No Escape

by Heather Lowell

  Tessa looked at each man as if trying to judge his sincerity. “You’re not helping me here—or yourselves. If you want a deal, I need information that can actually lead me to Kelly.”

  “There’s a girl at the club who might know where Kelly is,” Jerry said slowly. “Crystal is always plugged into what’s going on. She kind of took Kelly under her wing, was showing her the ropes, you know? And she was there yesterday, so she might know where Otis was taking Kelly.”

  “Crystal who? How do I get in touch with her?” Tessa asked.

  “She’s a dancer at Club Red,” Sledge offered. “You can’t miss her.”

  “Yeah, she has blue hair. Goes by the name Crystal Bleu,” Jerry added. “Ricky trusts her—she’s been with him forever. Well, a couple of years, anyway. She’s the one who trains the girls and helps them pick out costumes, nicknames, and their particular trademarks, like her own blue hair.”

  “You told me she was helping to train Kelly,” Tessa said. “What for? If you want to cut any deals, you’re going to have to break down the operation for us and help us prove what was going on.”

  “What do you mean?” Jerry asked.

  “You’ll have to reveal how you entrap young girls and force them to become strippers and prostitutes for your little club,” Luke said from the doorway. He and Ronnie finally came into the kitchen, figuring that since the information was flowing there was no need to hang back anymore.

  “It was Ricky’s idea,” Jerry said reluctantly. “I just helped him get what he wanted.”

  “Which was?” Tessa asked.

  “Thoroughbreds,” Jerry replied. “Prime, young girls—preferably blondes—who didn’t have the hard edge that a lot of the strippers and prostitutes get after a few years in the business. To keep the high-rolling customers happy, Ricky needed a constant supply of fresh meat—girls,” he corrected himself with a wince.

  “Girls you were happy to provide to men like Sledge. How did you do it?” Tessa asked. “How did you get a fifteen-year-old girl like Kelly to turn tricks for you?”

  “By lying to her,” Jerry admitted. “She thought she was going on a date with a star who had Hollywood connections. She thought Sledge was going to help her get a recording contract.”

  “And what did Sledge think he was getting?” Tessa asked as she looked at him.

  “A date,” he said. “Jerry assured me that Kelly had been broken in and knew what was expected of her. In return for sleeping with me, she gets to hang in my circle, maybe goes to a few parties where she could make some contacts.”

  “You both are disgusting,” Tessa said tiredly. “But that’s beside the point right now. How did you meet Kelly in the first place, and how many others like her are there?”

  Jerry sighed. “We can only train one or two girls at a time. Keeping the supply low ensures a high demand, you know? It’s a business decision.”

  “And when you’re done with the girl?” Luke asked.

  “Once a girl has been around for a while, or is no longer in high demand with the customers, we usually sign her up for dancing shifts if she’s over eighteen. Or maybe ship her to another club where she’d be a new commodity. If the girl is young, we’ll use her to recruit others like Kelly from bus or train stations, maybe even the beach and the malls.”

  “That’s how you found Kelly,” Tessa said. “At the bus station.”

  “Sure. One of the girls who knows the score was waiting for new arrivals at the downtown bus terminal. You can pick the runaways out from the crowd real easy. So she befriended Kelly, bought her coffee and a sandwich, talked with her about how rotten parents can be, you know. Then she invited Kelly to crash with her at my place until she found her own pad. When I opened the door and saw Kelly’s face, I knew she was going to be a great addition to the club.”

  “So you groomed a fifteen-year-old runaway to service men like Sledge Aiken,” Tessa said.

  “Hey, I’m not the bad guy, here.” Sledge ran an agitated hand through his trademark red-brown hair. “Why don’t you ask Jerry about how he broke her in for me? I don’t do virgins, so Jerry gave her a little on-the-job training. Don’t make it sound like I’m the only one using these girls.”

  Tessa looked at Jerry. “You slept with that child, too? What on earth did you have to promise to get her into bed?”

  Jerry was beginning to get angry. “Nothing. She was in love with me, thought we were going steady or something.”

  Luke got up and leaned over Jerry. “Bullshit. She owed you for putting a roof over her head and promising to introduce her to people, and you played on those feelings of obligation and hope. Then you showered her with attention and new clothes, getting her deeper and deeper in debt. She probably was confused and felt like she had to sleep with you because of all you had done. It certainly wasn’t an act of love on her part. We know she didn’t have a choice.”

  “Look, I’m not one of these stinking rich athletes who comes into the Club angling for underage girls.”

  “Look, I think it’s a dead heat for which one of you is the most pathetic, revolting excuse for a human being on the planet,” Tessa said. “I’m just looking for facts, documentation, and testimony to back up what we already know. It’ll save you a couple of decades on federal charges, but you have to do all the time for charges relating to Kelly and any other young girls you prostituted and used. Understand?”

  “My man Jerry is jerking you around with the chicken-shit stuff—the girls and sex for money at the club? That’s nothing compared to what’s really going on there,” Sledge said. “Ricky and all of the club’s managers, including Jerry, are in it deep with the mob. He’s holding back on the one aspect that you guys should be investigating.”

  “Now who’s being a stupid shit?” Jerry asked. “That is my ace. If I don’t get a walk, they don’t get that information. So keep your mouth shut, or I’ll tell Ricky who’s doing the talking about Club Red, Inc.”

  “Are you talking about the money laundering operation, Jerry?” Tessa asked. “We know everything but the name of the guy setting up the shell corporations and overall financial strategy. And we’ve got a forensic accountant working on that information right now.”

  Once again, the only sound in the kitchen was the clock on the wall and the labored breathing of the man who was watching his plea deal go down the toilet.

  “I can help you,” Sledge said slowly. “But I had nothing to do with the killing of a cop, kidnapping, rape, or organized prostitution. I want your word that I won’t face any charges for those things. And I get full credit in the press for aiding the investigation—maybe you could even make it sound like I was an informant and cooperating with you. Finally, I get to keep all of my money.”

  “You think you have something good enough that I’m going to let you off the hook for date-raping a teenager?” Tessa asked musingly.

  “I did not rape her!” Sledge said, his face turning a dusky shade of red. “And yes, I can give you something that will make the rest of it look like high school games.”

  “Would you be talking about purchasing the loyalty of local and state politicians, by any chance?” Luke asked, thinking about the article they’d read the day before.

  Tessa had to give Sledge credit for not flinching, though she could see he was shocked that they knew about the public corruption. “Is that a yes, Aiken?” she asked.

  A tight nod was all Sledge could bring himself to do in response. His teeth were clenched, and his throat was closed at the thought of his career and ambitions going up in flames.

  He knew without a doubt that he’d never work in Los Angeles again. Or any other town. All the teams and corporate sponsors who made professional football such a lucrative field had morals clauses in their contracts. The conservative middle-class base that supported the NFL would never accept his participation on a team once the details of Club Red, Inc. came to light.

  “Forget about Sledge. I can give you the name of the financial guy,” Jerry sa
id in the tense silence. “I even have a bunch of communications that can prove he knew we were giving him dirty money. That’s got to be worth something.”

  “Only if you can tell us with certainty in which banks the illegal funds were parked,” Tessa said.

  Jerry swallowed hard, knowing that meant the assets would be forfeited. “I can tell you where he stashed my personal funds. I’m pretty sure that Ricky’s profits are in different accounts at the same banks.”

  “The money will all be confiscated,” Tessa warned. “But your information will smooth the way for a plea bargain on the federal charges. I can’t promise anything to either one of you, but I’m fairly certain the Feds will cooperate in exchange for your testimony.”

  “And if they don’t?” Sledge asked.

  “Then you can recant your statements. But that’s not going to happen,” Luke said. “The FBI won’t turn away from the big-time busts that your information will make possible.”

  “What about the charges related to Kelly?” Jerry asked Tessa. “You have control over those.”

  “Yes. But frankly, they’re the least of your worries. I won’t negotiate on those. However, I guarantee that the formal deal I will propose to your lawyers will be one they advise you to take.”

  “What kind of time are we looking at?” Jerry asked.

  “Five to eight years on each of the state charges—and no early parole. You might be able to do the sentences concurrently. Trust me,” she said over the sound of Sledge’s cursing, “that’s the best deal you’re going to be offered. You can’t expect to walk away after what you’ve done. Once you accept the fact that you’ll have to do some time behind bars, you’ll see that my deal is very generous.”

  “No rape charges,” Sledge insisted. “You can’t prove them, anyway.”

  But I can prove statutory rape, you sick piece of crap. It’s an entirely different crime. Tessa merely shrugged her shoulders. “The first person to give me the name of the accountant who plays hide the money for Ricky will get a walk on sexual assault charges. That’s the best I can do.”

  “Tristan Rothschild,” Jerry blurted out.

  Sledge sighed. “His firm manages my money, too. And he arranged the structuring of donations to the campaigns of several local and state politicians. I’ll give you their names and a record of transactions for the same deal Jerry gets—no sexual assault charges.”

  “Done. I’ll give you each five minutes to contact your lawyers before we arrange for you to be taken into protective custody as witnesses. I won’t finalize the pleas until you’ve talked with them. And with the agreement of your lawyers, I’d like employees of Novak International to provide for security and housing for the next thirty-six hours, until we can make our presentation to the FBI-led task force.”

  “I’ll monitor them while they’re on the phone,” Luke offered. “Have Ronnie go bring my guys in from the van. I want Sledge and Jerry in a secure location within the hour.”

  Chapter 39

  Santa Monica, California

  Monday evening, March 15

  “All right, girlfriend. Spill it.” Veronica sprawled on Luke’s leather couch and ran an envious hand over the soft grain of the coffee brown leather. Toddlers and fine furniture weren’t a good combination, so she and her husband made do with a thrift store couch upholstered in a psychedelic floral pattern similar to something found on hotel room bedspreads.

  In the kind of rooms that were rented out by the quarter hour.

  She’d encountered such classy and refined things since joining the police department a few years ago, Veronica mused sarcastically, hot sheet operations among them. Somehow, working with Ed Flynn had helped make it all bearable. But now he was gone, and she didn’t think she’d be able to go back to the squalor without him to back her up.

  Fortunately, that was a decision for another day. Right now, she was worried about how Tessa was handling Ed’s loss and what kind of role Luke was playing in taking her mind off it.

  “What am I spilling?” Tessa asked as she settled into her own corner of the decadent leather couch with a cup of tea.

  “Details about the oh-so-concerned and handsome Mr. Novak. And what’s going on between the two of you.”

  “Geez, I don’t know if I should say anything. It seems kind of juvenile to kiss and tell.”

  “Juvenile, hell! The only action I get is if Mike and I manage to be home at the same time for more than fifteen minutes, the kid’s asleep, and we’re not seeing double from sheer exhaustion. Believe me, it doesn’t happen very often.”

  “No wonder you’re so interested in my sex life,” Tessa said.

  “So you’ve got to give me a little nugget here, something to get me through the current drought.”

  “All I can say is that he’s just…well, he’s wonderful. And it all just kind of happened.”

  “What do you mean, it just happened? You usually analyze everything to death,” Ronnie said.

  “Yeah, well, there wasn’t time. And there were no stray thoughts about depositions, no pondering the décor of the room, no wondering if my butt looked big enough to need its own zip code from his angle. It was—” Tessa broke off with a little shiver. “It was awesome.”

  “Sounds like your ex was a real prize, if that’s what you used to think about. But we’ll get back to that. Where is this thing with you and Luke going?”

  Tessa’s smile faltered as she remembered the last person who had said those words to her. “Ed asked me that. On—on the day he died. I didn’t have an answer then, and I’m even more at a loss now.”

  “What’s to be confused about? You obviously feel something, or you wouldn’t be sitting here waiting for Luke to come home. You’re not a casual person, and it seems like he really cares about you.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Please.” Ronnie shook her head in frustration, then held up a finger to begin listing things. “No matter what subject you’re talking about, he treats you like a cross between his partner and a goddess, which means his brain is engaged along with his body. He goes out of his way to show his interest—taking care of you, little strokes and touches, the concern in his absolutely gorgeous eyes.”

  “He’s just being a gentleman,” Tessa insisted.

  “It’s more than good manners,” Ronnie insisted. “He does all those things in a way that doesn’t make you all prickly and distant. It’s like he can see how important it is to you to stand on your own, and all he wants is for you to know that he’s there with you. To me, it means he cares.”

  “Maybe. He says he does, and I want to believe him.” Tessa bit her lip. “God, I’ve got baggage, Ronnie. I’ve never made a commitment to anyone in my life.”

  “Maybe that’s because no one was right for you until now.”

  “But how do I tell?” Tessa asked. “I mean, did you just know things were going to work out with Mike?”

  Ronnie laughed with real humor. “We’ve been together a little over a year—how would I know? I’m just a dumb hick from Minnesota who got married because I ended up pregnant by a guy I’d been dating for less than a month.”

  “You must have known there was a risk,” Tessa said, thinking about her own lack of long-term birth control with Luke for the first time.

  “Think again. The Pill is over 99 percent effective, but I somehow turned out to be the one in one hundred to get knocked up while taking it. Mike and I buy lottery tickets every week now,” Ronnie joked.

  Tessa winced. “But you’ve made it. You guys are a family now.”

  “We didn’t really have a choice, though. We got married because we wanted to do right by the kid, you know? Don’t get me wrong—I love Mike. But if you’re asking me if he’s the Love of My Life, I have no idea. I know we wouldn’t have chosen to do things this way if given the opportunity.”

  “Don’t tell me that,” Tessa groaned. “You guys were the one example I had of a successful relationship.”

  “It is s
uccessful,” Ronnie said. “But only because we’re both pouring everything we have into it. Marriage is hard work, and it takes a lot of time.”

  “What Luke and I have is so new, and it came out of nowhere, with no warning. We haven’t had time to build anything like the trust you have with each other…” Tessa trailed off, not sure how to explain it.

  “How did you deal with trust before? Forget the college sweetheart, because you guys were just kids then. What about the grad student?”

  Biting her lip, Tessa shook her head. “It was never an issue. I didn’t let myself go enough—or feel things deeply enough—that I had to worry about trusting him and being let down. We were more friends than anything else, because I didn’t let him get close enough to do real damage.”

  “And you get mad at me for impugning his masculinity?” Ronnie muttered.

  “Don’t make it sound like he was completely spineless, because that’s not fair. I can’t put him down now for being laid-back, when that’s what I was looking for in a boyfriend in the first place.”

  “Sweetie, laid-back is one thing. Being a doormat is another.” Ronnie held up a hand to stop Tessa’s protest. “All right, I’ll stop. I know how hard it is to be vulnerable. You seem all independent, but I think you feel things more deeply than you let on.

  Tessa smiled mistily. “Luke said something like that to me.”

  “I told you he was smart. I think your new man is perfect for you, because he’s not the type to let you wallow in the past,” Ronnie said.

  “You’re blowing things way out of proportion.”

  Ronnie shook her head. “Don’t try to minimize this by saying you just spent the night together. He’s been at your side nonstop since Ed—since Saturday. If Luke hasn’t pressed you since then, it’s because he’s more worried about you than his own needs. I told you, there’s something different about this guy.”

  Tessa set her cup aside at the unpleasant flip her stomach took.

  Yes, Luke is different. That’s probably why he scares me—bad. And why I can’t even get myself to say out loud what I’m feeling when I’m around him. I could say the words before, when I didn’t really feel them, but now that I am experiencing those emotions my throat closes up.