Cassie recounted the entire story, from the video she secretly took, to being tied up in the SUV staring at the dead agent's brown eyes. She sniveled through the whole story peppering in her remorse as she went along. Danny sat stunned in silence and let her blather on as long as she needed, picking at the necessary details.
As the story unfolded, she remembered her own struggle with Gerard. It made sense now that he thought she was investigating him. The situation swam in her head over and over again. Her brain did not want to believe any of what was being said. She was connecting the dots faster than her emotions would allow.
She had loved this man. She had shared a bed with him and given him her body. She had planned a future with him, planned to bear his children. Yet she hadn't had any inkling that Gerard was a ruthless killer. She finally hit information overload and crawled over to the corner of the small room and threw up, gagging loudly as if a demon was being exorcised from her.
Danny took a few minutes to recover from her heavy heaving. She found her way back to Cassie and held her. Cassie wrapped her arms around Danny like a small child clinging to her mother. She repeated her apologies over and over again. Finally Danny hushed her speaking very softly.
"Cassie, listen to me! I forgive you. This isn't your fault. We are going to get out of here, but you have to trust me? Tell me now you trust me OK?"
"I trust you, I trust you. Please get us out of here!"
"Shhh now, calm down. Now part of trusting me is listening and doing what I tell you OK?"
"OK." Cassie said softly not letting up on the tight grip she had of Danny's waist.
"OK no windows, but there's got to be a door. Tell me what you saw when he brought you in. Try to remember details. Did you see any stairways, doors, windows, lights? Just take your time and retrace as best you can, starting with is there a light in here?"
"No, there's no light in here."
Danny encouraged her. "OK, good. Now just retrace in your head. C'mon you can do it. Take your time."
"Rob Grady and Gerard took me in from a side entrance. I think this is where they keep some cleaning equipment. We went down a set of stairs. They were kind of narrow. This building is not finished, a lot of tools and stuff lying all over. We passed a big furnace. You know, to burn things."
"An incinerator?"Danny asked
"I guess. It had a sign that said it was for biohazard waste."
"OK, good girl, keep going"
"It was on the other side of this basement. Rob opened the door to this room and threw me in."
“OK can you remember how long ago that was?"
“Um, it feels like yesterday, maybe I don't know. No one's been back until Gerard threw you in here! You were passed out. I thought you were dead!" Cassie started the waterworks all over again.
“Cassie it's OK, Please stop crying. I'm not dead." Trying to snap the woman out of her crying jag she urged, "I need you to focus! Did he say anything or could you hear anything else?"
"I heard them dragging that guy down the stairs! I put my ear up to the door! I could hear Gerard yell at Rob to get plastic and then I heard the sound of sawing. Sounded almost like a power tool." Realization hit Cassie hard. "Oh, God!They cut him up didn't they? They used the surgical saws!" Cassie started gagging. Danny leaned her forward and held her hair back while Cassie dry heaved.
"C'mon honey, we can't help him now. Just keep trying to remember anything that can help us."
"I heard the sound of the incinerator. It ran for a long time it seemed. It smelled terrible. I didn't know what it was, but now I know!" Cassie's eyes widened the whites visible in the dark space. "It was burning flesh! It's all myfault! If I hadn't been a horrible bitch he'd still be alive!" Cassie put her head in her hands.
"C'mon girl you promised you'd listen to me! You didn't kill him, Gerard did! Remember that please! Damn, I wish we had a light in here!"
With that statement a small light started shining at the door. It grew bigger until she could see a smiling Alejandro looking at both of them. Dressed in all white he illuminated the room for a brief moment, Alejandro walked over to Cassie who was still sobbing and put his hands on her head. She was oblivious to the sight of his ethereal form. Alejandro waved his hand in front of the door and it became transparent. Danny could see outside the door and all its contents. The ghostly figure pointed to a screwdriver carelessly dropped by a bunch of boxes. His light fading, the door reappeared and he kissed the top of Cassie's head and kissed Danny's cheeks before his figure faded.
His light now gone, Danny sat down and held Cassie once more. "Alejandro forgives you." She told her.
Cassie stopped sobbing for a moment "How do you know?"
"I'll tell you. But please, just try to keep an open mind, OK?" Danny sighed heavily. "I have a special gift. People who have passed on come to me and they show me things. The man in the apartment, his name was Alejandro Ramirez, he was an FBI agent and he kissed you on the top of your head before he just left. He's OK now. You have to remember that. You didn't do this, Gerard did."
Danny's words seemed to lift Cassie spirits just a little. She wasn't going to question her at this point, and she was willing to believe anything. Hearing her say the agent was just there and OK in the afterlife gave her at least a glimmer of hope.
"Don't let us die!" Cassie pleaded. "If we get out of this I swear I'll change!"
Danny shook the woman's shoulders. "Stop it! We are not going to die, OK. You have to stay positive! There are probably people looking for us! Dominick has got to be worried by now, and the FBI has been investigating." Danny really wanted to believe her own encouraging words. She was praying that there really was a search and that if really was in love with her, like he blurted out in Dallas, that he would be tearing up Phoenix by now trying to find her. Surely they would also be searching for Ramirez by now too.
"Danny, I'm so sorry."
"Please stop apologizing. It's going to be alright."
Cassie found Danny's eyes in the dark. "Danny you know I didn't mean it, calling you names at the restaurant. I was horrible. I just wanted to say whatever I could to hurt you."
"Why? Tell me why did you want to hurt me?" Danny asked in hushed tones hoping that if Cassie continued talking that would calm the girl down.
"Because it seems to come so easy for you. You're young, confident and pretty. You were everything I wanted to be. Growing up I was the fat girl. The other kids picked on me, and my mother was no help at all. She just said that I needed to go on a diet. She said that I was fat because I wanted to be fat! She called me lazy. The kids at school would throw food at me!"
Cassie stopped for a moment and Danny just sat silently holding her letting here continue. "When I graduated high school I had gastric bypass surgery. I lost a ton of weight but was paranoid it was all going to come back. I had a lot of skin hanging so I sought out a plastic surgeon and found Dominick. Fresh out of his intern rotations, he had landed a job at a small practice. He was the only black doctor there, and over the course of my visits we realized we had a lot in common. He felt like a token in that office. They were just keeping him there to say they were diversified. He told me he felt out of place. I understood totally, feeling like a fat girl in a skinny girl's body. We dated on the sly for about a year and got married when he could officially say I wasn't his patient anymore. That's when Gerard came into our lives. He got Dominick to go abroad with Angel Faces off and on for a couple of years and he financed the whole thing. He was like a godsend. In return, when Dominick got back he set him up in a practice, and the money started rolling in. The more money we got the more it went to my head and I became the very thing I hated!"
Cassie buried her head in Danny's shoulder. "Then Dom was made partner out here, and it was all too good to be true. The money, the house and the fancy cars changed my entire attitude. The other wives were just as bad as I'd become. I thought this is how rich women behaved and allowed myself to conform to them. Then you came into our lives.
Danny, you reminded me of everything I wasn't, and I hated it. I hated you, even though I'd always wanted to be the kind of person you were. Dom would make comments at home about how pretty you were and that if he wasn't married already he'd make a play for you. Usually he said it when he was stinking drunk whichseemed to be more and more the longer we were out here, but the comments still hurt! The fat, insecure girl came out again, and I lashed out. I hate that word Danny, and I'm never going to forgive myself for ever using it. I don't blame you if you never forgive me either, but if we get out of here I'm going to try my best to make it up to you, I swear!"
Danny just let Cassie talk, and she sat thinking about her words. Little did Cassie know that they actually had a lot in common if she had only taken the time to get to know her. She remembered the kids picking on her zipper-like scar, calling her Frankenstein. She also remembered throwing several punches until grand mere taught her how to control her anger and use her words to strike back. She also knew what it was like to feel out of place in a world of pretty people. Her own mother was a high society woman and admonished her for not being more ladylike and not giving up her tomboy ways. Cassie finally exhausted herself and stopped talking.
"Cassie, I understand more than you think. I'm glad you talked to me, and I do forgive you. We all do things we regret later. The thing is now we have to work past it, OK? Remember you promised to trust me, right?"
"Yes, I trust you Danny." Cassie whispered in the dark. They heard footsteps approaching, and the door flew open with a thud. Gerard shined a flashlight on the two women huddled in the corner.
"Well, well! Look at this! I knew if I locked you two bitches in a room together you'd finally get along!" Gerard actually had the nerve to laugh at his own joke. He had apparently stopped the flow of blood from his broken nose, the outside now covered with medical tape. Holding a gun in his other hand he walked over to them and barked at Danny.
"I hate to break up this love fest, but you, move now! So help me if you try anything I'll shoot her in the head." He pointed the gun at Cassie.
Danny rose to her feet but couldn't help glaring at Gerard.
"Why are you doing this?" Danny asked staring directly into his now emotionless hazel eyes.
"Like you don't know! Move!" He pushed her out the door. Danny could hear Cassie start crying all over again.
"You promised me Cassie, remember! Stay strong." She yelled as Gerard shut the door and locked it behind him.
"Aww how nice! You've bonded!" Gerard said with venom dripping in his words.
"Sit down!" he shoved Danny in a chair, the gun aimed at her temple. "Now you're going to tell me everything!" He held up a syringe in his other hand and bit down on the orange topper to remove it. Danny thought of trying to struggle with him but realized with the gun to her head she would be dead before she could even get one blow in. Her instincts warned her against it, and she hoped her negotiating skills would come in handy now.
"OK, Ger, listen I'll tell you all I know, but you got to let Cassie go. She didn't do anything to you. She's frightened to death, and she's not going to talk. Dominick is your friend. He'll make sure she doesn't talk." Danny had assumed Dominick was part of the whole sordid affair. She had deduced that the doctors from the Beautiful Image Spa were all collaborators in the human trafficking scheme.
"Bitch, Dom doesn't know a damned thing except what we want him to know! He was of no use to us, drunk as hell all the time. I had to keep him fucking legit."
He roughly plunged the syringe into Danny's leg. Amobarbital was injected into her system. While not a truth serum, he knew it would give people the gift of gab and disclose information they normally would never say. Danny let out a yell at the stinging effect of the shot as the drug entered her bloodstream. Gerard tied her hands behind her chair and forcefully grabbed her hair pulled her head back and kissed her. Struggling when he finally pulled away, she spit in his face. Half expecting a slap or a punch she instinctively cowered, turning her face slightly to the side waiting for the blows. He just laughed it off.
"There was a time not so long ago darling when you loved that!" He grinned fiendishly, wiping his face with his hand.
"There was a time when you were human! Or were you ever? I can't believe I ever loved you!" Danny yelled defiantly. "What are you into?"
"Darling, darling, darling," He said slowly, lovingly stroking her hair. "I'm just guilty of wanting it all and my friends in the cartel were more than willing to help me attain it. You have no idea how much work it took to set up this beautiful little operation. The hours of planning and money laundering and finding the right idiots to help me run this wonderful empire, which you have now gone and fucked up! You just couldn't be the dutiful woman at my side like the others, just enjoying spending my money, could you?"
"What are you talking about?" She asked, purposely trying to get more information from him.
He waved his finger in her face. "Don't play stupid with me! I know you and that FBI agent were investigating me, and to say nothing of you having a secret apartment! Were you fucking him there too? Was he as good as me in bed darling? What the fuck do you do with the FBI anyway?"
"Ger, you've known all along I look into cold cases for the magazine." she said rationally.
"Why were my girls on your board? And if you're so innocent why did you need an apartment when I gave you your own office at the house? And while we're on the subject, who was your FBI boyfriend?"
"He was Agent Ramirez. He wasn't my boyfriend you sonofabitch! And you killed him! I had that place so I could channel spirits without you around. I'm a psychic!"
Gerard laughed and shook his head. He calmly got up and slapped her hard across the face. The force of it made her ears ring.
"Well if you're psychic then you should have seen that coming!" He said, completely shedding the skin of the loving, caring man she thought she knew. The ogre standing before her was Gerard in his truest form. "I'm getting sick of this shit. Tell me why you had an FBI agent in your little hidey holelove nest!"
"The Bureau asked me to help them solve a teenage girl's murder in Dallas." Danny sorrowfully shook her head. "Good God you killed all those girls! It makes sense now. They were all over the world! You used Angels Faces as a front! God I thought you were so good and compassionate about it! Did you even care about those kids?" Tears rolled down her face as she talked.
"Of course I did! No child deserves to be ostracized just because they're born with a disfigurement!" He said as if it was something she should have known all along. "And the girls? They made it so easy! All they wanted was a one-way trip to the U.S. and drugs. They should have known that nothing is ever free in this life. We made them work to repay us for the drugs and their guaranteed entry here. We set up the clinics to keep them healthy and supplied their habits, which of course kept them under our control. We were really doing them a favor. They were basically lowlifes with no future, and we gave their worthless lives a little purpose. I was the enforcer and if they got too smart and threatened to squeal, then ..." Gerard put his thumb to his throat and made a slicing motion.
It all hit her hard. He had killed Sherry and the others for knowing too much and threatening to inform law enforcement of the activities. She was horrified at the thought that this outwardly philanthropic man was using these women to fund his and the others' lifestyles under the guise of helping children. She wanted to throw up again but refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her do it. Sherry had been his undoing, and she realized at this point he was going into fight or flight mode. She just hoped that she and Cassie weren't going to be victims of his madness before it was all over.
"OK, now your turn sweetheart. Talk to me babe and tell me what I want to know." Gerard whispered in her ear. He was standing behind her now, the gun at her head in one hand the other down her shirt fondling her breasts. He wanted to show her he was still in full control. Danny stiffened her body, repulsed by his touch, but fearing another slap or worse she kept h
er mouth shut about it. She just wanted to keep herself alive.
"What do you want to know?" she asked.
"Tell me how you found that fucking whore Sherry."
"She was a senator's daughter." She offered. Her tongue was acting on its own volition. "Her body turned up, and the FBI needed help locating her killer."
"A thieving whore was all she was!" Gerard spat, continuing his groping of her breasts. "That little bitch pick-pocketed me and stole my ring, which by the way is the one I eventually gave to you. That's why I had to kill her, to send a message to the other whores that you don't bite the hand that feeds you."
Danny was revolted. "You killed a teenage girl over a ring?"
He nodded, a creepy smirk spread across his face. "Absolutely sweetheart!Let's just say that the ring has a certain sentimental value attached to it."
Pulling his hand out of her shirt, he stood before her again, seemingly pleased with how smart he was. "The diamond in the ring I gave you actually contains the earthly remains of my dear departed mother."
"What!" Danny exclaimed loudly. That explained the identity of the woman from her visitation. All along the woman had been trying to warn her. She was responsible for linking Sherry's murder to the other women. Then suddenly she realized the recurring pain in her ring finger was his mother trying to catch her attention.
"Yes, my dear. The stone in your ring is what's called a cremation diamond." he chuckled, tenderly stroking her cheek. "While doing my pro-bono work abroad for the Angel Faces charity my father started just before his untimely death, I made friends with the cartel and we came up with a wonderful business arrangement. Since my frigid bitch of a mother refused to pay off my student loans, the cartel was more than happy to pick up the tab and then some. Together, we started laying the groundwork for what is now the largest human trafficking ring in North America. We made another of dear dad's corporations a parent company to throw things off."
The Body Hunters Page 22
