No Escape (25 page)

Los Angeles, California

Monday afternoon, March 15

A
fter placing an urgent phone call to Veronica asking her to join them within the quarter hour, Luke and Tessa went together to question Jerry Kravitz in earnest.

“Jerry, Jerry. What have you been up to in the last few days?” Luke began, as they returned to the kitchen.

“Can you sit him up straight?” Tessa asked. “I’d like to see his face while we talk.”

With a lot of grunting and assistance from Luke, Jerry was able to get back onto his knees, then sit on his heels and face Tessa with his arms tied behind his back. Luke pulled a chair over for Tessa, then turned one backward and took a seat himself.

“That’s a big blue Chevy you’ve got in the side yard,” Luke said, once everyone was seated.

Jerry shrugged and refused to meet their eyes.

“Who does it belong to?” Luke pressed. “I didn’t see a license plate.”

Jerry lifted angry brown eyes to them. “Who cares about
that heap? It belongs to someone at the club who’s going out of town. I’m watching it for him on account of Ricky asked me to.”

Luke laughed with real humor and leaned forward so his face was only a few feet away from the other man’s. “You’re not too fucking bright, are you, Jer?”

Brown eyes flicked nervously between Luke and Tessa as Jerry at last began to pick up on the vibes in the room. “Why do you say that?”

“Because Ricky is setting you up for the hit-and-run murder of a veteran police officer. And the attempted murder of an officer of the court,” Tessa said quietly.

Jerry laughed nervously while his eyes continued darting back and forth. “What the fuck? You’re crazy.”

“No, and since I was the one who survived the encounter with that Chevy, I can identify it with absolute certainty as the vehicle responsible for Detective Ed Flynn’s death and my injuries.” Tessa waved her cast at him to underscore the point. “That lines you up for accessory after the fact, at the very least. At worst, you go down for murder one.”

Jerry met her eyes with an expression of dawning horror. “Someone killed a cop and tried to kill you?”

“Give the man a cigar,” Luke drawled.

“Holy shit. I don’t know nothing about any cop being run down. I swear, I just agreed to watch a car belonging to a buddy who’s going out of town. You can’t pin the rest of that on me.” Jerry’s pale face took on a green tinge as he finally began to understand what was going on.

And how easily he had been set up.

“I don’t know about that,” Luke said. “Every law enforcement agency in California is looking for that car right now, knowing it will lead to a cop-killer. If they can’t find the guy who did the driving, or the guy who set the hit up, they’ll be happy to take a sacrificial lamb instead.”

“And from where I’m sitting, you’re looking downright
wooly,” Tessa finished. “Ricky screwed you over good, didn’t he?”

“Can we still talk about deals?” Jerry asked. “I’ve got a lot of information that would help you, but you got to give me immunity. And I want protection from the rest of the players at Club Red.”

“Tell me why I should deal with you when we’re holding all the cards,” Tessa said.

Jerry moistened his lips. “Because I can give you the name of the guy who gave me that car, and testify as to how he was doing this big hush-hush job for Ricky a couple days ago. Saturday afternoon. Would that be when this cop was killed?”

Gotcha.

Tessa kept her face calm, even though her heart was pounding. “It might be.”

“So you give me immunity, I serve up this guy and Ricky on a platter.”

“You have to understand a couple of things first, Jerry. I’m not the only one looking at Club Red right now.”

His eyes darted between Luke and Tessa in a way she was beginning to find slightly creepy. “You talking about the cops?” Jerry asked.

“No. As we speak there’s a multiagency task force headed by the FBI that’s getting ready to take Club Red apart brick by brick to see what kind of cockroaches come scuttling out,” Luke said.

“So I can’t make you any promises on immunity from federal charges,” Tessa explained. “And I’ve got my own bone to pick with you about Kelly. There won’t be any dealing on charges related to her.”

“Maybe I ain’t too bright, but even I can figure out that you wouldn’t be here if you had everything you needed. I can help you, but you don’t get nothing for free,” Jerry insisted.

“If you turn on Ricky and the driver of the Chevy, I can guarantee you immunity from charges related to the death of Detective Flynn,” Tessa said. “But you’ve got to give me something really beefy if you want me to go to bat for you with the Feds. If the information is good enough, then we can try to get the federal charges reduced. But you’ll have to serve up a lot of other people, enough so it’s worthwhile for the FBI to go easy on you on the racketeering and gambling activities.”

Jerry started visibly. “How’d you know about that?”

“Like I said, Jer. Law enforcement has been watching your organization for a long time,” Luke said. “Enough to know that you and Ricky are in bed with the Ianellis.”

“Don’t ask me to rat them out,” Jerry pleaded. “They’ll kill me. Papa Ianelli wants to be taken seriously in the Southwestern US and there’s no fucking way I’ll be his example.”

“You’ll do it. And be happy about it,” Tessa said over the sound of knocking at the front door. “Or you’ll be looking at so much time in a federal lockup that death by Ianellis will begin to look pretty attractive.”

Luke got up to open the door, surprised to see Ronnie standing there smiling brightly at Sledge Aiken. They’d obviously arrived at the same time, and she wanted to make sure that Sledge had no idea she was a cop and that his life was just about to get very interesting.

“I can’t believe I ran into you like this,” Ronnie cooed to Sledge as she followed him into the house.

Sledge came to a halt as he saw Luke standing in the entryway to the living room. He’d clearly been expecting to see Jerry and had no idea who the big man standing in front of him was.

Ronnie ignored Sledge’s surprise and shoved the door shut, locking it with a flourish. “My husband is a big fan of yours, Mr. Aiken. Even though I tell him that your arm sucks on the long passes, and you run like a girl instead of holding
your ground and picking out a receiver half the time.”

“Huh? What?” Sledge’s head whipped around to Ronnie. “Who the hell are you two? And where’s Jerry?”

“He’s kind of tied up at the moment,” Luke said with a smile. “Why don’t you join us in the kitchen and we can see who gets to make the deal of a lifetime with the District Attorney’s Office.”

“I’m outta here, man.” Sledge turned to leave, then came to another abrupt halt as Ronnie smiled and flashed her badge at him.

“Believe me, you’re going to want to hear what we have to say, Aiken. And don’t worry about your lawyer. This conversation will be off the record, so you’ve got nothing to lose. Except a reduced sentence on state and local charges,” Luke said.

He stepped aside and let Sledge and Ronnie pass him and head toward the kitchen. He used the pretext of greeting Ronnie with a hug and a kiss to whisper a warning in her ear. “Just go along with whatever Tessa says and don’t show any emotion, okay?”

She nodded and went into the kitchen, stopping short when she saw Jerry trussed on the floor and Tessa sitting casually in a chair writing something on a yellow legal tablet. She looked better than the last time Ronnie had seen her—the scrapes on her face were healing, the bruises fading, and she no longer looked like she was on the verge of falling apart.

In fact, she looked pretty damned pleased with herself, something that Sledge picked up on right away.

“What have you done now, you prick?” he asked Jerry. “Did you set me up?”

“No!” Jerry protested. “But somehow they know everything. About Kelly, and what’s happening at Club Red, and—”

“Shut up, you stupid shit. My lawyer told me they don’t have anything unless someone talks. We’ll all be fine if we just keep our mouths shut.”

“I’m not keeping quiet while Ricky sets me up for killing a cop,” Jerry insisted. He nodded frantically as Sledge looked at him in shock. “That’s right. He went too far, and now he’s trying to stick it on me. I got news for you, pal of mine, I’m not going down alone.”

Tessa looked up from her pad of paper. “What he’s saying, Sledge, is that you can kiss your endorsement contracts and your future political career good-bye. That’s a given. The question you have to face now is how much time you’re going to do, and how much of your personal fortune will be waiting for you when you get out of prison.”

“But I didn’t do anything,” Sledge said. “Just went on a date that Jerry set up for me and Kelly. He said she was hot for me but kinda shy, he’s the one who—”

Jerry interrupted with a howl of protest, insisting that Sledge had been fully involved with setting Kelly up and many other criminal activities besides.

Both Sledge and Jerry turned to Tessa and began shouting to be heard, each eager to cut the best deal in exchange for talking about the entire Club Red operation.

Ronnie leaned against the doorway next to Luke. “Don’t you just love it when the bad guys realize that they’ve been screwed by their confreres and can’t wait to return the favor?”

Luke watched Tessa trying to referee and take notes at the same time. “Yeah. It’s great when the dam bursts.”

“One confession at a time, please,” Tessa said with a wry look at Ronnie and Luke. “But I’ll be happy to reward the person with the best information. Right now, that means telling me where Kelly is.”

Sledge shrugged. “I haven’t seen her since that night I talked to you…” He trailed off at Tessa’s fierce look. “Since a couple of weeks ago. I had nothing to do with her disappearance.”

“Then how did you know she was missing?” Tessa asked.

Jerry leaned forward eagerly. “I told you, I saw her yesterday getting into a car with Otis. That’s Ricky’s bodyguard, and the guy who towed the Chevy over here a couple nights ago.”

Tessa looked at each man as if trying to judge his sincerity. “You’re not helping me here—or yourselves. If you want a deal, I need information that can actually lead me to Kelly.”

“There’s a girl at the club who might know where Kelly is,” Jerry said slowly. “Crystal is always plugged into what’s going on. She kind of took Kelly under her wing, was showing her the ropes, you know? And she was there yesterday, so she might know where Otis was taking Kelly.”

“Crystal who? How do I get in touch with her?” Tessa asked.

“She’s a dancer at Club Red,” Sledge offered. “You can’t miss her.”

“Yeah, she has blue hair. Goes by the name Crystal Bleu,” Jerry added. “Ricky trusts her—she’s been with him forever. Well, a couple of years, anyway. She’s the one who trains the girls and helps them pick out costumes, nicknames, and their particular trademarks, like her own blue hair.”

“You told me she was helping to train Kelly,” Tessa said. “What for? If you want to cut any deals, you’re going to have to break down the operation for us and help us prove what was going on.”

“What do you mean?” Jerry asked.

“You’ll have to reveal how you entrap young girls and force them to become strippers and prostitutes for your little club,” Luke said from the doorway. He and Ronnie finally came into the kitchen, figuring that since the information was flowing there was no need to hang back anymore.

“It was Ricky’s idea,” Jerry said reluctantly. “I just helped him get what he wanted.”

“Which was?” Tessa asked.

“Thoroughbreds,” Jerry replied. “Prime, young girls—preferably blondes—who didn’t have the hard edge that a lot of the strippers and prostitutes get after a few years in the business. To keep the high-rolling customers happy, Ricky needed a constant supply of fresh meat—girls,” he corrected himself with a wince.

“Girls you were happy to provide to men like Sledge. How did you do it?” Tessa asked. “How did you get a fifteen-year-old girl like Kelly to turn tricks for you?”

“By lying to her,” Jerry admitted. “She thought she was going on a date with a star who had Hollywood connections. She thought Sledge was going to help her get a recording contract.”

“And what did Sledge think he was getting?” Tessa asked as she looked at him.

“A date,” he said. “Jerry assured me that Kelly had been broken in and knew what was expected of her. In return for sleeping with me, she gets to hang in my circle, maybe goes to a few parties where she could make some contacts.”

“You both are disgusting,” Tessa said tiredly. “But that’s beside the point right now. How did you meet Kelly in the first place, and how many others like her are there?”

Jerry sighed. “We can only train one or two girls at a time. Keeping the supply low ensures a high demand, you know? It’s a business decision.”

“And when you’re done with the girl?” Luke asked.

“Once a girl has been around for a while, or is no longer in high demand with the customers, we usually sign her up for dancing shifts if she’s over eighteen. Or maybe ship her to another club where she’d be a new commodity. If the girl is young, we’ll use her to recruit others like Kelly from bus or train stations, maybe even the beach and the malls.”

“That’s how you found Kelly,” Tessa said. “At the bus station.”

“Sure. One of the girls who knows the score was waiting for new arrivals at the downtown bus terminal. You can pick the runaways out from the crowd real easy. So she befriended Kelly, bought her coffee and a sandwich, talked with her about how rotten parents can be, you know. Then she invited Kelly to crash with her at my place until she found her own pad. When I opened the door and saw Kelly’s face, I knew she was going to be a great addition to the club.”

“So you groomed a fifteen-year-old runaway to service men like Sledge Aiken,” Tessa said.

“Hey, I’m not the bad guy, here.” Sledge ran an agitated hand through his trademark red-brown hair. “Why don’t you ask Jerry about how he broke her in for me? I don’t do virgins, so Jerry gave her a little on-the-job training. Don’t make it sound like I’m the only one using these girls.”