Page 15 of Hart of Darkness
Man, her voice was like warm butter, jolting me in all the right places.
Nadine yawned.
“Rafe, can you show Nadine to a room on the second floor?” I didn’t want her waking up Angel and Debbie.
Rafe unfolded his large body. “Come on, Nadine. The rooms are upstairs through that hallway.” He pointed to an archway on the side wall midway, down from where we were sitting.
Maggie caught Nadine’s arm. “Please don’t go back to Miguel.”
She gave Maggie a sad look. “Thanks for helping me.”
Then she and Rafe vanished upstairs.
Maggie leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “She’s going to go back to her pimp. I know it.”
“They usually do,” I mumbled.
Runaways were scared and easily swayed, especially by pimps who had money and offered them a bed, clothes, and food. I wasn’t sure if Nadine was a runaway, though, and as much as I could talk to her about not returning to her pimp, I got the feeling she wouldn’t listen.
Maggie fiddled with her scarf. “I was hoping that the standoff tonight was with a gang called the Black Knights for a story I’m doing for theBoston Eagle.”
I’d heard of them. They were into drugs and guns.
“Reporter, huh?” She didn’t need to answer that. I said it more out of envy that she had gotten off the streets and out of a gang. “Are they part of the sex-trafficking story you’re working on?” Maybe the gang had graduated to bigger and more disgusting opportunities.
She pursed her full pink lips. “How do you know that?”
“We have a mutual acquaintance. Eddie at the city morgue.”
“That’s why you called me?” Her tone led me to believe she was more intrigued than anything.
“Eddie had a young dead girl come in tonight. A drug mule, it seems. And he thought she might have been my missing sister, Grace.”
She flinched. “Your baby sister? Whoa!”
Then out of nowhere, it dawned on me. Maybe Nadine knew Grace or had seen her. Nadine definitely wasn’t going anywhere until I showed her Grace’s picture.
