CHAPTER48
I’M A RUNNERin good shape, but I don’t particularly like foot chases. The whole idea of sweating in street clothes, then tussling with a suspect doesn’t interest me. But I yelled to Cindy, “Stay right here!” and took off after the man. At least I had on sensible shoes.
He was running pretty fast for a great big guy. I yelled to him to no effect. He didn’t even have the courtesy to look back at me. He was just moving flat out. I looked to the cross street ahead. He was headed toward Guerrero Street. My guess was he had a car stashed somewhere along it.
I lost sight of him as he reached Guerrero but kept up my pace. I hadn’t thought this out completely. I had no radio to call for backup and I couldn’t use my cell phone while at a full-on sprint. At least I still had my duty weapon in a shoulder holster under my jacket.
Then the fat guy surprised me. As I reached Guerrero, he turned into a pedestrian alley between two buildings. I soon found him there, leaning over with his hands on his knees. He was vomiting up the remains of some kind of fast-food burger.
I skidded to a halt, unsure how to proceed. He currently wasn’t a threat and I currently didn’t want to get too close to him.
The man sputtered and gasped. In between retching, he said, “I give up. I give up.” His jowls hung down around his face.
His shirt had huge sweat stains around his armpits, and his loafers were frayed. A cheap tie peeked out from the pocket of his strained pants. Once he seemed to recapture his breath and turned to face me. All he said was “I’m sorry.”
“About what?”
“The prostitute.” He wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt. “Isn’t that why you wanted to talk to me?” He made an effort to stand up straight.
I didn’t want to physically touch him, so I nodded back toward Hotel Montserrat. He took the hint and we ambled back to the hotel. Along the way, I got his name, but I was careful not to ask too many questions just yet. It would be easier if he cooperated with me. If the girl was a minor, this tub of lard might start to resist.
The man said, “I wasn’t hurting anybody. And I don’t want my wife to know I was with the prostitute. I mean,almostwith a prostitute.”
“Almost?”
“We needed condoms. I was going out for some.”
“You were going to have sex with a prostitute without a condom?” I could barely control my tone. It had sounded like an accusation, and it was.
The man stammered a little bit. “I, ur, I assumed she’d have them.”
On the stroll back to the hotel we had to take two quick breaks. Once for the man to catch his breath and once for him to vomit again. As I walked him through the lobby, Cindy fell in behind us. The clerk didn’t say a word. He just followed us with his eyes.
Even though the room was only on the second floor, we took the elevator because the man didn’t think he could make it up the stairs. He knocked on the door before he used his key to open it. Not a card key but an old-fashioned metal key with a giant plastic disc attached to it.
As we stepped into the room, I saw the girl sitting, still fully clothed, on the floral bedspread, watching the old TV set. She looked up but didn’t seem terribly surprised by extra people in the room. When she saw Cindy, the girl smiled and waved.
I looked at the girl and said, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
Cindy cut in. “I was worried about what had happened to you. We were talking and then I went to my car for a minute and saw you leaving with this guy.” She looked over at the slovenly, heavyset man with vomit on his shirt.
The girl said, “He was an easy payday. Sorry. I didn’t mean to disrespect you.”
I said to the girl, “How old are you?” I agreed with Cindy: She looked no more than sixteen.
The girl said, “I’m nineteen.” She leaned forward and reached into the rear pocket of her tight jeans.
Before I could sayBullshit,she handed me her license. I looked closely and saw her name was Christine Cheng and she was, in fact, nineteen years old.
I let the fat guy leave. Cindy and I took Christine to get a decent meal and to see if we couldn’t steer her toward a new profession.
CHAPTER49
I HEADED HOMElater than I had wanted to after the adventure with Cindy. She kept apologizing to me. I told her she’d done the right thing. I’d also thought the girl was a minor. And hopefully we’d sort of created our own version ofScared Straight!Although my hopes weren’t particularly high.
I put my phone on speaker and called Joe to let him know I was nearly home.
