A Trace of Crime Read online

  “Anything else I should know?” Keri asked.

  “Yes, if you decide to have a chat with them, I’d focus on the guy in white sweats with the backward Lakers cap. He was clearly in charge and he was the one who denied that she was ever there just a little too much. And one more thing.”

  “Yes?”

  “There are six men total. All of them have nightsticks. They’ve clearly been using them to keep the girls in line. But only two of them have guns—both pistols. Lakers cap guy is wearing his in the back of his waistband and a fat guy in a gray tank top with a leather coat carries his in a shoulder holster. I got the sense that they didn’t trust the other guys to carry—either too young or too volatile.”

  “Wow, the skills never really leave you, do they?” she said, impressed.

  “Sometimes I wish they did, Keri. Why do you think I teach Westside wives instead of doing security? I’m done with that life.”

  “So there’s no way I can convince you to apply to the police academy and join LAPD? We could use you.”

  “I’m good, thanks,” he said, smiling.

  “By the way, is that really the main reason you teach the Westside wives? I thought you might just like the company.”

  “Well, there’s that too. Speaking of, maybe you can bring your redheaded friend I saw earlier to the next class. She seems spicy.”

  “You have no idea,” Keri said, turning back to her car and getting why Uriel had said “earlier.” Mags was nowhere to be found. “Where did she go?”

  “Maybe she had to go to the bathroom,” Uriel suggested. “Or maybe’s she’s just shy.”

  Keri was about to disavow him of that notion when she saw his wide grin and realized he’d already gathered she wasn’t.

  “Thanks, Uriel. You should go now, before you get yourself in some real trouble.”

  “See you at class next week,” he said. Then he handed her back her $5,000, gave her a kiss on the cheek, hopped in his car, and pulled out.

  Keri returned across the street and pushed on the front door of the dry cleaning company. It was locked. She knocked hard and waited. No response. She wandered around back to see if there was another entrance Mags might have used to find a restroom. It was locked too. The place looked closed. Flummoxed, she texted her.

  Where are you?

  There was no reply. But almost immediately after she sent it, she heard shouting across the street, near one corner of the warehouse.

  “Oh no, Mags,” she groaned.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Keri grabbed her bulletproof vest and threw it on as she darted across the street and sprinted over to where she heard the raised voices. She ordered herself to stop hyperventilating and maintain control. It seemed to help. As she got closer, she realized that there was only one raised voice. It was young, male, and agitated.

  The other voice belonged to Mags. Her tone was calm and measured, betraying none of the fear she must have been feeling. Keri remembered that she wasn’t the only one who’d been in sticky situations.

  But Mags wasn’t armed and two of the guys inside were. Keri briefly thought about calling for backup. But she knew it would take too long. Anything that was going to happen would go down in the next few minutes.

  Besides, that would defeat the whole purpose of checking this place out unofficially. If there was a raid of the warehouse, there would be a record of it, one that Jackson Cave could uncover. And if he realized Keri was this close to finding Evie, he might lock her down, or worse.

  I have to do this now. And I have to keep it quiet. This is going to require some creativity.

  Formulating a plan as she hurried over to the front door, Keri reminded herself that this wasn’t just about finding Evie. If it went bad, something might happen to the only real female friend she’d had since Evie was taken. That was unacceptable.

  She knocked hard on the main warehouse door. As it was being unlocked, she zipped up her jacket to hide her bulletproof vest and weapon. She also undid her ponytail and let her hair fall forward, so that her fairly recognizable face wasn’t visible. If word got out that Keri Locke had been here, Cave would eventually find that out too. She couldn’t leave any trace.

  The door opened to reveal the fat guy Uriel had mentioned. He hadn’t been kidding. The guy was well over 300 pounds and wore a fancy gold necklace that was partially hidden in the folds of his neck skin. Keri noticed that the gun was no longer in his shoulder holster. He was holding it, not pointing it directly at her but not pointing it away either.

  “What?” he demanded gruffly.

  “I seem to have lost my girlfriend,” she said in her most coquettish voice. “We heard that this place might have some young ladies we could play some…special games with. But I went to the little girls’ room across the street and I guess she couldn’t wait. I could hear her voice in here. Was she causing trouble for you boys?”

  The fat guy seemed at a loss as to how to respond. Keri took advantage of his indecision to step inside.

  “Thanks, sweetie,” she said. “It’s really chilly out there.”

  She took in the warehouse as she pretended to look around for Mags. Three men—boys really—were spread out at various points throughout the place, holding nightsticks at the ready.

  The cavernous room was filled with dirty mattresses, most of which were unoccupied. But a few had young girls lying on them. Despite what Uriel had told her, she scanned their faces to see if Evie was among them. She wasn’t. But three of those girls were accompanied by adult men who had, until very recently, been having forcible sex with them. Everyone was now staring at her.

  Keri had been in a place like this before. Only a few months earlier, while searching for a teenage girl, she’d uncovered another of these pop-up warehouse brothels. She and Ray had taken down the head of that sex ring. She wished she was surprised to learn there were others.

  Finally she saw Mags in the corner she’d expected. Next to her were two men. One was another younger boy, probably not more than sixteen. He held a nightstick and stood next to the main man. Uriel had described him well.

  He was wearing a thin white sweatsuit with gold lining and had a yellow Los Angeles Lakers cap on backward. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties and had a hard look to him, like he’d seen and done bad things. His gun was still in his waistband for now but he wasn’t to be underestimated.

  Mags was standing next to him, trying to look casual. It was an almost impossible feat under the circumstances but she was nearly pulling it off. She flashed Keri a tight smile that silently shouted “I have no idea what the hell to do right now.”

  But Keri did.

  “Margaret, I wondered where you ran off to. Your little Mary was worried,” she said before turning her attention to Lakers Cap. “We’re supposed to do everything together. That’s why they call us M&Ms, boys. Because we melt in…well, you get the idea.”

  “I was just trying to get a sneak peek at the merchandise, darling,” Mags said, catching on quickly and playing along. “But you texted me and I think it startled our friend here.”

  “So impetuous,” Keri said, before turning her attention back to Lakers Cap. “I can’t take her anywhere.”

  Lakers Cap was eyeing her suspiciously and she knew she had to get his guard down quickly or she might never do it. She saw a Chicago Bulls cap lying on a nearby mattress and bent down to pick it up.

  “I hope this doesn’t offend you as a Lakers fan,” she said as she put it on, pulling the brim down to hide her face even more than her hair did. “I don’t want to piss off our host. After all, we’re here to make love, not war.”

  She walked toward him as slinkily as she could with a bulletproof vest and a gun under her jacket. Finally Laker Cap spoke.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing, bitch?”

  Keri barely batted an eye as she kept moving forward.

  “Are you saying only gentlemen can have fun with these girls? What about us bitches? Isn’t our money
good here?”

  That seemed to give Laker Cap pause.

  “How did you hear about us?” he asked.

  “A guy I work with mentioned this place. He knows I’m into…adventure and thought I’d enjoy it. But he never mentioned being treated this way.” She nodded at Fat Guy’s gun to make her point.

  “We got to protect the merchandise, lady,” Laker Cap said.

  “I understand that. But now that we’re all friends, can my lady and I take a look at what you have in stock today?”

  “We never had a female customer in here but I guess it don’t matter. First we got to search you and make sure you really got the money.”

  Keri’s heart sank. She’d hoped to get out of here without raising suspicion or having a confrontation. But a search would reveal her weapon and her vest, unusual attire for one half of a lesbian couple looking for underage prostitutes. They’d know she was a cop, which would escalate the situation.

  “All right, sweetie,” she said, trying to channel Mags’s southern charm. “But remember, no extra touching. We’re not into that sort of thing.”

  She gave Mags a look that she hoped warned her that things were about to get hairy. Her friend seemed to get it and nodded slightly.

  “I’ll do you, Red,” Laker Cap said to her. “Sammo, you check the little one.”

  As Laker Cap started to frisk her, Mags giggled, then leaned in and whispered something to him. Keri didn’t know what she was saying but it was distracting him, which was good enough.

  “Let me take off my jacket for you,” she said to Sammo, who was putting his gun back in his shoulder holster as he lumbered toward her.

  She turned away from him to unzip her jacket and casually pulled her weapon from her own shoulder holster as she waited for him to touch her from behind. She needed to know where he was in space before she reacted.

  Two of the dull-eyed young guys with nightsticks didn’t seem to register what she was doing. But the third clearly did. His eyes widened and he looked like he was about to speak. He opened his mouth but couldn’t seem to find the words.

  Keri watched him, praying for Sammo’s rough touch. Luckily, she felt it only a moment later when he put his hands on her waist. She couldn’t risk waiting any longer.

  She giggled slightly, to draw Sammo’s attention up to her face. Glancing back, she saw it had worked. At that moment, she lifted her right leg and slammed the bottom of her shoe back into his right knee.

  He grunted and his hands immediately left her waist. She spun around and smashed the butt of her gun into his head as his leg buckled and he crumpled to the ground. Without waiting to see if she’d knocked him out, she gave him a swift kick to the temple to make sure. He lay still. The whole thing had taken less than four seconds.

  “Boss!” the more attentive nightstick kid finally shouted.

  Keri turned to face Laker Cap, whose back had been to her until now, his attention focused on flirty, wiggly Mags. He processed what was happening quickly and began to reach for the gun from the back of his waistband with one hand as he grabbed Mags’s neck with the other.

  Keri raised her own gun and pointed it at him.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” she said, her voice staying level, hiding the anxiety she felt. “All we want to do is leave. If you grab that gun, I have to shoot you. If you step away from my lady friend, we just walk out and forget this whole thing happened.”

  “Who are you?” Laker Cap demanded, his hand still hovering in midair at his side.

  “I’m just a girl who grew up in a rough neighborhood and learned to take care of herself. I like to have a good time, Boss. But this isn’t any fun. I don’t like having guns pointed at me. And I don’t like being pawed at. So we’re going to leave now.”

  “I can’t let you go bitch. How would that look?”

  “How’s it going to look if I shoot you and you have to explain to your boss that some chick took you down? That is, if you survive. This way, it’s our little secret. No one has to know. I’m sure your boys here can keep it buttoned up, right, boys?”

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw them nodding. Laker Cap seemed to be wavering. But then his eyes lit up and she could tell he had an idea.

  “How about you drop your gun or I snap your girlfriend’s neck?”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Keri felt a bit of bile rise in her throat and swallowed it back down. Her hands shook slightly as she gripped her gun and she hoped Laker Cap couldn’t tell from where he stood.

  She had been so close to cooling things off but now he’d escalated the situation. She reminded herself that despite his threat, nothing had really changed.

  “You don’t want to do that, Boss. If you kill my girlfriend, what do you think I’m going to do, crawl up in a ball and start crying? Or shoot you until I’m out of bullets?”

  Laker Cap appeared to be considering the scenario. She continued, not wanting to lose the upper hand.

  “The only way this ends well for you is if you step away from her, lie down on your stomach, and let her remove your gun from your waistband. Then we go. Margaret here will even leave your gun out front so you can retrieve it once we’re gone. You can tell your boss whatever story you like after that. Everybody wins. Otherwise you end up like Sammo over there.”

  Laker Cap stood silently for a few moments, weighing his options. Finally he replied.

  “If that happens, I don’t win. I lose face.”

  Keri’s focus turned to Mags, who was clearly trying to get her attention. Up until now, her friend had stayed mostly quiet, allowing the trained detective to handle the situation. But it was clear from her expression that she was about to take matters into her own hands.

  Keri wanted to shake her head but Laker Cap was watching her closely and would notice. It didn’t matter anyway because a second later, Mags lifted her foot and jammed down the sharp heel of her shoe onto the top of Laker Cap’s sneaker.

  He gasped in pain and let go of her enough for Mags to yank herself free and step away. Keri started toward him but he quickly regrouped and reached toward his waistband again.

  “Don’t,” Keri ordered, now only ten feet away from him. “You’ll be dead before you get it out.”

  His hand hung in the air, his fingers twitching, his eyes unblinking. Now up close, it occurred to her that he could be high. If that was the case, then reasoning with him might be fruitless. Her finger caressed the trigger as she waited for his decision.

  He blinked. It was a small gesture but she knew what it meant. In his own mind, he’d conceded. It was confirmed when he moved his hand away from his waistband and sighed deeply.

  “Good choice, Boss,” Keri said. “Now lie down on the floor so my gal pal can take your gun.”

  He did as he was told. Mags took the gun from his waistband and stepped over next to Keri.

  “Now the rest of you boys come on over here where I can see you and lie down next to your boss.”

  They followed her instructions. When they were all prone, she walked over, grabbed one of the nightsticks, and leaned down next to Laker Cap. His head was down so he couldn’t see her.

  “You’re getting off easy, Boss,” she whispered. “This could have gone much worse for you. Don’t try to find me. I’ve killed tougher guys than you. You understand, bitch?”

  He started to respond but Keri didn’t wait to hear it. She brought down the nightstick on his head. There was loud crack and then a second one when his head hit the warehouse floor. His body slumped. He was unconscious.

  Things moved quickly after that. Keri had the younger guys drag Laker Cap and Sammo into the bathroom, then hand over all their phones and get in themselves. She smashed off the inside door handle and then locked it from the outside.

  She wanted to arrest the johns, whom she assembled in a far corner of the warehouse. But that meant she’d be breaking her cover. Right now they thought she was a female version of them—an adult hoping to take advantage of underage girls. But
arrest them and they’d know that was a lie. Even locking them in the bathroom with the others and calling 911 was unwise.

  Arrests, even by others, meant paperwork and loose talk about the hardcore chick who’d taken them all down. It was just one more way word might get back to Cave. It also increased the chances that everyone she busted would want retribution. She didn’t need more enemies. Right now, it was only Laker Cap, and maybe Sammo, who wanted her dead. They’d feel even more strongly after what she was about to do.

  ‘Boys,” she said to the three johns. “This is your lucky day. You can leave.”

  It took everything she had not to call them perverts as they walked to the exit door. The man in front, a forty-something guy in a polo shirt and retro black Members Only jacket, gave her a half sneer as he walked by. Something in her snapped.

  She stepped forward quickly and kicked him in the shin. Wincing in pain, he took a swing at her. She avoided it easily, grabbed his arm, and pinned it behind his back. Stopping just a fraction of an inch before breaking it, she held his arm there, letting him wonder if she’d give that last little push.

  “You gonna sneer at me anymore, tough guy?” she muttered as she frog marched him to the door.

  Whether it was from stubbornness or pain, he didn’t respond. Keri slammed him against the metal door before bringing her knee up to his groin, making direct contact. She let go of his arm as he doubled over, slamming his forehead against the door. The loud clang reverberated throughout the warehouse. As he sank to the floor, she turned to the remaining johns.

  “Anyone else want to give me a dirty look?” she asked. “Maybe share a few thoughts?”

  The men stood silent, frozen in place.

  “I didn’t think so. Leave. Don’t come back. Or I’ll use my gun. Not that I need it.”