“That’s as much on me as it is on you, Deke. A few years after Art’s death, I decided Lily and I should start afresh. I was the one who didn’t send out change-of-address notices or put out a mass email. I was going through a bad patch. I was mad at the whole world, and thought a new life would make things better.”
“I appreciate your trying to share the blame. But I made vows saying I would look out for Lily, and promised God, and you, and Art. I broke those vows, but now I promise I will do whatever I can to make them right.”
Sylvia blinked away some tears and nodded.
Deke said, “Out in the car is my friend and colleague, Carol Morris. Carol is head of Safety and Security and Investigative Services for our firm. If it’s all right with you, she’d like to ask you some questions.”
“You left her out in your car in this heat?”
“I didn’t want to presume.”
“Please bring her in before she melts.”
* * *
Carol was a self-described “Southern steel magnolia.” She had grown up in the South, the daughter of an army staff sergeant. That was the magnolia part of her; the steel part showed itself in her work. Before Deke had brought her into the firm more than a decade ago, she had had a long and successful career working in the mostly male world of law enforcement. She had never felt the need to posture, as had so many of her coworkers, but her effectiveness was never a matter of dispute. On the job, Carol was invariably polite, but no one questioned her firmness. When it came to ferreting out answers and tracking down people, no one was better than Carol. She had been a decision Deke never regretted.
It didn’t take long for Carol to get Sylvia to open up, and Deke got to hear about a goddaughter he didn’t know. According to Sylvia, Lily was too clever by half. She was smart but indifferent to schoolwork. As pretty as her daughter was, Lily was still insecure about her looks. She could be loving one moment and surly the next. The daughter that Sylvia had once been so close to had become increasingly distant and secretive. Deke was mostly an accessory in the conversation, letting Carol take the lead.
While the two women talked, Deke found himself flipping through some photos that Carol had asked for. Most were recent shots of Lily. She was petite like her mother, and slight. In almost all of the pictures, she had a small, self-conscious smile. But one thing about her features stood out more than anything else, something Carol took a moment to inquire about.
“Where did Lily get her beautiful green eyes?”
“They’re from Art’s side of the family,” Sylvia said. “He had an aunt with almost exactly the same-colored eyes.”
Deke stared at the picture, studying his goddaughter’s eyes. They weren’t eyes easily forgotten. Unblinking, Lily looked back at him with eyes that haunted.
III
Teri Deketomis stuck her head into Deke’s study, expecting to find her husband sitting or standing while working at his height-adjusted desk. But Deke wasn’t at his desk, nor was he working. He was sitting in an old leather armchair in the corner of the room, his chin resting on his hand. In the background he had one of his favorite albums playing, Johnny Cash’s At San Quentin. Teri’s arrival coincided with the song “A Boy Named Sue.”
Deke straightened in his chair and smiled. “You caught me daydreaming.”
“That’s not a crime,” Teri said.
“Then why do I feel guilty?”
Teri walked across the room, sat on the chair’s armrest, and put a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Lily?” she asked.
He nodded. “I was thinking about the day of her christening. Art was so proud. He was crazy about his little girl.”
“I remember.”
“Usually, I don’t look back in time.”
She gave him a squeeze. “I know.” More than anyone, Teri did know.
“I tell myself I don’t have time for introspection. My excuse is I always have a case that needs my full attention. The truth is, I don’t much like looking back to when I was Lily’s age.”
“Given what you went through, that’s understandable.”
“It wasn’t an upbringing I’d wish on anyone.”
Deke had been in the foster care system, going from one placement to another. He tried to bury the past and rarely talked about the parents who had abandoned him, but sometimes his childhood had a way of surfacing with a vengeance. Like today. Because of Lily. For a man like Deke, letting his goddaughter fall through the cracks was a personal failure.
In the background, Johnny Cash seemed to be commenting on that. On a monthly basis, the firm had a Bergman/Deketomis karaoke night. Every so often Deke joined in the festivities, and his standard was always “A Boy Named Sue.” Deke wasn’t much of a singer, but his rendition of that song always got wild applause. Most of his colleagues hadn’t been aware of the song’s existence until they heard him sing it, and now they had even learned the words and loved joining in. Deke believed his coworkers sensed it was personal to him, which it was. He’d felt the same abandonment as the boy named Sue but hadn’t let his crappy upbringing and abandonment dictate the outcome of his life.
Teri gave her husband another squeeze, and Deke felt her love. It always helped to vanquish his shadows more than anything.
“I was an angry kid who made plenty of bad decisions, but was fortunate I didn’t make one that sabotaged my future,” Deke said.
“You beat the odds.”
“That’s for sure,” he said. “Which is why I don’t like to let my inner abandoned kid come out very often. He’s a real downer.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t bottle him up as much as you do.”
“It’s a lot easier to think about my life after the age of twenty-eight.”
Teri’s gaze turned to a prominent photo hanging in Deke’s study that showed him kissing his young bride. She found herself smiling, just as she’d been smiling in the picture.
“Sometimes I still can’t believe the ways things turned out,” he said. “I got the woman of my dreams, two great kids, and an unbelievable career.”
“The woman of your dreams loves hearing that, but also thinks you shouldn’t completely shut out that kid from foster care. He helped make you who you are.”
“Lily made me think about him. She kept calling to that kid in my head.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Carol says the best way I can help Lily is by putting all my efforts into the Welcome Mat case.”
“That makes sense. It’s your forum to take on human trafficking.”
“It makes professional sense. But it feels wrong to not be doing more for Lily. I already made that mistake once.”
“What else could you do?”
“I was thinking of putting up billboards,” Deke said.
“Billboards?”
“You remember how they used to advertise missing kids on milk bottles? I could put billboards up with Lily’s picture, along with the images of a few other children whom we know are being sexually trafficked, and advertise a reward for their safe return.”
“That sounds like a great idea.”
“It’s something, at least. And there’s a chance Lily might even see herself up on one of those billboards. If that happens, she’d know she isn’t alone. She’d know someone cares.”
Deke was aware that his own biography was coming out in his words. When he’d been Lily’s age, no one had given a damn about him, but he’d been fortunate in that he’d never had to endure physical or sexual abuse.
“I’ll help you set that up tomorrow,” Teri promised. “But no more ruminating tonight. It’s time you came to bed.”
“How could I refuse the woman of my dreams?”
IV
Nine months after Lily Reyes’s disappearance
Deke was working at the office when a call from Carol was put through. “We’re pretty sure we found him,” she said.
Deke allowed himself a single fist pump. Tracking down Tío Leo had been a long and difficu
lt hunt, with many disappointments along the way. Carol had spent countless hours sifting through sexually oriented advertisements, and the dark web, to try and get leads on Rodríguez and Lily. They started closing in on their target when Rodríguez advertised her as a “green-eyed vixen,” along with some leads from Deke’s billboards.
A few months back they had almost landed their fish. If one particular sheriff hadn’t been so intent on trying to turn the arrest into a photo op, Lily would now be free. That was something Deke couldn’t forget. Even now it haunted him.
“How sure?”
“We have a tentative ID from one of our operatives who’s watching a house we believe Rodríguez is staying in.”
“Where is he?”
Instead of answering his question, Carol said, “Let me take care of this.”
“Where?” he repeated.
“A suburb in Mobile.”
Mobile, Alabama, was only an hour’s drive from their offices in Spanish Trace, and that was if you obeyed the speed limit. That wasn’t something Deke was planning on doing.
“Is she there?” he asked.
“Our operative has identified several young women in the house, but we don’t know if Lily is among them. I’m walking over to your office now so we can discuss the best way to handle this.”
It was clear Carol was doing everything in her power to keep Deke from acting on his own, but that wasn’t enough. Not this time.
“Save yourself the walk. My office will be empty. I need that address. Now.”
Carol gave it to him.
* * *
Deke jumped into his ten-year-old Ford F-150 truck. His vehicle looked out of place in the firm’s parking lot filled luxury sedans, and wasn’t the kind of drive most people would have expected from a senior partner in one of the nation’s largest plaintiff law firms, but the old truck suited his purposes just fine.
He threw the truck in reverse, hit the gas, but then slammed on the brakes. Jake Rutledge had suddenly appeared in his rearview mirror.
Deke lowered his window and barked, “Get the hell out of my way.”
“I’m going with you.”
In answer, Deke revved the engine, but the young man didn’t budge.
“You want to keep working here?” Deke asked.
“Go ahead and fire me. I’m still coming with you.”
“Then get in!”
Jake ran to the passenger door, opened it while the truck was moving, and jumped inside. Even before Jake had a chance to pull the door shut, Deke floored the accelerator. As the truck rocketed out of the underground garage, Jake managed to close the door and latch his seatbelt.
For ten minutes, the two men didn’t speak. Deke finally broke the silence. “I thought you were supposed to be on vacation.”
Jake worked investigations for the firm, and for much of the past month he’d been on special assignment working undercover as a trucker investigating Welcome Mat.
“It was a staycation. And I just happened to come into the office today when Carol recruited me to help.”
“I don’t need a babysitter, or a bodyguard.”
“Then think of me as a traveling companion.”
“Did Carol tell you what this is about?”
Jake shook his head. “She only said you were on your way to go confront some scumbag.”
“He’s far worse than a scumbag. Leonel Rodríguez, who goes by the nickname Tío Leo, sexually traffics girls.”
“I’m familiar with him,” Jake said. “Carol spotlighted him in her BOLO alerts to the team, along with one of the young women he’s believed to be trafficking.”
“My goddaughter Lily,” Deke said.
“I wasn’t aware of the connection,” Jake said.
“Carol and I didn’t see any need to advertise it.”
“I had her picture taped to my dash, and kept an eye out for her at all my Welcome Mat stops,” Jake said. “I kept hoping against hope that she’d turn up.”
“You and me both.”
Deke didn’t volunteer anything more, and they drove without speaking for a few minutes. Jake finally asked, “Where are we going?”
“A suburb just outside Mobile called Saraland. Carol believes Rodríguez is holed up in a house there.”
“Will we be meeting up with law enforcements?”
“We will not.”
“Why not?”
“Reason one would be Sheriff Earl Jackson.”
Jake’s face showed his confusion. “I don’t know him.”
“You’re lucky,” Deke said. “Two months ago, we had Rodríguez dead to rights. Through Carol’s investigative work, we knew where he was, and we passed on that information to the Cove County Florida Sheriff’s Department. We counted on Sheriff Jackson to do his job, but instead of acting right away, he apparently decided it was a good time for a photo op. Not coincidentally, the sheriff’s up for reelection in November. While Jackson was lining up the media, Tío Leo got away. I was the one who had to call Lily’s mom, Sylvia, and tell her what happened.”
“That couldn’t have been easy.”
“We shared some bitter tears. And afterward, I made a substantial political contribution to the candidate running against Sheriff Jackson.”
“I can understand your disappointment, but just because one bad cop messed up doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be enlisting law enforcement in this.”
“There are other reasons as well.”
“Such as?”
“We can’t chance having to wait before acting. Our coming in from out of state complicates matters, and could cause a delay in issuing a search warrant.”
“So we call the local authorities now, and the paperwork might be in place even before we arrive.”
“You’re assuming that some judge won’t have qualms about this or that. I don’t want us jumping through judicial hoops while Rodríguez is pulling another disappearing act. He’s slippery, and being constantly on the move is a way of life for him. It’s not just the law he’s trying to stay in front of. The word on the street is that MS-13 wants to settle a score with Rodríguez for having had a hand in the death of one of their own.”
“That would keep me moving,” Jake said.
“He avoids staying anywhere more than a few nights, and has a host of names he uses for short-term rentals in residential locations.”
Deke turned onto Interstate 10 west, which would take them right to Mobile. “You’ve probably been along this route a lot lately.”
Jake raised his left arm, displaying his “trucker’s tan.” “I traveled this way a few times, but mostly I worked along I-20.”
“I guess there’s a reason it’s called the sex trafficking superhighway.”
“From what I saw, there’s lots of competition for that nickname.”
Deke’s scowl served in place of words.
“Were you close to Lily?” Jake asked.
“I wish I could say that I was, but I haven’t seen her since the day of her christening fifteen years ago.”
“That’s not unusual. When I was growing up, I was told I had a godfather, but he was never part of my life. Hell, I don’t even remember his name, and couldn’t tell you anything about him. These days being a godparent is ceremonial.”
“That’s not what the vows say. I promised to be there for her, but wasn’t. Until now.”
* * *
The Mobile suburb of Saraland, with its stately trees and large homes on big lots, wasn’t what typically came to mind when most people thought about sex trafficking. That was what made it, and places like it, perfect spots for Tío Leo’s business. The short-term rental he was believed to be staying in was surrounded with fencing and greenery, shielding the house from prying eyes.
Carol’s hired help was a PI who had set up shop on the residential street. Deke had passed by the nondescript delivery van while making his own slow surveillance of the street. Only one car was visible at the house: a Ford Transit van parked in front of the three-car
garage.
After parking down the street, Deke called the operative on his cell phone and identified himself. “Any activity?”
“Nothing in the last two hours,” the PI said.
“What about before then?”
“There was a TV on in the master bedroom upstairs where I believe the girls are.”
“No visitors?”
“None I observed.”
“So, it’s just our suspect and the girls?”
“As far as I know.”
“Thanks for your work. We’ve got it from here.”
As Deke put away his phone, Jake said, “Why didn’t you ask for his help?”
“Because what I’m about to do isn’t exactly legal, so I’m thinking the fewer eyes on the situation, the better.”
“You haven’t told me the plan.”
“The plan is to question Mr. Rodríguez, preferably without anyone around.”
“If I recall correctly, Rodríguez is twentysomething? Besides being younger than you are, he’s probably armed, and certainly dangerous.”
“I’m hoping that means he won’t be threatened when he sees me.”
“What’s your reason for knocking at his door?”
“I’m with the management company overseeing the rental, and the last tenants reported a gas leak.”
“And you think he’ll buy that?”
“I don’t care if he does or not, as long as he lets me get within striking range. I’m wearing what’s called a sap cap.”
Jake’s eyes went to the innocuous-looking baseball cap on Deke’s head.
“There’s steel bird shot sewn into a pouch and the back lining of the hat. It works just like a sap, and at my first opportunity, I’m going to try and drop Rodríguez.”
“That’s too risky.”
“If I’m not back in ten minutes, call the cops. Give me that much leeway.”
Jake began shaking his head. As he opened his mouth to object, Deke spoke before he could. “Give me a chance to make good on the promises I made to Art, and my goddaughter, and to God, all those years ago. I need you to do that for me.”
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