by Robin Mahle
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It seemed long lines were everywhere today as Kate now waited to approach the buffet counter in the campus cafeteria. Perhaps it was that her patience had worn thin throughout the course of the day and it was culminating in a growing frustration with people in general.
Or it was the fact that she hadn’t yet heard from Agent Scarborough. Either way, her stomach was rumbling and irritation was setting in. As she waited, Kate surveyed the room for an open table, preferably one at the back where she could be away from the chatter. It wasn’t just her fellow-trainees that were there. Quantico offered training and other similar resources to a multitude of law enforcement agencies. Right now, Kate saw a whole lot of people wearing DEA shirts.
On further inspection, she noticed Will sitting with a few of their classmates. He’d behaved in a very respectful and professional manner, of which Kate was most appreciative. A twinge of guilt still surged inside her at the recollection of her actions.
Kate approached the counter and began to dish out her meal. The food wasn’t bad here and she was hungry, so she piled it on pretty high.
Stepping away from the buffet, she spotted a small table in the back corner. Perfect. The sun dangled low in the sky and its light caught her eyes as she sat down, placing her phone next to the tray of food. She continued to glance at it with high hopes, but it remained silent while she ate her dinner.
A reflection appeared in the window as she stared out among the grounds of the campus. A moment’s hesitation gripped her and then Kate finally turned to see Will standing next to her table. A smile acknowledging his presence appeared, but nothing more until she could swallow the food in her mouth.
“Can I sit down?”
She nodded, grabbing a napkin to dab her lips. Finally, she answered, “Sure.”
“Why didn’t you come join us? I thought you saw me wave you over?” Will asked.
“I didn’t. I’m sorry.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it.” Will folded his arms across the table. “So, any news from Agent Scarborough yet?”
“No.” Kate glanced longingly at her darkened phone.
“He’ll be in touch soon enough. These things take time, I’m sure.”
Will turned away and the two were silent for a moment, both staring out the window. He turned back to her. “Do you think we can just forget about the other night?” he asked. “Because I see now that it wasn’t the right thing to do and I really like having you for a friend. I don’t want to screw that up, if I haven’t already.”
“You haven’t, Will. And I would like for us to still be friends. I need your friendship probably a lot more than you need mine.”
“I doubt that, but thanks. You know, for what it’s worth, I think you’re an incredibly strong woman and you will make a great agent.”
Kate’s heart lightened at his words. She smiled in reply.
He slapped the table. “All right, enough of that.”
Will was a lot like her. He was pretty good at downplaying his feelings too. She could stop now. Let it go and move forward as his friend. It wouldn’t change what she’d done, but it meant she still had someone to lean on—for now.
“Enough of the mushy sentiments,” he continued. “We’re supposed to be NATs, right?”
Kate began to laugh and felt eased by his offer of resolution. Although everyone in her class were called NATs, the image of an actual gnat always appeared in her mind when the instructors used the term. It was the little things like this that made her feel normal, and the laughter was sorely needed.
The tension finally broke, and optimal timing as usual, her phone sprang to life on the table. Kate looked at it and then to Will.
“Guess you’d better get that.”
She picked up the call. “This is Reid.” As she listened to the caller, her brow furrowed. A moment later, a brief grin formed on her lips. “Yeah, I can be there in a few hours. Thank you, Agent Scarborough.”
Kate ended the call and inhaled a deep breath. She looked at Will again. He appeared eager to be informed of the exchange. “I’ve got to go to Richmond tonight.”
“Really? What’s going on?”
“Apparently, a young girl I met a couple weeks ago wants to see me. I guess she’s got some information, but she only wants to talk to me.”
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With little traffic on the darkened highway, Kate was making good time and expected to be at the station in Richmond within minutes. Earlier, Scarborough had emailed her the audio transcript of the woman claiming to know the victim in Virginia Beach, Madlena.
With the Bluetooth connected, the audio file began to play over the speakers. The woman’s accent was thick, Romanian perhaps? Kate was no expert in eastern European dialect, but the inflections were just slightly different from what she recalled when she listened to Gregor and Nicola Bjuric. But one tone was most discernable: fear.
She went on to describe to the detective how it felt like her friends were being picked off, one by one. Some of them worked in the local strip clubs and on the streets like she did, but a couple worked in the shops, bakeries, florists, and the like, mostly in the back and mostly out of sight. This woman feared deportation, but she feared being the next to go missing even more.
“They were just gone,” she said. “I was starting to think that immigration had caught up with them, but then I still saw their families, brothers, sisters, moms. There are posters everywhere that the families are putting up on walls and streetlights. Anywhere they can find a place for them. I don’t know what’s happening. They’re just gone.”
As Kate’s eyes fixed on the sparsely illuminated highway, she was reminded of the kinship she felt towards these women. They were here to start a new life. To be given a new beginning, only to find themselves being taken against their will into an inexplicable life of sexual servitude. And if the discovery of Madlena’s body was any indication, the women were being drugged in order to keep them contained and unable to put up a fight.
The thought of finding the men who held so little value for women, selling them off to those who valued them even less—these thieves of hope—was growing stronger.
She stopped the recording and finished the journey in silence.
It was approaching nine o’clock before Kate reached the Richmond police station. Nick stood outside, clutching a paper cup with steam rising upwards. Her headlights shone in his eyes and he squinted as she pulled into the parking spot directly in front of him. She killed the lights and opened her car door.
Nick pushed off the wall and approached. “Looks like you made quite the impression on this little girl.”
“She’s still here?”
“Yes.” He headed toward the entrance. “Her mother is here too, but he doesn’t speak much English.” Nick tossed the cup into the garbage can in front of the door. “Coffee tastes like shit.”
Kate followed him inside. “What should I ask her?” Interrogation was a process that Kate was only just learning in her training. And this was different. Nicola was a witness. And a child.
“She wants to talk to you, so just let her talk. Don’t ask any questions. Not yet. You’re here to listen.”
“Got it.”
If the local police were trying to avoid intimidating the girl, they didn’t seem to be doing a very good job. They had her and her mother inside one of the interview rooms. If she’d had her choice, Kate would have preferred to put the child in a conference room. But she supposed they would need to record her statement and this was the best place for that.
“Ladies first,” Nick said as he held the door to the interview room.
An instant smile appeared on the girl’s face and she leaned over to her mother and said something in Croatian. Kate assumed it was something to the effect that she was the one they were waiting for.
“Hi, Nicola. It’s very nice to see you again.” Kate pulled a chair from beneath the table and sat down.
“Hello, Agent Reid,” the girl replied.
“I’m not an agent yet. You can call me Kate.” She laced her fingers together, resting them on the table. “I understand you wanted to talk to me about something?”
Nicola looked at her mother. The exchange was easily recognizable. It was that of a mother giving approval.
Nicola began to pick at her fingernails. “I overheard something on Saturday. I was in my room when my brothers came home.”
“Gregor and Vito?” Kate asked.
She nodded. The mother placed her hand over the top of Nicola’s and shook her head. Nicola stopped picking at her nails.
Kate sensed her apprehension. They all did. And she looked at Nick with a silent inquiry. He nodded his approval to proceed.
“It’s okay, Nicola. You can talk to me. You aren’t in any trouble.”
“I don’t want my family to be sent back home. Are you going to send us home?”
“No, honey.” Kate reached out for Nicola’s hand. “No one is going to send you or any member of your family away.” She cast a brief glance to Nick, wondering if she should have implied such a statement.
“I think my brother, Vito.” A breath of air filled her lungs. “I think he might be involved with those girls who died in that house.”
Kate looked to Nick again. He wasn’t going to offer any more help. She was on her own. “What makes you think that, Nicola?”
“They were talking about finding more of them.”
“More girls?” Kate asked.
She nodded. “I think so. Vito said if they didn’t have more by tonight, then they would be in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“I’m not sure, but I think they might be killed.”
“Nicola,” Kate began. “This is very important. You said they had to find more by tonight. Do you know where they were going to find these girls?”
“No. But Vito said it had to be tonight.”
FIFTEEN
A logical start to the search for the Bjuric brothers as well as the potential victims they were attempting to acquire was at one of the many gentlemen’s clubs in the city, a place that promoted fantasy, desire, and perhaps, if one was willing to pay the price, favors to fulfill such fantasies. This was Detective Garrett’s city and he was well versed in the reputations of these places. Some catered to a more sophisticated client – i.e. ones with money – while others catered to those of less discriminating tastes.
It was those establishments that Garrett believed would most likely hire a staff member of questionable background or no background at all. This was where he and Agent Scarborough would start.
Meanwhile, the order came down for Kate to stay with Nicola and her mother at the police station. She wasn’t happy about the order, but Nicola was afraid and she only trusted Kate. Her only consolation was the reminder that she was not yet a full-fledged federal agent and so her powers and abilities were limited. She couldn’t hold that against her mentor.
Garrett and Scarborough approached the bar where a man with slicked back hair and a square jaw tended to the thirsty customers, or at least changed out their twenty-dollar bills for ones. Garrett leaned in, resting his forearm on the bar’s edge.
He held a picture of the two brothers and one of James Corbett. “Good evening. I was wondering if you could help me out.” Garrett retrieved his badge from his wallet and laid it on the bar. The man seemed unimpressed.
“Can you tell me if you’ve seen any of these men in here before? Specifically, have they been in here tonight?” He placed the photos over his badge.
The bartender picked up each picture and appeared to study them for a length of time that would be considered suitable. He shook his head.
“You sure?” Garrett continued. “I understand they were in here looking for something very particular.”
“What’s that?” the square-jawed man replied.
“A few young, pretty eastern Europeans. Croatian, Slovenian, maybe Romanians. That general area.”
The man only shrugged his shoulders. Although difficult to tell for sure in the scant light, and he used too few words to decipher any sort of accent, but it seemed possible that his olive skin and brown hair suggested he was of similar origin.
It appeared Garrett was hoping to draw out some sort of kinship or loyalty from the man, but it wasn’t working. At this, Nick decided to offer some assistance. He set his badge next to the pictures and this seemed to get the man’s attention.
“Are you sure you haven’t seen any of these men? If not tonight, maybe they were here on another night?” Nick said.
The bartender picked up the picture of Vito and began to reconsider his earlier hasty conclusion. “This one. He was here a few hours ago.”
“Did he talk to any of the girls? The dancers?” Garrett asked.
“A couple of the girls who had just finished their shifts left with him. I don’t know anything more than that.”
“Willingly?” Nick asked.
“They weren’t kicking and screaming, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Thank you. You’ve been very helpful.” Nick snatched his badge and the pictures off the bar top. “We’ll be in touch if we need anything else.”
“I look forward to it.” The man revealed a contemptuous grin.
Garrett pushed open the door, exiting the club to the sounds of cars rushing by, street peddlers, and music from a nearby nightclub. “The brothers must have split up. He said he only recognized Vito.”
The two approached Garrett’s car. Before Nick stepped inside, he retrieved his cell. “This is SSA Scarborough with the Washington Field Office. Can you put me through to ASAC Lansing? Thank you.” He waited for Garrett to unlock the car door and slid into the passenger seat. “Yes, ASAC Lansing, this is SSA Scarborough. I need a favor. A big one.”
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Kate pulled onto the drive of Nicola’s home. The girl had already fallen asleep in the backseat of the car. Her mother stepped out of the front passenger seat and opened the back door to wake Nicola.
“Let me help you get her inside.” Kate stepped out and walked around to the other side while Nicola’s mother was attempting to rouse the tired girl.
The house was dark except for a single source of light that shone through the front room window.
Kate glanced to the window. “Did you leave the light on?” she asked the woman.
“No.”
According to Scarborough and Garrett, the brothers were together somewhere, but hadn’t yet been located. Kate’s concern rose, as did her pulse with uncertainty. With one eye on the illuminated window, she continued to assist in getting Nicola awake and out of the car. She looked to Nicola. “Tell your mom that you two need to stay right here, okay?”
Nicola seemed fully awake as if she sensed Kate’s apprehension and nodded her agreement.
Kate placed her hand on her weapon and stepped carefully to the front porch. Her other hand reached for the door handle to check if the door was locked. It was. The curtains were closed, but as she approached the window, a small parting exposed a fraction of the room inside, but she could see no one.
Returning towards the two still huddled next to Kate’s car, she tried to appear calm, but her palms were sweating and she recalled how similar this felt to the operations training she’d experienced. And how she’d failed. “Do you have a key?”
Nicola turned to her mother and asked the same question. A moment later, a key emerged from the woman’s purse and she handed it to Kate.
Kate stepped with caution towards the front door. This time, she inserted the key and it clicked open. “FBI. Identify yourself.”
She pressed the door open a little more, bringing into view the living room of the small home. “FBI. Identify yourself.”
Still, no one answered. Kate drew her weapon and stepped over the threshold, elbowing the door further for a better view. Behind the armchair in the living room stood a kid, trembling with a gun in his hands. It was Gregor Bjuric.
“Gregor. It’s Kate Reid. You remember me? I need you to put your weapon down. I’m not here for you. I’ve got your sister and mother outside.”
“Why are you here then?” His fractured English seemed even more so underneath his fear.
“Gregor, put the gun down and we can talk, okay? You don’t want to frighten your little sister, do you?”
“Nicola? She knows, and my mother?”
Kate nodded. “Where is Vito?”
“I don’t know.” His eyes were starting to pool with tears and his brow began to form tiny droplets of moisture.
“Gregor, it’s okay. Calm down. Please—put the gun down. I promise you, I am not here to hurt you or take you from your family. I just want to talk to you.” This was what she was training for, but her confidence wavered. “You were very helpful before and I need your help now, but I can’t talk to you with that gun in your hand. Do you understand?”
He raised the gun higher and it now pointed toward Kate’s head. He was shaking so violently that she feared he would accidentally fire. “I didn’t want to take them. I swear, but he would have killed us.”
Her life was in his hands, but she couldn’t let him see her panic. Kate gripped her own weapon harder, and released the safety. “Put the gun down.” This time, her words came across with steely conviction.
The click of the safety release seemed to get his attention. “Okay, okay.” Gregor finally began to lower his gun. “But you have to keep my family safe. Promise me.”
“I’ll keep them safe, Gregor. Let’s just sit down and talk for a minute.” Kate took a step forward.
The frightened kid placed the gun on the seat of the chair in front of him.
A momentary inclination to collapse overcame her, but Kate steadied herself. The gun was still within his reach and this would not be over until it was in her hands. Kate walked to the chair, her eyes never leaving his. She lowered herself down, still aiming the weapon at his chest. Once his gun was firmly in her hands, her heart started again. “I’m going to bring your mother and sister inside now, okay? Just sit down and relax so we can talk.”
