The Black Merchant

by Shannon Reber

  Her eyes went so wide, the white was visible all the way around. “No way am I leaving you here to research that without me. Consider me your trusty sidekick. I may not be good with computers but I can bring you coffee when you need it and an ice pack for your shoulder when you’re willing to admit how hard you got hit.”

  I turned away before the dampness in my eyes became full-fledged sobs. “We will find them,” I stated laconically and walked toward the living room.

  If Spencer hadn’t gone with us, I might have still gotten away. That portal would have remained open. Someone else could have been shoved into a realm that would have killed them. I didn’t care that it made Ian angry that Spencer and I were friends. He needed to pull his head out of his butt.

  My eyes filled with tears again as I recalled all the things we had been through in the last month. I was having a hard time with it as well. I wished there was a way to convince Ian to trust my judgment about Spencer.

  I sat in the inner corner of the sectional sofa, my knees pulled into my chest. I needed to charge my phone, though I was too worn out to bother. My eyes felt like they weighed a few tons apiece.

  I blinked the tiredness away as I made a list of all the girls who had gone missing in the last two weeks. The other girls needed to be found as well, however the ones from the last couple of weeks were the most likely to still be alive. That thought made me want to sob.

  I needed to focus past it, though. I had to concentrate on finding Hadley, Esther, and the other girls. Not all of them had been reported to the police. The ones that hadn’t, had been talked about on social media. In total, including Hadley and Esther, there were three girls missing.

  For some reason, I decided to search the suburbs and surrounding area as well. That was when the total went up to seven missing girls. It was a heartrending idea. How long had it been going on? How many girls had been taken or used by that thing without our knowledge?

  “Madison?”

  I glanced up, surprised to find my dad standing in the doorway of the living room. We’d had dinner together a few evenings before and had texted a few times as well. Right then, the sight of him was more comforting than anything else could have been.

  I jumped off the couch and barreled into him, my arms wrapped tight around his waist. It didn’t matter that I was eighteen years old, a grown woman. At that moment I felt like a little girl very much in need of her dad.

  Dad returned my hug, though only for a few seconds. He guided me back, studying my face like it was as green as it felt.

  Dad was around Erkens’ age and looked the part of the professor right down to the sport coat with elbow patches and glasses perched precariously on the end of his nose. He looked like he’d come from one of his classes. I had no idea who had called him. It was clear one of my friends had. He wouldn’t have come by otherwise.

  I glanced around to find that the whole group was still there, other than Ian. Everybody else had apparently been there all along and I had simply tuned them out.

  Dad made a small motion toward the steps. “Go and pack a bag, Madison. You can stay with me for a few days.”

  I took a step back, unwilling to involve him in the craziness my life had become. “It’s fine, Dad. I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me,” I told him, willing to lie to keep him from being dragged down with me.

  “No, you’re not fine,” he said and guided me over to sit on the couch again. “The human body doesn’t do well when it isn’t rested. You are so run down that even your freckles look pale and the circles under your eyes look like you’ve been punched. You and I are more alike than either of us is probably comfortable with. What I know is that you’re scared. You think that by pulling away you’re going to keep what’s scaring you from hurting me. You’re wrong. What hurts me, is seeing you pull in.”

  I turned my head down, nervous to have him see me so clearly. “There’s nothing you can do, Dad,” I said lamely, embarrassed to have nothing more intelligent to say.

  Dad motioned around to my group. “None of us can. We’re all willing to stand by you, Madison.”

  Tears filled my eyes, a few cascading slowly down my cheeks. “I don’t know how to save them, Dad. I can’t find them.” I hunched in, my shoulders shaking with the repugnance of those words.

  Dad crouched down in front of me and gave me one of his usual frowns. “There has never been a puzzle you couldn’t solve. At the age of eight, you wrote the algorithm to shut down one of the most sophisticated security systems on the market. Whatever is going on, you will figure it out. You always do.”

  I stared at him, my mind whirring. “Market,” I whispered, my eyes scanning the faces in the room until I found Erkens. “That’s it. Black market. They’re sex-traffickers.”

  “They?” he asked, his eyes narrowed with the same kind of disgust mine were.

  “There would have to be a team. One guy to identify the girls, one guy to bring them in, others to guard them, and set up buyers et cetera. It can’t be easy to contain unwilling girls until they have buyers arranged.”

  “How can we find them?” he asked, apparently allowing me to work these things out on my own.

  “Their phones. So far as I can tell, seven girls have gone missing in Pittsburgh in the last two weeks. That’s a pretty high number so it’s possible they might be planning to leave Pittsburgh and start over somewhere else. They’re probably planning to go out with a bang. They wouldn’t stick around the same place for too long. What we’re going to need to do is find out an actual location on the girls’ phones before whoever took them messed with them.” I ran my hand through my hair. “They fooled me once, so I’m going to have to be a lot more careful.”

  Erkens grimaced and took out his phone. “I still have a few friends in the police department. I’ll ask their help in looking into places where these girls could be held.”

  I nodded and turned to look at Dad. “I could use your help if you have the time. Having your help might make things easier.”

  Dad gave me a small smile and held out his hand. “Only a monster would say no to helping his daughter find missing girls.”

  I laid my hand in his, pleased to have him there with me. I had a feeling that the reason he was there was because Ian had called him. Ian had a habit of doing that, calling my dad when he thought I might need him.

  I wasn’t sure how to feel about him doing it. I was too grateful to have my dad there to complain about it. There were several things about Ian Gregory that I could complain about right then. Calling Dad was not on the list.

  What was on the list was what a jerk he had been to Spencer. My heart fluttered a little. He had called me his girlfriend. Granted, it had been kind of a Neanderthal statement as though he was peeing in a circle around me. It was something, though.

  Maybe if we could talk, there could be something more between us. Maybe we would be okay. It was possible, anyway.

  FOURTEEN

  Hours later, we all sat around the dining room table groaning. Whoever had dealt with the girls’ phones was very good. They had covered their tracks as well as I did. I had no idea how to break through and find out where the girls were when they were last seen.

  Each of them had come from different parts of the city, other than Hadley and Esther. They were the only two who had a connection of any kind. That worried me. I had seen the demon at Hope House. It had marked me there as well as taking two residents. Then there was Julie.

  I let out a world-weary sigh. Julie. I had only known her for a few hours yet her death felt like the loss of a friend.

  My fingers moved before the thought had registered in my mind. I was in the hospital’s mainframe so fast, it was laughable. I wasn’t at all sure what made me so suspicious. I simply knew that I had to read her medical records.

  My mouth gaped as I read. Julie’s file was full of innumerable tests to find out why she couldn’t get pregnant. According to those records, she had been perfectly healthy.

 
Her time of death had been listed as mere minutes before we had been given that news at Hope House. I wasn’t sure how they had been informed about her death so quickly. That was when I found it.

  Listed as her emergency contact was not her husband but Deegan. My stomach clenched as I snooped further into Julie’s life. There wasn’t even a parking ticket in her police files. That was when I found her name listed in a petition for divorce.

  Julie’s husband had filed for divorce? He had listed adultery as the reason.

  I clicked into his medical files and my heart sank. Julie’s ex had been tested and found that he was infertile. That was less than a year before. Holy error code. He believed Julie had cheated on him when she’d been assaulted in her sleep by an incubus. It was altogether possible my brain might explode.

  I continued to read and my heart sank even further. The baby was still in observation at the hospital. He was listed as a ward of the state. Julie’s ex had refused to either claim her body or take the baby.

  My heart ached for Julie. It hadn’t been her fault. She had been innocent and had paid a horrible price.

  Serena set a cup of coffee down next to me and read over my shoulder. “Is there anything I can do?” she asked, looking desperate to do something.

  I sat back and rubbed at the ache that had begun to radiate through my skull. “If you have a crystal ball that can tell us how to find these girls, that would help,” I said with a yawn, taking a long drink of the coffee.

  “I have a crystal ball. It’s named Madison.”

  My head was so muddled from everything that had happened that day, it was hard to concentrate on what she’d said. “Whoever is doing this is smart. They have covered their tracks in a way that rivals my best work. They’re picking girls who they know people will shrug off, assume they’ve run away or something. I’d guess the only reason they took Hadley was because she came to Erkens and me.”

  Serena sat down next to me and folded her hands on the table. “How would they have known that she went to you guys?” she asked, her dark eyes full of compassion.

  I thought that over for a little while, mentally face-palming myself as the answer came to me. “Because they have somebody at Hope House.” I sat forward and got into their system, clicking into their staff list as fast as possible.

  There was a long list of staff. It was a start, though. I began that work, eager to see what could be found.

  Serena let out a little chuckle. “See? You are my crystal ball. I make one tiny comment and you start your magic.”

  I smiled, my eyes still fixed on the laptop in front of me. “Serena, you are the genius here,” I told her and began a background search on every member of Hope House’s staff.

  Because the other girls had nothing to do with that facility, I decided to run another search. There had to be some connection between the girls. There had to be.

  I had written an algorithm that allowed me to search for keywords in people’s files. What I chose to search for was any mention of the girls who had gone missing.

  There were one or two connections between them, the biggest being between Kevin Marchand and Hadley Novak. Kevin was a maintenance man at Hope House. I searched for mention of any of the other girls in his online footprint. I wasn’t able to find a thing. I supposed their connection wasn’t that suspicious since he was a family friend. Or maybe the fact he had annoyed me so much was all that made me feel like he was shady. I already knew my instincts couldn’t be trusted. I had believed that Dylan was a good guy. I had believed that Adrian was an innocent victim. I had believed Emma could be saved.

  I hadn’t been able to do anything for her. That was why I was so determined to save the girls who were being taken by the incubus. I had to save someone in order to make up to my friend for not saving her.

  I continued to search until my algorithm found a match for three of the girls. A man named Kam Hugmynd was a grounds keeper at Point Park University where one of the girls went to school as well as at the doctor’s office where another of the girls went. The same guy was the neighbor from the same apartment building as another girl. That was too much coincidence to be shrugged off.

  “Erkens, look,” I came close to shouting and jumped up to bring him the laptop.

  I just about tripped over my dad and tore the cord out of the wall for my phone charger. I didn’t care. I had to show Erkens. We needed to go and check it out.

  My dad walked over as well, reading over my shoulder as I showed those results to Erkens. “Isn’t this something that should be taken to the police?” he asked as he rubbed his temple tiredly.

  “I was a cop for thirty-five-years,” Erkens reminded him. “I will let people who will take this seriously know. All it is right now is random connections between a guy with no criminal record and three girls that haven’t even been reported as missing. I’ll check it out.” He stood with a slight groan and closed the book he’d been reading, placing it in a box he had taken from his truck.

  I shook my head decisively. “I’m coming with you,” I stated, unwilling to be left behind.

  Erkens didn’t argue. What he did was look around at the rest of the group and give them what looked like an approving nod. “Thank you all for your help,” he said simply and turned to leave.

  Dad laid his hand on my shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. “Keep me posted, will you?” he asked, worry written clearly across his face.

  I leaned in to give him a quick hug, so grateful he was there. “I love you, Dad,” I told him, just in case.

  I turned away before he could respond and snagged my phone out from under the table where it had been kicked. I looked around at my friends and a mix of fear and love almost knocked me back. They were the best. Would I ever see them again?

  No. I had to stop thinking like that. We would figure it out. We had to.

  Failure was not an option for us. I chanted that to myself as we walked out of the house, trying to make it a fact in my mind. I wasn’t sure if my brain could be convinced. It felt so hopeless right then.

  Erkens sighed loudly as we got into his truck. “Madison, I know it’s none of my business. I’m being a nosy old man.” He raised a finger as I began to respond. “Magic isn’t something that every human is comfortable around. Some of us can handle it. For most of us . . . it feels like somebody is walking across our graves when we’re faced with that power. You and Imogen are both perfectly comfortable around Spencer’s magic. For me and Ian . . . being around him is not comfortable in the least. For Ian, it’s compounded because he knows that Spencer exiled his sister’s soul. He doesn’t know where to. He’s confused and angry and the girl he’s in a relationship with is friends with a guy that scares him.”

  I swallowed hard and scratched absently at my cheek, my mind whirling. “I don’t understand why it’s different for me,” I whispered, worry beginning to fill me for Ian on top of everything else.

  Erkens shrugged. “It doesn’t matter why it’s different. What matters is you two learning to deal with what’s going on around you without acting like teenagers.”

  My lips quivered up in a small smile. “We ARE teenagers, Erkens,” I pointed out, my mind showing me image after image of the good times Ian and I had in the last month or so.

  “Don’t remind me,” he said in his usual grumpy old man tone. “Why exactly did I hire you?”

  And a genuine laugh bubbled out. “Because you like my sunny disposition,” I teased.

  Erkens snorted out an amused sound before slowly he laughed as well. “You’re saying I’m not just a nosy old man but a crazy one too,” he mocked in return and in that moment, Erkens truly became family to me.

  We had been edging toward it for a couple of weeks. Right then, he was like a mix of cop, scholar, and grandfather all mixed into one generally surly package. It was an unusual combination that suited him to a tee.

  That mix, along with my own ability to pry information out of the internet might make us the best crime-fighting d
uo ever. Hopefully, it would help us to figure out if Kam Hugmynd was part of the crew who kidnapped girls to sell on the black market. If he was one of those guys, he would not be on the street much longer.

  FIFTEEN

  My heart pounded as we pulled into the parking lot of the landscaping company. It looked like it was nothing more than a dumpy garage set next to an equally dumpy house. It was not a place that made me feel comfortable in the least.

  It wasn’t so much how dirty the place was, it was more a feeling like we were being watched. It was altogether possible somebody had seen us. The feeling I got was more like that incubus was the one watching me and that made my skin crawl.

  I refused to show the fear I felt. I would hold my head high and fight to my last breath to figure out what was going on. That creature would not stop me, neither would it have me.

  I did my best not to pound on the door as we stopped in front of it. Okay, so I might have pounded. I had tried to suppress the anger that roiled inside me. It wouldn’t release me, though.

  I took in a deep breath and counted to three. The anger didn’t abate although my heart rate did slow down a tiny bit. My hands were still clenched into fists and my jaw was set, though.

  I took an ominous step forward when the door was opened. I was ready for a fight. My temper was primed and my fear fueled my movements.

  The woman who stood there was in her thirties, with stringy blonde hair, and splotchy skin. There was something rat-like about her appearance yet she had the kind of body that probably made guys willing to do anything for her.

  She looked a little startled at my combative pose, her eyes moving from one to the other of us before she settled on me. “May I help you?” she asked in a wary tone.

  “We need Kam Hugmynd,” I snapped, unable to keep the derision from my voice.

  The woman narrowed her eyes at me and moved to close the door. “Kam is out on a job,” she said in a loud enough voice it was clear she wanted someone else to hear her.