Trespassers Will Be Prostituted. Page 3

  She got quiet, took another drink of her bottled water and a bite of toast. I watched her, but said nothing more. Max and I made eye contact, and I knew that this was a case we were going to take and follow through to the end. I couldn’t imagine being kidnapped and sold for sex, and I knew that this young girl was irreparably damaged.

  Alma put the toast down and looked at Max. “Who would’ve done this to us? I mean, how did they know about me and Yolanda? That is what I go over and over in my head. They separated me and Yolanda after we were kidnapped. I only saw her a couple of times, but not alone. Who would have done this? Who would’ve told them about us?”

  That was the question that had been running through my head. Had they spotted them at the movies? Had they known where Alma lived? Was it random that they picked these two girls? And why were they in Salinas looking for sex workers? Also, why were they taking them to Oakland, instead of prostituting them right here in town? There was something much more sinister and deep going on than we knew at the moment. The only reason I could think that they would kidnap girls in Salinas and take them to Oakland for prostitution was to keep their victims from being recognized.

  “Where did you stay in Oakland? Did they have a house there, too?” Max asked.

  “We stayed in different places. Every few days, we went back to the original house to shower and brush our teeth. Not long enough to take the day off, though.”

  Why on earth would he bring them back to Salinas? Had they planned to dump them when they were finished with them? But why dump them, when they could be used over and over and over again? Selling girls was far easier than selling drugs. You didn’t have to constantly replenish the supply. The girls could be used over and over again. More than one location meant they were being careful to not get caught.

  “How long had you and Yolanda been staying together alone? When did her parents leave?” I asked.

  “Her parents left for Mexico about a week before we were taken.”

  Max asked, “Who knew that it was just the two of you? Did anyone know that Yolanda’s parents were gone?”

  Alma shrugged. “It wasn’t a secret. Everyone knew that Yolanda’s dad was sick, and they were going back to Mexico for an operation. They were afraid to take Yolanda, because even though she was born in the United States, they didn’t know how difficult it would be to get back. But it wasn’t a secret.”

  Why would it be a secret, other than for immigration reasons?

  “Alma, there’s a bathroom upstairs. Why don’t you go wash up? I need to talk to Max for a minute.”

  She hesitated.

  I stood and came around the desk. I walked Alma out to the reception area. “Uta, will you please show Alma to the bathroom upstairs?”

  Uta put her arm around the girl and walked away with her. I went back to Mimi’s office to discuss our next move with Max.

  Three

  Charles

  I stood in the kitchen pouring a cup of coffee when what I really wanted to do was down a couple of shots of whiskey. I needed something to take the edge off my nerves. You always hear about sex trafficking, but you never think it’s going to affect your life personally, or that you would in a million years know someone who had been through it. Could it be the Russian Mafia? She said they had accents. The Italians weren’t in the sex trade. The Russians. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a more brutal group of people when it came to this market. They had absolutely no compassion. The worst part was their business thrived on younger girls. The perverted men wanted sexual contact with little girls. Alma was nineteen, but she looked much younger. With Yolanda being only thirteen and Alma looking not much older, they were prime bait for the Russian sex trafficking market.

  I was thinking about how there was no way that this was happening locally, when the kitchen door opened and Lola came bounding in.

  She came straight up to me and put her paw on top of my foot, letting me know she was there and needed attention. As if I could miss the eighty-pound Doberman if she hadn’t been standing on my foot. I reached down and patted her on the head, then scrubbed her around the ears. It was a good distraction. I looked up, and Mimi stood in the doorway with a diaper bag with the name Lola on it.

  She looked cute in all black. Even though I often told her she was getting too old for the color, she wore it well. The dash of color in her shoes was perfect.

  “Haven’t left yet?” I said.

  Mimi shrugged. “Our plane leaves in two hours.”

  I looked at her and cocked my head. “Two hours? Are you flying out of Monterey?”

  Mimi slammed the diaper/dog bag down on the kitchen table. “Nope, we are flying out of San Francisco.”

  “Then why are you still here?” I was seeing ten crisp hundred dollar bills in my near future.

  “Because Nick isn’t answering his phone. I stopped by the police station and he’s not there.” She flopped down on one of the dining room chairs. “I’m going to kill him.”

  “I’m going to hug him. I’m about to get a thousand dollars richer.” Too soon?

  “I’m going to slice and dice him,” Mimi said, slashing at the air.

  “We’ve got enough of that going on around here, we don’t need you to do it, too. I thought he just went into work for a bit?”

  Again, Mimi shrugged. “I don’t think he really wanted to take a vacation. This morning, he said he had to go into the office for a bit, and then we would take off. And you saw his suitcase. I got so anxious waiting for him to get home, and the fact that he would not answer his phone, I repacked his bag neatly and had it ready for him, so that when he got home we could go straight to the airport.”

  “I put those clothes away for a reason.” Stating the obvious, I felt like my name should be Mimi. “And apparently, he never came home.”

  “You got that right. And when I went by the police station, he was out.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe he has a girl on the side.”

  Mimi flipped me off.

  I poured another cup of coffee, added creamer, and handed it to Mimi. “I guess no Italy then?”

  “Unless we can get a later flight. And I’m not even sure I want to do that. I don’t think I want to spend a week in the same place with Nick right now. My head is about to explode, I’m so pissed off.”

  I smirked.

  “Stop gloating,” she hissed.

  I still smirked. “I’ll admit it, if Max stood me up, I’d be furious. But then, I wouldn’t have let Max go into the office before leaving for a trip. I would’ve made sure he had all of his ducks in a row the day before.”

  “Yes, Charles, we all know how perfect you are. If you were taking a vacation, it would have gone off without a hitch. I’m not you, and right now, I’m furious.”

  Under my breath I said, “And out a cool grand to me.”

  It took everything in me not to laugh at her. She should have known that someone so addicted to his work would do something like this. I was pretty sure she’d been smart enough to get flight insurance.

  “Thank goodness for flight insurance.”

  See what I mean?

  Cortnie Garcia walked into the kitchen. “Whoa, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in the air?”

  Mimi rolled her eyes. “It’s a long story that I don’t feel like going into at the moment.”

  “She got stood up by her man.” I had to fill in the blanks for Cortnie. She deserved to know. “Maybe he’s with your husband.”

  “Could be.” She shrugged, then asked, “Did I see a little girl in your office this morning?”

  I took a sip of my coffee, and took a deep breath before answering. “She’s not a little girl. She’s nineteen years old. And she was kidnapped.”

  Mimi held the coffee cup in her hands. “How could she be in your office if she was kidnapped?”

  Some days, I just wanted to slap Mimi across the head when she didn’t always think things through. “She escaped. She had just gotten off the Greyhound
bus, was walking down the street and saw our sign. She decided to come in and see if we could help.”

  Cortnie asked, “What are we helping with?”

  “She wasn’t kidnapped alone, she was babysitting a thirteen-year-old girl named Yolanda Reyes, whose parents are in Mexico for a medical procedure. They were both taken at the same time. Her name is Alma Medina, and she was able to escape. She wants us to help her get Yolanda out.”

  Cortnie’s body stiffened. “Then what are we doing standing around here? We need to help her.”

  “Max took her shopping for some clean clothes. Then he’s taking her to the house for a shower and a proper meal. And then, we’re going to find her a place to live.”

  “Find her a place to stay? Wait, doesn’t she have family?” Mimi asked.

  I know she didn’t mean to sound as heartless as she did. Being stressed, she wasn’t herself. At least I hoped this was the reason she sounded so bitchy.

  “She has family, but it’s not a good situation. She has her own apartment. I’m pretty sure no one even knows that they were kidnapped at this point. They may know she’s missing, but not how. And she’s not going back to that house. There’s a distinct possibility she was taken by the Russian Mafia. Do you hear me? The Russians. They’re going to look for her, hunt her down, and then they will probably kill her.” I knew my voice was raised, but I couldn’t seem to control it.

  “The Russians. The Russian mob in California?” Cortnie said.

  Mimi said, “They’re everywhere.”

  I spent the next twenty minutes telling Cortnie and Mimi the story that Alma had told me. When I was done, neither one was drinking coffee anymore, and they both looked a little green around the gills.

  “I just don’t understand why we don’t do more about drugs and sex trafficking in this country. They’re worried about so many things that make no sense, that don’t hurt people, and yet they can’t figure out a way to stop this?” Cortnie said. “Too busy wagging their dicks at each other, ‘Mine is bigger than yours,’ that they aren’t looking out for the people.”

  I could feel the heat coming up through my collar and into my cheeks from anger. My ears were hot. “The police see it as a victimless crime. The women are selling, and the dirty ass men are buying.”

  Cortnie said, “You realize you’re a man, right?”

  “Yeah, well, whatever. I’m not a dirty ass man.” I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

  Mimi chimed in. “It’s not true that they don’t see it as a crime. There’s a lot being done, but it’s like trying to put out a forest fire with a bucket of water. They’re doing what they can to stop the johns. And these trafficking people are smart. Like drug dealers, they’re career criminals, and they do nothing for sixteen hours a day but figure out how to skirt law enforcement. Then they probably dream about it at night.”

  Cortnie added, “And as law-abiding citizens, even as cops, we don’t think like they do. If you’re talking about the Russians, it’s a whole different mindset. We’ll have to get into their mindset if we're going to beat them at their game.”

  “Let’s beat them at their game,” I said.

  “Look, as soon as I get a hold of Nick, I’m going to let him know the vacation is canceled.” Mimi gathered up her stuff, then looked at me. “I’ll write you a check next week.”

  I grinned, but I couldn’t win so easily. I waved my arms in the air like a crazy woman and said, “No, Mimi, you aren’t going to cancel this vacation, even if you don’t go to Italy, you aren’t canceling. Believe me, if you think that you’re disgusted with people now, by the end of this case, you will never want to deal with people again. And besides, I want cash, not a check.”

  Mimi got that stubborn look on her face, and I knew I was going to have to lay the smack down.

  “You’re going to need all of the help you can get. These are dangerous people. It’s not something that you and Cortnie can do alone.”

  I grabbed Mimi by the shoulders and turned her toward the door, but before I could get her out of the house, I heard Lydia behind me.

  Lydia is one of our employees, and she also happens to be Mimi’s mother. “Your little monster is in the car with Luke, and they’re going to the dog park.”

  Lola had strolled out of the kitchen when I’d stopped petting her. She must have gone to Uta for a snack, since she didn’t get one from me. I had her well trained.

  Lydia and Lola don’t get along. It’s not that they dislike each other. Well, maybe they do. What I really think is that they compete for Mimi’s attention. Lydia and Lola seem to get along fine when Mimi’s not around, but when she’s around and Lydia is trying to have a conversation, Lola makes sure that she’s the center of attention. Irritates Lydia to no end. It becomes a competition to see who can keep Mimi’s attention the longest.

  “Lydia, you know Lola’s not a monster. Remember when she saved Mimi’s life?” I said.

  Lydia threw her hands in the air. “Everyone always takes that damn dog’s side. But you’re right; she did save Mimi’s life and she’s not so bad.” Lydia looked back to Mimi standing at the back door, still not ready to leave. “Either way, she still went to the dog park with Luke. He’s going to be watching her while you’re away. She likes him, and he likes her.”

  Luke was Lydia’s husband.

  Mimi stepped back into the middle of the kitchen. “What about during the day? Luke has to work. Lola can come here, but she can’t go to work with Luke.”

  Lydia frowned. “Yes, I know. Lola can hang out here with Uta during work hours, or she can be in the car with me on stakeouts.”

  Mimi picked up the diaper bag and handed it to Lydia. “These are all of her toys and bones. There’s even a few snacks in here for her.”

  Lydia wrinkled her nose. “They aren’t the liver snacks that make her farts smell so bad, are they?”

  I smiled to myself. I was the one who got her hooked on the liver snacks. And her farts were atrocious.

  “Mimi, get out of here. Go find Nick and reschedule your flight.” I grabbed her by the shoulders again and pushed her out the kitchen door.

  I got her all the way out the door and down to the second step on the porch before she turned back around. “Call me if you need me. I’ll have my cell phone on the entire time.”

  I didn’t even bother to respond. I just turned around and walked back into the kitchen, closing the door behind me. For good measure, I locked it. If she wanted to come back in, she was going to have to go all the way around to the front door.

  “Why all of the stern faces? Y’all look like someone died. And we all know how well the last one ended,” Lydia said.

  Cortnie leaned against the kitchen counter and folded her arms across her chest. “Charles had a client come in today who is looking for a missing person. Actually, the person isn’t missing so much as she’s been kidnapped.”

  Lydia’s eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. “A kidnapping?”

  I rested my hand on the back of the kitchen chair. “It’s actually worse than that, Lydia. They were kidnapped and put to work for a prostitution ring. It’s called sex trafficking.”

  Lydia grimaced. “I know what sex trafficking is, thank you. And how are we involved in this?”

  Cortnie explained to her about how our client had been kidnapped and then escaped, how we were going in to find Yolanda, and hopefully break up this particular sex trafficking ring.

  Lydia raised her hand. “I’m in. When do we start? What do you need me to do?”

  I thought about it for a moment. Was this something that Lydia needed to be a part of? We could use all hands on deck. “I need you to get all of your cases in order. Let me know which ones can be pushed off for a day or two. If you have any reports that need to be written up, get them done in the next couple of hours, if possible. Cortnie and I are going to work out a strategy, and then I’m going to meet with Max. As soon as we have the details, I will let you know what I need you to do. Do you
mind working some overtime and doing late-night stakeouts, if needed?”

  “I’ll do whatever it takes. This is something I cannot stomach. I’m all in.” Lydia checked her watch. “I have a stakeout that can be postponed. I mean, seriously, it’s a guy cheating on his wife. If he’s cheating today, he’ll be cheating tomorrow. If you don’t mind, I’ll use Mimi’s office and finish my reports. That way, I can enter them right on the computer instead of writing them up first.”

  I waved her off. “Go, use Mimi’s office. Whatever it takes.” Lydia was out of the kitchen before I could even blink. Even though she was Mimi’s mother, I really enjoyed working with her.

  Cortnie and I moved to our reception area (or living room, if this was a home). We didn’t have any clients, so we sat down, each with a cup of coffee, to discuss the case. I explained to Cortnie some of the details that Alma had given to me.

  “She said two of the men were tall and fit, and one was shorter and chunky. All three men had unkempt dark brown hair, and they all wore beards and mustaches. The shorter man had a long beard. Most of the time, they wore jackets.” I took a sip of coffee, then continued. “When they were in the house, one of them was in a short sleeve T-shirt, and she saw tattoos that looked like a foreign language. She said it wasn’t the same alphabet that we used in Spanish or English. She said they spoke English with heavy accents. She thought they might be Russian and when they spoke amongst themselves, they spoke only in their native tongue.”

  “Even if they’re not Russian, they could be Croatian or Crimean?” Cortnie said. “They’re all just as bad.”

  “That’s right. But it doesn’t matter, because no matter what they are, they’re dangerous.”