, young lady.” Mrs. Dubois ran over to Charlene and gave her a big hug.

  “What the hell!” Chris and I said at the same time.

  “Yes, this is my daughter and she is alive,” Mrs. Dubois said. The torment that had afflicted her voice had vanished.

  “You see, it happened on a night like this,” Charlene said taking off her mask. “I was sad, and I came to the cemetery to end it all when I saw her…”

  My heart skipped a beat. “Who did you see?” I asked.

  “She was beautiful with thick black hair and blue eyes that were so much like my own. Her new name was Mary, but she said that she liked her own name so much better. She barely remembered her old life anymore, but she remembered her name.”

  “What was her name?” I whispered.

  “Her name was Zoe Givens and she was dying, you see, the drugs they pumped her full of had taken their toll. She had been passed from major city to major city, but she said that she liked New Orleans best of all, she wanted to be buried here. I kept her company until she took her last breath. I held her until she passed on to the other side. Mom and I gave her a proper funeral and we buried her in a lovely tomb, she said that she wanted an angel to watch over her. Afterwards, we started to look for you. She told us to find her mother, but not to trust her father—he was the one who had betrayed her. It had started out small. A few pictures here and there, but then, he asked her to do more for his clients until one day she found herself in a strange city where she knew no one and had no way of asking for help.”

  “No.” My body heaved and animalistic cries escaped my lips as the implication of her words came crashing down. My baby was dead. Zoe was dead, and I was standing by her tomb. That bastard, Richard. I looked at his lifeless body and wished that he were alive so I could murder him again.

  I felt Madame Queenie’s arm around me. “Kate, the cards weren’t telling Charlene’s story, they were telling Zoe’s. Mrs. Dubois wanted you to know what happened to your daughter. She tracked you down so you could know the truth.”

  Of course, the stupid card trick had been an act. “But why didn’t you tell the police?”

  “Kate, remember how I told you that my daughter had started to act in a manner that was worrying to me?” Mrs. Dubois asked taking off her veil and making eye contact.

  I nodded. “I remember.”

  “Turns out, my eyes were opened soon after that. I started paying more attention to what was happening right under my own roof and there were often times I regret that decision as ignorance can truly be bliss. You see, Zoe had come from a party that had been thrown at my house. Of course, we al
ways have so many parties and I never really paid attention to what happened at them. The house is so big, there are so many rooms, there are so many important people.”

  “They weren’t midgets,” I said. The night of the party came into focus as did the bizarre ritual I had witnessed. The figures had appeared tiny and my drug-addled brain had assumed that they had been midgets when the truth had been staring me in the face all along.

  “They were children…,” Chris said picking up my thoughts.

  Mrs. Dubois pulled out a pen drive. “I began to pay attention and began to collect evidence of what I suspected. Of course, it took me time to accept the fact that the man I married, the man who this city adores is actually a sex trafficker at the highest level; however, I thought of the beautiful girl we had buried in the cemetery and I thought of my own daughter. You see, I knew that my own husband wasn’t above pimping out my own dear flesh and blood, so I arranged for her to disappear until I could expose him. It wasn’t that hard. When you have money, you can pay people to forget what they saw, you can pay them to blur the lines and simply look the other way. You can also hire body doubles to confuse the media, throw them off your scent. No one suspects that I’m not grieving on a Tahitian island. People are funny that way, they buy lies so easily. They are addicted to the drama. The truth on the other hand is much harder for them to believe.”

  “I know…” I whispered.

  “Anyhow, I knew that going to the police was not going to get the job done, my husband is friends with the entire force, so I did some more research and that’s how I found Chris. I investigated his work by hiring people to hack into his system. I was shocked when his evidence matched the information that I had slowly collected. I used to believe that all of this modern technology was nothing but foolishness, but now I see that if used carefully, it can be a blessing. After I was sure Chris could be trusted, I asked Madame Queenie to contact him and you. I figured that you would make a good team. Of course, he had no idea that Charlene wasn’t actually missing, that was our little secret.” She handed me the pen drive. “There is evidence here, lots of it, when the American People find out what goes on in the shadows and who is pulling the strings, I am sure they will take matters in their own hands. Justice will be served one way or another. Kate, if I had told you plainly what had happened, you wouldn’t have believed me, you had to see it for yourself. Your eyes had to be opened like mine had been. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner. I’m sorry, but we had to use those cards.”