Page 56 of Wicked Shadows
“Let’s go over what we know, then. Lay it all out on the table.” Jack stood and walked into the service bay area. “Come in here so we can quit playing those damn charades.”
Nick and Shadow rose, laughing over Jack’s description of their actions, and followed him into the garage.
“Jack tell you this place is kept clean by a perpetual de-bugger device?” Nick asked.
“No, but it’s good to hear y’all are using that technology now. I’m having some of my own installed as we speak. I’ll let them know to work around it.”
“So, what do we know? Start from the beginning.”
“Devil’s Dominion has been involved in the usual illegal trades—drugs, prostitution, and weapons. Their main drug supplier is the Mexican cartel. They make regular runs to the border and meet their contacts. Then they come back, disperse their product to the satellite clubs for distribution, and collect the money from them weekly.”
“The same guys travel to the border and back? No one left behind at the meeting?” Shadow clarified.
“No one left behind. Same set of guys because the cartel members know them. They rotate schedules randomly to avoid overeager DEA agents. But nothing other than drugs and money is exchanged.”
“Same with weapons?”
“Yeah. Certain guys are tagged to gain weapons. They use their own ole lady, or some of the better-looking sheep they keep around the clubhouse, to lure guys from the local military bases. Once they get the supply chain established, all transactions are kept way under the radar. There’s way too much press coverage on this to be tied to the weapons deals.”
“That leaves the prostitution ring,” Jack surmised.
Shadow crushed the beer can between his palms until it was as flat as a pancake.
“Calm down. Let’s talk it through before you go all rogue on us,” Jack said.
“Jack’s right. The prostitution ring is fairly straightforward. They use the same sheep they keep around the club—or new girls they pick up hitchhiking. But as far as I know, they always bring them back to the clubhouse for the members to pass around.”
“As far as you know. So there could be a deviation from the norm going on.” Shadow stood and began pacing. “I’m reading you both in on a highly classified piece of intel we have.”
“Highly classified piece of intel means it was obtained illegally.” Nick raised his eyebrows at Shadow. “Blurring lines?”
“I have no lines where Elle is concerned. If I had to storm the gates of hell itself to bring her back, that’s exactly what I’d do. If I have to kill every single member of the Devil’s Dominion with my bare hands to get her out of their clutches, it won’t bother me one bit.
“So, one of our analysts was combing through all the data and chatter from the time surrounding the disappearances and found something interesting. Katrina Fox was the first actress I’d heard about going off the grid, but she actually wasn’t the first. A girl by the name of Carrie Snow was the first one.
“A similar story was given—she quit the film industry and settled down somewhere in suburbia. There were rumors of drug and alcohol addiction that plagued her. While our analyst was checking for anything related to Elle, Carrie’s name came up. He marked it to research it later and called me on the flight today. Seems Carrie’s name is hot on the chatter wheel these days.”
“So your analyst hacked into the NSA’s program and has been monitoring cell phone conversations for you across Southern California?” Nick was barely holding on to his sense of right and wrong after being a full-fledged officer in an outlaw motorcycle club for two years. He needed his friends outside the club to be his moral compass when his own was askew.
“You’re completely missing the point. That’s three missing actresses and a makeup artist who happened to be with Elle when she disappeared. The first one was weeks before Katrina—but her name is still active in the chatter. The goods haven’t been delivered yet. Not with the intel he gave me.
“Where would they hide the girls they’re not using yet? We’ve checked the known properties, and nothing jumps out as an obvious hideaway.”
“Nowhere. The club has nowhere to hide girls like that. You’re talking high-profile, instantly recognizable, the-whole-world-looking-for-them actresses. Our sheep are taken out in broad daylight and paraded in front of men on the street. They’re openly offered to potential Johns on the sidewalks downtown.
“Most of these boys don’t have a pot to piss in on their own. Your apartment over there would be a palace to more than half of our local chapter members. Did your analyst come across any other names that would be helpful in our search?”
“No, but he’s still doing his analysis. He picked up on her name and searched every hit on that match first. It’ll take him a little while longer to sort through the rest.”
“And that doesn’t bother you? Eavesdropping illegally?”
“Not a bit. It’s not for my monetary gain. It’s to save the lives of four young women and to prevent more from being taken. We know it was Devil’s Dominion members who took Elle and Beth. That was confirmed by the patches on their vests. He followed them with local cameras as far as he could. The truck disappeared in an alley and never came back out.”
“And you’ve already had the buildings scanned by satellites.” Nick wasn’t even asking at that point.
“Of course. One of the buildings is a parking garage. Too many large vehicles went in and out to identify one to home in on. Plus, they could’ve separated Elle and Beth and taken them on different routes. An incursion at one location could mean death to the others. I can’t take that risk—I need absolutes in this case.”
“Then I guess your friend needs to perform more illegal searches and find a connection to the money.” Nick didn’t try to hide his sarcasm or his disapproval.
“It’s not illegal when they’re suspected of domestic terrorism and treason.” Shadow shot his words back at Nick, not hiding his disgust with the turn in the conversation.
“Domestic terrorism? By kidnapping a starlet and depriving America of their ninety-minute worship time?”
“You don’t honestly believe their end game is to kidnap three beautiful, well-known stars and use them for a local prostitution ring, do you? They’re going to trade them—desirable human slaves in exchange for weapons from a Middle Eastern country known for using biological weapons on their own people, Chinese syndicates who sell them into slavery in exchange for large amounts of laundered money, or anything else in between.
“Think like a DEA agent, Nick. Not like a low-level thug who only does what ‘big boss Headbanger’ tells him to do. Your biker gang is attempting to break in to the big leagues for a reason. Whether they want to use the weapons themselves or sell them to others for a shitload of money doesn’t matter.”
