She Told a Lie

by P. D. Workman

  Zachary nodded, watching her face. It broke his heart to hear all that she had gone through. She was lucky to have survived as long as she had and to have been able to get out without being harmed. But she hadn’t left that life behind. It had left its mark on her. And she would probably never recover from it.

  But Madison? She was young. She’d only been in the business for a few weeks or months. If there was a chance that he could get her out of there and prevent her from living the life that Jocelyn had, year after year…

  “You don’t know what it’s like, Zachary,” Jocelyn said sharply. “You think you can just waltz in there and talk her out of it, and that’s not the way it works. She doesn’t have the choice to just walk away. It doesn’t matter what you tell her; there’s a lot more involved than that. Even if you could talk her out of it, she wouldn’t get far. They would follow. Track her down. Snatch her if she wouldn’t cooperate. They would take her away somewhere where no one knew her. Where she didn’t have anyone to ask for help. And they would keep her chained up in some basement until she didn’t have any more will to run away.”

  “Did that happen to you?”

  “I seen it happen,” Jocelyn snapped, not giving him the personal details. Had it been her, or had it been someone else? Or had there been so many of them that it was a ubiquitous experience? Maybe she didn’t even remember anymore what had happened to her and what had happened to someone else.

  Zachary resisted growling back at her. That wouldn’t help anything. She was trying to tell him what it had been like. He didn’t even have any right to know. She had agreed to do it, maybe to help someone else out and perhaps just to try to connect with him and let him know what she had been through.

  “So if you were going to get someone out, how would you do it?”

  “I wouldn’t,” Jocelyn said. She stared at him fiercely. “Don’t you get it? You can’t. There’s nothing you can do. You’re not a Navy SEAL. You’re not some crusader of light rushing in and saving the day. You might think you’re all of that, but you’re not. These are guys who are not going to be trifled with. You’ve been lucky up until now, bumbling around and making headlines. That isn’t what this is going to be like. Not at all.”

  “I haven’t been… I don’t see myself that way. I’m just trying to do what I’ve been hired to do in these cases. I’m not trying to get in the spotlight. Yes, some cases have made it into the media lately, but it’s not about that. It’s about helping people. About doing the things I’ve been hired to do.”

  “You haven’t been hired. Being hired would mean you’re being paid. I at least know that.”

  “Okay… so not hired in this case. Just asked for a favor. But I want to do everything I can for Rhys. And for Madison. I can’t just walk away and pretend that she doesn’t exist or that I don’t know what she might be going through. Could you do that?”

  “Of course I could! I do that every day of my life. Turn my face away from all of the other victims and remind myself that I got out. I did. And I can’t live anyone else’s life. That’s up to them. I didn’t get out alive just to rush back in there and upset the apple cart. I don’t want to bring the whole organization down on top of me.”

  “I can’t do that.” Zachary thought about Annie, the girl who had died when he was in Bonnie Brown. He had kept quiet. He had been too afraid of the guards and what would happen to him if he talked, so he had kept quiet. For years he had been silent about what had happened to her. He pretended that he didn’t know. He blocked it out. He walled off that part of himself and made himself forget.

  Until he had walked through the doors at Summit. And then her ghost had been resurrected and he wasn’t able to walk away again without acknowledging her. Maybe someday Jocelyn would have to face her own ghosts and either justify herself or give them a voice.

  “I can’t do that. It isn’t in my makeup to be able to turn my back on Madison and pretend that there was nothing I could do.”

  “No one is going to care about this one. You make big news because you solve the murder of the child of a public figure. Because you manage to identify a serial killer. Whatever else.” She made a brushing-off motion with her fingers as if none of it mattered. “But no one is going to care about one girl being trafficked. No one cares.” She said each word as if it were a separate sentence.

  “I’m not trying to make the news. And people do care. Her parents care. Rhys cares. I care. Even if no one else does, that’s enough. I can’t leave her there.”

  Remembering Summit and thinking about Madison being trafficked and no one caring about it made Zachary think of Tyrza. She had been nothing like Madison. Young, yes. But black. Autistic. Not able to tell the police what had happened to her.

  But her mother had cared. She had made sure that everyone knew she wasn’t going to give up until she found her daughter. She was going to make a big, loud, noisy stink. And rather than let her do that, they had let Tyrza go. They had released her. Left her wandering by the side of the road. She had been saved by a mother who hadn’t been afraid to be loud and ruffle some feathers.

  “Dammit, I can see the gleam in your eyes, Zachy,” Jocelyn said in a harsh voice. “I know what that means!”

  27

  Zachary turned away from Joss and looked out the window. It was too late. She already knew exactly what he was thinking and had seen the resolution in his eyes. If he had wanted to hide that from her, then he should have turned away from her earlier.

  “You can’t read my mind,” he told her. Like the ten-year-old brat he had been. Like the bratty little brother she had tried to care for and protect. And he’d just continued to break the rules and get into trouble and go the wrong way.

  Until he’d gone and sent everything he cared about up in flames. Literally.

  “I can too,” Jocelyn returned, in that knowing-older-sister voice that was familiar to him even though it was decades later. “I can see exactly what you’re thinking. Why did you even come here today, if you’d already decided what you’re going to do? Why not just stay home and jump right into hot water like you always do?”

  “I wanted to learn what I could from you. I thought you could help me to figure things out. Figure out the best way to get her out of there.”

  “There is no best way. There is no way. Unless you’re going to kidnap her. And then you’d have to get her out of the state, get her a fake name, hide her away until they don’t care about her anymore.”

  Zachary nodded seriously. “You think that even if she agreed to go home, they would come back after her.”

  “Of course they would. She’s an investment. She’s theirs. Anyone who gets in their way, they don’t care. They’ll just cut down everything in their path and get her back.”

  “Her parents, you mean?”

  “Anyone who stood up to them. If they went to the police and started making trouble? If you got in their way or tracked her down again? They’d cut you down. They would make sure that you never interfered with their business again.”

  Zachary thought of the business card he had left behind. That had been stupid. He should have known better than to give them his name and to leave his contact details behind. It was a criminal enterprise. Did he think that they wouldn’t care about a private investigator nosing around? What if he had to leave town too? He’d made a life for himself there. He had friends. People he cared about. How was he going to feel if he had to leave everything behind and start over?

  Joss nodded, feeling like he was finally getting it. “You can’t mess with these guys. Just go home and stay out of it. Pick up a new case. Lose yourself in something else. Go to bed with Kenzie and stay there for a week. Just stay out of it.”

  Zachary sighed. He took a sip of his coffee, which was starting to cool down. It was rich and bitter and he tried to focus on the aroma and flavor and nothing else. He had to face reality. He wasn’t a blow-em-all-up private eye from the silver screen. He was just one guy trying to make a living. Tryin
g to help out a few people along the way.

  Madison just couldn’t be one of them.

  The rest of the visit with Jocelyn had focused more on the business aspect of the trafficking world. He knew very little about how it all worked, and Jocelyn, of course, knew all about it. She might have been a naive teen when she had started out, who didn’t know anything about anything. But she had learned the business from the ground up. From the way that the Romeos targeted and attracted girls to the way that they got them addicted to drugs and the party lifestyle and designer dresses and handbags. The way that they kept them under control with addiction, coercion, blackmail, and love for the boyfriend who had started it all in the first place.

  By the time she understood what trafficking was, Jocelyn was in way too deep to get herself out or even to want to. There was only one way to maintain her lifestyle and that was by turning tricks and doing whatever she was told whenever she was told. Only then would she be rewarded.

  She knew all of the ways that girls were advertised on Backpage and classified sites and the dark web. Sometimes out in the open, using code words that only regular clients would understand. If a girl was lucky, she’d have a place like Madison had with Noah. If she was unlucky, her lot would be much worse. If Madison could keep Noah and his bosses happy, that was the best that she could hope for.

  Madison could continue the fantasy of being in love with her Romeo and lie to herself about what was really happening. And that was the only way she could be happy.

  Zachary begged off of doing anything with Kenzie that night. He needed time to make notes of the things that Jocelyn had said and to process everything. He told her he was tired. He hadn’t slept well after their couples therapy and he needed another night to try to catch up.

  Kenzie said that she had some work to catch up on and that she was okay with a night on her own. He listened closely to her words and inflection, but she didn’t sound upset. Maybe, like he did, she needed some space to herself now and then. She probably had some things to think of after their couples therapy too. Like whether he was the kind of guy that she wanted to spend time with long term. Maybe she should cut it off while she could and Zachary had Dr. Boyle to fall back on and to guide him through the breakup.

  “But let me know if you change your mind,” Kenzie said. “Or if you want to chat later on. Okay? I’m flexible.”

  “Okay, thanks. I’ll let you know.”

  He hung up the phone and put some music on in the background, and fought hard to focus on his notes and to remember everything Jocelyn had said, refusing to let it pull him back down into unwelcome memories.

  28

  The next day, he worked on catching up on other cases. Paperwork, invoices, collection, passing on information, looking at his schedule to figure out surveillance time blocks. He had plenty of work to keep him busy. He didn’t need to be wasting time on cases that didn’t pay anything.

  Unfortunately, you couldn’t save everyone—especially those who didn’t want to be saved.

  It was evening, and he was watching the clock, wondering if he should call Kenzie or whether she would drop by the apartment. He didn’t want to leave it too long between talking to her. He didn’t want to make that mistake again and to fall back to where they had been before.

  His phone buzzed.

  Zachary picked it up, expecting to see a text from Kenzie. Maybe a suggestion that they go out for dinner, or just a note that she was on her way.

  But it wasn’t. It was a message from Rhys. Zachary tapped it and a gif popped up. An old I Love Lucy shot, with “Honey, I’m home,” printed across it.

  Zachary frowned, looking at it.

  Rhys was at home. Was he grounded? Did he just want Zachary to call him? To stop by the house for a visit? They hadn’t talked since Zachary had broken the news to him about having found Madison, but that she had refused to return home.

  He tapped the phone icon to see if Rhys or Vera would answer the phone. But before it could connect, there was a knock on the door.

  Zachary looked at the door. He ended the phone call.

  He walked over to the door, but he already knew who he was going to see through the wide-angle peephole.

  Honey, I’m home.

  Zachary opened the door for Rhys. He looked back over his shoulder at the living room window, which was dark. He didn’t like Rhys being out on his own so late. Vera wouldn’t like it either. She would ban Rhys from seeing Zachary if he kept taking off to see Zachary on his own. Zachary shut the door.

  “What’s going on? You shouldn’t be here so late. Grandma will be worrying.”

  Rhys ignored the question. He tapped his phone busily and turned it around for Zachary to read it.

  A message from Madison’s account. Please help me.

  29

  Zachary drew in his breath sharply. Madison had reached out to Rhys?

  Maybe Jocelyn had been wrong. Maybe Madison was ready to get out of the business. Maybe she wanted to get back to Rhys and her friends and school and all of the normal teenage stuff instead of earning drugs and nice clothes through prostitution.

  Rhys looked at Zachary, his eyes wide. He gestured to the screen insistently. What do you think?

  “Do you know where she is?” Zachary asked. “Is she still in the same place or did they—or did she move somewhere else?”

  Rhys shrugged. He used his finger to pull the message up and down, demonstrating that was the only thing Madison had sent to him. Just those three words.

  Please help me.

  And she could change her mind at any time. They needed to get to her while she still wanted out. Before Noah could return or talk her out of it. Zachary chewed on his lip. He needed to think it through.

  But he had already made his decision without weighing any risks. Like Joss had said he did.

  “I’ll go see if she’s still in the same place,” he told Rhys. “If she’s there, I’ll get her to come with me. If she’s not… well, I’ll scout it out and see what I can find out.”

  Rhys nodded eagerly.

  “You can’t come. It’s too dangerous. I can’t watch my own back and yours at the same time. I can’t take a teenager into a situation that might be dangerous.”

  Rhys looked affronted. He pointed to himself. He pointed to the phone screen. I got the message. She asked me.

  “And you came to me. Because you know it’s too dangerous to go on your own.”

  Rhys pointed from his shoulder to Zachary and back again. Both of us together.

  “No. I’ll take you as far as her street. You can stay in the car and keep lookout. But you can’t come up. And if something happens, if I don’t come back out or you think something has gone wrong, then you call 9-1-1 and get help. You don’t come up.”

  Rhys considered this, frowning.

  “That’s my only offer,” Zachary said. “I shouldn’t even be doing that. I should take you back home and you can wait there until I have news.”

  Rhys shook his head violently.

  “I don’t want you to get hurt. I can’t risk that.”

  Rhys held both hands up in a stop position. He pointed to himself then made a steering wheel motion. I’ll stay in the car.

  “You have to do what I say,” Zachary insisted. “If you think anything is wrong, you call the police. You don’t come looking for me under any circumstances.”

  Rhys nodded his agreement.

  Zachary got ready to go, his mind racing a mile a minute. He tried to think through all of the possibilities of what he might be facing. His ADHD brain was good at that. Coming up with all of the possible permutations and hazards and presenting them to him in rapid succession. Slowing down and thinking of just one course of action, that was a lot harder.

  Rhys watched him, his eyes still wide. He looked at his phone every minute or two, watching for any further messages from Madison. Zachary noted that he didn’t write anything back. He didn’t send any gifs or emojis. Just kept checking to see whether s
he had sent anything else.

  “Okay.” Zachary blew his breath out in a long stream. It was time to stop preparing and go. Either it would work out, or it wouldn’t. He would keep Rhys safe and he would do his best to get Madison out of there. If he didn’t succeed, at least Rhys would be safe.

  30

  They got to Madison’s apartment as quickly as they could, but it was already dark. Zachary looked up and down the street, regretting his agreement to bring Rhys with him. And regretting that they had gone over so late in the day. It wasn’t that great a neighborhood. And wouldn’t evening be the time that Madison started working? That didn’t seem like an ideal time to show up.

  But she had asked for help. What if she knew that Noah was going to move her? What if she’d been hurt after Zachary had left? Putting it off might endanger her.

  “Okay. You stay here,” he told Rhys.

  Rhys looked out the window and back at Zachary, his eyes wide. He pointed at Zachary and raised his eyebrows. You okay? You sure?

  Zachary opened his door and got out. “Keep the doors locked.”

  He left Rhys there without looking back. He didn’t want anything to stop him. He couldn’t show Rhys how nervous he was about trying to rescue Madison.

  He wondered as he went up the stairs toward the apartment whether he should have called the police. They had already been there to try to talk her into leaving with them. And who knew what kind of consequences there would be if they came back. She wouldn’t go with them. And then the things that Jocelyn predicted would happen. She would be taken away and hidden. Locked up and assaulted.