On the Streets for Alison

  Chapter Ten

  James and Agent Munoz were both in the room with crew cut and his friend who were signing a Miranda waiver so they could talk.

  As soon as crew cut signed it, he said, “We have nothing to do with sex trafficking. We were just hired to push some cars off the road. We were not told anything about it being you guys or for sure nothing about sex trafficking.”

  Agent Munoz asked, “So what were you supposed to do after you pushed the cars off the road?”

  “We were just supposed to get them off the road and the other guys were supposed to take it from there. We were not told about anything else,” said Crew Cut.

  “Okay, so now comes the big question,” Agent Munoz said. “Who are you working for?”

  “You know we will not be alive much longer,” Crew Cut said to no one in particular.

  James chimed in, “We can help with that.”

  “Robert Desai. It was his team that hired us,” Crew Cut said.

  “So you don’t know for sure it was him?” Agent Munoz asked.

  Crew Cut’s partner said, “We know it was him; when certain people get in touch with you, you know who they work for.”

  I looked over at Mac who was already on his tablet researching Mr. Desai. I stood there waiting for an answer.

  Mac was never un-easy with someone standing over his shoulder while he was working and I only did it because there was nothing else I could be doing at the time. Finally, Mac said, “Robert Felix Desai, DOB is August 8, 1956. Owns several companies. Huh, including Accent Smooth Inc. which is the parent company for Wet Woody’s.”

  “Well,” I said. “That might explain a few things.”

  “Yes, it might,” James said as he walked back in. “He’s the one.”

  We turned to him, “The one?” We both said at the same time.

  “The one in charge of this whole thing. The asshole who sends these girls out and makes all the money on them,” James said.

  Mac was fuming, “What the hell is wrong with you? You know we are looking for this girl and if you knew this guy is the man, then we could have just gone straight to him. We have wasted a day of time, a day longer that she is missing.”

  “Mac, it’s not that simple. We have never been able to trace him back to anything. Ever.”

  “James, I don’t need to trace anything back to him. I just care about finding Alison.”

  “We can’t just let you run around beating the hell out of people just because their name comes up during an investigation,” James said.

  “You might want to just go ahead and arrest me. If I get close enough to Mr. Desai, he will answer some questions.”

  Agent Munoz walked in and handed Mac a piece of paper. Mac looked it over and turned for the door. I followed not having any idea what just happened.

  In the hall I said, “What the hell was that?”

  “Agent Munoz gave me his address so we are going to ask him some questions.”

  “Sweet!” I said as I sat back in Mac’s truck. As I got my seat belt buckled, we were off and what felt like warp speed. “I know you’re upset about not finding him sooner, but it won’t do us any good to die on the way there.”

  “Well, at least we will go having tried and not just sitting around waiting for something to come to us.”

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “Back to Alpharetta.”

  “Of course, doesn’t that make perfect sense?” I said.

  “Their office is on Westside Parkway in Alpharetta, not really far from ours,” Mac said.

  “Gee, that doesn’t creep me out at all,” I said.

  “Well, hopefully we will get them to move soon.”

  Mac pulled in to a spot in front of their office and as we started to get out of the truck, I looked up and noticed Mr. Desai walking toward his office. “Mac, look who’s here.”

  “Perfect,” he said to me. “Mr. Desai can we have a moment?”

  He looked at both of us, “Guys, I have an appointment in minutes, so I’m in a bit of a hurry. Can this wait?”

  I thought I would let Mac run this show, it will be fun to watch. “No, sir, we need the time now!”

  “Well, I don’t work like that. If you need some of my time, please call and make an appointment,” he said.

  Mac had had enough, he stood in Mr. Desai’s path. “Sir, I do not want to have to force you to talk to us, but I will.”

  “Mister, I’m not sure you really want to do that. Do you know who I am?”

  “Yes, you’re the asshole in charge of one of the many sex trafficking rings here in this beautiful city of ours. And we mean to help put you out of business,” Mac said.

  “Mister, I really don’t know what you are talking about and now I’m running late. Could you please step out of my way?”

  “No, sir, I will not move. We are looking for Alison Peterson. If you just tell us where to find her we’ll let you get to work, or whatever it is you do, and get out of your way. Otherwise, you are going to have a very bad day,” Mac told him.

  Desai stepped back without noticing, I think. “Mister, please don’t make me call the cops,” He said as he reached for his phone.

  Mac snatched it out of his hands and dialed a number and handed it back to him. Desai looked at his phone and then put it to his ear. “Hello, who is this?”

  Mac looked at me with a slight grin, “James.”

  I chuckled under my breath, Desai looked my way as he spoke into the phone. “Sir, I have these two men here and they are hindering me from getting to my appointment.” He stopped and listened for a few seconds. “Repeat what you said. Sure, I can.” Listened for another beat. He looked at us as he spoke. “He says to let you know that you only have about another ten minutes as the arrest team is in route.” He brought his attention back to the phone. “What the hell do you mean arrest team? I’ve done nothing wrong.” He listened some more. After some more time he hung up the phone with a disgusted look on his face. “So, were you guys sent here to scare me into a confession before the so called FBI gets here?”

  I chimed in, “No sir, we are here to get some information on Alison and if you hurry, we’ll leave in time for you to make good your escape. Otherwise, we’ll start a beating like you have never thought of.”

  “Guys, it’s not really working. I’m really not scared.”

  As the last word left his mouth, Mac had punched him straight in the stomach and the word “scared” came out with the air that Mac had just punched out of him. Then he bent over in pain and as he caught his breath and straightened up, I hit him on the chin with a left jab. Just hard enough to ring his bell, but not knock him out. We still needed some info from him. Mac pulled out his Leatherman as Desai’s stars faded. Mac opened the tool to show all the different tools he could use. Desai looked at it when he got his sight back into focus. His eyes got wide, but still he had enough in him to put on a brave front. “You guys are running out of time.”

  I had enough. I reached for his arm, twisted it around his back while kicking his legs out from under him. He was now face down and bleeding from his nose. He grunted from the pain, but it was still early. He didn’t notice because of the pain to his face, but I had his hand in both mine and once Mac noticed what I was doing, he reached down to help and put the open end of the Leatherman to his pinky and closed it just enough. Desai sort of stood at attention and said, “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I’m going to cut off the first joint of your pinky and then we will go one at a time until I get the answers we need. I don’t have time to keep playing with you.” He closed the handles together on the tool and Desai started screaming. The problem with the Leatherman is that only half of the open-end cuts and the rest are just like regular pliers. So to cut off the finger, he had to do it again from the other side.

  Desai started screaming even louder this time. Now he added kicking like a kid who was not getting what he wanted in a toy store.

  “Oh my Go
d! OKAY! OKAY!!” He started breathing like they show parents to be in Lamaze classes.

  Mac got in his face, “Slow your breathing; deep breaths.” He showed him how, “In,” he took a slow breath in. Held it for a second, “Out,” he let it out slowly. Desai followed his lead while looking at Mac as if he was crazy. “Do you have anything for me?”

  Still breathing like a mother in labor, he took a deep breath in, “I think I’ll wait for the cops to get here.”

  Mac looked up at me, “What do you think same finger or move to another?”

  “We could move to the other hand, you know give this one a break,” I said.

  Mac looked at me for a second thinking about it. “Nah.” He grabbed the same hand and what was left of the pinky. In one quick motion, he closed the pliers again, but this time he didn’t cut the second half off, he sat there with the next joint in his fingers and tugged on it. All the while Desai was screaming again.

  “Okay, I’ll tell you what you want.”

  “I’ve heard that before, you better start talking now or I’ll just keep working on this one for a while,” Mac said.

  “For God’s sake, stop so I can think,” Desai screamed.

  Mac took his hand off and waited.

  “What’s the girl’s name you’re looking for?” Desai asked.

  Mac reached in his back pocket, pulled out a picture of Alison, and put it in Desai’s face. He looked at it longer than he really needed to, but Mac played along.

  Desai looked over Mac at someone behinds us, “Hey lady, you think maybe you can call the cops and give me a hand here? They already cut off a finger and are working on another!” he said.

  I looked over Mac shoulder and noticed who he was talking to. A woman that was probably taller than most, but stunning looking. She had her cell phone out and was dialing. I turned to Mac and said, “I will handle this.” I walked over to her with my wallet out and I pulled my license to investigate out and handed it to her. “Good Morning, if you could just hold off on that call for just a second.”

  “No, I think its best I make the call,” she said.

  “Okay, then ask them to put you through to the FBI and ask for Special Agent James Steel. He will explain we are working with him on this,” I said.

  She looked at me for a long second, then I guess the 911 operator picked up, “Yes… is there a way you can put me through to the FBI. I am witnessing something and am told it involves Special Agent James Steel, but he is not here.” She looked back at me. “She put me on hold.”

  “Good, we don’t want too many people to know about this,” I said. She raised her eyebrows. “Sorry, I know this sounds and looks crazy, but I promise I can explain.”

  Then I guessed James came on, “Mr. Steel I am here with,” and she looked at my license to detect, “Raphael Dawson and his friend, I guess, are hurting some man, but they say they are working with you.” She listened for some time with just the occasional “a ha”. Then she said, “Okay, then I’ll just wait for you here.” She ended the call. “He says he is on his way, Mr. Dawson.”

  “Raph, please. Everyone calls me Raph,” I said.

  “Well, I’m not sure I want to be just everyone. This is pretty disturbing.”

  “I’m sure it looks that way, but it seems this guy is in charge of a sex trafficking ring that is getting teenage girls to do things they really do not need to or want to be doing. That to me is most disturbing,” I said.

  She stood there with her mouth slightly open, “Why did I get out of bed this morning?” she asked, but not to me I was guessing.

  However, I decided to answer anyway. “There is always a reason.”

  “Yes, you are right, but is it a good reason?”

  “Maybe it was to meet me?” I grinned.

  She chuckled, “That could be true, but even if that is so, I’m not sure I want anything to do with someone in this line of work.”

  “I feel the same way every morning when I get out of bed.”

  Now she grinned. “Cute.”

  The whole time we were talking, Mac was still working on Desai, which made for some interesting background noise. Nevertheless, she didn’t really seem to notice. “So, I know it’s probably not the best time, but maybe you can give me your name and number and I could ask you on a proper date?”

  Desai screamed in the background a little louder, “Alright already!” he yelled.

  She looked at me a little as if I was crazy, “This is so crazy.” She got out a business card, and then handed it to me.

  “Annabel Green,” I said. “What a great name.”

  She looked at me sideways.

  “Sorry, too cheesy?”

  She grinned, “YEP!”

  “Sorry, just didn’t want to miss an opportunity if I could,” I said.

  “Well, you have my interest, so just call me and we’ll see what happens,” she said.

  James had walked up behind me and without looking I said, “This is James Steel, he will tell you how great we, especially I am. And probably ask you to not say anything, but he’s a good guy anyway.”

  James looked at me, “So why am I here? It doesn’t sound like you need me at all.”

  I looked at the wallet he held in his hand, “I don’t have one of those.” As I pointed to his badge. “Be nice, she’s cute.”

  “I noticed that all by myself,” James said

  “And I saw her first so put those guns away, you’re going to scare her off,” Annabel chuckled.

  “What are you talking about, you can't see my gun under my jacket,” he said.

  I looked at him with what I hoped was a puzzled look on my face for just a second and started to walk away shaking my head.