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“Sure.”
I eased into one of the open chairs while Jane hurried inside. The front door opened for a second as she stepped into her house, giving me a quick glimpse of the interior. It was dirty and dingy inside, with beer cans here and there adorned with cigarette butts sticking out of the top. Her home made me think of so many other people like her from this part of town—good, decent people who’d simply gotten caught up with life and work and nights at the pub, the years slipping away until they were middle-aged, still hooked on cigarettes and cheap whiskey.
Two passing men reminded me, however, that good people weren’t the only kind that lived there. I recognized one of the young men, a tall, heavyset guy with beady eyes that he fixed on me as he passed. Both men were dressed in big, black puffer jackets, beanies pulled down over their hair.
“Lawyer bitch!” one shouted. “Did two months ‘cause of you!”
I’d never been one to take that kind of shit from anyone, and I wasn’t about to start then.
“You ever hear ‘don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time’?” I replied.
The guy clapped his palm down on his bicep in the universal Boston gesture for “up yours.” They didn’t seem to be in the mood for any more trouble than that, both men continuing past.
“Keep walking, pricks!” Judy shouted, appearing in the door with a fresh cup of coffee and a fresh cigarette in her mouth. One of the men waved his hand dismissively, the pair taking a right on the next block and disappearing. “Good freaking Lord,” she said, sitting down. “Sorry about that, kid. What was up with that?”
“Someone I represented back when I was practicing public defense right out of law school. I worked on tons of cases with people from this part of town, most of them petty drug stuff or vandalism. Only so much you can do when the person’s guilty as sin, you know?” I raised my finger, pointing in the direction the pair had gone. “That one was caught with a felony amount of meth. I managed to talk the D.A. into bumping it from a dealer level to possession. Got him down from a felony to a misdemeanor. Apparently, he’d rather have done hard time.”
Judy scoffed. “No gratitude with kids these days.” She pushed the mug of coffee toward me. “Sorry, forgot I was out of milk, sweetheart. Got these though, if you want one.” She pointed to the pocket on the front of her robe, showing me the pack of cigarettes inside.
“Nah, never been much of a smoker.”
Judy’s eyes flashed. “That’s right! You never touched smokes. That was one of the reasons I knew there was something about you that was gonna take you out of this place. I’ve been puffing since I was twelve, stealing smokes out of my ma’s pack on her nightstand. Same story for just about everyone else around here. Anyway, what brings you back? How’s your mom and dad?”
“They’re good, same old.” I pursed my lips in mild hesitation. Normally, I’d be down for a little small talk. But I had too much on my mind. “Listen, the reason I’m here is because I’m looking for Kat.”
“Kat?” she asked. “Kat Sampson? What’s going on with her? I haven’t seen the kid in years. She’s different than you; once she left this place, shenevercame back.” Jane looked away. “Last I heard she was working at that place Pussycats, right? That swanky strip club?”
“That’s right.”
Jane shook her head sadly. “Bad scene, that place. Open secret that it’s owned by the mob. More than a few girls from the neighborhood have ended up there over the years, pretty girls that pricks like those guys prey on, getting them while they’re young and don’t know any better. Some of those girls… never saw ‘em again. Rumor is they got shipped off to other ‘franchises’.” She said the word with a frown and an air quotes gesture. “That’s mob talk for ‘they got trafficked God knows where’.”
My stomach turned at the mere idea of something like that happening to Kat. I prayed it wasn’t the case.
“Don’t mean to scare you,” Jane quickly said, noting my expression. “Just that those guys are bad, bad dudes. But I can’t blame young women for getting mixed up with them. Imagine you’re some pretty young thing who doesn’t know a life other than this.” She swept her hand toward the shabby houses around us. “Then some smooth-talking mobster in a flashy suit promises you the world, and all you have to do is take off your clothes a few times a week and let men drool all over you for a couple grand. Sounds like the deal of a lifetime, right?”
“Yep. Until you realize it’s a deal with the devil.”
Jane nodded sadly. “That’s the long and short of it. But like I said, haven’t seen hide nor hair of Kat. Why don’t you give me your number, kiddo? I’ll give you a ring if she turns up.”
“That’d be great. Thanks, Jane.”
I handed her one of my cards and we talked a bit more, Jane filling me in on changes in the neighborhood, the kind of fun-but-frivolous gossip that people liked to busy themselves with. We parted with a hug, and a promise from me to swing by Tipsy’s for a shot and a beer the next time I was in the area.
It was a little into the afternoon by the time I left, my body buzzing from the strong coffee. So far, my investigation had led to nothing. If Jane, a bartender who lived off gossip, hadn’t heard anything about Kat, the odds of anyone else having any clue were slim.
I walked on, realizing that Jane was right about the mob and that I was putting myself in danger the more I poked around. I could not let that get to me, though. Kat was the closest thing I had to a sister, and I wasn’t about to let her slip through the cracks. The fact of the matter was that I didn’t have any leads other than Pussycats and the name “Flannigan”, some guy she’d been running around with over the last couple months.
The more I considered the matter, the more it became clear to me what had most likely happened. Flannigan had flapped his big, stupid lips one too many times, told her some information that she’d almost certainly not been meant to hear.
I knew this because she’d toldme,as well.
It hadn’t seemed like much at the time; something about how the Irish mob was planning a collaboration with one of the Mexican cartels that had made it up to the area. She’d told me in passing, mentioned it to me in the context of filling me in on how annoying this Flannigan guy was being about trying to impress her with his insider information.
Did my knowing about this information have something to do with her disappearance? Dread took hold in the pit of my stomach at the idea of her keeping quiet about it because she didn’t want to put me in danger. Whether that was the case or not, I couldn’t be certain. Ultimately, it didn’t matter. Whatdidmatter, was getting her back safe and sound.
Up ahead, I spotted a construction site. The sign out front was adorned with the logo for Mullaney Construction, one of the big outfits in the area that employed several men from my neighborhood—including an ex-boyfriend of Kat’s. A small smile on my face and an idea forming in my head, I started in the direction of the site.
Chapter 5
