“Nothing concrete, but I think he’s in the area. He’s probably hanging low for a bit.”
“If your theory is correct, he might even still be employed by the brothel.”
The door opened and I stepped away from Toby. Melinda came through the door in a businesslike manner. Clara Raber was right behind her.
Melinda went to sit behind her desk and the young, formerly Amish woman stood off to the side with downcast eyes. She wore a plush yellow robe and matching slippers. Her long, dark hair fell in thick waves on her shoulders. Like Melinda and Lynette, she would be considered beautiful by most people who saw her. The crime scene photos of Susanna King showed her to be pretty as well. I didn’t think it was a coincidence.
“Echo, go ahead and repeat out loud what you told me before dear Benny had a meltdown,” Melinda said, gesturing with her hand for Clara to be quick about it.
Clara kept her face down and shifted between feet. “I’m from Mt. Carmel, Indiana. Not long before I came to the Ranch, I saw a news article in the Blood Rock Daily Ledger. It was about a crime spree in Blood Rock and how gangsters were involved. There was shootout at a wedding, or something like that. The article had a couple of pictures.” Clara finally raised her gaze and looked directly at me. “Sheriff Serenity Adams was in the picture.” She tilted her head. “You’re the same woman I saw in the paper.”
Well, damn.
I didn’t miss a beat. It was time to lay all the cards on the table. “Your name is Clara Raber and you used to be Amish. I’m guessing that you’re eighteen years old. Your mother was a King. Just like Lynette King, the deceased, Susanna King, and Melinda over there, you came to the Wild Colt Ranch when you turned eighteen in some kind of sick four-year ritual.” I left Clara’s round eyes and faced Melinda. “For decades, young women from the Mt. Carmel community have been disappearing—at least that’s what your grandma Fannie says. Oh, she’s worried about you Melinda. You were her favorite and she misses you.”
Melinda’s smooth skin turned white as a ghost. “How dare you.” I could tell she worked to keep her voice steady.
“No, Melinda. How dare you keep this disgusting loop going. You’re in a position of power, and you could change things. Instead, it’s same old same old around here. Every four years you get a new recruit from your Amish community back in Indiana. Another poor girl is forced into sex slavery.” I slammed my fist down on the desk. “You could put an end to it all right now.”
Melinda regained her composure. “I pegged you as a cop straight off but had to let it play out.” She shrugged a little and gave me a coy smile. “It’s not good business to accuse the customers without enough information.” Melinda shifted her gaze to Toby. “You were a little more difficult. Not as uptight as the sheriff. A little less invested in the people. Maybe a federal agent?”
Toby chuckled. “Ma’am. Let’s just say, Sheriff Adams, is assisting on my case. The local Amish connection brought her in on the investigation. She’s right though. You can come clean about everything, including your new hires Andre Jackson and George Walker, and I won’t shut your brothel down. It’s good for the soul to come clean, don’t you think?”
Melinda laughed lightly. “I’m willing to bet you both have gone off script with your investigation.” She cocked her head and smirked. “Just a hunch.” She picked up the telephone and punched a button. “Send Ronnie and Stan into my office. Thank you.” Then she opened the center drawer of her desk, pulled out a 9mm, and aimed it at us. I heard Clara’s intake of breath. Toby stood still. “I always keep it locked and loaded. I’m a good shot too. It’s one of my few hobbies these days. A few years back, I set up a shooting range on the ranch. It gives all of us the practice we need to deal with situations like this.”
“Whoa Ma’am. That’s not a good idea,” Toby was still in diplomat mode. I wasn’t.
“Are you crazy? Whatever we might get you on, Melinda, can be plead down to lesser charges if you help us bring in George Walker and stop the practice of Amish girls being recruited. Threatening a fed and a sheriff isn’t going to help your case with a judge.”
“Who says I’m threatening?” The calm, smug look on her face made my heart sink into my stomach. Melinda King might just be a cold-blooded killer. “I run this place, and no one tells me what to do.”
The door opened and in walked the hard-looking man who never smiled along with the sumo wrestler. Ronnie and Stan. They each had their handguns drawn. It occurred to me that they’d never drawn their weapons during the altercation with Benny.
Ronnie glanced at me and Toby, and then focused on his boss. “Benny’s awake. Says he doesn’t want to go to hospital.”
“Well, that’s good news, especially since he wasn’t going to any hospital. Where’d you set him up?”
“In the rec room. He’s drinking a beer with Jared. Trixie even offered to service him if one of us stays in the room,” Ronnie said.
“That’s a good plan. Trixie will have an extra nice bonus this week for taking on that brute.” Melinda was all business, but she still had the gun aimed at us. “If you hadn’t done the neck thing on Benny, I wouldn’t be worried about a lawsuit or bad press at the moment.”
“You should be more worried about pointing a gun at law enforcement officers.” My heart rate was steady and my breathing controlled.
Melinda talked to the guards while she looked at me. “Take them down to the basement room. Make sure they have everything they need to be comfortable.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Toby said as Stan approached him.
Stan’s shooting arm was stretched out and too close to Toby. The marshal took advantage of the opening and grabbed Stan’s arm, shoving it upwards. The gun went off, sending a bullet into the ceiling. I lunged for Melinda, fearing she was the bigger threat, but Ronnie moved quicker than I expected. It was Clara suddenly springing to life that was my undoing. She bumped into me as I lunged at Melinda, throwing me off balance. It gave Ronnie the opportunity to grab me from behind. In a fluid motion, he had me held against his stomach with his gun pointed at my head. Toby made a hissing sound and raised his hands when he saw my predicament.
“Well, aren’t you the wildcat, Serenity,” Melinda said as she straightened up, sliding her hands down the side of her suit as if she was pressing the wrinkles away. “This can be easy or difficult. I don’t really care which route you go. There are twenty-two guards on this property, and they all answer to me.” She dipped her chin at Clara. “Retrieve their cell phones.”
After Clara pulled mine out of my back pocket, Melinda told her to check my jacket pockets. Clara quickly emptied them of a couple of twenty-dollar bills and the motel keycard, then went straight over to repeat the tasks on Toby. She kept her eyes downcast the entire time.
Ronnie held me tight, but thankfully the gun was steady in his hand. It would be a real shame if he accidently popped me. I caught a glimpse of Toby. He stared back with tight lips and wary eyes.
I didn’t have to be clairvoyant to read his thoughts. This wasn’t how either of us expected the night to end.
14
Toby made the circuit of the small, windowless room for the third time. His usually relaxed attitude had vanished. Toby paced the room like a caged tiger. I’d never seen him in this state before.
“You’re telling me that you didn’t phone into your department about your whereabouts this week?” A hard knot sat in my stomach.
Toby shook his head. “I’m supposed to be on vacation. My boss would have my hide if he knew I was still working the case on my days off.” He snorted loudly. “Unless I brought home a fugitive. Then my lack of best protocol practices would be forgiven.”
Yeah, that was universal no matter where you worked. “Bobby and Todd are the only people who know exactly where we are?”
“Sounds about right.” Toby stopped and looked over. “How about Daniel? Wh
en he can’t get through to you, he’ll surely call out the cavalry.”
I sat on the edge of one of the two cots. Other than the cots, there was a wooden table and two chairs. The tiny bathroom had a shower stall, toilet, and sink. My first thought when the door locked behind us was that the room reminded me of a youth hostel or a high-end prison cell. It was worrisome that the brothel contained a room in the basement which locked on the outside.
“Before I left, I told Daniel that I’d call him tomorrow night. I knew we’d immediately be up to our eyeballs in the investigation, and nothing puts me more on edge than my husband texting and calling every hour, on the hour to make sure I’m still alive.”
Toby licked his lips and made a humming noise. “That’s a shame. Hopefully, your dear hubby doesn’t listen to you.”
Even for the overall bad situation we were in, I couldn’t help smiling. Daniel had a mind of his own. He also acted on gut instinct, just like me. “He’s trying to let me do my job. It’s about 50-50 whether he reaches out tonight or waits until morning. Either way, I don’t think he’s going to immediately start bugging Bobby and Todd to do something. I asked him to have faith in me.”
Toby finally sat down in one of the chairs. “I haven’t had undercover work go south this bad since my short stint in the Mexican Cartel about eight years ago.” He removed his hat, gently setting it down on the table, and then flashed me a grin. “I came close to dying on that one.”
“What saved you?”
“A gray-haired federal agent with more time on the job than my age in years. He was two steps ahead of me and anticipated my mistakes before I made them.” Our eyes met. “It’s good to have a partner who isn’t as gung-ho as yourself. The balance makes it safer.”
“Like the two of us? We did pretty well on our other partnerships,” I said.
Toby barked out a laugh. “We’ve been lucky, Serenity. You and I are too much alike. That’s the problem. Neither one of us is the cautious voice of reason. My old partner, John Ruther, was the perfect example of the kind of person that balanced me out. When I was ready to bolt straight into a fight, he’d slow me down enough to be successful. Like Todd is to you. He’s a steady kind of guy and it keeps you in check at times.”
Everything Toby had just said was true, but we had nothing else to do except argue at the moment. “I wouldn’t have solved as many crimes or locked up a lot of bad guys and gals if it weren’t for my impetuous nature. There are situations when there’s no time to take it slow and easy. Life is like gambling on a runaway train. Overthinking everything can get you killed.”
“True.” He scanned the room again. “Still, if one of us had been a little more reserved and careful, we wouldn’t be locked up in the basement by a psycho ex-Amish madam right now.”
“Melinda King isn’t crazy. If she doesn’t already play chess, I’m sure she’d be a champion.” I scooted back on the thin, hard mattress and crossed my legs. “When we talked earlier, I thought that I had the upper hand, but I never had it. Melinda flowed from one lie to the next, adjusting with an ease that I’m envious of. She knew what we were from the beginning, but she played the game, waiting for the right time to strike us down.”
“What does she want to do with us? Within a couple of days, a lot of law enforcement officers will close in on the Wild Colt Ranch. That’s inevitable, and she must know it. Even if Melinda could keep all the Ranch’s workers in line with her scheme, our cell phones pinged at the motel today and several employees saw us there. This is a big loss for her any way it plays out. My worry is that you’re underestimating Ms. King’s level of mental duress. A fair share of criminals is plain crazy, but that doesn’t mean that they might not also have brilliant minds.”
“Melinda has a plan, I’m sure of it. It wouldn’t benefit the ranch to have us killed. And you’re right, she wouldn’t get away with it. She has to know that,” I said.
“She manages the brothel but she doesn’t own it. Perhaps she’s burning it down to get even with the owners.”
I hadn’t thought about that angle. “Who exactly owns The Wild Colt Ranch?”
“A pair of brothers, Tommy and Michael Bruno. They live in Las Vegas. Besides the brothel and motel, they own a small casino and a couple of restaurants in Sin City. From what I dug up, the men only visit the ranch a few times a year. They’ve delegated full authority to Melinda to run the business,” Toby said.
I rubbed my forehead. “Bruno. That name sounds familiar…”
“It’s a fairly common Italian American surname.”
“Okay. Let’s go back to Mt. Carmel for a moment. How in the hell did a connection ever develop between the Bruno brothers’ brothel in Nevada and a small Amish farming community in Indiana?” I stared at the wall knowing I was missing something important.
“That’s a real mystery.” Toby tapped his finger on the tabletop and abruptly stopped. “With all the excitement, I forgot to tell you something I learned from one of the women.”
I smirked, holding in a comment about how he managed to get the prostitutes to talk so easily. “Go on.”
“Once we were separated, I figured we were running out of time. I managed to work a conversation in about an Amish cousin, and Tasha opened up. She informed me that there were five previously Amish women currently working at the ranch. She mentioned Jewel, Echo, and Star. She didn’t seem to know Melinda was Amish, but she brought up two names I hadn’t heard yet: Tessa Brown and Blondie Jones. They’re both in their thirties, and I’d wager a bet that those aren’t their real names.”
Of course not. I wished desperately for some paper and a pen to write this stuff down, but I’d already looked around the room and came up empty. My head and fingers would have to do. “We have Echo, also known as Clara Raber, who’s eighteen. Her mother was a King. Then there’s Jewel—Lynette King—at twenty-two. Star Miller used to be Susanna Miller and she’s a King on her mother’s side. She’s also recently deceased. At twenty-six, she continues the four-year difference between the women. Now you tell me you’ve added two more ex-Amish women—Tessa and Blondie—and they’re in their thirties.” I shook my head. “That’s insane. There’s undeniably some kind of business deal between the brothel and the Mt. Carmel Amish community.”
“Don’t forget Andre Jackson. He had something going on with Star Miller, even though he couldn’t have been at the ranch long. How do my fugitives fit into the Amish madness?”
“Jared told me that Star quit the ranch the very same day she turned up dead at the motel. He seemed to think that she was involved with Andre and that he might have been helping her get out.”
“How did you get Jared to tell you all that?”
“I told him I was writing a book about women working in brothels. He aspires to be an author someday, so it was a perfect alibi to get him talking,” I admitted.
Toby lifted his chin and gave me an admiring look. “I’ll have to remember that one—that is if we get out of here alive.” He paused, looking past me for a several long seconds, and then his eyes came swiftly back into focus. “The evidence collected at the crime scene indicated that Andre had stabbed Star and right before she died, she managed to reach a gun stowed in her tote bag and fired off two shots that ultimately killed Andre. There hadn’t been any evidence of a third person in the room.” Toby cocked his head. “It doesn’t make sense that if Andre was helping Star that he’d fatally stab her that same day.”
“No, it doesn’t. If there was someone else in that motel room with Andre and Star, it was probably George Walker.” I played the action out in my head and it was plausible that a third person had murdered both of them. “There’s a few ways it could have gone down, but the most likely is that George is the one who stabbed Star. It might have been a crime of passion if he and Andre had once been an item. Jealousy turning into murder is fairly common. Or he went in there to do a hired job, taking out a woman
who’d escaped the brothel and his partner who had helped her. Maybe it was a combination of both. If it was strictly a crime of passion, I doubt George would have been so careful not to leave behind forensic evidence. It appears that he made sure to keep the crime scene free of his presence and even set the stage for it to look like Andre and Star killed each other.” I paused, taking a deep breath. “George could have stabbed Star to death and waited for Andrea to return. He then shot him with Star’s gun to make it look like she’d done it, or something happened that George hadn’t anticipated and he had to kill his long-term friend to save his own ass.”
“I wished my team would have come up with this scenario earlier. It’s reasonable that we made a rush to judgment on the case.” Toby stood up and ran his hand through his dusty colored brown hair. “Sometimes, all the pieces of the puzzle don’t fall into place. This is one of those times.”
“We know a lot more now than we did this morning.” I exhaled. “It’s unfortunate we’re stuck in this stupid room. If we were out there, we might have those last pieces we’re looking for in hand.”
My heart rate was steady and my gut wasn’t screaming at me. I didn’t judge our situation to be dire, just more annoying at this point. Melinda wasn’t the type to kill someone without a damn good reason. For my vast imagination, I couldn’t see how it would benefit her.
The door rattled and I jumped off the bed to stand next to Toby. It opened only a narrow width. Jared slipped in, closely followed by Lynette King. They weren’t armed and their drawn expressions told me they were our rescuers.
Jared stepped closer, almost ignoring Toby altogether. “We don’t have much time.” His eyes narrowed. “You lied twice to me, Sheriff, and I don’t appreciate it, but that doesn’t make it okay to lock you and your partner up. Everyone’s been on edge the last couple of weeks. Melinda hasn’t been herself, and then Star was killed. It’s more drama than I can take. I’m no saint but being a part of a business that would imprison law officers is where I draw the line.” He leaned over and gave a nod at Lynette who stood in the threshold, keeping a lookout. She had changed into sweatpants, a hoodie, and tennis shoes. “If we get you out of here, do you promise to keep our involvement in your escape quiet?”
Wicked Legacy (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 10) Page 10