After landing at Port Columbus, Alan took the shuttle out to the long-term parking lot, thankful to be home again. As he drove north on I-71, his thoughts shifted from the details of the case to seeing Pan again to wishing that Julie were still alive so he could bounce all that had happened during the last week off of her. By the time he pulled up to Marie's Doggy Day Care Center, the anticipation of taking Pan home was the only thing on his mind.
Marie wasn’t there so he paid her employee by credit card for Pan’s boarding and then was promptly reunited with his new pet. The moment the girl brought the dog into the reception area, she spotted Alan and broke into an excited run toward him.
“Hello, Pan!” Alan said, kneeling down and allowing Pan to deliver a barrage of puppy kisses to his cheeks.
Just as Marie had said, it was like he’d never left her.
Alan thanked the girl and walked Pan out to the car. He opened the passenger door for her; she leapt in and waited until Alan got in on the driver’s side. Then she rested her head on his leg, staring up at him, panting excitedly all the way to the house.
Alan checked his mail, his land line phone messages and then fed Pan. He brewed a pot of coffee while skimming the headlines of the last few editions of the Dispatch then decided to take Pan out to the backyard to fetch Frisbee. The dog acted as though she had been catching Frisbees all her life as she proceeded to sprint full speed to catch the disk in mid-air, turned around wildly and ran back to drop it at her master’s feet.
A half hour later he took Pan inside, gave her some fresh water then went up to his office. He turned on the computer, reviewed the web design work he still had yet to begin, and then finally let the nagging thoughts he had been trying to avoid take over full tilt.
He realized that he actually felt even worse now than he had before he’d decided to take this case. He had thought it would be so great to get back into the PI game for a change of pace and to do something positive and satisfying. But satisfaction was the last thing he was feeling right now.
The case was already falling apart, he acknowledged. Granted, he had made some progress and discovered some of the players in this human sex trafficking racket but that would all come to a dead halt if Charlie Ling wasn’t able to track down who Luka had made that call to. Alan could think of absolutely nothing else he could do until he was able to locate who was holding Polina and the other girls. Knowing how much was at stake and that it all teetered on Charlie’s success or failure left Alan feeling anxious and desperate in equal measures.
He could not quit thinking about Elena Nazarova. She was in a grave situation that would only get worse. But his hands were tied for all intents and purposes—it wasn’t like he could report Stokley’s Pub to the authorities with hopes they would in turn bust the place, leaving Elena free to live happily ever after. It simply wouldn’t work out that way. Besides the fact that she would be charged with prostitution, Elena would be defenseless against the charges and most likely end up in jail, with only herself to blame if her family got knocked off. There would be no investigation of Viktor Skipetroff beyond the relatively minor charges of pimping and running a brothel. And the apparent kingpin to that whole situation would remain safely out of the picture, comfortable in his East Hempstead digs, running his restaurant.
Yuri Popov.
He had to admit that wrenching Nadiya out of Popov’s grip and placed into a safehouse was wonderful but it was also the only positive thing that had happened thus far. And that didn’t mean that her troubles were over by any stretch. Although she may be safe for the time being, there was no guarantee that Popov couldn’t find out where she was. Especially if he had as many connections as Nadiya indicated. And even if he didn’t locate her, there was always the possibility he would retaliate and have her parents murdered. And that would totally devastate the woman with the guilt she would feel.
And then there was Polina, Elena’s little sister. Although she may be safe from any serious physical harm at the moment, that wasn’t to be the case for much longer. Out there were men that would love nothing better than to purchase Polina and the other girls and force them into the same kind of life Elena and Nadiya had been living. Young children with their whole lives ahead of them robbed of their innocence.
What else could he do? There was very little in the way of hard evidence that could get Viktor Skipetroff or Yuri Popov convicted and put away. His recordings at Stokley’s Pub plus testimony from Nadiya and Elena—assuming that they would be willing to testify—were helpful, but it would take more than that to make it a strong case.
He needed to locate those girls and their captor. That was the key. Then and only then would there be a decent chance of nailing all of these guys.
He checked the time and recalled that Charlie had promised him an answer in twenty-four hours. He had nothing to do but wait around for what could add up to another twelve hours before he could plan his next course of action. He decided he would catch up on some reading to help kill the time.
He grabbed the novel he’d been reading, got another cup of coffee and then went into the den. He sat down in the reclining chair, turned on his reading lamp and settled back. Pan immediately jumped up and joined him. He had time to read two paragraphs before the phone rang. He pulled out his iPhone and looked at the caller ID. At first he didn’t recognize the number. But once he did, his heart skipped a beat—
Elena!
He pressed the answer button.
“Elena?” he said.
There was silence for a moment and then Alan heard a weak voice speaking unintelligibly.
“I can’t hear you—are you alright, Elena?”
“Alan, can you hear me now? I have to keep it soft,” she said, barely audible.
“Yes, that’s better. What’s wrong?”
“Viktor.”
“What about Viktor. Has he hurt you?”
“Yes, pretty bad.”
“Why did he beat you this time?”
“He asked me a lot of questions—about you.”
Alan’s heart sank. “What about me?”
“He wanted to know about the other night when you came here. He demanded that I tell him who you are and why you were really here.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing! Except that you were just another john. He didn’t believe me, though. He kept hitting me and hitting me—”
“Jesus, Elena! I’m so sorry—why wouldn’t he believe you?”
“He had spoken to Yuri and that was why he became suspicious of you. He mentioned Nadiya and that Yuri thinks you may have had something to do with her running away yesterday. Is that true, Alan?”
“Yes, it’s true. I took her to a safe house. But why did Viktor think it was me who sprang Nadiya? What did Popov say to him exactly?”
“I’m not sure. All I know is that he stormed into my room like a madman yesterday evening and started asking me all of these questions. He said that you seemed suspicious when he came up here and found us talking instead of screwing. He said that you matched the description Yuri had of the man who came to his house while he was gone and that Nadiya had fled the house afterwards.”
So Popov had wasted no time in calling Viktor, Alan thought, just as he figured might happen. He wondered if anything had been mentioned about his call to Luka.
“Was there any other reason Viktor suspected me?”
“What do you mean?”
Alan wasn’t sure how much to tell Elena about his conversation with Luka Rusakov. He didn’t want to get her hopes up about Polina—especially at this point. The less she knew the better.
“I was just curious if he wondered why I had been with you if it hadn’t been for sex.”
“Oh, I see. I think at first he thought I might have told you about how I came to be working as a prostitute for him and what all had led up to my being here in this country. Like maybe you were some kind of undercover cop or something. But I assured him that I had never seen or talked to you before and i
nsisted that I would never take that chance anyway. He seemed to believe that, thank god. Otherwise he would have killed me, I am sure.”
“God, Elena, I feel so bad that you got beat up because of me. I—”
“It wasn’t your fault, Alan and that’s not why I called you. I called to let you know that you are under suspicion by Yuri. I thought you might want to know.”
“And I appreciate your call, Elena. I’m just sorry that he did this to you.”
“Don’t worry about that, I’m used to it. I can’t believe that Nadiya left Yuri! She has more guts than I ever had. But she’s a fool, I’m afraid. Yuri will hunt her down and kill her after he’s murdered her family.”
“Maybe not, Elena. Like I told her, these men—Popov and Viktor—are not as all-powerful as they want you to think they are. They may be big with the threats and beating up women, but they aren’t invincible.”
“I don’t think you realize how much power they have, Alan—especially Yuri. But all I really care about is my little sister. Have you gotten any closer to finding Polina?”
“I may have a lead, but I’m not sure yet. I’m still working on it.”
“She’s running out of time—Viktor reminded me that she to be sold into prostitution very soon—I can’t take this anymore! Please, I beg of you to find her, Alan!”
“Believe me, I am going to do everything I can, Elena. I’m curious though, why haven’t you spoken to my friend Beth? She told me that she’s called you at least twice now but you haven’t called her back.”
“I just can’t do it. I know that she wants to help me and please tell her that I appreciate that. But Polina is all I can think about now. In fact, if you find her, I promise I will talk to your friend.”
“That’s a promise?”
“Yes.”
“Good enough—I’ll see to it that you have to keep that promise.”
“I hope so, Alan. I must go now. Good-bye.”
“Please take care, Elena. And call me if you need anything at all.”
She hung up.
This is ridiculous! Alan thought. There she sits nearly pummeled to death by that big fat slob and there isn’t a goddamn thing I can do about it—
Will this madness ever end?
He stared blankly at the page he had been reading, wondering if he should call Charlie Ling. He knew what his answer would be—that Charlie hadn’t had any luck tracing that number yet—but Alan thought he would crawl out of his skin if he didn’t do something.
Suddenly, his iPhone rang. He looked at the screen—
It was Charlie!
“Hey, I was just getting ready to call you! Please tell me you have some good news.”
“Hello, my man. Okay, I’ll cut to the chase. I have some good news for you.”
“Oh man, you have just made my day, Charlie! What do you have?”
“Well, it hasn’t been a picnic but once I found out which carrier your Russian party was with, I knew we were in luck. Otherwise, to be quite honest, this would have probably taken at least a week.”
“So you have the guy’s name and location?”
“Yup, I do. You see, the number and exchange you gave me wasn’t much to work with since it was international and all. But once I—”
“Please, Charlie! You can give me the details later, okay? I really don’t have a second to waste. Give me what you have there.”
“Okay, I’ll overlook your lack of interest in my endeavor for now. The guy’s name is Martin Fowler. He lives in Wayneston, West Virginia. His address is listed as RFD 3—no number or street name—which means he is probably located somewhere in the boondocks. You copying this down?”
“Yeah, I got it.”
Alan was already looking up West Virginia in his Google Maps app. “Where the hell is Wayneston?”
“I was curious myself so I looked it up. It’s about thirty miles southwest of Charleston. Mountain country, for sure.”
Alan found the town on Google and zoomed in on it. It was very tiny and as Charlie said, in the middle of nowhere in the mountains.
“Wow, are you sure this is the right guy?”
“Are you doubting your sources, now? Trust me, if the cell phone number you gave me for the Russian is correct, then this is where he placed a call in the time frame you gave me. The reason I’m so sure of it is that he had made no other calls in a two-hour range either way so that had to be the number he called. He received a couple of calls, but transmitted only the one.”
“Okay, I believe you—I just can’t believe that the guy I’ve been trying to locate not only lives in the wilds of West Virginia of all places but he is literally only a few hours drive from Columbus!”
“I told you I had good news for you. Well, there you have it.”
“Thanks Charlie. I’m sorry I’ve been so rude but this case has stressed me out and I am swiftly running out of time. And oh yeah, give me the guy’s phone number before I go.”
Charlie read off the phone number and Alan jotted it down.
Alan said, “Hopefully the next time I call you, my friend, it will be to request your invoice for all of this.”
“Should I be holding my breath?”
Alan chuckled. “No, I wouldn’t go that far. See you, Charlie and thanks again.”
“No prob.”
Alan looked at this notes and felt a mixture of elation and doubt. Now that he had finally found out where Polina’s abductor was, he could move forward. That was so freakin’ awesome that he couldn’t help but let out a cheer, which he did—
Yes!
On the other hand, he had no idea where he would go with this. Other than to Wayneston, West Virginia, that is. Knowing the location of Polina’s abductor was one thing—saving Polina was another.
One step at a time.
He noticed Pan staring up at him from where she lay curled up beside him in the easy chair.
“Looks like we’re going bye-bye in the car, Pan. There is no way I’m going to leave you again this soon. You up for a little road trip, girl?”
On cue, she barked.
“Then let’s do it!”
Alan stood up and began gathering up everything he would need for the trip. He replaced the dirty clothes in his carry-on luggage with clean ones and packed a heavier jacket. He knew from experience it was always cooler in the mountains and that it could get particularly chilly at night.
He went into his office and accessed a detailed section of Wayneston, West Virginia in Google Earth on his iMac. He zoomed out a radius of several miles from the center of town, making sure to include the names of all the outlying streets and roads. He then printed out a high resolution 11X17 inch print on inkjet paper and stuck it into his laptop case.
He packed a pair of binoculars, a flashlight with extra batteries, matches, rope, hunting knife, gloves, and his camera bag into a nylon backpack. After collecting a few other items he carried it all out to the Pilot and set it on the backseat.
He picked up Pan’s leash, an unopened bag of pretzels and a bottled water on his way out to the SUV with Pan at his side. He needed to get on the road before the Friday rush hour began—it was already 4:10— so he headed toward the highway at a brisk pace.