“What do you mean ‘gone’? Where did he go?”
“There’s new management in the neighborhood. A motorcycle gang that’s running the girls. They ran his ass out of town. He won’t be coming back.”
Shocked, I stared at her. Tony was a sleaze ball, but at least he cared for my mom in his own sick and twisted way. “And now this motorcycle gang is like…” I glanced around and lowered my voice. “Your new pimp?”
She nodded.
No. Unacceptable. It was bad enough when Mom was hooking for Tony. Newcomers were not welcome. “Where did Tony go? Why didn’t he take you with him?”
Reaching over to pat my hand, she gave me a sad smile. “Oh, honey, it doesn’t work like that. I’m part of the business.”
My stomach roiled at how okay she seemed to be with all of this. She had a new pimp and was using again. All the progress we’d made with her last rehab had flown out the window. “You’re not some business, you’re a person. You have to get out of this lifestyle, Mom,” I pleaded for the hundredth time. “It’s going to kill you.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Yes, I do. Look, I invited you to lunch today because I have good news. I passed my physical exam and I’ve been accepted into the police academy. I’m flying to Seattle in two weeks to begin the program. Come with me. I’ll buy your ticket and we’ll find you a nice little apartment until I graduate. Or if you don’t want to stay by yourself, we can send you to live with Nadia and her family in Illinois until I’m done.”
Mom was already shaking her head. “The new guy in charge… Slick… he’s… different.” Her gaze darted around the restaurant. “He won’t let me leave, Sasha. Not without… consequences. That’s what today’s meeting was about. He wanted to make sure we all understood what would happen to us if we tried to run.” Her expression soured and she looked away.
“What did he say? Did he do something to hurt you or one of the girls?”
Answering the question with her avoidance of it, she replied, “I’d never do anything to put you or your sister in danger. My place is here, honey.”
“By the time he realizes you’re gone, you’ll be across state lines. Possibly even two state lines. Mom, this is a good thing. It’s like it was meant to be. The timing is perfect.”
Her eyes were heavy with concern, but the slightest bit of hope shined through. “I don’t know.”
“I’m going to school to be a cop. I can protect you. Let me.”
It took almost an hour to convince her, but I did. I pulled out my phone and bought her plane ticket on the spot so she couldn’t chicken out. Then we made arrangements for her to come to my apartment after work the night before we were supposed to fly out.
Mom never showed up.
Worried about all the things that could have happened to her, I broke her number one rule and drove to her apartment, wishing I was already a cop. The door was wide open. Bracing myself, I crept inside and looked around. I found Mom lying on the floor in her bedroom. There was a band around her arm and a needle beside her body. Her chest was still and her eyes were open. Falling to my knees, I checked for the pulse I knew she wouldn’t have. Calling 911, I started CPR and stayed at it until the paramedics pulled me off her.
The coroner said Mom overdosed, but I refused to believe she’d given in to her addiction when she was so close to getting out of the lifestyle. Regardless, I’d promised my mom I would protect her, and I’d failed.
As the coroner drew the sheet over Mom’s body and slid her back into the metal cabinet to wait for the driver from the cemetery, I promised myself I wouldn’t fail another mom ever again.
Sasha
Two Weeks ago
AS I STARED into the tearful face of yet another mother I was about to fail, a bone-deep feeling of helplessness squeezed my chest, threatening to crush me under its weight. My job wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was supposed to be one of the good guys, out on the streets helping people. Not collecting forms and sitting on my hands as girls went missing. I’d been with the Seattle PD for three and a half years, and I was still swimming in the kiddie pool with my inexperience constantly held over my head.
Girls were disappearing around the city, and so far, the department hadn’t done a damn thing about it. Nobody seemed to care but me and a few heartbroken parents.
“She didn’t run away,” Maria Nunez insisted from across my desk, glancing at the photograph clutched in her hand. “I know that’s what all the cops think, but my Alicia is shy. Quiet. She only has one friend and nowhere to go.”
Shy, quiet, lonely… it matched the description of all the other girls who’d gone missing. They also had poverty and their minority status in common. Sex traffickers had a type. They targeted loners from low-income families, kids who didn’t have many connections or people they could confide in. “Do you have any new information for me to work with? Did you think of anything at all? Sometimes the smallest detail can make all the difference.” Alicia had been missing for five days, and with each passing minute our chances of finding her dwindled.
“Didn’t her friend, Martha, tell you something? About the man on the motorcycle?” Ms. Nunez asked, laying the photograph down on the table to stare at me.
Yes, Martha had told me all about the man on the motorcycle. He’d been wearing a black cut with a snake on the back. The Seattle Serpents was an outlaw motorcycle gang that seemed to be all but untouchable. Several of their members were registered sex offenders, and none of them had any business slumming around a high school. Martha had seen Alicia speaking with a dark-haired Serpent after school a few days before she disappeared. I’d taken the lead to my sergeant and he told me to sit on it.
“Good work, Petrov. I’ll have Franks and Scott look into it.”
“Franks and Scott?” I asked. “Why would you give them my case?”
