by Leigh Jones
Kate smiled weakly at her attempted joke. Johnson didn’t smile, but he was watching her intently.
“I’m working on a story, and I need to know whether you can tell me anything about the lack of prostitution stings in the last month. My friend at the hotel claims he’s called to report all the after-hours traffic, but no one’s looked into it, as far as he knows. I want to know why.”
Johnson pursed his lips and looked at her through narrowed lids. Kate held her breath.
“Give me time to think,” he finally said. “I’ll call you.”
Kate exhaled in a rush and nodded. Maybe she hadn’t alienated him forever. Standing to go, she met his eyes one last time. She doubted she could convey her appreciation with just a look, but she hoped he could read a “thank you” somewhere in her steady gaze. When he pulled up one corner of his mouth in a lopsided, if slightly anemic smile, she figured he’d gotten the message. She flashed him a brief smile of her own before turning and walking out the door.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The council meeting dragged on more than usual as Kate watched the minutes tick by on the clock in the corner of her laptop screen. She fidgeted in her chair, tapped her fingers impatiently on the table when she wasn’t typing and tried unsuccessfully to focus on what the pleading homeowners had to say about the projects in their neighborhoods that needed to get done in the next year. Kate was pretty sure they all needed to be done, and might have if the mayor hadn’t caved on the police pay raises. But now that the council members had to balance the budget on the backs of other departments, they only had enough money to fund the most pressing projects. Old women came to the microphone to bemoan potholes they didn’t see until it was too late and they had a flat tire. Parents held up pictures of dilapidated playground equipment they feared might collapse under their children. At least a dozen people complained about frequent flash flooding caused by a drainage system clogged by decades of trash and sand.
An hour and a half after the public comment session started, Mayor Matthew Hanes gaveled the meeting into a 15 minute recess. Kate willed herself not to approach him right away, watching instead as he worked his way through the crowd. She followed him toward the back of the room at a discreet distance while he shook hands and held court. Everyone seemed to have something to say to him. When he finally pushed through the back door and into the quiet foyer between the council chamber and his office suite, Kate was right behind him.
“Mayor Hanes, do you have a minute?”
Kate thought she saw the mayor heave a frustrated sigh, but when he turned to face her, his normally diplomatic smile plastered his face.
“Of course. What can I do for you Miss Bennett? I only have a few minutes before we need to head back.”
“This won’t take long. I just wanted to ask you whether you’ve heard any complaints in the last few weeks about a prostitution ring operating out of one of the hotels on the seawall.”
Hanes took a step back, his smile melting.
“No, I haven’t. And I’m sure I would have if something were going on. People are hardly shy about complaining, as you know. Why do you ask?”
“Well, we’ve gotten a few phone calls at the paper, and I was just wondering whether you were hearing the same thing we were.”
Hanes, who had at first looked annoyed by her questions, now placed his hands on his hips, dropped them to his sides and finally crossed his arms in front of his chest. He pressed his lips together and frowned before answering.
“I haven’t heard a thing. And I’m sure I would have, if anything were going on. For one thing, the police chief would have told me. He keeps me apprised, you know.”
“Well, I suppose he may not know. I had heard the police were focusing on other things this summer.”
“What other things?” he said sharply.
Kate shrugged.
“I assure you I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Hanes said, backing toward his office. “The police are tasked with keeping this island safe, and they are doing a damn good job of it, as far as I can tell. But of course we need to address people’s concerns. I can promise you I will look into it. Now if you’ll excuse me...”
Kate didn’t bother trying to stop him. She doubted he would give her anything useful at this point anyway. She couldn’t tell whether he had heard about the prostitutes on the seawall, but he definitely didn’t like the suggestion that the police might not be doing their job.
By the end of the 15 minute recess, all of the city council members had returned to their seats. But the mayor, normally a stickler for staying on schedule, hadn’t returned. Five minutes later, he yanked open the back door to the chamber and strode up the aisle. He’d ditched his suit coat, his tie was loose and his hair looked mussed, like he’d been running his fingers through it. He banged the gavel down with unnecessary force, startling several people in the audience.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies. I had to make a phone call that took longer than expected. I did not mean to keep you waiting. Next agenda item, please, madam secretary.”
A phone call.
While the city secretary read the next item on the agenda in her usual monotone, Kate’s head spun with possibilities of who the mayor might have called. Whomever he’d talked to, it didn’t look like the conversation had gone the way he wanted. He hadn’t acted like he’d been on his way to make an important phone call when Kate caught up with him in the foyer. Did that call have anything to do with what she’d told him? If so, the police chief seemed like the most likely candidate. And if he’d told the chief to send some officers over to the hotel to check things out, Kate could kiss her big story goodbye.
She hadn’t planned to go back to the hotel until the next night. But if she had any hope of getting ahead of a police raid, she had to go now.
Chapter 20
As soon as the meeting ended, Kate stuffed her laptop into her bag and dashed to her car. While she drove toward The Clipper, she punched Johnson’s number into her cell phone. She would tell him what she knew in hopes he would let her know if the chief ordered some kind of surveillance. If the police saw what she’d seen, they’d move in right away to make arrests.
She got his voicemail.
“Hey. It’s Kate. I’m just leaving the council meeting. I asked the mayor a few questions about the hotel, just to get his reaction. He said he’d never heard anything about it. But after we talked, he went and made a phone call that made him late to rejoin the meeting after the recess. He looked really flustered. I think he might have called the chief to tell him to have you guys check it out. If you hear anything, can you call me? Please?”
Kate parked in the same spot she’d used the night before, near Slava’s room. She cursed softly as she looked down the passageway to the front of the hotel. It hadn’t seemed so dark with the confident Ukrainian by her side. A tremor of fear rumbled through her. She shook it off and snorted derisively. “Chicken. What are you scared of?”
With one more shake of her head, Kate opened the car door and grabbed her notebook out of her laptop bag. As she slammed the door closed, the dense night air swallowed the dull thud. Kate took a deep breath and strode toward the walkway that skirted the side of the building and led to the front of the hotel. Her heart hammered in her ears. Each shallow, rapid breath puffed into the abyss in front of her. Her determined walk quickened to a slow jog. After about fifteen steps, she could see the light outside Slava’s friends’ room glowing faintly ahead. She sighed out a low laugh and slowed her pace.
“Nothing to be afraid of,” she told herself as she prepared to round the corner.
The blow came from her right. She never saw a thing. It knocked her into the building, the rough concrete tearing into her shoulder. The air rushed out of her lungs as strong hands grasped her elbows and pinned her arms behind her back, pressing her face-first into the wall.
“Are you sure about that, chica?”
Terror burst through her stunned surprise. She yelped
. The man grabbed her hair and slammed her head into the wall. A starburst of pain radiated across her forehead. She gasped and whimpered.
“Silencio! Don’t make a sound or you’ll regret it.”
The tang of stale cigarettes clung to every word he spat in her face. Kate’s stomach heaved. The man pressed himself up against her, sliding his hand down her side and squeezing her butt. When she tried to struggle, he tightened his grip.
“Feisty. Mmmmm... Me gusta!” He gyrated against her.
Fear surged in her chest. Why hadn’t she called Slava to tell him she was coming? Despair constricted her heart. No one knew where she was.
“Too bad I don’t have more time. We could have some fun, no?
Blood pulsed across her temples. Her head throbbed. She tried to twist her arms free. He tightened his vice grip on her wrists, crushing them together.
“Be still or I’ll break your arms.”
Kate stopped struggling and closed her eyes against the nausea burning up her throat.
“You been sniffing around. My boss don’t like it. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop. Got it? You and your little friends.”
The pimp! Kate’s eyes flew open when she realized who her attacker was. How did he know about her investigation?
“Got it?” He pressed her harder into the wall, scraping her face on the stucco.
Kate nodded once, clenching her teeth as she felt a warm trickle make its way down her cheek.
“Bueno, chica. Bueno. You don’t want to see me again, no?” He made a clicking noise and squeezed her butt again.
When he loosened his grip, relief flooded through her. But before she could turn around, he punched her in the back, just below her rib cage. She gasped as a sharp pain knifed through her. Her head swam. She only had a vague sense of his retreating footsteps as she crumpled to her knees.
Black spots obscured her vision and she retched, coughing and gagging against the pain.
She took a few ragged gasps and tried to stand. But her legs trembled uncontrollably. She fell back against the wall.
“Help!” She wailed, helplessness lashing her to the ground. “Somebody help!”
A door scraped in the distance.
“Did you hear that? Where did it come from?” Kate recognized Anna’s clipped accent.
“Here! I’m here.”
Tears of relief filled Kate’s eyes when Anna burst around the corner with Vira right behind her.
“My God!” Anna rushed to her side and knelt down. “What happened?”
“The pimp...” Kate rasped. “He came out of nowhere.”
“Call 9-1-1,” Anna said over her shoulder to Vira, who spun around and ran back toward their room.
Kate’s side ached with every breath. She grimaced and Anna reached out and squeezed her hand.
“Is okay. They be here soon.”
Kate nodded and tried to take a deep breath. Anna and the scene behind her pitched and rolled. Kate closed her eyes and struggled against the waves of dizziness paralyzing her mind.
“How bad he hurt you?”Anna whispered. “Did he...”
She didn’t need to finish. Kate knew exactly what she was asking. Every woman’s worst nightmare. She shook her head.
“Thank God! The rest will heal.”
Kate smiled weakly. As her fear subsided, some of the pain did too. Anna squeezed her hand again. Vira reappeared carrying a bottle of water. Kate took it gratefully and brought it shakily to her lips.
“I call Slava too. He be here soon.”
Kate groaned, suddenly realizing the amount of attention she was about to endure. She was the story now, a reversal of roles no reporter wanted. Sirens wailed in the distance.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Johnson bounded down his front steps and yanked open the door of his cruiser. He rarely used his siren but he flipped it on as he gunned the engine and headed toward The Clipper. He’d just finished listening to Kate’s voicemail when he heard the call go out over the scanner. The dispatcher said a woman had been attacked. But she didn’t say how bad.
Dread filled his chest with every breath. Based on what Kate told him earlier that afternoon, it seemed likely the victim was a prostitute. But he couldn’t shake the nagging fear Kate had returned to the hotel to finish her reporting. What had she gotten herself into?
When he pulled into the parking lot, red and blue lights already strobed off the hotel’s dingy facade. Guests had started to gather outside their doors to see what was going on. Another officer stood outside the last room on the bottom floor, talking to three young women. Johnson was headed toward them when he saw one of the paramedics round the corner.
“Detective,” the man said with a nod. “Looks like the local media’s tired of just reporting the news. They’re trying to make it now.”
Johnson flinched, the medic’s words hit him like a sucker punch to the back of the head. Fear spiked up his spine and circled his neck in an invisible choke hold. For a moment he couldn’t breathe. All he could do was stare at the man in front of him.
“She’s pretty banged up, but I don’t think it’s anything serious,” the medic continued. “She’ll get an interesting story out of it, that’s for sure.”
Johnson’s breath burst through his lips in a rush. She was going to be okay.
“Can I talk to her?”
“Go right ahead. She was a little woozy when we first got here, but she’s starting to snap out of it. I’m just going to get the stretcher. She said she didn’t want to go to the hospital, but I’m not giving her a choice. I think she at least needs a CT scan.”
Johnson’s brow furrowed with renewed worry. He walked past the officer interviewing the three women, giving only a short wave before stepping into the dark passageway. His stomach dropped when he saw Kate sitting on the ground, the other medic kneeling beside her. To the side, a woman and man stood watching.
“Ouch!” Kate said as the medic applied a gauze pad to her bloodied forehead.
“Gotta get it cleaned out,” the medic said firmly.
Kate winced again and glanced up. Johnson caught her eye and smiled, then shook his head. Relief seeped from his head to his toes in a flood of warmth. She looked like she’d gone a round with Galveston-born boxing legend Jack Johnson, but she was alive. The tension that had cinched his neck and shoulder muscles when he heard the call go out over the scanner started to ease.
Kate grimaced. “If you’re about to lecture me about safety, now’s not a good time.”
“No lecture. Not yet anyway.” He squatted down next to her. “I’m just relieved it’s not worse.”
“Yeah...” She met his eye and then quickly looked away, but it was long enough for him to see her lingering fear.
“Want to tell me what happened before they whisk you off to the hospital?”
“I told them I don’t need to go! Will you back me up on this? I need to be here so we can go over everything, and I can get interviews for my story.”
“The story can wait,” Johnson said, exasperation making his words a bit more forceful than he intended. “I think you’ve still got the exclusive here.”
Kate rolled her eyes.
“So, what happened?”
“Some guy ambushed me as I was walking around the end of the hotel on my way to Anna’s room.” Kate glanced up at the young woman standing nearby, her arms crossed and her forehead creased with worry. “He told me his boss didn’t like me sniffing around their operation. He said I’d better stop or I’d regret it. That’s it.”
A flash of anger blurred his vision. If he’d taken Kate’s tip more seriously, staked out the hotel himself, she wouldn’t be sitting there in a crumpled, bloodied heap.
“I hear her calling for help,” Anna broke in. “That’s how we find her. When Vira go to call police, she see man dragging girls out of rooms at end of hall. Four of them. They leave in a hurry.”
“Did you get a look at his face?”
“No. Is too far,” An
na said. “Too dark.”
He looked down again at Kate. Under the bandage on her forehead, her eyes flashed with determination.
“Did you get a look at him?”
Kate shook her head. “He was behind me the whole time.”
“What about his voice? Did it sound familiar?”
“No. I’m pretty sure I’ve never met him before. About all I can tell you is that he stank like stale cigarettes. Big help, huh?”
“It’s alright. You’re doing great.”
Before he could ask another question, the medic pressed something to Kate’s tattered shoulder. Her eyes bulged and her mouth formed a silent “Oh!” of surprise and pain. Johnson winced in sympathy.
The man standing next to Anna made a disapproving clicking noise. “This would not happen if you investigate when we call you.”
Johnson’s cheeks flushed. The guy was probably right, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear.
“That’s Slava,” Kate said through gritted teeth. “Slava, this is Detective Peter Johnson. He’s one of the good guys.”
Johnson smiled. Slava snorted.
“They can tell you about as much as I can about what was going on here,” Kate continued. “Slava’s the one who told me about it in the first place. I’m sure the guy who attacked me is the pimp. I have no idea how he found out I was watching him.”
A kernel of worry lodged in Johnson’s gut. Something wasn’t right. How did the pimp know Kate would be there?
“Maybe he saw you leave the other day. Maybe he’s got someone keeping watch. We’ll talk to the other guests and see if anyone saw anything.”
“And the manager,” Kate said. “He’s got to know something. There’s no way he didn’t know all this was going on right under his nose.”
Johnson nodded and stood up. The first medic had returned with the stretcher.
“Time to go,” he said. “The sooner we get you to the hospital, the sooner you can get out.”