Disruptor

by Sonya Clark

  “She said she’d let me know tonight.” He tucked the items away in the inside pocket of his jacket and produced his phone. “We need a couple of photos too.”

  The tension spread to the back of her head and down her neck, bringing a bout of self-consciousness with it.

  “I think in front of the wall would be best,” he said.

  Dani nodded and rose, looking down at herself. The dark blue t-shirt she wore would be fine, but he hadn’t supplied any makeup with the clothes. Hell, she hadn’t even brushed her hair today.

  Kevin dropped his phone on the bed and disappeared into the bathroom. He returned with a hairbrush. Heat flamed her cheeks. She stood frozen for a moment. Instead of offering her the brush, Kevin placed his fingers on her shoulder and guided her to turn so that she stood with her back to him. He gathered her hair and ran the brush through it slowly, careful with the tangles. The backs of his fingers touched the skin beneath her hairline as he lifted the strands in sections. Shivers traveled down her spine at every brief skin to skin contact. The scent of his cologne surrounded her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

  “I’ll be gone longer than I thought,” he said. “My sister called. She wants to have dinner. She’s a doctor, she’s been a little worried about me since what happened.”

  Dani exhaled slowly, all of the tension in her muscles draining away.

  “I promise not to have any wild parties while you’re gone.”

  Kevin smoothed her hair one last time and arranged it to flow down her back. “If you have any wild parties, you better invite me.” He turned her around and looked her over.

  It felt…strange. Men had been looking at her like she was a juicy piece of meat for way longer than they should have. She’d become inured to it out of necessity. The way Kevin looked at her now was completely different. A little bit of frank appraisal. More than a little appreciation. Just enough of what might have been desire to bring the tension back, but a different kind of tension. The kind that didn’t feel bad at all.

  Kevin smiled. “Now you’re ready to have your picture made.”

  Dani stood against the wall and looked right at the tiny lens of his cell phone camera. He snapped a pic then saved it. “One more, and this time maybe a smile.”

  “Are you supposed to be smiling on your driver’s license?”

  “You shouldn’t have the exact same photo on your driver’s license and your passport. Imagine you’re about to go on the vacation of a lifetime and give me a big smile.”

  Dani couldn’t imagine any vacation, much less a great one.

  “Do you like the beach?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Mountains?”

  “Never been there, either.”

  “Surely something can get a smile out of you. Come on. Think of something. Anything.”

  The mystery tattoo on his right upper arm was the first thing to come to mind. Then the way he’d smiled at her this morning, slow and lazy and knowing, and that wink. Who the hell winked anymore? He did, and it worked for him.

  She resisted, because she didn’t like the idea that he could bring a smile to her face. What that might mean, if she weren’t skipping town as soon as possible. But then she thought of the voice mails he’d left on the phone she’d stolen from him. The corners of her mouth lifted without her permission. Not a big smile, but judging from the way his face lit up, it would do. He took the photo and nodded.

  “That’s perfect.” He put his phone away. “I left you some food in the fridge. Make yourself at home.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Can I bring you anything?”

  “No, I’m fine. I won’t break anything, promise.”

  “I’m worried about you being without company, not supervision. There’s a difference.”

  Yeah, there was. She liked it that he knew that. “Your sister’s worried about you. Don’t bail on her.”

  Kevin nodded and strode to the door. “I’ll see you later.”

  “Have a nice time with your sister.”

  He grinned. “It’s always nice to be lectured at about my life choices.”

  Alone again, Dani returned to the window. Tired of staring at the skyline, she closed the curtains and left the guest room. Time to check out the fridge and that giant TV downstairs. Half an hour and a plate of pasta later, it was the tablet that drew her attention. She didn’t know the first thing about social media but she knew electronics. In moments she had the tablet awake and found the app he’d used earlier.

  There were new messages, tweets, whatever the hell, in the #CabriniGhost column.

  Anybody seen #CabriniGhost tonight?

  #CabriniGhost needs to tell my boss to keep his fucking hands off my ass.

  Saw a fight on Cliffwood and Volunteer. No #CabriniGhost to shut that shit down

  No #CabriniGhost in days, where he at???

  That one rankled her but she kept reading. Most of it was idle gossip made digital. Speculation about the Ghost’s identity, whereabouts, what the cops might do if they caught the vigilante.

  Get their asses kicked, was the answer to that one. She didn’t automatically hate all cops but she’d had enough dealings with police while on the streets to not have much use for them. Asking one for help was for damn sure something she’d never do.

  Holy shit. Dead girl by the river. #CabriniGhost needs to get her ass back out here.

  Dani swore. After helping a few, now everybody expected her to, what exactly? Do what the cops couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do? Clean up the South Side? Dani was nobody’s savior. It was long past time she stopped that nonsense anyway, especially if people were talking about it on the Goddamn internet. She dumped the tablet on the sofa and searched the coffee table for a TV remote. Maybe she’d find something about vampires to watch, look for some popcorn in Kevin’s well-stocked kitchen, and just chill.

  It took her a whole ten seconds to give up on the remote and pick up the tablet.

  Not an overdose. This girl’s throat is all marked up. Somebody killed her. #CabriniGhost

  Anybody know this girl? #CabriniGhost

  A picture was attached to the last tweet, partially obscured. She tapped on the screen and the rectangle expanded to a much larger view.

  Jesus fucking Christ. It was one of the Russian girls.

  Chapter 14

  The photo had enough detail to lead Dani to a strip of gravel and garbage filled land between the lake and an abandoned machine shop. The location was a few blocks south of where the traffickers brought the girls to shore and transferred them to a van. Dani waited, her back to the north facing alley wall, hearing dialed up and night vision on. She’d found a black leather jacket in a hall closet at Kevin’s, just big enough to obscure her true size but not so large that it would impede her movement. A black balaclava that had been tossed in with some ski apparel was now bunched in a jacket pocket.

  Full dark had fallen. The usual stink of the lake was worse tonight, underscored by something dark and foul. Satisfied there was no one around, Dani stepped away from the wall and approached the rocky shore. It didn’t take long to find the body. She just followed the smell of decomposition.

  A single high heel peeked out from under a ripped plastic bag that rippled in the wind. The girl’s body lay mostly exposed to the elements, her dress torn, eyes open and face frozen in terror. Dani knelt at her side, careful not to touch anything. This had been the second girl down the fire escape, the one who’d practically vibrated with fear during her escape. She looked so young, younger than Dani had ever felt. A girl this young should have been safe, worried about homework and boys. Not dead, surrounded by trash and God knows how far from home.

  Another face hovered over that of the unnamed girl. Dani blinked the illusion away. The people who called her a ghost had no clue. She was the haunted one, haunted by horrors and her own weakness.

  Now was not the time for marinating in her own misery. Dani forced the past away and focused on the dead g
irl in front of her.

  A ligature mark circled the girl’s neck. Bruises were scattered over her body. Damage around the eyes suggested…Jesus, birds or some kind of animal. Dani suppressed the urge to vomit and lowered her face deeper into the jacket. The faint lingering scent of Kevin’s cologne helped cover the stench coming from the body. Nothing but leaving could help with the sight, so Dani hurried up her examination.

  Though what the hell she was looking for, or hoped to do with that information, eluded her. Cops needed to be doing this, not her. And while her night vision was a handy enhancement, it wasn’t the best for detail work. She had an early iteration of that bit of tech, and had escaped before the scheduled upgrade for it and her neural interface. Something bothered her about the girl’s skin, though, and she wished she had a flashlight to see better. Tiny marks that appeared to be in pairs…puncture wounds? Needle tracks? What the hell?

  Dani patted down the pockets of Kevin’s jacket. He wasn’t a smoker, there was no hint of that odor in his apartment. But he seemed like the kind of guy who liked to have a lighter, in case a pretty woman needed a light. She scored in the left inside pocket, a Zippo. The metal was cool to the touch.

  Screams in Russian. Burning flesh and the thick copper tang of blood in the air. Smoke and flame and fury.

  Dani regretted none of it. They were traffickers, they deserved it. Look what they’d done to this girl, just for escaping. Sure, technically, it could have been just about any predator in Cabrini. There were certainly plenty of them. But Dani was sure it was the traffickers, asserting their control over their property, sending a message to other girls who either had escaped that night or might consider trying. She flicked on the lighter and leaned closer to examine the strange marks.

  Right away she knew what they were – stun gun marks. That bastard with the stun gun, he hadn’t been in the house with the rest of the traffickers. He’d found this girl, tortured her with his fucking stun gun, and strangled her to death.

  Dani swore and closed the lighter. There were three more girls out there. He’d be looking for them.

  So would she.

  ***

  Kevin searched the apartment for a note, anything to indicate where Dani was and when she’d be back. Nothing. He was confident she would be back, she needed the new identity documents. But he was worried about her. She could definitely take care of herself physically but it was obvious there was some emotional stuff going on that might not be so easy to deal with. Getting in the habit of worrying about her was not a good idea. She’d be gone as soon as the ID came through, and the next time she had another rough night full of bad dreams, he wouldn’t be there to help her through it.

  Relief flooded him when a knock came from the door and he rushed to open it. “Are you okay?”

  Tyler stared back at him. “I’m fine. Are you?”

  Kevin exhaled loudly. “Yeah, yeah. I just thought you might be someone else. What’s up?”

  Tyler waved his hands at the door. “You gonna let me in or what?”

  Kevin hesitated. She could come back at any time. Tyler would give him hell if Kevin didn’t let him in, though. “Of course.”

  They settled in the living room. Tyler started to talk but Kevin heard none of it. The tablet had been moved. He picked it up and checked – sure enough, the Twitter app was up. She’d been reading the #CabriniGhost column. He scrolled through it, hoping she hadn’t gone out into the night on some vigilante mission.

  “Hey, are you even paying attention to me? I’m trying to talk to you, man.”

  The image of a dead body appeared in the column. Kevin dropped the tablet. “Fuck.”

  “What’s your problem?” Tyler leaned over and tried to pick up the device.

  Kevin beat him to it. “Nothing.”

  Holy shit. Dead girl by the river. #CabriniGhost needs to get her ass back out here.

  So call the fucking cops instead of taking pictures like a Goddamn ghoul, Kevin wanted to scream.

  “Look, I could really use your help with this. I’d like to buy out my investors but cash flow is a problem right now. So I just thought going into business with a friend would be more fun, you know?”

  Kevin tried to piece together what Tyler was talking about. “You want me to invest in your club?”

  “You, me, and every model in the city, at the hottest new club in town. Sounds perfect, huh?”

  “Not really, no.”

  Tyler’s good humor turned on a dime. “Fuck you, man.”

  “What is it you need? Just tell me.” He wanted to mollify his friend, and get him gone. If Dani didn’t come back soon, Kevin intended to go looking for her.

  “I thought we were friends.”

  “Of course we are. Just because I’m not interested in going into business with you doesn’t mean we’re not friends. Stop acting like we’re still in high school and tell me what’s wrong.”

  Tyler glared for a moment. “I had a press release sent to the paper about the club opening. That bitch who writes the society column talked about my old drug arrests. Now my backers are worried all their money’s gonna go up my nose.”

  “I don’t see how I can help with that.”

  “I paid my fines and went to rehab for that shit. Why the hell won’t people let it go?”

  Kevin didn’t know how to answer that without further angering his friend. “My family reminds me of my arrest record every chance they get.”

  “Yeah, but they’re just like everyone else. They don’t think you’re an asshole, but people do think that of me.”

  “That’s because you are.” Kevin was rapidly losing patience.

  “You don’t have to say it too, man.”

  “Have you tried not being an asshole?”

  “You know what, fuck you.” Tyler stood.

  Kevin followed suit. “What is it that you need me to do? Come on, cut me some slack. It’s been a rough week.”

  Tyler blanched, as if just remembering that his friend had been badly beaten and injured mere days ago. The way he was, he probably had forgotten all about it. “I’m taking a lot of grief from my investors. I’d like to buy them out but I can’t.”

  That rang alarm bells. “Did your father cut you off again?”

  Tyler said nothing, which told Kevin everything. Kevin rubbed his jaw, trying to dig through his impatience to find an ounce of diplomacy. “Look, neither one of us knows the first thing about running a nightclub. And frankly, I’m not interested.”

  “I owe a lot of money, but I know if you help me out with this, we can make it back and then some.”

  Forget alarm bells, that set off red lights and a bleating klaxon. “Wait, are you saying you owe these people money? That’s why they’re you’re investors?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “It sounds like a clusterfuck. Dude, you need to talk to your old man. Apologize for whatever pissed him off this time and get him to give you access to your accounts back.”

  “I tried that! He won’t do it. Not unless I come to work for him, and you know what that would mean. Under his thumb twenty-four seven. I want my own business and I want it to be a success.” Tyler shook his head. “Aren’t you tired of being the family fuck up? I know I am.”

  That hit Kevin like a physical blow. Yes. Yes, he damn sure was tired of being the family fuck up, even if they didn’t think he was an asshole. But going into business with someone even more irresponsible than he was didn’t sound like the way to make a change.

  The door opened and Dani walked in, saving Kevin from having to answer. Now he just had to come up with a cover story for her presence that wouldn’t be insulting to her.

  Damn, she looked good in his black leather jacket.

  Tyler turned his attention to the new arrival. “I don’t believe we’ve met.” He looked her up and down and gave her a smile that was more smarm than charm. Kevin curled his lip in disgust.

  Dani ignored Tyler and addressed Kevin. “We need to talk.” />
  Kevin nodded, trying to suppress a little thrill of gratification.

  “I’m Tyler Kincaid.” Tyler stuck his hand out. “Kevin’s oldest friend.”

  “One of my oldest friends,” Kevin said. “Tyler, this is Danielle Marquez.” It was the name she’d given him for her new ID. “She’s a personal trainer and self-defense expert. I’m going to be taking a few lessons from her.” Wary, he searched her face for her reaction.

  She visibly relaxed. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Kincaid.” To Kevin she said, “We need to talk about our schedule and the workouts and all that.” She pointed toward the kitchen. “I’ll wait for you.”

  Both men watched her walk away. Kevin caught the look on Tyler’s face and hoped to God that he, Kevin, didn’t look like a dog with his tongue hanging out. Tyler said, “Personal trainer, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She knows her way around the place already?”

  Shit. Kevin scrambled for an answer. “We had an interview before I hired her.”

  Tyler faced him. “Was that your jacket she was wearing?”

  Kevin forced out a chuckle. “Of course not. Look, I need to take this meeting. Dani’s very exclusive. She’ll drop a client if they’re late too often or won’t put in the work. I know it may seem silly, but after what happened I really want some self-defense training.”

  The not so subtle reminder of the attack had the desired effect. Tyler backed off. “I hear you.”

  Kevin ushered Tyler to the door.

  She didn’t look like she’d been hurt. That was a good sign. If she’d been reading the #CabriniGhost hashtag – and he figured there was no if to it – that wasn’t such a good sign. Especially if she’d seen the tweet about the dead girl.

  Chapter 15

  Dani stripped off the jacket and tossed it onto a countertop. She stood at the sink and turned on the hot water. Watched it run down the drain as she waited for it to heat up. As it hit the metal sink, the clear liquid ran red, cloudy at first, then thick and dark. Dani jumped, gasping. With a blink, the blood became clear, clean water again.