by Blake Pierce
“Henriksen,” she shouted, “where the hell are your people? I’m pinned down and Ray is in trouble.”
“That guard with the machine gun is firing at my men,” he shouted back over the gunfire and sirens. “We had to hold at the parking lot entrance.”
“Chiqy is choking Ray!”
“We’re trying, Detective!”
Not good enough.
Without even thinking about what she was doing, Keri got to her feet and started to scamper down the stairwell.
“No!” Castillo shouted at her before focusing her words on Henriksen. “Sergeant, Detective Locke is going down the stairs. Have your men draw that guard’s fire!”
She was halfway down the stairwell when the machine gun guard realized what she was doing and trained his weapon on her again. As he raised it to shoot, she leapt away from the stairwell into the air.
It all seemed to play out in slow motion. He turned to follow her body, trying to aim at a moving target. As she hurtled toward the ground, Keri kept her gun steady, waiting until she had a clear target of her own. She got off one shot before she hit the ground.
The wind was immediately knocked out of her as her stomach, chest, and elbows all slammed into the pavement. Unable to breathe, she realized her eyes were clenched shut and forced herself to open them.
Somewhere in the back of her brain, she could hear Castillo’s voice.
“The guard is down! The guard is down! All units converge. Detective Sands is under attack.”
Keri’s eyes searched the area in front of her, moving past the body of the man she’d shot, who was lying face down on the ground, until she found what she was looking for.
There in the hallway, Chiqy was still on top of Ray, choking him. She could hear her partner’s gasps and see his hands on Chiqy’s forearms, trying futilely to knock them off. Chiqy was smiling.
She looked back across the parking lot to see officers running in their direction. But they were so far away, they’d never make it time. She looked for her gun and saw it, resting about four feet in front of her.
She tried to move toward it but her body wouldn’t respond. Her lungs were still desperately trying to suck in air and simply wouldn’t allow her to do anything but that.
She looked back over at Ray and watched helplessly as the person she was closest to in the world had the life squeezed from his body.
His fingers seemed to loosen their grip on Chiqy’s arms. His left arm slumped to the ground. His right hand lingered a little longer. It appeared about to sag as well when he suddenly released it entirely and stretched it out, as if he were reaching out for air with his arm instead of his lungs.
Then she saw his hand ball up into a fist. And almost quicker than her eyes could follow, he smashed that fist into Chiqy’s left elbow, snapping it inward at a grotesque angle it was never intended to go.
Chiqy collapsed onto Ray, his screams of agony audible over the police sirens. After several seconds, Ray shimmied his body a little until Chiqy slid off him. He rolled over onto his side and propped himself up onto his knees to look down at the man who tried to kill him.
Keri’s view was briefly blocked as the Inglewood officers ran past her in the direction of the screaming. But she was able to see as Ray reached up his fist and brought it down onto Chiqy’s face, fast and with enormous force.
And then again.
And again.
By the time the officers dragged him away, he’d gotten in at least a half dozen punches.
The last thing Keri noticed before she lost consciousness was that Chiqy was no longer screaming. Or moving.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
When Keri came to, she found herself in the back of an ambulance for the second time in less than two hours. This time she was lying on a stretcher. Everything from her sternum to her belly button ached. A female EMT was hovering over her, studying her vitals on the monitor nearby.
“How long have I been out?” Keri asked hoarsely, startling the woman, who didn’t realize her patient was now conscious.
“Less than five minutes, at least based on the timing your colleague gave me,” she said, nodding at the back door of the ambulance.
Keri glanced up to see Castillo standing just outside the ambulance’s back door. She was talking to someone Keri couldn’t see and her left arm was in a sling.
“Jamie,” she called out as loud as her voice would allow. The younger officer turned and, seeing Keri awake, moved quickly to her.
“How are you feeling, Detective?” she asked, unable to hide her concern.
“I’m not sure yet. You?”
“Sprained shoulder; other than that, mostly bumps and bruises.”
“What about Ray?” Keri asked, terrified of the answer.
“I think he’s going to be okay. They’re treating him where he is. They don’t want to move him until they’re sure his neck is all right. But he’s responsive and surly. That’s a good sign, right?”
“Surly is good. Can you give me an update on the overall status?”
“I just asked that myself,” Castillo said. “Henriksen’s coming over now. I’m sure he can fill us in.”
“How did you get clear of that railing?” Keri asked.
“Once I didn’t have to worry about people shooting at me, I was able to pull myself up most of the way. Then a few Inglewood officers arrived and helped me the last little bit.”
“Did you used to be a gymnast or something? The way you scaled those bars was pretty impressive.”
“Nah. But I was really into parkour as a teenager. I was kind of crazy back then.”
“You’re still kind of crazy.”
“You should talk, Detective. Taking a flying leap six feet in the air off a stairwell to shoot at a guy aiming a machine gun at you? That’s not exactly sane.”
“My partner was in trouble. I didn’t have a choice.”
Castillo looked at her hard, as if she wanted to say something else but wasn’t sure how. But at that moment, Sergeant Henriksen arrived.
“How are you doing, Detective?” he asked.
Keri stifled the urge to ream him out and replied with a simple “Okay.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “And I’m sorry about what happened back there. It wasn’t my call and it wasn’t my preference. But I had orders.”
“I understand,” Keri said, despite her residual anger. It wasn’t his fault after all. And she still needed his help. “Can you fill me in on the scene status?”
“I’ll tell you what I know. We’re still piecing a lot of it together. But it appears that you three took out every bad guy who was here at the time. We’re rounding up all the johns from the rooms. That reminds me, I believe these are yours.” He handed her back her handcuffs.
“I assume that guy’s taken care of?” Keri asked.
“He’s crying in the back of a squad car as we speak,” Henriksen answered. “We’re questioning all of them. But it looks like most of them only communicated with the pimps via text. So far no one has been able to ID anyone we don’t already have in custody.”
“And the girls?”
“We’ve accounted for twenty-one. They’re still in the motel rooms. We don’t want to move any of them yet, not until the EMTs can check them out more thoroughly. They were all tied up to the beds. Some of them were out cold, either drugged or beaten into unconsciousness. And there’s another thing. It looks like these guys literally tagged the girls. They all have numbers written on their foreheads.”
Keri and Castillo exchanged a glance, both briefly shocked into horrified silence.
“You said you accounted for twenty-one,” Keri said, regrouping. “Does that mean you think there were more?”
“Well, there are twenty-four rooms. And the three that were empty had unmade beds. It certainly looks like they were used. But it’s possible girls might have been moved from room to room. We just don’t know yet.”
“What about the numbers written on them?” Cas
tillo asked. “Maybe that will help. How many do they come to total?”
“We don’t know for sure. Some of these girls are too shaken up for anyone to get close enough to look. But it seems a bit random. One girl has ‘twenty-seven’ and another has ‘forty-three.’ We know there weren’t that many here.”
“Have the guards told you anything?” Keri asked, refusing to ask specifically about Sarah. She didn’t want to be callous to the other girls and she doubted any of them had been identified yet anyway.
“You mean the ones that are still alive?” Henriksen asked, his eyebrows raised. “There are only three of those, including Chiqy. The other two are still woozy from being tased but we’ll question them more once they’re coherent.”
“No luck with Chiqy?” Keri asked.
“He wasn’t talking much. They had to sedate him so he’d stop screaming. They’re stabilizing him in another ambulance right now so they can take him to the hospital. Frankly, I’d have been screaming too. His arm was bent in a direction I didn’t think was possible. I’m probably going to have nightmares about it for a while.”
“When he’s conscious, he needs to be questioned immediately,” Keri insisted, ignoring the sergeant’s comment about the arm. She had zero sympathy. “If anyone knows about the big picture, it’s Chiqy.”
“Don’t worry,” a familiar voice just out of sight said. “I’ll take care of that.”
Ray stepped into view. He was wearing a neck brace and several of the capillaries in his eyes had busted, giving them a weird reddish hue. But he was standing upright and smiling.
“Hey, Raymond,” Keri said, managing to keep the wave of relief she felt out of her voice. “You really disappointed me back there. I thought that chubby fella had you for a minute.”
“Me too,” he admitted genuinely, refusing to play along with her attempt at emotional distance. “How are you feeling, Keri?”
“I’m very sore. But I think with a little assistance, I could get up and actually help with this investigation.”
Ray looked at the EMT, who shrugged.
“Her vitals are steady. If she can handle the pain, there’s no reason she can’t move around. I mean, I’d like to take you back to the hospital to have a full work-up done, Detective. But I’m assuming that’s not going to happen.”
“Your assumption is correct,” Keri answered as she tried to prop herself up on her elbows. The action made her wince and she looked down to see they were both heavily bandaged.
“Yeah,” the EMT said. “Your elbows were pretty torn up. I found bits of skin embedded in the concrete where you landed. There’s nothing more to be done about it and it’s going to hurt worse once your adrenaline subsides.”
“You have one hell of a bedside manner,” Keri said.
“I figure it would be wasted on you. I can give you some pretty solid pain meds that should keep things manageable.”
“Yes, please.”
The EMT gave her two pills, which she swallowed immediately, and another six to be taken at intervals over the next twenty-four hours. Then the whole group helped her out of the ambulance. She leaned on Ray until she was sure she could support herself.
As she started to walk away, the EMT called out.
“I think you’ll be needing this,” she said, holding out Keri’s gun. “Someone found it lying on the ground next to you earlier.”
“Thanks,” she said, forcing a grim smile to her lips before turning to the others. “Shall we take a look around?”
“Sure,” Ray said as they started toward the motel, before turning back to Sergeant Henriksen. “Let me know when they’re ready to take Chiqy to the hospital. I want to be in the ambulance with him.”
“You got it,” Henriksen said. “I’ll let them know now. And it goes without saying that when you have some time, our detectives will need to question all of you about how things went down.”
“Get in line,” Keri muttered quietly so that only Ray and Castillo could hear her.
The three of them nodded their assent and then walked to the last room on the first floor, farthest from the office. Peeking in, they saw an officer sitting with a girl who was curled up on the bed. Someone had thrown a sheet over her bare body.
“I’m hesitant to question any of these girls in their current state,” Keri said. “Let’s just see if Sarah or Lanie is here. If any of the girls look like they’re in shape to talk, we can see what they know. Sound good?”
Ray and Castillo agreed. But it became quickly apparent that none of the girls would be much help. They were all unconscious, catatonic, or crying uncontrollably. The sight was staggering, and broke Keri’s heart. She had never seen so much suffering of innocent people in one place.
Yet none of them was Sarah or Lanie.
She sighed heavily. By the time they reached the room closest to the office, they were exchanging hopeless looks.
“Detective Sands,” Henriksen called out from nearby, “they’re about to take Chiqy in. And he’s regained consciousness.”
Ray walked quickly to the ambulance with Castillo right next to him. Keri limped along a few paces behind them. Ray opened the door and Keri could see Chiqy on the stretcher, propped up at a forty-five-degree angle, his left arm in a giant splint.
“How you feeling, Ernesto?” Ray asked.
Chiqy smiled back at him. His eyes were cloudy and Keri realized immediately that he was seriously drugged up.
“I’m good, Mr. Clean,” he said lazily.
“You do know you’re bald too,” Ray pointed out.
“Whatever.”
“Is this all the girls, Chiqy?”
The pimp gave him a him nasty smile before responding.
“No, man. These are only the leftovers. I sold off the best cuts of she-meat already.”
Keri felt the fury rising in her and briefly considered punching Chiqy in his destroyed elbow.
“Who did you sell them to, Chiqy?” Ray asked insistently, refusing to be baited.
“Oh, I can’t tell you that, man. Confidentiality and all that, ya know?” He smiled again before a short cough turned his face into a tight grimace.
“We’ve got to get him to the hospital now,” one of the EMTs, a twenty-something African-American man, said insistently. “I’m concerned that one of his arteries may have ruptured. If he doesn’t get into surgery soon, he could lose the arm entirely.”
“And wouldn’t that be a shame?” Ray asked sarcastically, smiling. “Well then, he better start answering my questions before you take him anywhere.”
“He’s going to the hospital right now,” the EMT said, holding his ground despite the obvious fear in his eyes. “I know you have a job to do, Detective. But so do I. Come if you want. But this ambulance is leaving immediately.”
“Yeah, man. Come with us,” Chiqy piped in sluggishly. “You looking for a holiday? Sounds like you need…holiday.”
Keri tapped Ray on the shoulder.
“Just go with him. He’s too loopy to be much good right now anyway. After his surgery, you can question him some more. Plus you can get your neck checked out while you’re there. We’ll keep looking around here.”
“Yeah, you keep looking, Blondie,” Chiqy said to her. “But you ain’t gonna find what you’re looking for. I know who you’re after—the prime she-meat. But that’s long gone. Taking a holiday…”
He giggled briefly as his words faded out and he slipped into unconsciousness again. Ray climbed into the back and took a seat.
“Keep me posted,” he said, just before the door shut.
“You too,” Keri shouted back, but her voice was drowned out by the ambulance’s siren as it tore out of the parking lot.
Once the siren had faded into the distance, Keri turned back to face Castillo.
“You okay?” the younger officer asked.
“I don’t have a choice. Let’s get back to work.”
*
Sarah tried to open her eyes. Everything felt so thick and
slow. Thinking was nearly impossible. After an enormous effort, she finally managed to open them a fraction.
Everything was cloudy. She could tell she was in some kind of moving vehicle but wasn’t sure what it was. She looked down and saw that in addition to a seatbelt, her arms were strapped down to the seat by bungee cords.
She tilted her head slightly to the left and saw a man beside her. He had on a cap and sported a long, unkempt beard. After a few seconds, it registered. He was a trucker and she was in the passenger seat of his cab.
She tilted her head a bit more to the left and saw two girls lying in the bed of the cab. She recognized them from the warehouse, the van, and the motel. They were strapped down too. But both were unconscious and slid back and forth a bit when the truck hit bumps.
She turned back to the trucker and saw that he was looking at her with a wolfish stare.
“Mr. Holiday says that if I help get you to the Bad Place safe and sound, I can have a go at you. So you can start dreaming about that, girlie.”
Sarah tried to respond. She wanted to ask where they were going, where the Bad Place was.
She opened her mouth to speak but the effort was too much and she slipped back into her drugged slumber.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Keri was getting desperate. She hadn’t found Sarah or Lanie yet and there were only two rooms left to check on the second floor. Worse, three of the rooms had been empty, which seemed to confirm that some girls had already been transported elsewhere as “she-meat.”
When she got to the second to last room, she saw a female officer trying to comfort a girl with her back to them. In between sobs, the girl kept muttering the same phrase over and over.
“My fault. My fault.”
Keri stepped inside the room to get a better look at her. Castillo lingered in the doorway, hesitant to enter a place so full of pain. Despite the girl’s condition, it was quickly apparent to Keri that this was Lanie.
Her hair had been cropped short, but the distinctive blonde mixed with blue and pink Keri remembered from the mall security footage was still evident. And with nothing but a blanket to cover her, the multiple tattoos on the girl’s porcelain skin served as further proof. A big black “11” was written across her forehead.