“It’s okay, buddy. Let’s go home,” I said.
We started to walk and he stopped and looked back at the house a couple of times.
I thought about the jail, I thought about Tyrone, and I thought about my visit from the men in the Crown Vic. I thought about Walanda and I thought about Shony. I thought about Al.
And I thought I’d be damned if I was going to leave anything alone.
28
It was Wednesday and I had until Monday to nurse my irritable bowel syndrome, which didn’t give me a whole lot of time. I had learned that there were some connections, but I still wasn’t sure what they connected to. There was definitely some skuzzy business going on involving three scumbag chicks from Forrest Point, there was a bald biker guy who was connected to them who also beat me and Al, and there was Tyrone, a former significant other to Walanda whose highlighted resume sections included pimp and pervert. He was connected at least to Stephanie and Melissa, but maybe most disturbing was that he had voiced a desire to get Shondeneisha into prostitution or something equally as vile. Then there was the Crown Vic.
I needed to find out more about the connections, and I figured my best bet was to hang around the Eagle Heights clinic because eventually Stephanie had to show up there. Usually, post-jail assessments occurred within forty-eight hours of release, and because it was part of probation, the clients usually kept those appointments, even if they dropped out of treatment shortly after that. Probation officers had a habit of checking on the first-visit attendance but after that losing track of the clients on their caseloads.
If I was going to keep my eye on the Eagle Heights clinic, I had two choices. I could sit outside the clinic for the next forty-eight hours, which was going to be very tedious and there was always the danger of being spotted by Stephanie, Tyrone, and Baldy, or by the clinic staff. If the first group spotted me, that could cause them to be suspicious and might bring on another surprise visit from Baldy. This time it might mean more than a warning.
If the clinic staff spotted me and it got back to Claudia, then that would probably blow my sick-time claim and I’d get fired faster than Claudia could buy a new pair of elastic-waist pants. The best chance I had was to get ahold of Katy and see if she could get me some information and be quiet about it. If it got back to Claudia, I was in trouble, and if it got to Rhonda, I was probably in trouble. The fact of the matter was that I was likely to get in trouble no matter what I did. I guess I was already in my fair share of trouble and was probably going to lose my job for a bunch of reasons, so-what the hell?
I poured myself a cup of coffee and figured I’d call Eagle Heights around 9:20. If I called right at nine, I would look too anxious. There was also a good chance that, Eagle Heights being a not-for-profit, no one would be there until ten after nine. Human service workers usually have so many issues that getting to work on time is almost impossible.
Al’s health was showing some improvement. He was walking okay and whimpering less. I still had to lift him on and off the sofa and bed because the few times that he jumped it caused him to make this awful yelping sound. Right now he was lying on the kitchenette floor, sleeping.
Before I could call Katy, my phone rang. It was Jerry Number Two.
“Duff-I think I got something you better see.”
“What is it?”
“The website has announced their special monthly event.”
“What are you talking about?” I said.
“I went to the members-only pay site-the one with the kids and the sicker shit,” Jerry said.
“Yeah?”
“They were promoting their next webcast featuring the newest girls.”
“Jesus…”
“Yeah, and they’re making a big deal about Shondeneisha losing her virginity live with somebody named Tyrone.”
I froze. I felt a sickness in my stomach that quickly spread all through me. This was beyond sick and had to be stopped. It didn’t matter if I lost my job or got in trouble or took a beating. Concern for that now seemed ridiculous.
“Duff-you there?”
“Yeah, Jer. When is this all going down?”
“It says on the webpage that it’s supposed to happen on Saturday, but the time won’t be announced until sometime that day. It looks like they take care in not letting out too much information. They’re pretty sophisticated in the security measures they take.”
“Jerry, can you look into Dr. Gabbibb?” I asked.
“I can find out something on just about anybody,” Jerry said. “What kind of stuff are you looking for?”
“I know that he has at least checked out the site. Can you find out about the alfinuu. org site and the offshore banking stuff?” I said.
“I can try, Duff, but without being real sure what I’m looking for, I’m not sure what I’ll come up with.”
“Whatever you can come up with will be great.”
I signed off with Jerry and told him I’d be over to see him after I took care of something else. I called Eagle Heights and asked for Katy.
“Hi Duff, what can I do for you?” she said.
“Hey Katy, how’s it going? I was calling to see if Stephanie’s eval was scheduled,” I said.
“Uh… Duff, aren’t you supposed to be out on disability or something?”
Shit. She had found out. I had no idea what this was going to do. I decided to go with it and see where it took me.
“Yeah, I’m just following up with what I can from home.”
“Rhonda told us that Claudia called her and they want us to let her know if they hear from you. Duff-I think you’re in some trouble.”
“Probably.”
“I don’t know if I feel comfortable talking to you.”
“Can you just tell me what time her eval is? I promised Jane at the jail.”
“I really shouldn’t. You’re putting me in an awkward position.”
“I won’t tell anyone I talked to you. Please, it’s important to me.”
“I don’t feel right about it…”
“Look, Katy, do you really want to spend your life being afraid of assholes like Claudia and Rhonda? Do you think they care about helping people or do you think they care about protecting their own little pathetic bureaucratic power? Don’t become one of them-it means death to your soul.”
I lost my cool. My little tirade probably would mean she’d run right to Bowerman. She was young and impressionable and was still scared.
“Hang on,” Katy said and I heard the call go on hold.
I didn’t have any idea what to expect and I waited for a few minutes that felt like a month.
“She’s coming in at eleven today.”
Katy hung up before I could thank her. I was impressed. The kid was all right.
I went to Jerry’s and we reviewed the site and it was as sick as I imagined. There were images of a very frightened Shony with Tyrone next to her with all sorts of promises of all the things he was going to do to her in the upcoming simulcast. There were images of other young girls-some looked barely ten-who were also to be featured that night. Apparently, the simulcast was the big event for the losers who belonged to this club of scumbags.
I asked Jerry if there was any way of telling where something like this could take place. He said there wasn’t, that was what made Internet porn so difficult to track. Nothing pointed to the physical presence of things, and any evidence of whereabouts was limited to servers and domains and that bullshit.
I asked Jerry what he had found out about Gabbibb.
“I didn’t come up with a lot, Duff,” he said. “He’s been a doctor for twenty-seven years, went to medical school in Pakistan, is part owner with his cousin in an electronics store, and he paid cash for his $350,000 home.”
“Must be nice,” I said.
“I found a way to translate alfinuu. org, and it’s an extremist site-anti-Jew, anti-American. It’s either terrorist or terrorist related.”