Aruban Nights (Coastal Fury Book 19) Page 27

  “It’s okay,” I assured her gently. She was shaking like a leaf, and I wanted to help her calm down before she completely panicked. “We’ll help you find it. Are your friends nearby? We could help you look for them. Or I can call them on my phone for you.”

  “They went to another bar,” she replied, her breathing leveling out as she spoke. “We were bar-hopping. We’re on a bachelorette party getaway for my friend, Nina. I came back because I accidentally left my bag on the table. I was so worried someone might have stolen it. When I came back, that man had it.” She turned to look at the suspect, who was now sitting against the wall while Holm kept watch over him. “He said that he saw it there and wanted to keep it safe so no one would take it. I thought he was so sweet… How stupid of me.” Tears began to well in her eyes as her face twisted into a humiliated grimace.

  “It’s not your fault,” I assured her. “Guys like him are pros at manipulating people.”

  “I should have known he was a creep,” she insisted as she shot the man a dirty look. “The whole time we were talking, I had a weird feeling, like something was off. But he was so nice, I actually felt bad about suspecting him of being a creep. How stupid is that?”

  “It’s not stupid at all,” I replied as I deliberately positioned myself so that he was no longer in her line of sight. “Like I said, people like him make their living out of conning unsuspecting victims. I’m sure you’re not the first person he’s done this to.”

  “That’s horrible,” she muttered. “I knew it was weird when he asked me about my passport, but I just told myself I was paranoid.

  “What did you say?” I asked, struck by that last sentence. “He asked you about your passport?”

  “Yeah,” she muttered as she wiped at the corners of her eyes. “He asked me where I was from, and when I told him that I was American, he asked me if that meant I had a passport. I thought it was a weird question because obviously, I would have one, right? Since I’m here. Anyway, I thought maybe it was some miscommunication or language barrier issue, or something.”

  “I see,” I replied as I glanced back over my shoulder at the man. I was suddenly acutely aware that this might not be just some random assault. The fact that he had specifically asked her if she had an American passport meant that this man might very well be a part of the group we were hunting down.

  “I never caught your name,” the woman mumbled shyly.

  “Agent Ethan Marston,” I replied as I turned back around to face her, a bit reluctant to take my eyes off the suspect now that I knew he was no ordinary creep.

  “Monica.” The woman smiled at me in response. “Thank you very much for saving me, Ethan. I was so scared when he suddenly dragged me back here.”

  “It’s no problem at all,” I assured her as I slipped my phone out of my pocket. “Let me call someone for you. What’s your friend’s number?”

  I dialed it as she gave it to me, making sure to keep my eye on Holm and the suspect even as I made the call. Whoever I was calling didn’t answer on the first or second tries, and it wasn’t until the third that the call finally connected.

  “Who the hell is this?” an angry, high-pitched voice answered. “Gary, if this is you, you need to move on. I already told you I don’t want to talk anymore, and I’m on vacation right now, so stop calling--”

  “My name is Ethan Marston,” I cut in. “I’m a federal agent. I’m calling on behalf of Monica.”

  “What?” The voice on the other end gasped, all the earlier fury gone in an instant. “What happened? Is she okay? Guys, something happened to Monica!”

  “She’s alright,” I assured the friend as I turned to look at Monica. “I can let you speak with her.” I held out the phone to the victim, who burst into tears the moment she held it up to her ear.

  “Some guy attacked me,” she whimpered in between sobs. I could hear voices on the other end, yelling loudly enough that I could make out bits and pieces of what they were saying even though I was standing two feet away. “No, it’s okay. I’m fine. He didn’t do anything… No, don’t cry, or you’re going to make me cry! I’m back at that bar by the beach… Yeah, I found my bag. That guy had it. It’s hard to explain. Could you guys just come back here?”

  She wiped her eyes again as her friends said something before she finally said goodbye and ended the call.

  “They’re on their way.” She breathed a sigh of relief as she handed the phone back to me. “Thank you. I should probably go find my own phone, though.”

  “I can help you,” I suggested. I would much rather she stay put until we got the suspect out of the area.

  “Marston! Heads up!” Holm suddenly roared from the other end of the small parking lot. I snapped my head around to see what was the matter and was shocked to find the suspect running toward me at full speed with his arms still cuffed behind his back.

  Monica screamed with alarm, and I pushed her out of the way before swinging my fist at the suspect with all the force I could muster, decking him straight across the face as he attempted to run past. He let out a pained grunt as he fell backward onto the ground, having inadvertently made the blow worse by running directly into my fist.

  “Where the hell did you think you were going?” I sneered down at the man, genuinely curious how far he thought he would get attempting to run away with his hands bound behind his back.

  “Sorry,” Holm muttered as he caught up to us and knelt down to pin the suspect to the ground before he could get back up. “I put my gun away for two seconds to call for backup, and he bolted. They should be here any minute, by the way.”

  “That’s good,” I replied as I turned back to check on Monica. She was trembling again, staring down at the suspect with wide, frightened eyes.

  “Are you alright?” I asked, worried that she might be going into shock again.

  “I’m okay,” she mumbled in response as she wobbled slightly. I reached out a hand to steady her, and she smiled up at me. “I’m okay, honestly. Just shocked. I wasn’t expecting him to come running at us like that.”

  “Neither were we,” Holm remarked flatly before looking down at the man with contempt. “Pretty dumb move, to the honest.”

  The police and Monica’s friends arrived just a few moments later at the same time, and there was some confusion as the police initially refused to let the girls into the parking lot.

  “Do you think I give a crap about your rules?” one of the girls shrieked. “My friend is back there! I’m not just standing around here while--”

  “Lily!” Monica exclaimed as she broke away from Holm and me, running toward the edge of the parking lot.

  “Oh my gosh, Monica,” the other woman gasped as she pushed past the officer to get to her friend. “It’s okay. You’re fine now. I’m so sorry we left you alone.”

  The officer walked away from them as the two women continued to talk, looking down at the suspect as he walked toward us.

  “This the perv?” he asked, his mouth twisting in disgust.

  “Yeah,” I confirmed. “I’m afraid that isn’t everything, though. I think he might be involved with the traffickers who have been forcing women to act as drug mules. He said some suspicious things to the victim earlier, right before he attacked her.”

  “Is that right?” the officer snapped as he glared down at the suspect, his expression growing even more repulsed. “Well, we can ask him all about it back at the station.” He leaned down and hauled the man up roughly by the back of his shirt collar. Honestly, he was being a little too rough, professionally speaking, but I wasn’t about to extend any undue sympathy to this guy after what he’d done.

  I watched as the officer marched the man away before shoving him into the backseat of his patrol car. His partner stood by the passenger side door, staring at the suspect with an equal amount of disgust. I could only imagine that the police here were upset at having their peaceful community so brazenly rocked by the actions of the traffickers. It must have been jarring for them to
have to deal with something so heinous when they were used to a relatively crimeless city.

  “Um, Ethan?” Monica suddenly broke through my thoughts and caught my attention. Her friends were hovering nearby protectively, pretending to give her space while clearly intently attuned to what she was doing. “Thanks again for saving me, I mean.”

  “Of course,” I replied as I smiled down at her. “There was no way I was just going to stand by when you needed help.”

  “Well, I’m going to go now,” she mumbled as she brushed a lock of her long honey-colored hair behind her ear. “Maybe I’ll see you around again sometime when you’re not so busy with your case.”

  “That would be nice,” I replied. For a long moment, she just stood there, biting her lip and looking down at the ground before pulling something from the little bag that was now slung over her shoulder.

  “This is my number.” Monica blushed furiously as she handed me a small business card with a cell phone number scrawled onto the back in pen. “You should call me sometime.”

  She turned around a second after that and hurried back to her friends, who were all laughing and talking now as they shot glances back toward me. I smiled as I tucked the card into my pocket, a little surprised by how bashful she’d seemed, especially after how bold her behavior had been back in the bar.

  “How is that fair?” Holm grumbled beside me. “How come she only thanked you for saving her? I helped too.”

  “Are you jealous?” I teased as I watched the police car pull out of the parking lot.

  “Of course I am,” he replied dramatically. “We both came running, and yet you’re the only one who got treated like the hero. Life’s unfair.”

  “Yeah, it is,” I snorted. “And what’s the problem, anyway? Weren’t you the one who was encouraging me to go talk to her just a little while ago? And you got to be Amanda’s hero just the other day when you saved her from that pickpocket, remember?”

  “That’s true,” he sighed as we made our way back toward the front of the bar to where we’d parked the car.

  “Anyway, it’s not like I’ll have a chance to even call her,” I replied as I stepped up to the driver’s side door. “We’ve got enough on our hands dealing with this case. I don’t even know how much longer she’ll be in Aruba or how much longer we will, for that matter.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Holm replied as he got into the car after me. “It’s one heck of a coincidence, though, isn’t it? That we just happened to run into one of the men out here?”

  “I’m not so sure,” I replied as I started the car and reversed away from the bar.

  “What do you mean?” Holm turned to look at me with a puzzled expression on his face.

  “I think Monica might not be the only victim,” I explained as I drove back to the station. So much for getting an early night. “Think about it. We stopped the traffickers coming in from the United States and rescued the victims. The Aruban and Venezuelan gangs are probably scrambling to find replacement mules right now to keep the flow moving. Monica told me that the guy asked her about her passport right before he attacked her.”

  “So you think there might be more victims like her?” Holm exclaimed, his voice rising in alarm. “More women are being grabbed right now so they can replace the ones we rescued?”

  “Yeah, I think so,” I replied bitterly. It was a move that I hadn’t expected, but apparently, Maduro was desperate enough to try it.

  We fell into silence as the gravity of the situation sunk in. We needed to hurry and question the suspect before the traffickers had a chance to hurt anyone.

  28

  Ethan

  “His name is Fabian Thiel,” Captain Lopez informed us.

  He, Holm, and I were sitting in the viewing room directly adjacent to the main interrogation room. He was waiting for us at the entrance when we arrived, having apparently been filled in on the situation by the officers who had dragged the suspect back here. “He’s an Aruban citizen. No prior criminal record. Aside from a few traffic violations, he’s clean.”

  “Seems like all of these guys are pretty good at hiding their tracks,” I muttered as I recalled how our other suspect, the so-called Gek, apparently had no criminal record either.

  “If he’s Aruban, that means that he’s most likely part of Maduro’s gang,” Holm noted. “He might know more about what happened this morning and how they got the jump on us.”

  “That’s a good point,” I agreed as I continued to observe Thiel. Where Gek was wild and uncontrollable, Thiel appeared to be the complete opposite. He sat ramrod straight in his chair, and even from this distance, I could see the beads of sweat that were building up on his forehead. He was clearly very nervous, which was good for us. It would make it a lot easier for us to wear him down if he was already panicking, to begin with.

  “You can begin as soon as Officer Linden arrives,” Lopez noted as he looked down at his watch. Apparently, Linden had left just a few moments before we’d arrived. Lopez had called him back at once, but he hadn’t answered.

  “You don’t think anything’s wrong, do you?” I muttered as an unsettling thought suddenly gripped me. What if Linden wasn’t answering because he couldn’t?

  “Maybe I should go look for him,” Lopez suggested. He stood up, but before he could move toward the door to the room, it suddenly burst open.

  “Sorry,” Linden breathed heavily as he stepped through the doorway. He looked like he’d run here. “I get nervous when my phone goes off while I’m driving, so I turned it off. I came back as soon as I got your message, Captain.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Gabe.” Lopez smiled at him warmly. “It’s a good habit to have, turning your phone off when you drive. Distracted driving kills almost as much as drunk driving. Anyway, you’re here now, so you can begin whenever you’re ready.”

  I stood up from my chair and gave Linden a second to calm down and steady his breathing.

  “You ready?” I asked once he looked calm.

  “Ready.” He nodded. “Let’s see what this guy has to say.”

  I turned and led the way through the door that separated the two rooms. Thiel flinched as soon as we walked inside, the creaking of the door apparently enough to spook him.

  “Good evening, Mr. Thiel,” I greeted him politely, still figuring out the best method to approach him from. At that moment, I was leaning more toward just intimidating him into speaking. He seemed skittish and nervous, so I had a feeling he’d break with just a little bit of prodding in the right direction. “My name is Agent Marston. This is Agent Holm, and this is Officer Linden. We’d like to have a conversation with you.”

  I stared expectantly at Thiel, who shrunk under my gaze, hunching down and looking away from me.

  “Cat got your tongue?” I asked derisively. He fidgeted nervously before replying.

  “Uh, no,” he muttered.

  “You’re going to have to speak up,” I snapped, just a little too forcefully to be considered friendly. “I can barely hear you.”

  “S-sorry,” Thiel stammered. “I’ll speak louder.” It was clear I intimidated him, which was perfect. As long as I kept pushing him like this, he was certain to break, eventually.

  “Alright,” I sighed as I leaned forward, resting my elbows against the table as I stared him down. “So, to start, how about you explain what happened tonight?”

  He opened his mouth before clamping it back shut again. He repeated this action a few more times before he swallowed nervously and offered me a simple shrug in response.

  “What does that mean?” I replied tersely. “You don’t know? You don’t want to tell me? I can’t understand you if you don’t use words, Thiel.”

  “I-I’m sorry,” he muttered nervously, his hands fidgeting on the table in front of him. “I shouldn’t have attacked that lady… Is she okay?”

  “Why do you care?” I snorted. “You were holding her down and trying to do who-knows-what to her, and now you’re pretending like you c
are if she’s okay? Or maybe you’re just worried that your punishment will be worse if she’s not okay, is that it?”

  “No!” Thiel replied insistently. His breathing was getting heavier, and his face was pale. He was getting more and more anxious the more I pressed him.

  “You expect me to believe you?” I scoffed. “I know what you were planning. You were going to abduct her and force her to transport drugs for you, like all of those other victims, weren’t you?”

  “N-no, of course not,” he replied unconvincingly, his teeth chattering from how badly he was shaking.

  “Oh, stop with the crap,” I snapped at him. “We both know that’s what you were planning. You should save us both the trouble and just tell us how we can find Maduro.”

  He now stared back at me with a horrified expression, breathing so hard he would probably start hyperventilating in a moment if he didn’t relax. I had him exactly where I wanted him, and now, it was time to switch tactics just slightly.

  “You can still help yourself, you know,” I coaxed, lowering my voice and leaning forward so I could look him straight in the eye. “You seem like a decent guy, Thiel. I can tell you feel sorry about everything that happened. It’s not too late, you know. Right now, the best thing you can do is tell us the truth.”

  I could see the tension in him ebbing away as his breathing slowed and his shoulders drooped just a little. It was my own version of good cop, bad cop, minus the other party. First, I riled him up and made him feel threatened, and then I pulled back and offered a lifeline. It was actually a pretty common tactic among law enforcement, meant to make suspects feel as though they had an ally they could confide in.

  “Okay,” he muttered. “Okay, yeah, you’re right. I was going to take that girl and bring her back to Maduro.” He was speaking quietly and staring down at his hands as he spoke, but I could still understand what he was saying.

  “Alright,” I replied. “Do you usually collect victims like that? Just grabbing tourists off the street?”