Madame Liu opened a drawer in her desk, took out a fat wad of bills, and handed them to Lloyd. “Let me know if you come across any more like her,” she said. “No one knows you brought her here, right?”
Lloyd nodded, stuffing the bills in his pocket. “I’d be glad to start the conditioning if you like,” he said.
Madame Liu shook her head, “I’m sure you would. But this one will require some very careful handling. I don’t want to waste her … use her up … before I sell her. I’ll get a fortune for her. I have to decide how much work she’ll need.”
Kitty listened in disbelief. They were talking about selling her body. “You … you can’t do this,” she said. “You know who I am?”
“That’s what will make the price so high,” said Madam Liu. “Relax, from what you’ve just showed us, you might enjoy the experience. That body flush wasn’t embarrassment. It was excitement, wasn’t it?”
The woman nodded to the giant. He put one hand on Kitty’s arm and began to pull her toward a door opposite the fireplace.
“What about my clothes?” she said.
“You won’t need them,” said Madame Liu. “We’ll provide clothes when it’s time.”
“Sorry I couldn’t give you a workout, Kitty,” said Lloyd, real disappointment in his voice. “But I certainly enjoyed the show. Too bad we couldn’t tape it. Now there would be some ‘news at eleven’ that might have really jump-started your career.”
He was still laughing at his own joke as Kitty and the monster left the room. He led her down a corridor and up a set of steps to a bedroom. He groped her buttocks and then pushed her through the door and locked it behind her.
She stood, breath short, still working on controlling the adrenalin that was racing through her veins. The room was spare compared to the rest of the house. There was a bed with a sheet, pillow, and single blanket. A large stuffed chair sat in one corner opposite a plain brown dresser with a vase on top. It held some sort of dried weeds. That was the sum total of the furnishings. No pictures on the walls. There were no windows, no other doors. Not even a closet. She wondered how many other women had been here in the same situation she was in.
She went over and listened at the door. She could hear the heavy footsteps of the man going away and then nothing. She tried the handle. Locked tight. She leaned her weight against it, but since she weighed only ninety-eight pounds soaking wet, it didn’t even creak.
There was nothing else to do. Up until the moment she was locked in this room, it might have been questionable whether what had just happened to her was even illegal. She’d investigated rape cases before and knew there were gray areas in the law. She’d accompanied Lloyd here of her own free will. No force had been used. Lloyd had simply asked her to take off her clothes and she had complied. That there was coercion was a given, but she knew coercion was a hard thing to prove.
And the truth was she
had
been aroused by what happened. It was humiliating and frightening, but also the most stimulating and sexually exciting few minutes of her life. She could just imagine how some hotshot solicitor would make that point in court. She had obviously engaged in a consensual sexual experience. Maybe she liked bondage. “Do you enjoy being told what to do, Miss Wells?” the solicitor would say, titillating the court.
Out loud she muttered, “Get a grip!”
None of that mattered now. Once the bedroom door was closed and locked, the crime became kidnapping and she had real fears for her life. They intended to make money off her, and that meant they would never be able to let her go. They would use her to the fullest extent possible and then kill her … if the work didn’t do it for them. No one would ever hear of Kitty Wells again. Her dreams of national fame as a correspondent would be nothing but a sad footnote about an attractive young reporter who had simply disappeared. It happened to women every day.
She sat in the chair, drew her legs up, and wrapped her arms around them. The room was warm enough, but she realized how strange it was not to be able to get dressed when she wanted to. And right now she wanted to more than anything. How long would it be before anyone missed her? Thank God she’d left a message for Garrett. But he’d have no idea where she was. Then she began to wonder how long it would be before someone came for her conditioning.
32
L
ONNIE SAT ON A BENCH
in the Halifax Public Gardens. He nearly filled the entire thing just by himself. He held a bag of popcorn and tossed kernels to the ducks and geese that paraded around him.
He was something of a familiar sight to regulars in the gardens. He often came here after carrying out some particularly unpleasant job on the docks. It relaxed him. For all of his frightening demeanor, he was not a violent man. He didn’t like hurting people, but somehow his size had connived to make that his profession. Even in Iraq, he’d felt distaste for the things he had to do. He was an anomaly. A man of gentle nature forced to do violent things upon occasion.
It was a living.
Fortunately, those occasions were rare. His appearance and, after a time, reputation made the use of his hands a relatively rare occurrence. Nearly everyone he encountered bent over backward to do whatever he required of them.
His true nature was a vestige of his upbringing. His grandmother had believed in him, and her gentle remonstrances had stayed with him long after she was gone.
He’d just come from Big Margaret’s. Though she was a tough and bitter woman, she nevertheless was one of those who blanched at the very sight of the leviathan at her door. She operated in the same underground milieu that Lonnie did and was well aware of his reputation. When he asked her a question, she answered truthfully and fully, hoping only that he would leave as soon as possible.
But in this case, Big Margaret really knew nothing about Kitty Wells. Didn’t even know she was a television personality. Knew nothing about Lloyd’s little seduction. Still, she offered up Lloyd’s name as one possible avenue of interest and, hopefully, as a way to get Lonnie to move on. But she had no idea where Lloyd was and Lonnie believed her. Then she’d given him another lead, one that required some thought, which was why he was here in the park.
He fed the ducks and watched the couples that always seemed to abound in the beautiful gardens. Tourists and young lovers were everywhere.
It made him feel normal to be here among the flowers and birds and honeymooners. He’d yearned for intimacy and normalcy in his own life from the time he was a teenager. His grandmother’s admonitions kept him from going to professionals for his sexual needs. He refused to think of himself as some sort of pervert. As a result, he’d had very few sexual experiences in his life. Garrett had tried to set him up with blind dates a few times, but it never worked, and he grew tired of the frightened looks the women invariably exhibited when they saw him.
He watched a young couple as they walked around the dirt pathways holding hands and sighed. That would never be a part of his life. The bleakness of that reality had to be pushed constantly to the back of his mind. He had refocused his life, in odd ways, toward helping people. Working with Garrett gave him an outlet for that part of his nature. It counterbalanced the unpleasant things he had to do. But sometimes it was a struggle not to get angry at the cruel joke life had played on him.
He wanted to help Kitty Wells. It sounded like she might be in real trouble from what Garrett had suggested. But he was stymied about how to find her. Still, he would keep on the trail, and Lloyd’s too. About the best feeling he’d had in a while had been when he’d managed to rescue Lila and Ayesha from Big Margaret, and it had been followed by one of the worst, when he’d had to turn Ayesha over to her father. His service in the Gulf had given him insight into the Muslim world and its exploitation of women. And he had hated it, how many of them could only appear in public in full black burqas, faces invisible.
Indeed, their entire lives were invisible. Hidden away from men, not allowed to work, go to school, drive a car, or go out in public, sold by their families to men not of their choosing, only to have daughters they would have to raise in the same manner.
He felt deep sympathy for them, for their constricted lives, not unlike how his own life was constricted. He took out a large handful of corn and threw it in an arc so at least twenty birds came scooting in from all directions.
He watched them and thought about what else Big Margaret had told him.
33
“
L
ET’S GO BACK TO MY
place,” Sarah whispered to Garrett after their long kiss.
He was in no mood to argue. Though still worried about Kitty, he had no idea how to find her. Sarah was clearly in heat. He felt the same way. Watching those young kids making out had reawakened some of their own youthful passion. They made it back to her house in record time.
As soon as they were in the kitchen door, they began to grapple and peel clothes off. Then Sarah saw the note on the table. She stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Garrett asked, nearly panting with longing for her.
“There’s something on the table,” she said.
He let go of her and picked up the note. It was from Lila. They read it together.
“Where are you guys?” it said. “I don’t know what to do. Ayesha called, said her father had been beating her. She was hysterical. I told her I’d walk to her house and be there at nine-thirty. If she could get out, she could come stay with us. Lila.”
“Uh-oh,” said Garrett. He looked at the clock on the wall. It was after eleven. Sarah looked very worried.
“Come on. We’ll go to Ayesha’s house. We’ll find them.”
The little grocery with the home above it was dark and silent. Of course. It was late. Everyone was asleep.
Garrett banged on the door and kept on banging until a light went on inside. A minute later, Mr. Marshed appeared. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt. He stared through the door at Garrett for a moment, then undid the lock.
“Yes? What is it?” he asked.
“We’re looking for Lila,” Garrett said. “We have reason to believe she came to see Ayesha.”
The man’s face grew dark. “That girl is not welcome here. She is a bad influence on my daughter. That should be clear enough after their running away to the city. My family will never live down such a thing.” He started to close the door but Garrett blocked it with his foot.
“We need to see Ayesha,” He said. “To make sure she knows nothing about where Lila is. If she says she doesn’t know, we’ll leave.”
“It’s late. Everyone is in bed,” the man said. “You have no right to demand this.”
“I have every legal right,” said Garrett. “We have information leading us to believe Lila came here. She’s a minor. We’re concerned for her safety.”
This was a stretch legally. In fact, they had no reason to believe Lila was in any danger. But Garrett knew the man wouldn’t be completely sure about the law. They could see him struggling over what to do. Finally, he released the door and waved them in.
“I will get her,” he said.
He returned a minute later, his face filled with fury. “She’s not here,” he said. “Her window onto the fire escape is open. Your Lila has taken her away from me. I demand you find her.”
Garrett exchanged looks with Sarah. “All right,” he said. “We’ll find them and I’ll bring Ayesha home.” He jerked his head to Sarah to leave and closed the door on Mr. Marshed’s contorted face.
“Where do you think they are?” Sarah asked. “We didn’t pass anyone on the road. Where would they have gone?”
“I don’t know. But we’ll check the house first to make sure. Maybe they hid from any cars they heard coming, in case it was Ayesha’s father.”
Sure enough, the lights were on in the house and they found Lila and Ayesha sitting on the couch. One look at Ayesha told the whole story. Her face was badly bruised.
Lila looked at Garrett accusingly. “She’s got marks on her body too,” she said. “How could you have her sent back there? Look what he’s done to her.”
Sarah sat down and put her arm around the girl. She’d obviously been crying but seemed to have used up all that emotion. Her face looked blank. Garrett had seen such looks before, on the faces of so many girls who got nothing but pain from those who were supposed to love them.
“We’ll have to take you to the hospital, Ayesha,” he said.
“I … I don’t ever want to go back home,” she said.
“All right,” Garrett said. “There’s a process we have to follow. And the first step is to get confirmation from the hospital that you’ve been beaten. That sets protective services in motion. I’m going to call someone I know and she’ll help arrange a place for you to stay after that.”
“Why can’t she stay with us?” Lila asked.
He spread his hands. “That might be possible. I don’t know. There’s going to be legal action on this that will take time.”
Ayesha seemed to be struggling with something.
“What is it?” Sarah asked.
“My … my father … threatened to sell me if I ever ran away again.”
Sarah stared at her in horror. “What?”
“He said there was a man who wanted to buy me for a wife.” Tears began to flow down her face again.
“Garrett?” Sarah was looking at him, her face filled with indignation.
He swore under his breath. What a mess. He’d always thought prostitution exhibited the worst face of humanity. But in some parts of the world, actually selling one’s child as a wife, sex slave, and servant was commonplace. It was more horrible than anything, the ultimate betrayal.
But it wasn’t legal in Canada. “Your father can’t do that, Ayesha. It’s against the law in this country. Maybe he was only trying to scare you. There is no legal way he can do that.” He gave Sarah a look. “Lila, why don’t you get Ayesha ready and we’ll drive to the hospital.”
Lila took Ayesha into the bedroom. As soon as the door was closed, Sarah started.
“That man’s a monster,” she said. “Selling his daughter? Beating her? Making her work like a slave? You’ve got to do something, Garrett.”
He nodded slowly. “I will, but it will take time and we may not be able to keep Ayesha here. It might actually be better for her if she went away somewhere rather than remain so close to her father.”