by Liz Lee
No way. “What the hell do you mean she’s not there now?”
“She’s gone. She’s not in the building. But there’s a teddy bear sitting on her desk. Maybe you better start telling me the rest of your story.”
The car stopped outside an ancient building. Lil figured it was a church. Beside her Anna shuddered, her tears long since subsided.
The driver, a thuggy looking man in wrinkled desert fatigues, yanked the back door open, told them to move.
Lil shook her head, held Anna’s hand. Stared at Degas. “Where are we?”
Degas barely spared them a glance. Instead he spoke to the driver. “If they don’t cooperate, you know what to do.”
The driver sneered and Anna squeezed Lil’s hand, whispered, “I don’t want to die.” Her voice cracked on the last word. Lil didn’t know how to comfort her. She didn’t know what the answers were, but the man outside the door had a wicked looking gun, and she figured he’d use it with little provocation.
She stepped out of the car and prepared to do damage. No way was he going to hurt her or Anna without a fight.
Instead the man simply pushed them forward, told them to walk. Now that she was out of the car she could see the building was definitely a dilapidated church. One left empty for who knew how long. Empty but not unused.
She wondered if this was one of the churches Solidad wrote about. If the Hernandez family had used this church to help girls escape, or if Degas used this church to imprison them.
They walked through a side door and dust flew. The musty scent of decay and fear surrounded them. This church wasn’t abandoned. But it was no longer used for the Lord’s service.
Degas walked ahead of them and disappeared around a corner. Lil thought they’d follow his lead, but instead another armed guard, also dressed in fatigues, met them. This one leered at Lil, then turned his attention to Anna.
Beside her, the girl shrank as the men laughed at the possibilities for “this one” and then called her vulgar names in Spanish. Lil willed Anna not to listen, not to be afraid. Ryan, David, Detective Ortiz, all knew what was going on. They were close to breaking Degas. They’d ride to the rescue. They had to.
Unless Ryan was working with Degas. She cleared the thought from her mind.
The gunmen steered them toward a staircase and Anna stumbled, nearly falling. The driver yanked her upright, told her to be careful. They inched the rest of the way down the dark, dingy stairs, one tiny pink bulb serving as the only source of light in the narrow hall.
Lil almost laughed at the pink light. Somehow it seemed macabre in this setting. This clearinghouse for the girls Degas had taken, sold, who knew what else.
They reached the end of the stairs and the driver pushed open a door. The concrete floor echoed as they followed him down a hall, through two rooms to a locked door.
He reached to his belt, and the ring of keys jingled as he found the right one.
Lil prayed she and Anna weren’t separated. She didn’t want to go in the locked room at all, but if they tried to take Anna she didn’t know what she’d do.
The guard pushed the door open, stood aside and motioned for them to walk inside. As they passed, the guard brushed against Anna and the girl whimpered. The guard laughed, called her a whore and stepped back. Intimidation. Lil fought the urge to kick the guard, curse at him, yell for Degas to be a man, even though she had no idea where he was.
But to give in to the urge would only put Anna at more risk. Put her at more risk too.
The hallway they walked through now was smaller, darker, colder. The concrete slab echoed with the slap of their footsteps.
Beside her, Anna held her head high. Her chin trembled with fear, but she wasn’t giving in to it. Wasn’t letting the men behind them know how terrified she was.
Lil couldn’t imagine what Anna was thinking. She knew what she was thinking. She wanted to live. She wanted to escape. She wanted to do whatever Degas demanded to keep Anna safe. This was going to kill David. Kill him.
The hallway ended with another door. One of the guards pushed past them, opened it, told them to go, go, go, with a sweep of his hand. A cigarette behind his ear nearly fell and he grabbed it while his comrade in arms laughed.
Lil didn’t like the look on the man’s face. He was a bully. A bully now being laughed at. A bully with a gun and two helpless women. He’d been in the position before, and the women had disappeared. Were they gone forever? She put her arms around Anna’s shoulder, prayed, tried to find a connection with any higher power that might be out there. They needed a miracle. They were under a church. It fit.
They crossed the threshold and Lil blinked. The white light inside this room glared. In the corner she heard a whimper, a moan.
Oh dear Lord.
Nancy.
And then, Miguel.
She started forward to one or both of them but was yanked back by a heavy hand on her shoulder.
The guard shook his head. Cursed. Told her to hold out her wrists.
Beside her Anna was backing away from the other guard and his handcuffs. Shaking her head. “No. No. No.”
“Do what he says, Anna. For God’s sake do what he says.” Nancy’s pained voice filled the room and Anna stopped fighting.
The guard called her a good girl, leered as he clicked the cuffs in place. As he locked them to an iron post. One of twelve that ran from floor to ceiling. New. An addition to the macabre clearinghouse for human flesh.
Oh please God let David get here. David or Detective Ortiz or anyone. They were close. They had to know. They had to.
The handcuffs clicked, pinched and she closed her eyes. Fighting now would get them nowhere. Nancy was right.
Once she was locked in place like so much chattel, the guards left. No comments. No promises or threats. They just clicked the door shut and left them alone.
She wanted to be happy, should be overjoyed. Miguel was alive. In this room with its Virgin Mary statue, its Crucifix, its twelve iron bars promising something vile. Nancy was alive too.
If they were alive, there had to be a reason.
She started to speak, but she didn’t know what to say. How do you reassure people held captive that all would work out?
“Ms. Palmer. I’m so sorry. I….” Miguel’s whispered words trailed off and a large lump formed in Lil’s throat.
“Oh Miguel,” she tried to sound confident. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know. How could you?”
She didn’t add that he’d been right. That the authorities were close to breaking Degas. She couldn’t. Not yet. Not when she didn’t know. Not when Nancy could be a traitor.
Miguel’s face was bruised. His lips bleeding. One eye swollen shut. A tear rolled down his face and her heart broke seeing it.
“Is Rafe…”
She gulped back her own tears. “He’s safe.”
He had to be. That bear, it wasn’t Rafe’s. It couldn’t be.
Miguel nodded, told Anna he was sorry for her too. Once the guards left, David’s sister had started crying silently. Seeing Miguel so beaten, so sad, seemed to give her courage. She told him it wasn’t his fault. And then she turned to Nancy.
“I saw you at the concert,” she accused.
Nancy’s clothes were torn, her face dirty. One of her sandals broken. She hadn’t been beaten, but Lil figured there might be worse things than physical beatings.
“I was there,” Nancy said, sounding even worse than Miguel. “I was stupid. I was….”
Her voice trailed off and Lil knew then. Her friend was not guilt-free. Somehow she’d been complicit in this. In all of it.
“You thought you could mix with a man like Degas and not get burned?”
Nancy shook her head. “It wasn’t like that.”
“It was sure like something. Look at us, Nancy. Look at Miguel.”
Nancy didn’t. She turned her head away instead.
Had she been turning her head away all this time.
“You work
with these girls. How could you?”
“How could I?” Her voice broke and she shook her head again. “How could I not? He’s taken so many. I thought…”
Lil bit her lip to keep from screaming at the woman sitting there looking so pitiful, so lost. She’d done this to herself.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen, Lil. I meant to find Miguel. If I found him, I thought I could find some of the others. That’s all. I didn’t help him take the girls. I swear I didn’t. He wanted close to you. That’s all. And I helped him there.”
“Me?” Lil couldn’t begin to imagine why. “What am I to these people?”
“I don’t know,” Nancy said. “He didn’t care about you until this week. But suddenly you were everywhere. I don’t know. I swear. Maybe it was because he thought Miguel and Solidad had told you the truth. I don’t know.”
The truth. She wanted to laugh, to cry. There were so many different truths and none of them added up. “But you knew Solidad and Miguel’s family were helping the girls. You knew that.”
Nancy nodded. “I knew and I wanted their help, too. You don’t know what it’s like. To watch them disappear. To know some are alive. We get phone calls sometimes. Hang ups usually. Two years ago a girl named Danielle called. Told her mother she was coming home. And then nothing. You don’t understand.”
No she didn’t.
But she knew Miguel’s family was dead. And she knew Degas got his power because people who feared or wanted something from him helped him.
Nancy was one of those people.
She turned her head away and found Anna composed now. The tears were gone. The face set in an impassive frown.
“My brother will be here.”
Nancy laughed bitterly. “We can only hope.”
Everything inside Lil stilled. Nancy wasn’t talking about a rescue. Not with that laugh.
“What did you say?”
Nancy shrugged, winced. “Your knight in shining armor. We can only hope. He’s near, don’t you think? He’s working with someone right? Or he’s investigating something related to Degas and he’s gotten too close. Degas wants David. There has to be a reason.”
Why would Degas want David? This was business. Nothing personal. Or maybe not. She looked hard at Nancy and wondered if her former friend was fishing for information to feed Degas?
“Degas is after David?”
“He has to be.”
And he’d get him through her and Anna.
She had to stop him.
Their door opened before she had a chance to figure out how.
Degas walked inside, a ring of keys clinking at his side. A silver gun at his waist.
He looked at Anna. Stared hard. She met his eyes, and Lil was proud. Fear was an aphrodisiac to this maniac. Good for Anna.
Degas smiled almost gently. “You have the look of your mother.”
Anna stiffened, her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t answer him. That too seemed to make him happy.
After a few seconds he turned to Lil, unlocked her cuffs, grabbed her arm and turned her to face Nancy and Miguel.
“You have a choice, Miss Palmer.”
His voice was soft, cultured, evil.
She didn’t speak. He’d give her the choice soon enough.
It didn’t take long.
“You can come with me now, quietly, no fight, and we leave your friend Nancy, your student Miguel and your boyfriend’s sister to meet their fates. Rescue or capture by my men, whichever comes first.”
He pushed her across the room now, away from Anna, near the others.
“That’s not a choice.” She couldn’t leave Anna. Or Miguel. Or even Nancy. Not like this.
He laughed and he sounded almost sane.
“Of course it’s a choice.”
“I leave with you or…”
“Oh Miss Palmer. You don’t want me to answer that. Not really.”
She saw the fierce pride in Miguel’s face as he stared at the man who’d murdered his family. She saw the skepticism in Anna’s eyes as she stared at the monster she’d only heard horror stories about.
“You know they’re close, Lil. David was picking you up.” Anna said the words as a threat, a taunt. Lil didn’t know which. She just wished Anna hadn’t given Degas the information.
“You have three seconds.”
She didn’t have time to answer. Didn’t have time to even comprehend his words before his hand snaked out, sliced through the air and caught Nancy’s face with the edge of his ring. Her lip split, blood splattered across Lil’s shirt as Nancy’s face swung sideways.
Everyone cried out and Degas turned back to Lil. Removed the gun from a holster. “She dies next. Decide now.”
“I’ll go. I’ll go. I’ll go.” Lil practically screamed the words. Somewhere in the background she heard the click of his gun, saw him put it back to his side.
Nancy’s eyes were filled with pity and she wondered if her old friend had wanted her to challenge the man, the monster, Degas. “I’ll go.” She said it again.
Challenging him with Nancy would lead to Miguel and then Anna. She couldn’t do it.
“I’ll go.” She said one last time. And then he was pushing her out of the room. She turned back once. In the room Anna looked terrified and alone. Miguel looked beaten and furious. Nancy was simply blank.
Degas had cancelled her out even though he’d left her alive.
They would be there. David and Ryan or Ortiz. She had to believe. It was the only way she could make her feet move forward.
David rode with Ortiz. He didn’t care if he ever spoke to Ryan again. The agent had been almost gleeful at the news of Lil’s disappearance. They were closing in on Degas. The monster of San Mario would soon be eliminated.
David didn’t give a damn about Degas right this minute. He wanted Lil safe. He wanted her back. He’d kill Degas with his bare hands if the man hurt her.
They neared the border, lights flashing and the appropriate Mexican authorities met the caravan of cars, led them closer to their destination.
His phone rang just before they reached the border. His first thought was Lil. His second his family. He checked the number, saw it was his mother.
He should let it go. She didn’t need to know, and she would. Somehow she’d know exactly what was going on.
His voice mail picked up and his phone rang again. She wasn’t giving up. He clicked through. Started to tell her he was busy. But she didn’t let him speak.
Her voice was hysterical as she cried. “Anna is gone, David. She’s gone.”
He didn’t need this now. Not now. “Mamà, she’s not gone. She’s just….”
“No, David, she’s gone. Mr. Miller called. He told me Degas has her. He’s got her and he’s got Lil too. Your brother’s calling the police. I’m calling you.”
He had Anna too. David closed his eyes and bit back a curse as fear coursed through him.
Ortiz looked at him, the question in his eyes.
He tried to reassure his mother. “I’m with Detective Ortiz now, Mamà. We’re going to get them. I gotta let you go.”
He ended the call but not before he heard his mother crying. Heard her beg him to be careful.
Damn this man.
“He’s got my sister too.”
Ortiz never flinched. His face never changed.
They crossed the border behind the other cars, trucks and SUVs, lights flashing. Usually they’d have to stop. But this time they had a destination and the courtesy of a Mexican police escort.
“Miller called my mother. Wonder how he knew?”
Ortiz didn’t crack. Didn’t let on what he knew about the principal at all.
But he did give him news. “Your sister saw Nancy Valdez last night. She’s a loose end.”
“She saw Nancy?”
“At the Tejano concert.”
Dammit. He’d told her not to go.
“I’ll kill him.” After he said the words, David wondered if they were smart.
Ortiz was a cop. Murder was murder.
“If you go in there panicked, you’re going to screw up, David. You go in if and only if you can do it right.”
Right? What the hell was right in a situation like this? Killing Degas was just and fair and it damn sure felt right.
“I’m with you. But I swear if he hurts Lil or my sister…”
“One step at a time. Let’s get where we’re going, worry about the rest later.”
The rest. Ortiz thought Degas had hurt them.
David willed the cars to go faster.
A few minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of one of the churches Solidad’s papers had led them to.
Agents and SWAT in full battle gear jumped from their vehicles. They’d planned for this moment, but they hadn’t shared the plan over radio waves. They couldn’t chance Degas knowing ahead of time.
Of course, David figured that was a waste anyway. The man had people on the inside on both sides of the border.
The echoes of his mother’s tearful pleas sounded in his ears as he followed Ortiz to Ryan and another team of federal officers.
“We got him, David. Lil did good,” Ryan said.
David fought to keep his hands at his side. Lil could be dead because of this mess.
“Miller called my mother. They have Anna too.”
Ryan frowned. Ran a hand over his forehead. “Miller’s been apprehended by now. Damn. Your sister’s in there too?”
David could tell he knew already. But then Ryan knew everything about this case. He was determined to take down Degas regardless of the cost.
The officers laid out the tactical maneuvers, and David watched somehow feeling separate from the action.
Anna and Lil were in there with that madman.
It was his fault. He should’ve taken Rafe away the minute he’d gotten to the school. Lil didn’t need to be involved. Now she was captive. He should’ve told his family the entire truth. The way Lil had wanted to. Maybe then Anna wouldn’t be in there.
The authorities moved forward and he started to follow, but Ortiz stopped him. “You’re a civilian, Martinez.” He handed him a two-way radio. “I’ll call you when we’re ready.”
David paced outside the vehicles. Listened to shouts unanswered, doors slamming open.
