3 The Chain of Lies (10 page)

It was one of a row of small older homes that had been converted into businesses. Emily pulled her car to the curb, across the street from the enterprise, to watch. The man opened the car door and the three girls climbed out of the backseat and went into the rear of the building with the woman.

This location felt familiar to Emily. She shielded the sun from her eyes as it glinted off the marquis sign—it was the Jade Thai Spa.

That’s it!
She realized this place was familiar because she had followed a client’s husband to this establishment late one night. It promoted itself as a massage parlor, but the husband, when confronted by his wife and the credit card bills, admitted he went there for sex. Thinking of the young girls she just observed being escorted inside, Emily’s stomach lurched.

She recalled that Isabel had confided in her that the Feds might be watching the place. Emily decided she’d do a little reconnaissance of her own. She dashed across the busy street and tried to open the front door but found it locked. Knocking casually on the door, she hoped one of the girls would open it and she could get a better look around.

No one came. She knocked harder. Still no answer. She slinked to the window to try to get a peek inside, but the blinds were drawn shut. There was a sliver of a gap between the blinds and the window frame where she could see movement, noticing a woman pass by the window.

Emily stepped back and went to the door again. She raised her fist to knock once more, but the door opened a bit and the older woman stuck her head out.

“Not open yet,” she snapped with a heavy Asian accent.

“When will you be open?” Emily tried to ask as sweetly as she could.

“Open one hour. What you want?”

“You do massages, right?”

“Yeah.” The woman sounded suspicious of Emily.

“I’d like to buy a gift certificate for a one-hour massage. I have this friend—”

Emily stuck her foot in the door and tried to get a peek beyond the woman, but she would only open the door wide enough to poke her head out.

“We no do gift certificates,” the woman cut her off, then pushed Emily’s shoe back with her own and shut the door.

Emily walked away and sprinted across the street, back to her car.
That’s no way to treat a potential customer, unless their primary income stream is not massages.
Was there some secret knock I should have used?
The mystery surrounding the girl from the hotel was growing more suspicious by the minute.

CHAPTER 9

On her drive back to Paradise Valley, Emily decided to phone Isabel and bring her up to speed on what she’d found. It was going on five o’clock and Isabel would likely still be at the office.

“Hey, girl. What’s up?” Isabel could be heard shutting the drawer of a metal file cabinet, and Emily assumed she was getting ready to call it a day.

“Just wanted to check in and let you know what I’ve discovered.”

“About Evan?” Isabel’s voice became low and serious.

“No, nothing new on that front. I was talking about the massage parlors. Remember, you were going to check and see if the Jade Thai Spa was on the Fed’s watch list.”

“That’s right. I’ve just been so slammed here at work I almost forgot. I did send an email out to someone I know and asked about that. Give me a sec and I’ll check my email, see if I got a response.”

Emily could imagine that Isabel was running her finger down the screen.

“No, I don’t see anything yet. Let me write myself a note to check on it again tomorrow.”

Emily heard the sound of a drawer opening and what she thought sounded like Isabel rummaging through it.

“I can’t find a pad of sticky notes to save my life,” Isabel declared. “Oh, there it is. So, tell me, why is this massage parlor so important to you?”

“I think they’re running under-aged girls as prostitutes out of that place.”

“That’s probably why they’re being watched,” Isabel said.

“But why the Feds? I could understand the local cops, but the Feds?”

“I’m not free to say, Em.”

“They suspect a sex slave ring, don’t they?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Something I saw,” Emily replied. “Why don’t the Feds go in there and rescue those girls?”

“I’m really not at liberty to talk about it,” Isabel hedged. “But, hypothetically, let’s say that was what’s going on there, my guess is the FBI is gathering the evidence they need to make an arrest. They can’t simply go busting in there on a hunch.”

“I get it.” Emily hoped for those girls’ sake the Feds moved quickly. If not, maybe she could help move things along.

“Oh, by the way, Em,” Isabel said, breaking into Emily’s thoughts, “Jethro’s back in town. He called me today just to check in, he said.”

“What do you say we try what I suggested before?” Emily looked in her rearview mirrors. Just the mention of Jethro’s name prompted her to do it. “You invite him to lunch and I’ll stick a tracking device on his car.”

“I’m already a step ahead of you. I invited him to lunch tomorrow at Goodwood at twelve thirty. All you have to do is text me when you’ve done it, so I know when to let him leave.”

“You got it.” Emily figured it should be easy enough to find his black BMW in the parking lot, especially with Virginia plates.

“I better get going. Traffic’s going to be murder.”

“I’ll see you at Camille’s on Saturday for the game?”

“We’ll be there. I hear you’re bringing a special guest.”

“Boy, news travels fast.” Emily laughed.

“Only when it’s told to Camille.” Isabel laughed, too.

Emily said her good-byes and clicked off her call with Isabel. She peered into her rearview mirrors again, almost expecting to see the black sedan following her. She blinked—could it be? Three cars behind her was a black car.

She quickly pulled to the curb and stopped, watching the next few cars go by. As the black BMW whizzed past, she caught a quick glimpse. She could have sworn it was Delia McCall with her long brunette hair brushing her shoulders and her large dark sunglasses.
Was Delia following me? Or were we only going in similar directions?

Seeing her again gave Emily an idea. She decided she’d call Delia and invite her to lunch—at Goodwood—and see what sparks might fly. She punched in Delia’s phone number and waited while it rang.

“Hello,” came Delia’s low sultry voice. “Emily?”

Emily knew she must have seen her name come up on her caller ID. “Yes, Delia. It’s Emily.”

“How are you, dear? It’s been ages since we’ve talked.”

“I know it has, and I’m sorry for that. I saw someone this afternoon that reminded me of you, and it gave me the idea that I should call and invite you to lunch. Are you busy tomorrow?”

“I’ll have to check my calendar when I get back to the office, but I think I’m free. Where would you like to meet?”

“So you’re driving?”

“Yes, I had a business meeting this morning, but I’m headed back to my office. I’ll check my schedule when I get there. What time were you thinking?”

“How about one o’clock at Goodwood?”

“That sounds lovely, Emily. I’d love to chat and catch up.”

She sounds pleasant enough. Let’s tighten the screws, put a little pressure on her, and see how she reacts when she sees Jethro, or should I say dear old Dad.

“Sorry, Delia, I have another call coming in that I have to take. It looks like it’s Colin.”

“I’ll let you run, then. Give my love to him, won’t you?”

“Sure thing.” Emily hung up from one call and picked up the other. “Hey, Colin.”

“Hello, gorgeous.”

His voice was deep and sensual, and she enjoyed it every time she heard it. “Have you left San Francisco yet?”

“Tomorrow, first light. Then I’m on the road home.”

“I can’t wait to have you back, Colin.” The thought of him returning to Paradise Valley for good made her heart beat a little faster and a soft heat radiated over her body.

“I should be there by dinnertime.”

“Let’s go out.” Emily imagined a romantic candlelit dinner at a fancy restaurant to celebrate Colin’s return to Paradise Valley.

“No, I’d rather stay in. I’ll be on the road all day. I’d like to have a nice quiet dinner at your place and just be alone with you.”

“You know I’m not a very good cook.” She was good at a lot of things, but there was no denying that cooking wasn’t one of them.

“Oh, honey, that’s what take-out is for.”

Emily couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Well, I’m not
that
bad.”

She told him about the football party Camille and Jonathan were planning at their place on Saturday and that all their friends would be there. She filled him in on what she had learned about Jethro’s possible connection to Delia McCall and how the mysterious dark-haired woman in the photo with Evan was likely Jethro’s daughter. Wracking her brain for any other news, she was intent on not hiding anything else from Colin.

“Oh, and another thing…” she started to say.

“What’s that?”

“There’s something I’m investigating where I will need to enlist your help.”

“Sounds intriguing. What’s going on?” Colin asked.

“There’s a possibility of a prostitution ring operating around here, and it may have ties to Camille’s neighborhood.”

“Prostitution ring? Boy, that really surprises me. I’ve had some experience dealing with that in San Francisco, but I didn’t think I’d have to deal with it in a quiet place like Paradise Valley.”

“Looks like you may have to.” Emily went on and described her and Molly’s experiences with the suspicious Asians and what she had discovered about their business.

“I don’t understand why you’re involved, though,” he said.

“I’m a concerned citizen, doing what I can. If human trafficking is happening right under our noses, how can I sit and do nothing, knowing what those girls are being put through night after night?”

“Shouldn’t you report what you know and let law enforcement handle it?”

“Without concrete evidence, they’d just laugh at me.”

“You’re probably right, but—”

“Colin, what if someone had taken a girl you knew, let’s say your sister, and forced her into a life of prostitution? I know you’d be the first to jump in to rescue her. Well, those girls aren’t commodities, they’re somebody’s daughters.”

“I get it, Emily. I’ll help in any way I can, just don’t do anything dangerous before I get there.”

~*~

The next day Emily showed up at the Goodwood restaurant at twelve forty-five. She drove around the parking lot, scanning each vehicle until she spotted the black BMW with Virginia plates. She swung her white Volvo into a space a respectable distance away and sauntered over to the BMW, doing her best to inconspicuously slink by it as she stuck a magnetic GPS device to the car’s frame.

Emily casually waltzed back to her car and texted Isabel that the deed was done. Now she needed to sit and wait for Delia to show up. She hoped her little ploy would prove useful.

Right on time, Delia entered the lot and parked her dark BMW. Emily jumped out of her car and headed to the restaurant, reaching the door at the same time as Delia.

“Hello, Delia.” Emily greeted her with a quick hug and pulled the heavy glass door open.

“Oh, Emily. It’s so good to see you.” Delia’s dark eyes twinkled with apparent sincerity.

Delia was a stunning woman in her early forties, dressed in a handsomely tailored business suit in fine tan wool with a fitted pencil skirt. Her dark waves danced around her shoulders as she teetered to the door in her brown-leather designer high heels.

Emily felt a bit underdressed in her black jeans and cropped black-leather jacket over a scoop-necked white sweater. She politely smiled as she held the door open and followed Delia to the hostess station, glancing nonchalantly around the crowded restaurant. She spotted Isabel sitting opposite Jethro, along the window side of the room, with his back to them.
Perfect.

“Table for two?” the hostess asked.

“Yes, along the windows, please,” Emily requested.

“Right this way.” The hostess grabbed a couple of menus from her station and led the women to their table, just beyond Isabel and Jethro. Emily filed in right behind the hostess with Delia trailing close by.

Isabel looked up as they approached the table and her eyes widened momentarily as she appeared to try to hide her astonishment.

“Isabel,” Emily said as they walked past, pausing at her table. “What a nice surprise.”

“Isn’t it, though,” Isabel remarked.

“Delia, you remember Isabel, don’t you?” Emily watched Delia’s eyes for any signs of discomfort at being in Jethro’s presence.

“Yes, of course. How nice to see you again, Isabel.”

“And this is my friend. We call him Jethro.” Isabel looked at him, then her gaze went to Delia. “Jethro, this is Delia McCall.”

Emily picked up on Isabel doing the same thing she was, watching for any signs of recognition in Jetho’s expression. Emily noticed a slight flash of recognition in Delia’s dark eyes, but when she glanced at Jethro, he was controlled and unflinching.