by Stacy Green
“Preacher was–is–a pimp,” Chris corrected himself. “Dietz could have been ordering a high-class escort.”
“And Sarah suspected that,” Coleman said. “But there was a lot of cash, and she wanted to know more. When she came to me, I told her Dietz was known for running around on his wife, and we devised the plan.”
“You used her,” Chris said.
“She agreed to it.”
So the Senator was a pimp himself, except he didn’t acquire money. His profit was information he could use to further his cause. I admired him.
“So back to the phone and why Dietz–”
“Because Sarah told him,” Coleman interrupted me. “Two nights before you stole her private phone, she and Dietz got in a terrible fight. Sarah had been drinking, and she told him she knew his secrets. That he had business dealings with a known pimp and more girls on the side. She threatened to sell them to the press if he didn’t give her what she wanted.”
“Which was?” Chris asked.
“Sam charged with stalking. She believed he’d crossed state lines to find her. She swore she’d seen him in the city. And she wanted Dietz to use his influence as a United States Attorney to make her safe.”
“I don’t blame her,” I said. “Sounds like it was the least he could do.”
“Agreed,” Coleman said. “She told him the information was on her phone, and he’d never find it as she didn’t carry it with her. He promised to try with Sam.”
“But the police, and therefore Dietz, know that your people erased the phone,” I said. “So what’s his issue?”
“Again,” the Senator said “it’s you. You have a reputation in the department, and he’s heard it. He’s likely convinced that you made a copy of the information before you gave it to me.”
“I couldn’t even get to it!”
“But I did,” John said. I jumped. I had forgotten about the informant standing at the door. I swiveled in my chair. “You didn’t erase the SIM card?”
“I did, after I got the information off it.”
“Why didn’t you tell the police?” Chris demanded. “Lucy might not be a suspect if you had.”
“There’s nothing in that phone that will clear her. It’s all code, and it’s not even clear to me,” John said. “But what is clear is that Dietz and Sarah had many lustful email conversations. She also had pictures of him entering motels and prostitutes following soon after.”
“Was Preacher in any of them?” I asked.
“No,” John sounded disappointed. “But both of them frequented Ward 8, so who knows?”
“Was Dietz messing with kids?” Chris asked.
“It doesn’t look like it,” Coleman said. “Which is why, when I spoke to him this morning, his agreement he will stop pressuring the police in this case was accepted.”
“So you blackmailed him. Awesome,” I said. “But the police are still after me.” And his sudden eagerness to help me still didn’t make sense.
“Not after I call the District Attorney’s office,” the Senator said. “You see, the district attorney handling Sarah’s case is hoping to run for governor next fall.”
“And that’s why he’s been so easily pressured,” Chris said. “The help of a U.S. Attorney would go a long way.”
“Exactly,” Coleman nodded. “I plan on telling the district attorney both you and Sarah worked for me, that she was infiltrated in the ring in an effort to bring them down. I’ll give them information on Preacher and his nasty habits. And I’ll also let them know who Sarah was and that she believed her ex was back in town.”
“That might not be enough to make them back off,” I said.
“Did I mention it will be a conference call with U.S. Attorney Dietz?” Coleman’s smile made me feel dirty. “He will claim that in light of this information, the ADA needs to withdraw the charges and pursue a new investigative tract.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why are you helping me?”
“I’m helping Sarah,” Coleman said. “I don’t believe you killed her. She had many enemies, and for all I know, Dietz could have had it done. John’s going to look into that for me. Whatever her flaws, she did not deserve this, and I want her real killer brought to justice.”
Sounded great, except he’d already lied to both me and to the police. No reason to believe he wasn’t doing it now. Still, this could work to my advantage. “And all I have to do is leave the trafficking ring to you?”
“Exactly. Don’t taint our efforts.”
“Or steal your thunder for your own re-election,” Chris said.
The Senator’s smile was brittle.
“I agree,” I said. “On one condition.”
“I don’t believe you’re in the position to be making conditions, my dear,” Coleman said.
“No, I’m not. This is more of a favor. And not for me.”
“For whom, then?”
“Detective Todd Beckett,” I said. “He started out as the lead investigator on the case, and he’s just as invested in finding the real killer as you are. Please bring him in on the phone call. Do whatever it takes to get him reassigned.”
“Isn’t he the same one who believes you are, in fact, a killer?”
“The very one.”
The Senator stroked his chin. “You’re an enigma, Lucy Kendall. But all right. In fairness to Detective Beckett, I’ll do what I can.”
“Thank you.” Chris and I rose to leave.
“Remember our deal,” Coleman said. “Leave the sex traffickers to me.”
I nodded and followed Chris out of the posh house.
“You didn’t tell him about the website Kelly found,” Chris said.
“Nope.”
“So you don’t plan on keeping your end of the bargain.”
“I haven’t decided.” I fastened my seatbelt. “I’m not convinced the Senator is telling us everything, and I want to talk to Riley before I show my last good card.”
29
“You’re waiting in the car.” I told Chris as he parked the Audi in the Motel–North’s pothole-filled lot.
He glared at me. “Why?”
“First, you really want to leave the car unattended in this place? Second, she remembers you as the pretty boy who threatened her.”
“If I recall, didn’t you scare the shit out of her last time you saw her?”
I knew telling him about my weak point with Riley was a mistake. But Chris had a way of sucking the truth out of me. “More like scared myself. I can handle her.”
“What are you going to say? She’s not going to believe Preacher just up and told you his life story.”
I opened the car door, grateful for the icy wind in my face. The warmth of the car ride had me on the verge of falling asleep. “Undecided. Will you please wait here?”
“You’re asking?” The cocky smirk I alternately loathed and loved appeared. “Helping you dispose of a body is all I had to do to earn that?”
Laughing was wrong. But I did it anyway. “Yes, I suppose so. You’ve got your stripes now.”
“Fine.” He nodded toward the room Preacher said Riley occupied. “If she’s still there, she might not be alone. And if she isn’t, text me.”
Riley tried to slam the door on my face. “I told you I can’t help.”
I jammed my foot in the door. “You don’t have to be afraid of Preacher anymore.”
“Right.”
“He’s gone.” I waited. She stared at me through the space, calculating. This girl was street-smart and no stranger to violent crime. It didn’t take her much to hazard an educated guess.
“Did you kill him like you did that truck driver?”
“I’m not on trial. But I’m here to help you. The Senator told me about Sarah helping him. I think you knew about what she was doing, and you’re afraid it got her killed.”
Riley bit her lip. A tangled lock of black hair fell over her face. She swatted it away, and I took the opportunity to drop my shoulder and force the door open.
She stumbled back.
The room was every bit as crappy as the one Preacher booked for us. “Are you alone?”
Wide-eyed, she nodded. She was scared of me. Smart girl.
I shut the door. The room smelled like day-old cigarette ashes, cheap booze, and sex. A crudely made pipe and fine white powder littered the junky side table.
“Preacher have you hooked on meth or coke?”
“Neither,” she snapped. “Clients like the coke. Makes the sex better, so they think.”
I believed her, and I understood why Riley couldn’t go to the police about Preacher. She’d gone past the point of coercion and had all but accepted the lifestyle. She’d likely be charged.
I tossed her identification and cellphone at her. “Preacher gave this to me.”
She looked at the items as if they were gold nuggets. “No, he didn’t.”
“They’re yours, aren’t they? I didn’t even try to break your phone password.”
“Who are you?”
“You know the main answer to that, and I’m not here to talk about me. Senator Coleman said Sarah was feeding him information on Preacher and trying to find out who was really running the show. And you knew that, right?”
She sank down on the bed, folding her thin legs beneath her equally malnourished body. “Sarah was stuck in a bad position, you know? Preacher had something on her, something that scared her. But she was trying to make it right.”
“Did you guys spend a lot of time together?” I remained by the door, ready to fight if she tried to run.
“Preacher trusts me more than the others,” she said. “He’d let me have an afternoon to myself. And I’d go to Sarah’s. Then she’d take me to the library so I could take classes for my GED.”
“How’d you get there? Did you take a bus? I know Preacher didn’t give you much cash.”
“Sarah took me. She never spent the money from him. She gave it back to me or kept it in her house. It was dirty money, she said.” Riley rubbed her eyes.
The seed of admiration for Sarah that blossomed at the Senator’s place began to grow. She had guts. “Did she ever tell you about Sam?”
“No. Who’s that?”
“An abusive ex-boyfriend,” I said. “She was in hiding from him, and Preacher found out. That’s what he had on her.”
“I thought she came from a bad past,” Riley said. “Like she didn’t want to put down roots. Her place was never really decorated, and she didn’t have a lot of clothes. Just enough to look professional at work. She always had a bag in her room, like she was getting ready to go somewhere.”
“You never asked why?”
Riley shook her head. “She didn’t have to tell me everything about her life. She was already doing enough.”
More than Preacher ever did. I kept that thought to myself. “You mentioned keeping cash in her house. The police haven’t found any kind of money, and there’s virtually no financial trail. Her being in hiding explains it, but where’s the cash? You think Preacher or whoever had her killed knew to take it?”
“No way,” Riley said. “She had a little lockbox thing, hidden under the floorboards in her bedroom. That’s where she kept it. Along with…” she chewed on her lip.
Sensing the turning point, I edged forward, fighting the urge to bully her. Now was not the time to show her how cruel I could be. “What?”
“Sarah kept information in there too. She had a notebook with everything she knew about Preacher’s organization. It had all the names of any pimp she encountered, all the kids and where they came from—if she knew—and the people she thought might be running the real show.”
My heart pounded. An entire list of suspects the police would have to acknowledge. “Why did she keep it in her house instead of with the Senator? Did he know about it?”
“I don’t think so. I gave her information, you know?” Riley picked at a patch of dry skin on her hand. “Whenever I found out something new. And when I’d ask what she was going to do with it, she’d talk about the timing and having a bargaining chip. She said the best way to get what you wanted in life was to always have something the other person wanted.”
I sagged against the door. Sarah had planned to give the notebook of information to the U.S. Attorney in exchange for her silence on his dalliances and his help in bringing Sam to justice.
“So she said nothing to the Senator about the notebook?”
Riley shook her head. “She wasn’t sure she could trust him.”
“Why?”
Riley dragged her hands through her messy hair. “One of the newer boys said he was inspected by a man whose cologne was so strong he sneezed in the man’s face. The kid was blindfolded, but he remembered the fruity smell. And that he smelled it the entire car ride.”
“The Senator wears a fruity cologne,” I said. “But Preacher claimed he didn’t know who the boss was. If the boy was with the leader–”
“He wasn’t brought in by Preacher,” Riley cut me off. “He was delivered to an empty house by the man with the stinking cologne. Left tied up and cold and with wet pants. Preacher showed up hours later.”
“Car ride?”
“In a fancy car,” was all the kid said. “Soft leather and very quiet.”
“And Sarah truly believed it could have been the Senator and not just a coincidence?”
“I don’t know,” Riley said. “I just know she wasn’t ready to bring that information to his office yet. That’s what she said.” Tears sprouted in her eyes. “Last time I saw her, actually. It took me a while to get the chance to see Sarah, and when I told her about the new kid and the cologne, she said she was going to look for the boy.”
“We need to get that notebook,” I said. “I just agreed to let the Senator handle the sex ring investigation, and I might have played right into his hands.”
“It’s too late,” Riley said. “She was worried Preacher was on to her, and he’s got her locket.”
“So?”
“The serial number on the locket was the code to her lockbox. He took it, probably the night he killed her. Whatever information she had is gone. Even if we get to the lockbox, it’s useless.”
The chain in my pocket seemed to burn. I reached inside and brought out the shining necklace. The heart swung gently from side to side. Riley stared. “How did you get that?”
“That’s for me to know, and you to not worry about,” I said. “Preacher didn’t know this had a code. He thought it was from her mother, and he took it to upset her.”
“Maybe that’s what he told you.”
“Trust me, he was speaking the truth. He had no idea. Will you take me to Sarah’s house?”
Riley stepped out into the bitter weather with her patented hunched over stature. “Where are you parked?”
“The Audi with the black rims.”
“Jesus, you got some money.”
“It’s not mine.”
She halted. “No way. No one else.”
“You can trust him. He’s the guy who showed up the night I found you at the Rattner, but I promise, he’s good.”
She snapped her head back and forth. I really didn’t want to do this today. She was coming whether she wanted to or not, but I was bone-tired. I didn’t feel like physically fighting with her.
“He knows more about me than anyone,” I said. “Believe me, he could get me in a lot of trouble. But he won’t, and we need him.”
“You’re going to get me killed.”
I shook my head. “No chance.”
I started for the Audi, but she remained rooted in place. “Look, you don’t have to go,” I called back over my shoulder. “I can find out where Sarah lived on my own. But don’t you want to help the woman who did so much for you?”
“Preacher did stuff for me too, you know? I keep helping you, and either him or one of his boys will kill me.”
“Is that what he told you when he took the little boy you were babysitting?”
She stilled. “What? I
took him back to his mother after we talked.”
I turned to face her, feeling as if I were caught up in the pivotal moment of a high stakes film, when the music reaches a fervent peak and the final bomb is dropped. “Then Preacher took him after that. His picture is on a website advertising his services to the scum of the earth. Preacher provided his boss with it. What do you think of your big savior now?”
Fat tears squeezed out of Riley’s eyes. “You telling the truth?”
“I’d never lie about something like that.” At least that much was true.
Shoulders sagging, she slumped to the car. Her posture screamed defeat, and I knew she’d play by my rules now. It’s interesting just what exactly will break a person’s will.
I opened the backseat and gave Chris a pointed look. “This is Riley. I’ve assured her you will be nice.”
She slipped into the seat as if she expected it to open up and suck her into the fine leather.
“Hi.” Chris turned around and flashed the smile I’d fully expected him to use.
Riley flushed and stared.
“What’s going on?” Chris asked.
I quickly filled him in and then reached for his phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“Todd.”
“What?” He snatched the phone from me.
“Todd? Who’s Todd?” Riley said from the backseat. “You didn’t mention anyone else.”
I locked the doors and motioned for Chris to apply the child locks. “Detective Beckett isn’t going to arrest you. He’s trying to find Sarah’s killer. That’s all he cares about.”
“Are you serious?” Riley burst out. “He’s a cop! I thought we were going to get the locket, maybe you’d take care of things yourself.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You killed people!”
I leveled an icy stare at her. Chris didn’t turn around, but the tension crackled between us. He’d do whatever I needed him to do. “I think you’re mistaken.”
“Beckett isn’t vice,” Chris said. “And you’re a valuable witness. If all this information works out, you’ve got a lot to bargain with.”
“And isn’t that what Sarah taught you?” I said. “If you haven’t learned it yet, you’d better start.”
