Page 7 of Summer Heatwave
Tala shrugged.“I no know.Girls come and leave training.Some fight the men and gone soon.Perlah and me no like get beat.We learn fast.Some girls in training when we got picked.”
“Okay, so you got picked to go to Miss Nami’s, and Perlah got picked to go to the club.Did you tell me that Big Daddy owns both?”At Dylan’s question, all three in the observation area smiled.
Nodding, Tala said, “Yes.Big Daddy nice.He gives good girls specials.”
“What are specials?”
Tala sat up, dropping her feet to the floor.“I get to see Perlah.If I good, and Perlah good, we get to go shopping.”A sneer quickly crossed her face.“Miss Nami have to come with us, but she buys the clothes.We still have fun.Eat real Filipino food.Go to mall.Get pretty clothes.See, Perlah like sister to me.I no leave her here.”Tala grabbed Dylan’s hand.“You save me.Now you save Perlah.”
“Okay, okay.”Dylan patted the hand that clung to his.“We’ll do our best.You have to tell us everything you know about this club.Do you know where it is?”
“In city, LA.”Tala took her hand back and folded it with the other on top of the scarred table.She looked anxious for the next question.
“Have you ever been there?”
Tala shook her head as she said, “Perlah told me all about it.Lots of movie stars.They make her do all kinds of things to them.Sometimes two men at a time.Sometimes women in the bed with her.She get real good food but not allowed to get fat.Her bedroom is pretty.She lives at the club.Much nicer than Miss Nami’s.”
“What was nicer at the club than Miss Nami’s?”Dylan asked the question that Mike wanted to know.The more details Tala could give them the better chance they had finding the place.
She threw her hands up in the air.“Everything.Miss Nami let Perlah come to my room before she took her back to club.Perlah tell me how beautiful club is and how pretty her room.Men nicer too.No one allowed to hit.Girl get hit, client get beat up and can never come back.He lose all his money too.Cost million dollars to join club.”
“It doesn’t sound like a BDSM club.”Mike couldn’t believe he’d said that out loud.
“No, it sounds like a specialized sex club for men who like little girls.”Kam looked over her shoulder at him.“That’s why they prefer girls from Southeast Asia.It’s hard to tell their age.A plaid skirt, plain white blouse with matching white socks in Mary Jane shoes and they look like a ten-year-old attending Catholic school.Put them in a slinky beaded dress slit up to their thigh, go heavy on the makeup, and the same girl suddenly looks like an exotic model.The perfect sex toy.”
“A million dollars?”Dylan chuckled.“He’d have to be a rich movie star to afford to go there.”
Tala rattled off a list of leading men and even a few women.Mike was quite sure that the million-dollar price and the movie stars were an exaggeration, but, hell, it was California.The secrecy necessary to keep a proclivity for teenage girls might just cost a million dollars in Tinseltown.That was so far above Mike’s pay grade he didn’t even want to think about that kind of money.
“Has Perlah paid off her debt yet?You said girls at the club make better money.”
Damn, Dylan was right on top of this interrogation.
Tala’s face fell.“No.When she close, they take her pretty clothes away.Sometimes, we get the pretty clothes at Miss Nami’s.But then Perlah and other girls go shopping for new clothes and owe Big Daddy more money.You need to get Perlah out.”
“I promise you, Tala, we’ll do our best to find her, but you really haven’t given us enough to go on.Do you have any idea how we could find this club?”
She dropped her head into her hands.“No.”The word sounded more like a kitten’s mew.“Make Miss Nami tell you where.”
Dylan glanced at the two-way mirror then to the door as though expecting someone to step in.
Mike slid Kam a sideways look, but she didn’t move.
After a long minute, Dylan spoke carefully, “We would ask her if we could, but she’s dead.”
Tala’s head popped up.“Dead?”
“Yes.I’m not sure about the details, but I was told she was found dead a few hours ago.”Dylan lied easily and well.
Everyone watching knew that he’d been informed of the gruesome details of Miss Nami’s death.She’d been found in long-term parking at the airport with her throat cut and a passport in her purse.Somebody didn’t want her talking.
“Good!”A vicious smile crossed Tala’s face.“Now go kill Big Daddy.”
“Kam, the bus is leaving in ten minutes to take the girls to the safe house.”A man dressed in the ICE uniform of the day approached their small group.
“Thanks, Jeremy.”She nodded toward the glass.“Lieutenant Dylan Chaney is getting lots of information for us.There’s a club out there that we need to go after.”
As though suddenly remembering her manners, she offered, “Captain Hubbard, have you met my partner Senior Special Agent Jeremy Sanderson?”As though in afterthought, she added, “and this is Commander Mike Gallagher.”
