Needs, Wants and Other Weaknesses (The New Pioneers Book 6)

by Nam-Krane,Deborah

  Baptiste sat back down. "Done, but it won’t happen immediately."

  “I want it in writing.”

  “Fine.”

  Mitch raised his eyebrows, then shrugged. "Hannah, tell them whatever you know."

  Hannah blinked incredulously. "What I know?" she repeated. "She's both a pimp for high-end call girls and she pulls the strings of two dozen low-level boyfriend-pimps. She's been running a counterfeit operation for the last decade which includes selling illegal goods in mall kiosks throughout the country, eBay, and a couple of gold-door internet sites. She's run a human trafficking ring for the last seven years. It started out as a way to staff her factories, and then she expanded her prostitution venture. Some of the counterfeit goods are vessels for drugs, but for the most part, she's stayed out of that." She looked at Mitch, who shrugged again. "But I already told you this. If you want proof, I can give it to you, but you won't like how I got it."

  "So you didn't know anything about this?" Robert slid the folder to Mitch, who handed it to Hannah.

  She opened it and read it quickly. She shook her head in resignation. "Yes, I knew about this, but if you’re going with this where I think you are, no. Full stop. I didn't hear word one about that, and that's not something you'd be able to hide for too long."

  Mitch pulled the folder over. "Hannah, look at the date." She peered at the number he pointed to. "It hasn't been that long."

  Hannah sat up. She wasn't bewildered anymore. Robert was hoping that she wasn't coming to the same conclusion he had five minutes before. "Where is she?"

  "She's in the holding cell. Her lawyer just saw her and is demanding we let her out immediately."

  Baptiste tapped the desk. "Detective Idriz, please bring Ms. Sayles to Interrogation Room Three. You're running point with me. Robert, I'd like you to observe with Ms. Bruges and her attorney."

  "Are you serious?" Mitch said as they stood up. "Because if I were Sayles' attorney, I would have anything she says in front of us thrown out."

  "I have a feeling I'm only going to get one question answered," Baptiste said as he led them out of the room. "And besides, the interview's going to be recorded."

  "Just make sure you don't lose our tape," Mitch snapped at Robert.

  "Right this way," Robert said, ignoring him.

  ~~~

  Hannah stood silently as they watched the interrogation. "My client is not going to answer any questions."

  Baptiste leaned forward. "I don't have any about her. What my team is uncovering at her warehouse speaks for itself."

  "Anything you found in that warehouse was obtained without a warrant," her lawyer said firmly.

  "Including the people?” Baptiste said calmly. “And no, we didn't need one," Baptiste said calmly. "We heard a cry for help."

  "We are as stunned as you are about the young woman—and anyone else—that you found." Hilary tensed up. "But we disavow any and all knowledge of that."

  "Of course you do, and it's just a coincidence that the woman is also the mother of the child found at your client's home."

  "This interview is over."

  Baptiste held up his hand. "Just one question: how much did your client's husband know about Ms. Sayles' operation?"

  Hilary stood up. "How dare you!" she exclaimed furiously. "Your people have been following my husband around for months. That's why he left! Boston isn't any better than the Deep South. You can't stand the idea that a man from Jordan might just be a fan of literature and the arts? You have to think that every person who can speak Arabic is a terrorist?"

  "That's it!" her lawyer said. "We're done."

  Hannah's breath slowed. "The cars," she said. She looked at Robert and knew by his lack of reaction that she was right. "God damn them!" she said, then ran down the corridor.

  "What is going on?" Mitch demanded.

  "Just-just stay here," Robert said as he took off after Hannah. "And keep your cell on."

  Chapter Fifteen

  Robert ran fast, but Hannah was faster. He saw her jump into a cab when he got out the front door. "Fuck!" He jumped into a squad car and drove after them.

  She was already up the escalator to the plaza when he parked in front of One Center Plaza. He knew that even showing his badge, she was going to beat him to the office, but hopefully...

  "You son of a bitch!" he heard as soon as the elevator doors on the sixth floor opened. He raced in the direction of Hannah's voice and found her inside the office of the Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Mark Forman. "How long were you going to chase down a useless Jordanian while you watched his bitch of a wife buy and sell people?"

  "I'm calling security," the secretary said as she reached for the phone.

  "Hannah, let's get out of here," Robert said as soon as he reached her. "There's nothing we can do here."

  "Hilary Sayles!" Hannah shook with rage as she screamed. "Did you know? Did you know that she was holding people hostage inside the building your agents were outside of this morning? How long have you been watching it? Were you going to wait until they were dead before you tried to make a case?"

  Forman smirked. "You must be Detective Teague. I suggest you get this girl out of my office before I press charges for trespassing on federal property."

  "You!" Hannah seethed. "You must have seen them dragging out their inventory. That didn't seem strange to you? You didn't think that you should go in—"

  "Hannah!" Robert held her back before she could lunge for Forman. "Let's go. You have to go back to the hospital."

  Hannah tried to shake Robert off, but he wouldn't let go. "The hospital," she spat. "That's where my niece's mother is because when we found her, she was half-dead! And my niece was in that woman's house! You didn't notice? You couldn't have thought that she belonged...This is on your head."

  "I am not going to explain myself to some overgrown teenage vigilante!" Forman shouted. "Do you know what terrorism is, Ms. Bruges? That's what we’re after."

  Robert heard the elevator doors open. He pushed Hannah to the side. "We're done here. He's right; this office obviously can't handle both human trafficking and non-existent terrorists. Pretty obvious why they went for the flash. They’ve got a lot to make up for."

  "Fuck you!" Forman said as he right-hooked Robert in the jaw. Robert didn't defend himself, and three seconds later, he came to as Hannah hovered over him and the security guards were standing in the doorway.

  "Robert!" Hannah whispered.

  Robert tried to lift his head, but he'd hit it harder than he'd anticipated on the way down. "Call Baptiste," he muttered right before he passed out.

  ~~~

  When Robert came to, he was in a hospital room and Hannah was sitting by his side. "Oh thank God," Hannah whispered. She was holding his hand and didn't let go. He didn't want her to.

  "How long was I out for?"

  She let go of his hand then. "Not that long. You missed the show."

  He smiled. "I'd have liked to have seen the look on Forman's face."

  Hannah chuckled, then there was a knock on the door. Baptiste walked in a second later. "You done with your beauty rest?"

  Robert pulled himself up and groaned. "Just about."

  Hannah got up. "Excuse me," she said. "I'm going to check on Mariela."

  "She hasn't woken up yet," Baptiste said gruffly. "But your brother looked like he could use some help with his little girl."

  Hannah sighed. "Okay."

  "And Ms. Bruges?"

  Hannah in the doorway. "Yes?"

  "The room and the floor are being monitored. Don't run away."

  Hannah scoffed. "Yeah."

  "Don't give the kid a hard time," Robert said when she was gone. "I don't think she's gotten to be a real person for about a decade."

  "We'll talk about that later," Baptiste said abruptly. "A couple of people want to talk to us now."

  ~~~

  Mayor David Hwang had a reputation for being logical, calm, and compassionate. Maybe that was true most of the
time, but it wasn’t today.

  "I want to make sure I understand this," Hwang said from behind his desk. Robert, Baptiste, Commissioner Polly Walker, Edie Mayer, Henry Chin, Forman, and James DeSoto, the Special Agent in Charge of the Boston FBI office, and ADA Heather Mitchell were assembled in his office. Sitting by the window to their backs was his chief of staff Charlie Gavin and his deputy chief of staff Kasi Panchal. "You have been following this woman for six months because of her marriage to Amir Abbasadi, but managed to miss anything that connected her to human trafficking, not to mention attempted murder and kidnapping? Or you did find it, and you chose not to bring my officials into the loop?"

  "We didn't feel we had enough to bring you," DeSoto said. His posture was rigid. Ex-marine, Robert thought. Do not squirm when you are being dressed down.

  "You saw no connection between this woman's enterprise and the confiscation of four million dollars’ worth of counterfeit merchandise from the factory in Chinatown? You didn't realize that a dozen pimps were answering to her? Or that she ran her own high-end call girl operation?" He looked at DeSoto and Forman in disgust. "What kind of an operation are you people running these days?"

  "We had to make a call," DeSoto said. "We couldn't do anything to jeopardize catching a terrorist."

  "Don't!" Hwang shouted and DeSoto flinched. "Do not lecture anyone in this room or the rest of this City Hall on the importance of stopping terrorism. That is no excuse for the suffering you allowed to continue." He nodded at Charlie. "And explain why Abbasadi is a terrorist? Because based on everything my people found, he's more inclined toward poetry and mathematics than he is political philosophy, much less weapons engineering."

  "He has three advanced degrees," Charlie said. "One in English poetry, one in Golden Age Spanish playwrights, and one in mathematics."

  "Sounds like someone with a lot of time and money on his hands," Hwang snapped at DeSoto and Forman. "Why were you concerned that this man might be a terrorist? And 'because he's from Jordan' isn't an answer."

  "He wrote several papers on the revolutionary themes of both the Spanish playwrights and the English poets," Forman finally said. "And one of his peers in the math program at BU was someone who later joined with the Free Syrian Army."

  Hwang glared. "And? I had several classes with someone who couldn't shut up about how maligned the Klan was, does that make me a white supremacist?"

  "His great-uncle was one of the early financiers of the Al Qaeda network," DeSoto said through gritted teeth.

  "Yes," Charlie said, looking over his file. "He was. But it seems like Amir’s part of the family disavowed him for that. We're also not sure that Abbasadi ever met the great-uncle."

  Hwang shook his head. "Do you have enough to arrest Abbasadi for anything?"

  Forman squirmed in his seat. "He left the country three months ago."

  "Why?"

  "We believe it's because he noticed he was being followed," DeSoto said at last, staring off to the side at Forman.

  Hwang leaned forward. "I want every piece of information that you have on his wife shared with BPD today. Not tomorrow, not next week. Today. You will work with my people to put this woman away. And then just maybe we can overlook the fact that one of your agents assaulted a Boston Police Detective today. Polly, what do we need?"

  "Mayer, Chin, start working with Special Agent Forman. Let's trace everything we have, starting with the Chinatown factory."

  Hwang turned to Baptiste. "Sounds like we might want to pull in someone else. Is that right, Captain?"

  "Our civilian witness might be very reluctant to work with us any more than she already has. Her family's been traumatized, to say the least."

  "Mitchell, you’re not going to prosecute this girl for saving the mother of her niece, are you?"

  Mitchell nodded. "The DA's office has no interest in that."

  "Mr. Mayor." Everyone turned to look at Kasi, who was looking at her phone. "The girl woke up."

  "Thank God," Hwang said. "What's her name? Mariela what?"

  Kasi scrolled through her phone. "It doesn't say."

  "It doesn't say," Robert said, "because she doesn't have one. Her mother Maria was sold in Arizona when she was a little girl. If she had a last name, she didn't tell her daughter before she was murdered."

  Mayor Hwang stood up. "I want Hilary Sayles to spend the rest of her life in prison."

  Chapter Sixteen

  Robert found Hannah and Mariana in the children’s waiting room of the hospital an hour later. The television set was playing a Nick Junior show, but Hannah was playing a game of cards with Mariana. "I beat you again!" Mariana said triumphantly as she laid out her hand. It looked like an easier version of Gin Rummy. "Did you let me win?"

  "No," Hannah said, and it was the first time Robert had seen her genuinely smile. "You're just good at this game. Want to see if they have a chess board?"

  "How are we doing?" Robert said as he came to sit beside Hannah.

  "My niece is really good at math, and has a great poker face."

  "Wonder where she got that from?" Robert asked softly.

  "Do you want to play?" Mariana asked eagerly. Robert smiled too. She had lost the stunned shock he had observed when he'd first met her that morning.

  "One round," Robert said. "But I'm pretty good at cards, so watch out."

  Half an hour later, Mariana had beaten the both of them at six rounds. "I'm bored," she whined as she swung her legs. "Do we have to stay here?"

  "I'll make a deal," Hannah said. "You and I can go for a walk outside on one condition: you have to hold my hand at all times. Got it?"

  Mariana nodded. "Got it."

  "Can I come?" Robert asked as Hannah stood up. "I bet you haven't seen the Greenway yet."

  Hannah frowned, then shrugged. "Only if you buy us a cannoli."

  "Consider it done, although it's sad how much the lobster tail is overlooked in this city."

  "And can we bring something back for my dad? And my mom?"

  Hannah squeezed her hand. "No problem."

  ~~~

  The three returned two hours later to the floor Mariela was on. Mitch was waiting for them in the waiting room. "And where did you go off to?"

  "We went to the North End and we got cannolis and Aunt Hannah got some espresso but Robert only wanted a lobster tail but they didn't have them so he got a chocolate chip cookie. And we got a cupcake for my dad and a tee-shirt for my mom. And Aunt Hannah made sure we got a cannoli for you." Mariana pulled the box out of Robert's hand and opened it to produce a cannoli for Mitch. "Here you go!"

  Mitch took the pastry with a grin. "Thank you very much. I have to eat this before I go home, because my wife loves these things but she can't eat them."

  "What's your wife's name?" Mariana asked eagerly.

  "Her name is Emily." Hannah noticed that Robert stiffened at the mention of the name. "And you know who else I have at home? A little girl who's just a little younger than you are."

  "What's her name?"

  "Helen, but we call her Hellie. Would you like to meet her?"

  Mariana nodded shyly. "Yeah."

  Hannah looked at the text message on her phone. "Could she meet her tonight?"

  ~~~

  Emily Graham opened the door to her home in Brookline an hour later. She didn't look at her husband, Robert or Hannah. "You must be Mariana!" She stuck out her hand. "I'm Emily, and this is Hellie."

  Emily was thin and of average height. Hannah could tell she was part Asian, probably Chinese or Korean. Hellie was the spitting image of her mother, only tall like her father and with his light brown hair.

  "Do you want to see this new poster my Aunt Randy gave to me?” Hellie asked as she stepped forward. “It's got pictures of what the world looked like before the continents came apart."

  Mariana’s eyes widened. "The continents came apart?"

  "Isn't that cool? Come on!" Hellie took Mariana by the hand and led her up the stairs.

  Mitch smiled
. "Honey, this is Hannah Bruges."

  Emily stuck out her hand again. Hannah liked her firm handshake. "Nice to meet you," she said, forcing a smile. "Sounds like you've had a very rough day."

  Hannah nodded and swallowed. "I just want...Thank you for agreeing to take Mariana for a few days. They need to keep Mariela resting for a little while, and my brother doesn't want to leave her side."

  "It's no trouble," Emily said with a warmer smile. "Hellie was jumping up and down when I told her we were going to have a guest for a little while." She turned to her husband. "Honey, why don't you take Hannah upstairs so she can see what kind of mischief Hellie has planned? I'd like to have a word with...Detective Teague."

  "Yep," Mitch said as he led Hannah into the house.

  "What did Robert do?" Hannah whispered as they walked up the stairs.

  "That's another story for another day."

  Chapter Seventeen

  When they arrived back at the hospital, Josh was sleeping on the chair in Mariela's room. The doctor was checking Mariela’s vitals. “Look! You’ve got some more visitors.” She smiled indulgently at Hannah and Robert. “Just a few minutes, okay? She’s still very sleepy, but it’s good for her to have the company.”

  “Thank you,” Hannah whispered as the doctor stepped out. She moved to the side of Mariela’s bed. Hannah grabbed the fingers Mariela weakly reached out. “How are you feeling?”

  “Where is she?” Mariela whispered.

  “She’s with...a friend of mine.”

  Mariela smiled weakly. “Hannah, you don’t have friends.”

  Hannah laughed as tears streamed down her face. “I only need one.” Her lip trembled. “I missed you so much. I am so sorry.” She wiped her face. “I never stopped. I spent every day looking for the two...the two of you.”

  “I knew you would,” Mariela whispered. “I knew you wouldn’t give up. And I knew that if you didn’t find me in time, you’d find her.” She closed her eyes and hummed. “I named her Mariana after my mother and you. You promise me that if I don’t leave, you’re going to take good care of her.”