“Still the stoic kind, I see,” Rosa replied.
I began to feel as though Kate was watching us with a keen eye as she sang. I looked over at her and my instincts were right. I gave her a half smile but she soon turned away and concentrated on entertaining her audience.
“So how do you two know each other?” Emily asked me.
“I met Rosa during a coarse a few years back. She was a criminologist.”
“I still am,” she was quick to point out.
“Hey, didn’t you two have a thing?” Emily asked.
I could feel Kate’s eyes glaring at me, even though I wasn’t looking at her anymore.
“Oh, we had more than a thing, I’d say. I broke Paige in, showed her how a real woman can give her the greatest orgasms that she’d ever experience.”
“Oh, history, does Kate know about the two of you?”
“Kate doesn’t need to be brought into this,” I snapped at Emily.
“Kate?” Rosa asked.
“She’s the one who’s singing.” Emily pointed at Kate.
“You’re with her? Well you certainly know how to pick a beautiful girl.”
Kate finished singing her songs. The crowd applauded and a few wolf whistles were given as she left the stage and made her way over to us. I could tell by her false smile that she was feeling at a slight disadvantage to the woman standing at my side.
“Kate, this is Rosa,” I told her.
Kate was a quick girl when it came to absorbing information. She soon realized that Rosa was thee, Rosa from my past.
She shook hands with Rosa, making sure to show off the diamond ring that I had bought her as a mark of our engagement.
“So you’re the famous Rosa that I’ve heard all about.” Kate smiled, but I knew that she was secretly tearing Rosa a new ass hole.
“Kate, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“They’ve just got engaged,” Emily was quick to inform her.
“Well then Kate must be someone special indeed.” Rosa smirked. Her eyes kept in contact with mine, totally ignoring the fact that Kate was showing off her rock.
“We’re having a small celebration tomorrow night. An engagement dinner with a few of our closest friends, would you like to join us, Rosa?” Kate asked her.
“Are you sure you want me there, I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“If it’s ok with Kate, then it’s ok with me,” I replied. I put my arm around Kate, holding her snugly at my side.
Emily raised her eyebrow, surprised that Kate was being so obliging to my ex-girlfriend. It was in Kate’s nature to be jealous of my past, no matter how involved I had been with my lovers, Kate had always felt threatened by them.
Rosa thanked Kate for her kind offer and told us that she’d be glad to attend. I felt a slight flutter in my stomach when she shook my hand and said, “Until tomorrow.”
When she walked away and headed for the door, Kate was glaring at her. I knew that she might cause trouble about this.
♦♦♦
The table had been set with a white tablecloth, three single crystal glass pillars, holding cream tapered candles, white china plates with gold trims, gold antique cutlery that Kate had inherited from her grandmother and amber crystal goblets that we had chosen to buy ourselves as our engagement gift to each other. Red rose petals had been scattered over the entire table creating a romantic feature far beyond my expectation.
The doorbell rang and before I could answer it, Kate made me wait until she had lit the candles.
“Ok, now it’s perfect,” she said taking a deep satisfied intake of breath.
Our first guests were, Mel and Bree. These were two of Kate’s friends. She’d known them both for years, and five months ago they became a couple. We welcomed them into our home with a glass of Champagne each. Next to arrive was Kelly. She has been in my life for twelve years. We met when I was 16 and still in high school and quickly became good friends. She was there for me when I came out. I remember telling her that I had a crush on her and if she had been inclined to ever want to make out with a girl, that I’d like it to be me. She never did feel the inclination.
Emily arrived a few minutes later. She couldn’t resist the opportunity in asking me if Rosa was still coming tonight.
It was almost 8.30pm and Rosa still hadn’t arrived so we decided to sit down and eat the wonderful meal that Kate had cooked for us all.
“Kate, the table looks beautiful,” Bree commented.
Kelly sat to my right and Kate to my left with Bree and Mel seated to her left. An empty seat meant for Rosa, faced us.
The first course consisted of a ceasar salad with a chicken breast cut and fanned over one side of the dish and then the second course was an apple cranberry stuffed pork roast. Kate had really presented us with perfection. I had just got up to clear the plates ready for desert when the doorbell rang so I went to answer it.
“Hi. Sorry that I turned up this late but I had my doubts on whether I should come or not,” Rosa said apologetically.
“Who’s at the door?” Kate called from the kitchen.
“It’s Rosa,” I called back. “Come in and meet everyone.”
“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I need to talk to you in private, do you think that Kate would mind if I talk to you out here?”
“Wait here.” I went into the kitchen where Kate was dishing up a hot apple crumble. “Rosa has something that she wants to talk to me about. I want to clarify with you that there is nothing going on and I will tell her to leave if you feel uncomfortable.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Tonight is about us, she knows that.” She slopped a large piece of crumble into a bowl and shoved it into my hand. “Take this. Make sure that she knows this is the only pie in my house that she’s going to get her hands on! You have five minutes.”
“I love you,” I told her and then kissed her cheek.
Rosa was waiting on the front porch. I still had the bowl of crumble in my hand and offered it to her. She took it from me but didn’t eat any.
I took her around to the back yard where it was dark and there was a garden swing that we could sit on.
“So what is it that’s so important for you to tell me in private?”
“I didn’t want us to be re-acquainted like this. I’m working on a case. I didn’t happen to be here by accident. I knew that you were with Kate and that she was singing at the Rooster Inn and that you’d be there.”
“I should have known, but seeing you again without any contact since we broke up put me at a disadvantage.” I told her.
“I wanted to call you, many times, but I knew that we were both in a different place.”
We sat on the swing in the dark with the warm air breezing around us.
“Are you going to eat that pie?” I asked her.
Kate came to the patio window and peered out. She saw us talking and then tapped on the glass and showed me her watch.
“She’s very persistent, isn’t she,” Rosa sniggered.
“She’s just protecting her investment. How’s your madre?”
“She’s good, still going strong and giving everyone a hard time. She asked after you when we broke up. I’m fully aware that you and Kate are in love, but if anything was to interfere with your situation, maybe we could…”
“Why are you here, Rosa?”
“This case that I’m working on, I had to do some research on a few old files. I came across a cold case file, case 16. My attention was drawn to it when I recognized a name, Theodore Spiers.”
As soon as she said that name, my insides felt as though they wanted to leave my body through my mouth. Rosa knew about my past with my uncle and so she did some digging around and called in a few favors from her fellow colleagues. She was informed that Theodore Spiers name had recently come up on another investigation and was currently under surveillance. He had been living in Canada for the past 15 years and returned to California a few months ago.
My childhood
nightmares began to run through my mind. The way he spoke softly to me, the way he touched me, the way he made me promise to keep his secret from my mother. I wanted that bastard dead, at any cost.
I couldn’t bring myself to cry. The hurt that I was once again experiencing was explosive. I had imagined over the years that if I was to ever meet this monster again, that I would stab him a thousand times and then dump his sorry ass in a grave filled with pig shit.
She passed me a large envelope.
“Don’t look at it now. I’m sure that you must have an enormous amount of questions that you need answered. I’m just sorry that it had to be now. Call me when you are ready to.” She got up from the swing leaving me to think about what I should do next.
Suddenly I had become a victim all over again.
I heard her drive away and I almost wanted to go with her. I had to gain my composure before I entered the house again but tears had filled my eyes. It was slowly sinking in that my nightmare wasn’t over.
“Paige, Paige, what’s wrong,” Kate asked, concerned that I had just walked into the house barely able to walk without clenching my stomach. “Kelly, help me get her to the sofa.”
I had gone into shock and couldn’t snap out of my frame of mind. Kelly passed me a glass of water and I sipped a little.
“What’s in the envelope, Paige?” Kate asked me. She was on her knees in front of me, trying to bring me out from my disposition.
I looked down at my hands. The envelope had been crumpled from my tight grip. “I need to go upstairs, Kate. I need to be alone.”
“But, Paige, you…”
“Kate, I need to be alone.” I got up and ignoring our guests, I left the room and headed for my bedroom where I closed the door behind me for privacy. Sitting on the bed, I opened the envelope, slowly tearing the corners before running my fingers beneath the sealed fold to reveal its contents.
There were several surveillance photographs of my uncle, all ranging from a few years ago through to recent. I found it hard to look at them at first and threw them across the floor. I screamed into my pillow until my throat went sore. He wasn’t going to win, not again.
It took me a few minutes, but once I had established that he wasn’t going to win, I got down on the ground and began to look at the scattered images. He had grown fat, gray and balding on the top, but apart from that, he still looked the same as he did all those years ago.
There were some documents to accompany the pictures, paperwork for a house in Canada that he had bought under a different name, Michael Stowes. Medical information and social security numbers that he had used illegally and bank account details. His worth was over two million dollars. The FBI was reluctant to arrest him for these crimes due to his human trafficking connections. He had been smuggling women in and out of America and Canada, selling them to the highest bidders. His name had been given to the authorities by an undercover agent who had been working for three years with the sex slave traders. Theodore Spiers was a valuable aide to incriminating his associates and bringing down the sex predators who are paying for these girls.
Why wasn’t I surprised?
“Paige, are you ok?” Kate asked, tapping on the door.
“Yes, come in.”
“What’s going on, I’ve sent everyone home, I’m worried about you?”
“I’m sorry that I shut you out like that. It’s him, he’s back.” I said with a heavy heart.
“Who’s back?”
“Theodore Spiers, my uncle.” I showed her the pictures of him and explained that he had been under surveillance for a while.
Chapter Four
I sat at my desk. Mike had been in my office earlier, giving me the low down on James Speight. A date had been set for his trial and Sophie was now capable enough to give evidence against him. I was also expected to attend, to give my account of the details leading up to his arrest.
Emily walked past my door and then hovered in the corridor for a moment. I knew that she wanted to talk about the other night. She knocked on my door and entered.
“Hi,” she said quietly.
“Hi. I owe you an apology for how I acted. I’m sorry.”
“There’s no need for that. I know it must have been something serious. You’re not the sort of person to behave like that. I just thought that maybe you thought that you might have made a mistake with Kate and realized that when you saw Rosa, that you wanted to be with her instead.”
“I can’t say that that thought didn’t cross my mind, but it was just for a split second that’s all,” I told her.
I explained the situation about my uncle returning to California and showed her the pictures.
“What do you want to do about it?” she asked.
I looked around my office. Taking in the fact that I had worked my ass off to get this position. I had the second largest office on the floor, Mike’s being the first. Three panes of glass, fitted from the ceiling down to the ground, acted as the wall between my office and the corridor with a glass door to the right. I shared the same panoramic view of the city, as Mike did, not that I had much free time to admire it, but at least it allowed my office the option to have natural sunlight to filtrate it. The walls were pale gray and my desk white. The seat that I love, had been made exclusively for me by a friends husband, it being white leather, high back and a massager included. I’m not the type of person who likes clutter so my walls contained no decoration. The stainless steel shelving matched the cabinet on the wall behind me and the only non work related item that I had was a photo of Kate on my desk.
“Let’s see just exactly what he’s been up to,” I told her.
After making a few calls and receiving emails, we found that he was a suspect in a missing girl case. Megan Hatch had been reported missing by her father when she failed to return home after going to meet a man that she’d met on an internet chat room.
Security footage outside of the White Rock bar, showed Megan standing alone, waiting behind a parked car. A man in a leather jacket walked up to her and a quick conversation took place. The man in question fitted the description of Theodore Spiers. They walked over to a car parked on the other side of the street and then Megan was pushed into the back of the vehicle before it sped off. There was another accomplice who was the driver. Theodore Spiers remained behind and it showed him walking off in the opposite direction.
“Ok, I have an address for Mr. Spiers,” Emily said, looking up from the computer.
I grabbed my car keys and we left the office immediately. It took us an hour and fifteen minutes to reach San Francisco and another thirty five to drive through the city to get to Fell Avenue, where he was residing.
I couldn’t tell if it was my anger or my adrenaline that was driving my ego but I could feel my heart beating hard at the mere thought of seeing him again.
We parked behind a tree, giving us a little coverage. The house was a Victorian classic, probably worth over a million dollars. The three story building had a garage below ground level, concrete steps leading up to the front door, a huge bay window above the garage, a small balcony above the front door and large windows on the second and third floors. There was a narrow walkway between the house and the neighboring house. Looking at the size of the property, it was clear that a girl could be hidden away and no one would be able to hear her if she was even able to cry for help.
We watched the house for two hours with no activity, when Emily received a call from Richard. Although we weren’t meant to be on this investigation, he had kindly offered his services. He had another address for us. It was connected to the car that had driven Megan away. The house and car belonged to Emil Volodin, a Russian immigrant who had been in the country for just over three years. We drove a few blocks to Grove Avenue. On the apex of the hill, a two million dollar late Victorian mansion, corner lot was our targeted address. It was set back from the property line and surrounded by trees screening the suspects from view.
“Do you think that she’s inside?�
�� Emily asked.
“Not sure. We’ll have to wait it out. If we interfere now, we could blow the case that’s already in place.”
“If it was your daughter, Paige, wouldn’t you want her rescued sooner, rather than later?” she replied. “Or what if it was Kate?”
A chill ran through me. If anyone harmed Kate in any way, I know that my self control would no longer exist and that the person responsible should expect their family to cough up the money to pay for their funeral.
“Do you have your gun?” I asked her. I checked inside my purse for my holster. Putting it on, I loaded my handgun and placed it into the holder. Next we put on our raid jackets and then got out of the car. Acting casual we crossed the street and slowly maneuvered toward the building in question. We searched around, checking that the area was secure.
“Are you ready?” I asked her. We were standing by a small basement window. It was just big enough for us to fit through. I smashed it with the butt of my gun and we proceeded to climb through the gap, being cautious not to get injured by any slivers of glass.
The room had been renovated to a high standard, with soft white walls and a plush carpet to match. A dark wood corner bar had been custom built with matching cabinetry behind fitted with beveled glass doors. A carpeted staircase led up to the ground floor with detailed lights inserted into each step.
We held our guns out in front of us, taking every precaution not to be surprised by anyone in the house. We moved up the stairs slowly. They took us to the main lobby. The ceilings were high and the crown moldings edged with gold trims. A glass chandelier hung low in the center of the room, expensive artwork mounted on the walls and an open staircase on the left wall working its way up to the landing. Downstairs, we made our way through a lounge. This owner certainly liked white furnishings. Again with the off white carpeting and a white sofa with matching chairs. The walls were soft blue with biscuit color trims and a large grand piano was set in front of the window. There were two other lounge rooms leading from the main quarters, both similar in style.
Case 16 Page 2
