by Linda Ladd
Novak let her in. The other woman waited on the porch. Leslie glanced around the room then looked up at him. “So I hear you guys had some fun at the judge’s house.”
“Not so much, but we got Judith out, so you’re welcome,” Lori said, frowning. It appeared she already didn’t care for Leslie Taylor.
“From what I could ascertain from my undercover guy in Hennessey’s employ, Locke called him and also alerted his buddies at Galveston PD. My man said Locke’s keeping your little home invasion quiet so he can kill you himself. They know somebody broke in and took his daughter and his granddaughters. He said his dirty cops were scouring the city as we speak. They don’t know your name yet, but they do know you’re big and tall and grabbed some of the judge’s confidential papers. He’s most upset about his orchids. Want to tell me what the hell you’re thinking before you end up dead, Novak?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you?” Then she looked at Judith. “I’m FBI Special Agent Leslie Taylor. Your children are fine and waiting for you in a safe place. I understand you have some information that will put your father behind bars. Is that correct?”
“More than enough.”
“Good. We’ll go over those documents when we get you to the safe house, and then you and your little girls will effectively disappear off the face of the earth. That will happen before we go in and arrest Judge Locke. Any questions you’d like to ask me?”
“Where are they? Didn’t you bring them with you?”
“I thought it safer not to. They are waiting anxiously for you, believe me.” She turned to Novak. “If you’ve got incriminating evidence you filched tonight and want to donate it to our case, please don’t hesitate. Meanwhile, my advice? Watch your back and don’t do anything that reckless and stupid again or you’ll probably end up in a morgue, or best-case scenario, I’ll be forced to arrest you. Hope you have a Plan B in the works.”
“We’re going after Frank’s daughter. We’re going to find her and bring down Timothy Hennessey and the judge any way we have to. Just so you know.”
Leslie’s eyes were hard. Then she laughed, the cold, mocking one that he remembered so well. “Okay, best of luck with that. We’ve been trying to take Hennessey down for years. Anybody brave enough to work for that sadistic, psycho maniac is too scared to turn evidence on him. And Hennessey’s clever enough not to make stupid mistakes. We’ve tried to infiltrate his organization before and ended up with three dead agents whose bodies have yet to be discovered. We’ve got one man in there, so don’t think you can blow his cover and get by with it. Just so you know.”
“So if we need help, you will come through for us, right?”
“C’mon, Novak, you know good and well that there’s no way in hell I can promise you that, or anything else. Your handing over a material witness against a crooked judge won’t hurt your chances of our cooperation, but I can’t make any guarantees that you won’t be charged if you commit crimes. Which you’ve already done, by the way. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is.”
“Good enough. We mean to take them down. I wanted to give you fair warning.”
“Better to keep incriminating threats like that to yourself.”
“I’m going to kill the bastard who’s got my daughter,” Frank told her. His face was quite calm, but his voice betrayed him.
“If he doesn’t, I will,” Lori added.
Leslie looked at each of them in turn. “I think you three need to get yourselves under control. I do not want to arrest you and send you to prison. Get your acts together now. Understand me?”
Novak said, “Don’t worry about us. Worry about keeping Judith and the kids alive.”
“You won’t be on my mind, not after what you’ve done. I’ve got plenty else on my hands to worry about. Are you ready to go, Ms. Locke?”
Judith nodded. “Can you assure me that my children will be safe with you?”
“Of course. This is what’s going to happen. We will transport you to the safe house where you’ll reunite with your girls. Once there, I’ll need to interview you on tape, and you’ll have to look over and sign legal documents and subject yourself to an in-depth interrogation. Are you willing to do that?”
“I am ready to do whatever it takes to keep my father away from my children.”
“I understand. Do you have luggage?”
“Only the clothes in my backpack and this briefcase.”
“Anything you need, we can provide for you and your children. We need to go, though, right now.”
Judith hugged Lori tightly and thanked them profusely. Then they all walked outside and watched Leslie settle Judith in the back seat of the middle car between two armed agents. Novak took hold of Leslie’s arm and pulled her aside. He spoke quietly. “How about sending me a list of Hennessey’s real estate holdings in Houston? You’ve probably already got that on file. And a list of his and Locke’s known associates? Sure would help me out.”
“How soon do you need it?”
“Tonight. Within the hour?”
“What exactly are you planning to do?”
“I told you. We’re going to go get Lucy, no matter what it takes.”
“How?”
“You don’t want to know the details, Leslie.”
“I understand how you feel about that kid, Novak, believe me. I’ve been investigating these two bastards for three years. But you gotta know that I’ll come after you if you break the law, right?” She stared at him until he answered.
“Take good care of Judith and those little girls. They’ve been through a lot. Locke’s going to come after them with everything he’s got, and when he finds them, he’ll probably kill Judith, along with you and anyone else around you. He’s a vindictive man. Judith’s terrified he’ll find her.”
“Not on my watch. We can protect them.”
“You gonna send me those lists, or not? I’ve got another possible source if you can’t.”
“Who?”
“That’s classified.” The source was Claire, but he hadn’t heard from her or Harve yet.
“Right. Okay, I’ll think about it. I’m not making any promises.”
Novak watched her climb into the front seat of Judith’s vehicle. The caravan took off in a crunch of gravel, and Novak watched them until the last vehicle was out of sight. Okay, first problem solved. Time to move on. Finding Lucy wasn’t going to be easy. There was a distinct possibility that they’d never find her, and he knew it. She might already be out of the country. Frank was hanging on by a thread as it was. If they didn’t find the teenager soon, he was going off the deep end. Their odds were not so good, all things considered. He turned and walked back into the house, ready to get answers. He didn’t really care how. Not anymore.
Chapter 17
They talked late into the night, all of them concerned about Judith, even more worried now about Lucy, not sure how anything was going to turn out. Novak rose at first light; the others slept in, exhausted. Fine with him, they needed to rest; the going was about to get tough. He could function on a few hours, had never required much sleep. He put on a pot of strong coffee to keep him alert. He had research to do and a lot to think about.
He retrieved the papers he’d taken out of Locke’s home office and opened the first manila folder. He flipped through quickly and found it held photographs of teenage girls, some preteens, probably. Some extremely sick sadists and pedophiles had Lucy in their clutches. He had to get her out before she sustained irreparable damage to her body, mind, and mental stability. Sorting quickly through the other files, he was terrified he’d find her face among those pitiful photographs. He could never let Caloroso see them. That would be too much for him to bear. He’d go to pieces; his own imagined fears were enough. After a few minutes sorting through them, he did find a file with Lucy’s name and photograph. She ha
d her own individual folder. The tab was labeled Lucy C. – Special Case. Lucy did not appear under the influence of drugs. She had been separated out and treated differently, and that was the only good news to date.
Instead, she looked defiant. Scowling, her jaw jutted, she glared into the camera with both hands planted on her hips. There was an ugly bruise on her left cheekbone that somebody had attempted to disguise with flesh-colored makeup. It was obvious that she was not giving her captors an easy time. Novak realized he was clenching his teeth. His jaw ached from it. She was resisting, that was obvious. Novak wasn’t surprised. She was a sweet, lovely child, but also had a deep-rooted independent streak and a mind of her own. That propensity had shown itself even when she was a small child. She’d inherited that from Frank. He had raised her to be spunky and self-reliant and street-smart. That could mean she might manage to escape, but it was unlikely.
Novak removed Lucy’s picture and placed the others back inside the folder. He kept it on the table in front of him. He leaned back in the kitchen chair and sat there staring at Lucy’s face, letting his anger fuel his determination. He was ready to do anything it took to get her back unharmed. He had to take Locke and Hennessey down before Frank found them and murdered them. In that moment, Novak couldn’t think of a reason he shouldn’t be allowed to do it. He inhaled deeply and then blew it out. After that, he folded up the photo of his friend’s child and placed it inside his wallet.
By the time Frank shuffled into the kitchen and sat down at the table, looking haggard and bewhiskered, Novak had conquered his emotion. He got up and poured his friend a cup of coffee. He placed it down in front of the exhausted man and said, “You get any sleep this time?”
“Not much. You find anything about Lucy in those files you took?”
Novak avoided answering that question. “I think Hennessey’s behind the sex trafficking and Locke’s a customer as well as a partner.”
Frank’s eyes found Novak’s face. “Did you find Lucy in there?”
“She’s leverage. They’ll handle her with kid gloves.”
“I feel sick to my stomach.”
So did Novak. “Yeah, I know.”
“I feel like shit.”
“You aren’t sleeping. You aren’t eating. You need to lay off the booze and take better care of yourself. You need a clear mind to do what comes next.”
Frank just stared at him, silent.
So Novak got up and started fixing breakfast, just to have something to do. When the bacon was sizzling, he got out the eggs, but he kept his attention on Frank, who sat at the table with his face buried inside his open palms. He was on the edge of a complete breakdown. “You want to know what’s going to happen next, Frank? We’re going out there, and we’re going to kick ass, and then we’re going to rescue Lucy and every other girl, every single one of them, and then we’re going to take them home.”
Frank turned around in his chair. He looked more interested now.
“We’ve wasted enough time. Tonight, we go in after Hennessey and mess him up in ways he won’t expect. Claire Morgan texted me the locations of his properties in Houston late last night. I think that’s where they keep these girls. Leslie didn’t come through. So we are going in and taking them out.”
“How the hell did Claire get that kind of info? Isn’t she in Italy?”
“You know her. She’s got contacts and she uses them.” The food smelled good. Novak was hungry. He poured the eggs into the skillet. “She’s got friends everywhere. Including Jacques Montenegro.”
“Montenegro is a New Orleans mobster.”
“He’s also Claire’s brother-in-law and has helped us before.”
“You shittin’ me? Your partner is part of a NOLA crime family.”
Novak laughed. Even the idea was ludicrous. “Not Claire. Her husband. Both of them are on the right side and totally legit. Jacques intercedes if we bump up against his mob friends. He’s a good ally to have if you’re a PI. He’s trying to go legitimate; at least that’s what Nick Black keeps telling me.”
“I think I want to meet that partner of yours. She sounds like somebody I need to know. Way I see it? Hennessey’s gonna be hard pressed to get to. He’s a ruthless SOB and so are his men. I’ve tangled with some of them, and they don’t play fair.”
“I say we hit them tonight and cost him some serious cash flow problems and give his business a severe setback. Get his attention where it hurts him most. Find the girls he’s running and get them back to their families.” He stirred the eggs and pushed down the toast. “Good news is: Locke didn’t report my little visit. I left him thinking it was Hennessey who messed him up. Don’t know if he’ll buy that without proof, but Judith already told us he’s paranoid about the guy. Maybe we’ll get lucky. The fact that he’s holding our raid so close to his vest is a good sign. That might mean he wants to exact payback for the insult himself. Hopefully, that will come down on Hennessey’s head. If he doesn’t do that, we will. I want to turn them against each other. So we’ll keep hitting them both in their bottom lines until they declare war. If Lucy’s being held in one of Hennessey’s houses, we could have her back tonight.”
“Then I’m all in. Just tell me what you want me to do.” For the first time, Frank looked hopeful.
“So am I. I’m ready to go now.” That came from Lori, who now stood in the hall doorway.
“Good. I need you both. So let’s eat something and prepare to move out tonight. I’m counting on you having enough weapons and ammo to pull this off, Frank. It just might turn into a war before it’s over.”
Caloroso actually grinned. First time Novak had seen that since he’d shown up. “I’ve got everything we need, plus some. All locked up down in the cellar and out in the barn. I’ve got two Kevlar vests and some hand grenades if we’re getting serious.”
“You expecting a war, or what?” Lori asked him, joining Frank at the table.
“It is war. I’m always prepared for emergencies. Never know who might show up with a long memory.”
Novak nodded. “I’m thinking we’re going to need plenty of that ammo.”
“Got it stockpiled. All calibers. Never know when you need it.”
“We have to plan out how to hit his houses and in what order. We’ll go in fast and get out fast and take everybody down. We can’t let them get ahead of us and be waiting when we show up at the next place. We’re outnumbered, to say the least. But we’re better trained, which just might even the odds.”
“Just so we find Lucy, that’s all I care about.”
“There’s no guarantee that’s happening tonight, Frank, but my gut tells me she’s still in Houston or maybe down in Galveston, most likely under heavy guard. She’s an important pawn, and they might threaten her life if we strike this hard. So we need to find her tonight at all costs.”
“If we don’t, I’ll make them tell me where she is.”
As far as Novak was concerned, Frank could do that and with any method he chose. He was fully capable of making somebody talk.
They discussed how it would go down as they ate, and then they got quiet, preparing mentally for the night to come. Novak got a few more hours of sleep, but Caloroso and Lori stayed up, neither able to relax. They were both on edge and wired up on caffeine, which could be good or bad. Caloroso had laid off the whiskey, so that was a good sign. Novak was hoping their nerves would act to keep their minds keen.
Later that afternoon, they spread out a map of the greater Houston area. Novak pointed to the locations that he’d marked off earlier with a red circle. “You familiar with any of these towns, Frank?”
Frank studied the markings. “Yeah, I’ve worked in some of them. Which one are we hitting tonight?”
“All of them.”
Lori wasn’t so sure about that. “We can’t hit that many houses in one night. We don’t have the manpower, and the minute t
hey get out the word of an attack, they’ll be waiting for us. It would be suicide.”
“It’s gotta be all or nothing. We’re going for surprise, so we have to go in fast, destroy everything we see, and hopefully find Lucy and get her and the other girls out. She’s bound to be at one of his properties, because she wasn’t at Locke’s.” He leveled his eyes on Caloroso. “You need to prepare yourself, Frank, because they may have already moved her out of state. From what I’ve seen and heard, they constantly keep these girls in transit and don’t let them know where they are or where they’ve been. They’ve got stash houses throughout Texas and the surrounding states.”
“Well, I don’t think they’ll take her very far,” Lori said. “She’s their bargaining chip. So far, Frank’s been staying out of sight. They think their threat of hurting her is working.”
“Hopefully, they’ll turn on each other.”
“To depend on that is risky. If Locke accuses Hennessey, he might expect to be hit. They’ll be ready for us, and they’ll pull Lucy out or use her to stop us.”
“We’ll move too fast for that,” Novak said.
“No matter what else, we have to find her before they move her,” Frank said.
Novak needed to make something clear. He wasn’t particularly worried about Lori going off half-cocked, but Frank could. “Listen to me, Frank. You cannot go crazy and screw things up tonight. If you can’t control that rage eating you up inside, you need to stay here and let Lori and me handle it. More important, if you lose your cool, it could cost Lucy her life. So are you still in? Can you do that?”
Frank was incensed at the affront. Angry, his face flushed hot under tanned skin. “I’m not going to do anything stupid. My daughter’s life is at stake. I’m good to go, and you can count on me. When have you ever seen me lose it?”
