Page 3 of Summer Heatwave
“No.We’ve been here since we left the crime scene.There were a lot of women to process, including the ones brought to us from the military housing.”
“I take it that you met resistance at Miss Nami’s?”The captain asked.
The good side of her face quirked up.“You could say the door bouncers were not amenable to being served a search warrant at three o’clock in the morning.It wasn’t like anyone was asleep, but there were a lot of people in beds.Fortunately for us, the San Diego Police Department took all the johns.”
As they turned the corner, their footsteps were so quiet she glanced over her shoulder to be sure they were following.The damn commander smirked at her.
If he thought he’d won that battle, he was wrong.It was only by her good graces that they were even allowed into the building, say nothing about watching an interrogation.She hoped she could convince Dylan to quickly get the girl to talk, then shoo all three of them out, never to bother her again.
She led them down a hallway lined on both sides with one-way windows next to steel doors.The interrogation rooms were very small, not at all like those seen on television.There was barely room for two chairs and a small table, but everything that happened in that room was videoed from several angles.
Her men and women had been accused of everything imaginable during interrogation.Never again would they be caught without proof.Her people were professional.Always.
Stopping in front of one of the last windows, Kam turned toward the men and pointed to the small young woman huddled in on herself, heels on the chair seat and arms wrapped around her knees.Her head was down, long jet-black hair draped over her body like a blanket.
“Dylan, I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with that woman, and I really don’t care.She was under Miss Nami’s control the longest of anyone we’ve come across so far.I know she has information we could use to build our case.”As though she could tell they were looking at her, the girl lifted her head and stared at them.Kam knew she couldn’t see or hear anything through the thickly mirrored glass, but it was creepy nonetheless.
Diverting her gaze to Dylan, she looked directly into the most beautiful green-gold eyes she’d ever seen.Intelligence, complete awareness of his surroundings, and a flicker of age beyond his years looked back at her.Damn, he was a handsome young man.But Kam was no cougar.She preferred men at least five to ten years older than her forty-seven.
Before she could stop herself, her gaze wandered to Commander Mike Gallagher.In a fleeting head-to-toe sweep, she placed him in his early forties, outstanding physical shape, a deep tan, and when he smiled at her, she quickly returned her gaze to Dylan.
“She refuses to even tell us her name and won’t talk to anyone but you.I need you to go in there and convince her to talk with us.”Kam knew she was talking too fast, but she was slightly flustered.The commander had caught her checking him out.Not that she was the least bit interested in him, or any man at this point in her life.
Dylan stared at the girl for a long moment.“Tala?”He whispered.“I’m sorry, ma’am.I didn’t recognize her without all the makeup and her hair is down.”He turned to his superior officers.“Sirs, she’s the woman I talked to when we went undercover at Miss Nami’s.She was a wealth of knowledge.”
Kam scoffed.“She hasn’t said anything to our interrogators.My partner, Jeremy Sanderson, is usually very good with the young girls but all he could get out of her was that she needed to see her boyfriend, Dylan.”
At the mention of his name, the lieutenant whipped around to the senior officers.“Sirs, I swear, I never touched her inappropriately.I have no idea how she even knows my name.”
Captain Hubbard grabbed him by the arm and pulled him aside.“Kam, if you’ll excuse us a moment.”
Nodding, she turned her back as though her attention was rapt by the victim in the room.Even though they’d stepped a few feet away and whispered, it was a small hallway.
“I’m asking you as your Captain, not as the grandfather of your son, exactly what is your relationship with this woman?Why would she ask for you by name?”
“Sir, I swear, I have no idea why she’d call me her boyfriend.I did not have sexual relations in any form of the word with that woman.As I said in my report, all we did was talk.I never touched her in any way that could be misconstrued as sexual.”
“Okay, son.I believe you.”Through the reflection in the mirror, Kam watched the captain put a hand on the lieutenant’s shoulder.She hadn’t missed their personal relationship and simply filed that information away.
“I’m not even sure how she knows my name.”Dylan sounded almost panicky.
Kam knew exactly how Tala knew who he was.Miss Nami kept files on every man who got invited to her parties.The young woman in the interrogation room had obviously lied to the madam, claiming Lieutenant Dylan Chaney had been a very adept lover, wanting to cuddle afterward.That was the reason given for using the bordello bedroom five extra minutes.There had been a note on the side that he’d tipped very well and should be encouraged to return soon.
Thanks to the lieutenant and his men, no one would ever go back to that slave house again.Kam took pride that she had freed dozens of women who had been trafficked into the sex trade.
“Dylan, if this woman is important to you, I’ll do everything within my power to help her stay here in the United States and not get deported.”
Kam watched in the reflected glass as Dylan’s face lit up.“Sir, she wants to go home.She told me that.”Pausing, their eyes met in the reflection of the glass.“I promised to help her get home.That’s probably why she wants to see me.She trusts me.”
Now everything made sense to Kam.
“Okay.”The men turned around and strode back down the hall to Kam.
Painting on a smile as though she’d just realized they were there, Kam said, “Are you ready now?”
“Yes, ma’am.”Dylan stepped toward the door.
“All you have to do is get her to talk to us.We’ll take it from there.”When the lieutenant entered the interrogation room, Kam turned her attention toward the one-way glass.The commander and captain stepped up on either side of her when she flipped on the audio so they could all listen.
