“It’s pretty common knowledge with the girls that the old boss was killed. But they say nobody could prove it,” Indigo said. “One girl calls herself Starbright, yeah, no shit, says they are all nervous because the word is, two of the girls were killed at the same time.”
“So, Julie Wang is in Phoenix now?” I said, to get back into this conversation.
“Starbright says Wang is just here to clean up a mess. Says she’s higher up in the organization, so she’s just here to right the ship.”
“And the stripper knows this how?” Blackhawk said.
Indigo shrugged. “Says Wang told her this. Saying she didn’t want to be here any longer than she has to be. Says Wang said she hated Phoenix.”
“You find out where Wang is living?”
Nacho shook his head. “No one seems to know. But here’s something. She is still recruiting. Told the girls she’ll pay a thousand-dollar bonus to anyone that brings in a new girl that works out.” He smiled, glancing at Indigo. “Starbright told Indigo she’s too old.”
It was hard, but Blackhawk and I didn’t laugh.
“Bitch,” Indigo said. “I’m tired of hearing that shit.”
“A thousand bucks for a new girl, huh?” I thought about that. I pulled my phone and called Boyce.
The next day I met Boyce downtown in the bar of the legendary restaurant called the Stockyards. The bar took you back to the 1880’s. It was all cowboy and western. It was great. I got there early and was enjoying a gin gimlet when Boyce came through the doors from the restaurant part. She slid into the booth beside me. The waitress was right there.
“What can I get you, ma’am,” the young bright-eyed girl asked.
“Give me a cosmo, up, no fruit,” she said.
The waitress looked at me, and I nodded. She went away to fill our order. Boyce was watching her.
“Ma’am,” Boyce said, with a taste of distain. “Just when did I become a ma’am?”
“Always a fresh nymph to me,” I said.
“Fuck you.” She turned to look at me. “So, what is this all about?”
“Just drinks with an old friend,” I said. She just looked at me.
Oh well, so much for banter. “Julie Wang,” I said.
“Who’s Julie Wang?”
“She is taking over from Luis Portofino.”
“Thought you didn’t know Luis Portofino.”
I shrugged. “The mob boss in L.A. sent Julie Wang here to clean up the mess left by Portofino disappearing.”
She started to speak, but the waitress was on her way back with our drinks. We were silent as she set them expertly before us. I thanked her, and she moved away.
“Okay,” Boyce said, taking a sip. “I’ll tell the captain. Better yet, I’ll tell Vice.”
“Okay,” I said. “But I’d like a favor.”
She took another sip, looking at me over the rim of the glass.
“I need a young girl.”
She set her glass down. “I’ll bet you do.”
“A female cop that looks about twelve years old.”
“That’s young.”
“Younger the better. Wang is offering a thousand-dollar bonus to any of her girls that recruit another girl that works out.”
Boyce’s eyebrows went up. “That’s a lot.”
“So, I’d like to wire up a girl and get her in with Julie Wang. If we can get Wang, we’ll use her to get Hesse.”
“You are an ambitious motherfucker,” Boyce said. She shook her head, “Why don’t you just leave this to Vice?”
“They’d just fuck it up. Besides, it’s personal,” I said.
“It always is for you.” She finished her drink and signaled the waitress for another.
50
They were waiting for me in Mendoza’s office. We had trouble finding a parking spot, so we were five minutes late. We were Blackhawk and me. Mendoza had extra chairs in his office, in our honor. He was behind his desk. Boyce had pulled a chair, so her back was against the wall. Another woman sat in one of the other chairs. I say woman, but she looked more like a kid. She was in uniform. She sat stiffly, with her best poker face on.
Mendoza waved to the other two chairs. We sat down. Mendoza looked at the patrolwoman, then back to me.
“Gentlemen, you know Detective Boyce. This is Officer Jane Marie Landers. Officer Landers is a patrol officer in our Maryvale Precinct.” He waved a hand at me. “This is Jackson, and this gentleman,” he indicated Blackhawk, “is Blackhawk.”
Jane Marie nodded. She looked at me. “Mr. Jackson, what is your first name, if I might ask?”
Boyce and Mendoza looked at me.
“Jackson,” I said.
“Oh. I’m sorry, I took that to be your last name.”
“It is,” I said.
“He’s being an asshole,” Boyce said.
Jane Marie looked at Blackhawk. “Just Blackhawk,” he said with a smile. Jane Marie turned her eyes back to Mendoza.
Mendoza said, “Let’s get to it. I have things to do.” He looked at Boyce. “Did you explain things to Officer Landers?”
“Somewhat,” she said. “This is Jackson’s thing, I thought he should provide the details.”
Mendoza looked at me. “Go ahead,” he said.
I hitched around to look at Landers. “There is a billion-dollar sex trade organization operating here and in Nevada, New Mexico and California. Probably other places too. They operate out of strip clubs, private gambling clubs and sometimes at high end week-end parties. Sometimes the girls are flown on private jets to exotic locations for fun and games. Despite what it looks like on the surface, it is deadly, to the point where girls are murdered if they don’t comply with the rules.”
I looked at Blackhawk. “That about it?” He nodded.
“I need a girl,” I continued, “to infiltrate. The girls in the strip clubs are being offered a thousand-dollar bonus to recruit new talent. Here in Phoenix, there has been some trouble with the management in the organization. The guy in charge, in California, name of William S. Hesse, has sent in a fixer to take care of the trouble. This fixer is named Julie Wang. She’s the one offering the thousand dollars. I need you, or someone like you, to be recruited. We’ll wire you up. We get Julie Wang, then we can get Hesse.” I stopped to let this sink in. “Any questions?”
“How far in do I have to go?”
“If you get the Wang woman to be recorded explaining that you will be having sex for money with their customers, we have her,” Mendoza said. “It must be explicit.”
She was looking at Mendoza. “Is he a vice detective?” Meaning me.
Mendoza leaned back into his chair. He almost smiled. “He’s a special consultant.”
I looked at Blackhawk. He was smiling.
Jane Marie looked at Blackhawk. “I think I know you,” she said.
Blackhawk looked surprised.
“How do you know him?” Mendoza said.
“Don’t you tend bar in a joint down off 19th Avenue? Place with three bars in it.”
“Part time,” he said with a smile.
“Yeah, I’ve been in there. Really good salsa band.”
Mendoza cleared his throat, “I think you deserve a complete explanation, if you’ll do this. You can volunteer, but no one will order you to do it.” He looked at her, waiting.
“Oh, I’m in,” Jane Marie said, grinning. “How can I resist working with a guy named Blackhawk and get to cover my body with henna tattoos.”
“Actually, that’s a good idea,” Boyce said.
Mendoza glanced at his watch. “Mr. Jackson and Mr. Blackhawk are civilians. They have helped the department in the past. I have informed the commander as to what we plan to do, and he has agreed that we keep it in this room. In a bureaucracy, too many cooks can spoil the broth.”
Funny, I’d just heard that somewhere.
“I’ll need some technical help,” Boyce said.
He nodded. He turned and nodded at me.
“Friends of mine,” I said, “have identified a stripper in one of the organization’s clubs who, we think, will want to take advantage of the thousand-dollar offer. Once we’re ready to go, you and I will go in while she’s working. I’ll be a drunk who tries to pimp you out. You will just have to play along. We’ll time it so that I get sick the same time she takes her break. If she doesn’t come to you, you’ll find a way to start talking to her. Maybe about getting a job there, whatever. If I’m right, she’ll set you up with Julie Wang.”
“That doesn’t sound too hard,” Jane Marie said.
“We will be nearby at all times,” Boyce said.
“We’ll keep you safe,” Blackhawk said.
“I’m not worried,” Jane Marie said.
“I doubt it will get rough, but it might,” I said.
“I can get rough,” Jane Marie said. “Just ask Melly Estevez.”
“Who’s that?” I said.
“The asswipe I busted two nights ago for dealing off his porch in my precinct.”
“You had to get rough?” Boyce said.
“Twelve stitches behind his ear for resisting arrest. He put his hands on me, and I’m just like John Wayne. I won’t be laid a hand on.”
“And you won’t be wronged, you won’t be insulted, you don’t do these things to other people and you require the same from them.”
Jane Marie grinned. It made her look even younger.
“Okay,” Mendoza said shaking his head. He looked at Jane Marie. “You are now assigned to Detective Boyce. I’ll clear it with your commander. Now, get out of here, I’m busy.”
We stood and started making our way out.
“This could be dangerous,” Boyce said to Jane Marie.
“Cool,” Jane Marie said.
51
The joint was called The Hi-Life Club. It was off of Camelback. Once in the door it was like every strip club in the world. Maybe a little dingier. Boyce and I had met Jane Marie at the Phoenix PD building downtown. She looked great. Hair was spiked and sprayed with blue streaks. She wore a small pair of cutoffs and a tube top. The wire was in her key chain which she carried in her pocket.
She had tattoos on one ankle and a larger one on the small of her back. One arm had a sleeve of tattoos, dragons and demons. I had Nacho give me a teardrop tattoo and he added some prison tats on my bicep and knuckles. I wore an Aerosmith tee shirt with the arms ripped off and blue jeans.
Before we got to the club I gargled some bourbon and spilled some down my shirt. I parked in the back of the lot. I paid the cover charge and we went in. I saw Nacho and Indigo in the far corner. I led Jane Marie to a table close enough to the front so the strippers could notice her. The room was dominated by a rectangle of extra wide bar, with poles on each corner. Each pole was busy, plus there were two other girls on the bar gyrating to throbbing music. I think it was music. Hard to tell.
Around the perimeter of the room were tables and chairs. They were mostly empty. One lap dance was going on. Across the room Nacho and Indigo sat at one of these. Most of the stools at the bar were filled with guys.
A waitress came to us immediately. This was a classier place. She wore a top. I ordered two beers and a shot. When she came with the drinks, I put up a twenty, held up a finger to hold her there, downed the shot and ordered another one.
Jane Marie pulled her phone from her back pocket and began fiddling with it. I looked across the room at Nacho. He was watching me. When he saw me looking, he looked toward the stripper closest to him. I looked at her. Starbright. When I looked back at him, he nodded.
The waitress came back with my shot. I handed her another twenty. She leaned down to speak to me above the din.
“You have already paid, sir. I have your change.”
I waved her away. “Keep it.”
Jane Marie looked at me and loudly said, “You’re drunk!”
I downed the shot and drew my hand back, like I was going to hit her. She cowered back. I slammed the shot glass on the table and took a long drink of beer. I leaned back and looked at the girls. Jane Marie went back to her phone. The signal was, when Starbright took her break, Nacho would stand and go to the bathroom.
I immediately drank most of the beer. I kept ordering shots. I would toss the shot back, then take a drink of beer. Except instead of drinking the beer I spit the shot into the beer bottle. I made it obvious that I was getting drunker by the drink. Jane Marie kept sliding her chair further from me. I could see the girls glancing at her.
Finally, the music broke, and Nacho stood and moved toward the back where the restrooms were. I stood and swayed against the table, then lost my balance and fell back, knocking a chair down. I sat down, hard. The bouncer was right there.
“Whoa, buddy. You’ve had enough.”
The guy was a mass of muscle in a black tee shirt and motorcycle boots.
I held on to him. “I think I’m going to be sick,” I mumbled.
“Not here, get to the restroom.” He grabbed my arm and dragged me to the back. Holding the wall for support, I stumbled to the men’s room. I pushed my way inside. Nacho was at a urinal. I pushed one of the two stall doors open and went in. God, only a pig would use this thing. I made retching noises as I pulled the wireless earpiece out of my pocket. I plugged it into my ear just as I heard a woman’s voice say, “You gonna be okay, honey?”
Jane Marie’s voice was tinny, but clear enough. Boyce and one of PD’s techies were outside recording.
“Yeah,” I heard her say. “He’s just drunk. He gets that way.”
“He your boyfriend?”
Oh, fuck no.”
“Who is he?”
“I kinda work for him.”
“He your pimp?”
Jane Marie was silent for a long pause. “I don’t like that word. He’s my handler.”
“Yeah, like you’re a fuckin’ rock star. Why do you waste your time with a loser like that?”
Jane Marie didn’t say anything, I’m guessing she shrugged.
“You make any money with this guy?” the girl said. I think Jane Marie shrugged again. She didn’t say anything.
“You want to make some real money?” the girl said.
“Doin’ what? Pole dancing?”
“Maybe, don’t knock it. Sometimes I make five hundred a night. Sometimes we get to go to business parties and make a couple of thousand a night.”
“Business parties?”
“Yeah, business parties. High rollers come from out of town and party up. Get away from the wife. Big money, big tippers. One time they flew some of us girls to Cancun on a private jet. It was a blast.”
“Shit, I’d like to get some of that.”
“Look, you’re young and you’re cute and that sells. You come back here tomorrow night at six, it opens at seven. You tell the door guy Starbright told you to come. He’ll let you in. I’ll hook you up.”
There was a silence and then the music started again. I could barely hear Jane Marie. “Why would you do that?”
“None of us girls likes an asshole. We don’t have to put up with them. Why should you? Come see me tomorrow.”
I stuck the earpiece into my pocket. I went out of the stall and splashed water on my face. I made sure to soak the front of my shirt. I went back out. Jane Marie was sitting where I’d left her. She was watching the pole dancers. Nacho and Indigo were gone.
I went over and grabbed Jane Marie by the upper arm and jerked her out of her chair. “We’re going,” I said loudly. I bumped against the table and knocked my beer bottle over. She followed me out.
52
Boyce and I sat in a van a half block from the Hi-Life Club. Joining us was the PD techie that handled the recording equipment. His name was Stan. He was a big guy, not fit, just big. He looked to be in his forties, with a beard and bad teeth. I never understood bad teeth. Unless you’re below the poverty line, there’s no reason for it. I know this guy had health benefits with the city. He should use them.
He had J
ane Marie on the speaker phone. We watched as she walked across the parking lot and disappeared into the club.
“Starbright asked me to come.” We heard her voice. It was clear. Stan reached over and tweaked a couple of dials.
“She’s in back,” a male voice said. “Follow me.”
We could hear some extraneous noises as they moved through the club. It took longer than you would think. We picked up some voices, then “Hey, there she is.”
“Hi,” Jane Marie said.
“I want you to meet someone,” Starbright said. “This is Julie Wang. What did you say your name was, hon?”
“Cindy,” Jane Marie said.
“Cindy what, dear?” this was another voice.
“Cindy Nowanski,” she said.
“Oh my, we’ll have to do something about that,” Julie Wang said.
“I’m Starbright,” Starbright said, “she can be Starlight.”
Boyce and I looked at each other.
“No, too similar. We don’t want the customers confused. You are a tiny little thing. I’ll call you Belle as in Tinker Bell. Only with an ‘e’.”
“You can call me whatever you want but, uh, Starbright said we’re talking lots of money. What I want to know is what kind of money, and what do I have to do to get it.”
“You ever danced before?”
“No.”
“We’ll go out front, see how you do.”
“I ain’t never did it before,” Jane Marie said.
“That’s okay. Starbright says you’ve been tricking for some asshole.”
There was silence. “That true?”
Silence again, then “I guess so,” Jane Marie said. Just the right amount of hesitancy.
“You guess so? You fuck men for money or you don’t fuck men for money. So do you, or don’t you?”
“Yes,” I could barely hear her.
“So what happens to the money?”
Jane Marie hesitated. “I give it to Jimmy.”
“How much do you get?”
“Jimmy says I don’t need much. He gives me a couple hundred a week. He says he gives me more than that, I’ll just stick it in my arm.”
“You do drugs?”
They Called Her Indigo Page 18
