Secrets of the Dead (11 page)

“The usefulness of cameras depends on how often they’re monitored and by whom,” she observed before finishing off the pastry.

“True enough. The bad news is that if these were installed to monitor employee productiveness, they are likely to be watched more regularly than cameras mounted for safety reasons.” He changed the password on the cameras and—with a quick glance at the time on the computer—pulled up a full screen grid showing each of the devices. The only way anyone would know a camera wasn’t behaving properly was if they tried to change an alteration he made to one of them. Hopefully he’d have it back before IT was alerted.

He scrolled through his emails and brought up a photo of Raiker’s compound. It was more than one would see from the road, but the people who would see this weren’t going to get close enough to the property for it to make a difference. He layered the picture over the camera display and stood, closing the lid and shoving the computer in the laptop sleeve and tucking it under his arm.

“Ready?” Eve rose and wadded the bag up in her palm.

“We are.” Grabbing the donut he hadn’t finished, he ushered her to the door of the bakery while he ate it. “We have to take precautions because we don’t know how closely the cameras are watched. If you leave my side, text me the floor you’re heading to. Spell out the number.”

“You can read Scottish Gaelic?” Her tone sounded surprised as they walked outside into the single degree temps.

“Not really. But I can handle numbers. I’m serious, Eve.” When they reached the curb he halted her progress with a hand on her elbow. “I want to know where you are in the hotel at all times. I can turn off the cameras or at least change the angle to give you protection.”

“We’re walking into enemy territory without a clear idea of what we’re getting into.” She pulled her gloves from her pocket, drew them on. “Don’t worry. I’m all for taking any edge we can get.”

They proceeded across the street toward the hotel, adrenaline firing through his veins. He’d gotten them some advantages. Only time would tell if they would be enough.

_______

“I think we
need to agree to a no weapons policy for the duration of our business relationship.” Xie Shuang gave them a thin smile as she unlocked a hotel room door and ushered them inside. “We must be able to trust each other.”

Declan didn’t return her smile. “Trust has to be reciprocated. If I’m unarmed then so must your people be.”

After a moment’s thought she shrugged. “But of course.” She turned to the three dark haired men lounging in the room. It had been divested of the bed and dresser, and was furnished instead with two long tables, a desk and a laptop. “I will collect all weapons. Now.”

No one moved to obey. One of the men Declan recognized as the driver of the car during their botched kidnapping attempt. The one who had followed them from the dining room yesterday. He glowered at Eve and fingered a visible scab on the side of his neck. Apparently he wasn’t the forgiving sort.

The woman snapped out an order in another language. There was a general shuffling of feet, but one by one each of the men gave up a weapon. Set it on a table with a clatter. Which was bullshit, of course. Declan took his time setting the computer in its sleeve on one end of a table and placing the blueprints next to it. Removing his coat, he hung it on the back of the chair and withdrew his gun from his shoulder harness. Any of them could have another weapon concealed somewhere on his body. He certainly did.

The driver said something quickly to Shuang, his gaze never leaving Eve. The other woman’s face darkened, and her response had his expression flickering. But she turned to Eve and said, “My man says you have a knife. That you held it on him two days ago.”

“I thought he and his friend were trying to kidnap us!” Eve’s tone was indignant. “I had a right to protect myself.” Her skills were wasted at the State Department, Declan decided. She should have been on stage.

“Yes. But today is a new day and we are all friends here. So…your weapon.”

With visible reluctance Eve drew the knife from what Declan could now see was a sheath cleverly sewn into the inside of her left boot. And since she was wearing brown boots today, rather than the black ones she’d worn before, he could only surmise that she’d had every pair she owned custom made to hold a weapon.

It was another puzzle piece about the woman. Declan had a lot of pieces so far—enough to intrigue—but no clear picture of who she was yet. And no idea why all of a sudden that seemed to matter so much.

She made a production of crossing to the table and slamming her knife on it, all the while returning the driver’s glower with one of her own.

“That is fine, then.” Shuang walked toward the table, indicating each man as she made introductions. “Harris, Taufik and Amin. Declan and Eve.” She gathered up the weapons. “My office is on the seventh floor. One of my men can show you at the end of the day if you want to collect your weapons before leaving.” She headed for the door, her arms full. Declan had to wonder what a hotel guest might think if one happened to pass her on her way to her office. But she didn’t seem concerned about the possibility.Declan went to the sheaf of phony blueprints he’d brought from the bank and took them out of the container, attempting to roll the first one out. Finally one of the men—Harris, he thought it was—came to help with a stapler to hold down a corner. One by one each of the others joined him, to grasp an edge so the first blueprint was flat.

“The most secure area Adam Raiker owns is the property containing his headquarters. His lab facility is there, as well as his office complex,” Declan began. “What most people don’t realize is that beneath the space is a large underground compound capable of withstanding everything short of a high blast explosive. I believe that’s where you’ll find him. And I can get you in there.” He stabbed an index finger at the area that housed the front gate. “This will be the first security you’ll have to clear.” The other men leaned in to see the spot he was indicating.

“Before you guys get too involved in your work,” Eve interrupted brightly. “Who wants breakfast?”

_______

Insisting that she
wanted to examine the menu herself, Eve went down to the restaurant. But she spent very little time making her selection. Ordering all of it to be delivered to the room on the third floor where she’d left the men, she exited the area and took the stairs to the fifteenth floor, texting Declan as promised. The journey had her mentally vowing to add more cardio to her exercise routine. When the doors opened she peeked out but saw no one. A maid’s cart was parked outside one of the rooms. Figuring there was no better way to get to know the workings of this hotel than to speak to its workers, she headed down the empty hallway toward the cart, ignoring the camera mounted near the ceiling at the opposite end. If not for Declan’s warning, she likely wouldn’t have given it a thought. Now, however, her heart was doing double time as she wondered if he’d managed to get to the cameras in time.

She loitered in the area until a dark haired maid came out of the room for towels. “Good morning.”

“Good morning.” The woman repeated the words, but didn’t make eye contact. When she would have scurried back into the room she was cleaning, Eve halted her. “Could you tell me if there’s a restaurant in this hotel?”

The maid backtracked. “Restaurant. First floor.”

“Is the coffee good there?” Eve pressed. It was clear the woman wanted nothing more than to return to her job. The glance she shot up and down the hall was almost fearful. “I mean, if it isn’t I’ll go to the nearest Starbucks. There is a Starbucks close by, isn’t there?”

The woman—whose nametag read Lin—gave a helpless shrug. “My English. No good.”

“How is the restaurant’s coffee?” Eve tried again, this time in Korean. When the same confusion appeared on the woman’s face, she repeated it in Chinese. Saw surprise and a bit of pleasure in the woman’s expression.

“I hear people say that it is very good. You will like it,” she replied shyly in the same language, before scurrying back into the room she was cleaning.

Interesting, Eve thought as she headed back toward the elevator. Xie Shuang hailed from China, as well. Did she have anything to do with providing this young woman a job here? Shuang didn’t strike Eve as the altruistic type.

She went to the elevator. She texted Declan as she impatiently waited for it to arrive. When it did, she descended to the next floor. The doors buzzed open almost silently. She stepped out into the hallway and lingered until the couple approaching the elevator had gotten on before heading toward the cleaning cart parked in the hallway. Again she attempted to engage the maid in conversation, with less success this time. But after several tries Eve was finally able to learn one thing. The woman’s native language was Slovenian. Just like the duo who had attempted to force her and Declan into the car a couple days ago.

Her instincts were humming as she rode down to the next floor, messaging Declan of her intent. She stepped off the elevator and started down the hallway to the now familiar cleaning cart. Prepared for a wait, she loitered outside the room being cleaned, pretending to search in her purse for something. But the sound of quiet sobbing inside the space changed her plans.

Cautiously she approached the door. It was propped partially open. The weeping had grown more muffled. The sound would no longer reach further than a few feet. Looking around, Eve saw no one who was paying her any attention. Dodging around the cart she ducked inside.

The maid was leaning against the wall next to the bed, bent at the waist, a towel pressed to her face. At Eve’s entrance she whirled around, mopped at her eyes and lowered the towel. “No ready. Later.”

Eve made a quick assessment. Not Chinese. She tried in Slovenian, “Can I help?” When there was no immediate response, she tried again, this time in Serbian.
“Mogu li da pomognem?”

The woman gasped a little even as she shook her head and replied in the same language, “No one can help. My friend…” She seemed to crumple then, sinking to the floor, her body racked with silent sobs that were somehow more gut wrenching than her audible weeping had been.

“Tell me.” Eve crouched beside her, sympathy uppermost. “Is your friend ill?”

The housekeeper shook her head vehemently. But it was a long moment before she could catch her breath to answer. “Not sick. Dead. Someone killed Dajana last night.”

A sick feeling settled in Eve’s chest. “Oh my God. That’s horrible. The police…”

“There will be no police. There is never police for people like us.” The woman’s words came as fast and violent as rifle shots. “We are disposable. They do what they wish with us.”

Eve had the foreboding feeling that there was far more here than a senseless death. “What do you mean? Who does what they wish with you?”

A voice sounded in the hallway. The woman’s eyes widened, and she leapt to her feet. “You must go! You cannot be found here!”

The urgency in her tone couldn’t be ignored. Eve rose and strode toward the door, but heard a voice sound right outside it. “Brina!”

Impulse had her dodging into the bathroom, which appeared to be freshly cleaned. Pulling back the shower curtain she stepped in the tub and yanked the curtain closed moments before the voice sounded closer. “You are behind schedule! What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Soon done. Soon.”

There was the unmistakable sound of flesh meeting flesh. “Move faster. You do not have time to cry.”

“I cry for Dajana.” This was uttered in Serbian.

“Do your job or I will see that you end up just like her. Hurry!”

There was no more talk, but Eve stayed where she was, frozen in place as long minutes crawled by. Then the curtain slid back. Brina stood before her, her eyes wide and frightened. “You must go,” she whispered in her native tongue. A palm print still showed red against her cheek. “Please.
Èmó
will kill me.”

Eve had rarely felt more impotent. “I can help.” The words tumbled from her mouth before she’d considered them. But she was determined to do exactly that. “An employer can’t treat you that way. Not even if you’re in the country illegally.” The woman had to be, didn’t she? Everything Brina had said led her to believe the woman operated in the shadowy world of illegal aliens. Exploited by an unscrupulous employer, with nowhere to turn, not even law enforcement, for fear of being deported.

“Please.” The beseeching expression on Brina’s face was difficult to withstand. “She will come back.”

Eve stepped out of the tub. Followed the woman to the doorway while Brina looked up and down the hall again and then stepped aside. Before she left, Eve said, “We will talk again.” And she hurried out of the room.

Wanting to avoid the elevator, she headed to the stairway, angling around a couple in the hallway arguing about the weight of their luggage. Because she was beginning to understand just how dangerous the person was who’d left that mark on Brina’s face. Eve had recognized the voice berating Brina, the woman she’d called Èmó. Demon.

It belonged to Xie Shuang.

Chapter 6

“I’m going to
get some bottled water.” The remains from breakfast had been cleared away hours ago by housekeeping. Eve had carefully watched the young woman who cleaned up, but the server didn’t speak or raise her gaze from her task as she bundled the dishes onto a tray from the cart she’d brought to the room. Was she another person like Brina? One who felt she had no voice, no choices? There were subtle differences between those who worked in the dining room and the few Eve has spoken to in housekeeping. In the service industry it wasn’t unusual for people with the best command of English to serve in jobs where they’d be meeting the public. But she thought there was more at play here than that. Brina’s words from earlier came back to her.

We’re disposable. They do what they wish with us.

Given the way she’d been mistreated by Xie Shuang, the woman was obviously a part of the ‘they’ Brina had mentioned. But who else was included in that group? If Eve could get the maid to talk to her again, perhaps she could begin to get answers to the questions flooding her mind. But she had to be sure she didn’t endanger the housekeeper by seeking her out.

“Why don’t you bring some for all of us?” Declan suggested. Eve rose, sliding the strap of her large purse over the shoulder and smiled at him as she walked from the room.
“Dhá dheug.”
Closing the door, she first made sure there were no eyes on her before walking directly to the elevator.

She’d told Declan which floor she’d be heading to and went to the twelfth now where she’d left off. Although there was a housekeeping cart on the floor, the maid who was pushing it was unfamiliar to her. There were people coming and going in the hallway, and Eve didn’t dare try to engage the housekeeper in conversation. A feel of urgency was fueling her. Maybe she should find Brina again. Perhaps the woman could be compelled to be a bit more forthcoming this time.

Her efforts paid off on the ninth floor. She positioned herself where she had partial vision into the room being cleaned. When she saw a familiar face inside it, Eve checked the hallway again to be sure she was alone and slipped inside.

“I have something for you,” she said in Serbian. Brina was stripping the two beds. When she whirled around her expression was surprised.

“You again.”

Eve reached into her purse to remove her wallet. Took out the largest bills she had and walked toward the woman, her hand outstretched. “Take this. Maybe it will help.”

Brina looked at the two one hundred dollar bills uncomprehendingly, but made no move to reach for them. “We must give all our tips to Xie Shuang.”

“This is not a tip.” She thrust her hand forward again. “Do you have a place to hide it?”

The woman’s eyes grew wide, but her hand came up to take the money and fold it, thrusting it into her bra. “Yes. But why do you do this?”

“I want you to tell me more. About how you came to be here. Who brought you?” They were speaking in hushed tones.

The maid glanced toward the door. “We cannot talk now. You come to the laundry room in an hour. It is below the first floor. I must work there soon.” Her mouth was grim. “It is my punishment for being behind today. After cleaning I must wash the sheets and towels for the rest of the day.”

“I’ll meet you there,” Eve promised, and lost no time going to the door and slipping out when she saw the hallway was vacant. Adrenaline had been kicking in her veins ever since speaking to the woman earlier that day. Rather than spending hours trying to find another of the beleaguered maids to talk to her, it seemed she might learn all she needed to with one more conversation with Brina where there was no chance to be overheard.

She used the stairway again and looked for a vending machine on the next floor. Quickly selecting a half dozen bottles of water, Eve slid half in her purse and carried the other three toward the elevator. A man came out of a room down the hallway from her. When he turned toward her, it took effort to keep the jolt of shock from slowing her step. From showing in her expression.

Eve recognized him from the photos Raiker had shown them. It was the second kidnapper. The driver. She watched him without seeming to as she slowed to a stop before the elevators, aware that he’d noticed her, too. A thread of ice skated down her spine as she felt his dark gaze on her.

Lafka Malsovic hadn’t left the country at all. It took little imagination to figure out what was keeping him here, despite the manhunt after him.

Royce Raiker.

Forty-five minutes later Eve pulled off the earbuds and tucked them with the mock MP3 player into her purse. As Raiker had promised, the listening device did also hold music, and she hadn’t found much to quibble about in the choices loaded on it. She rose, strolled toward the men crowded around one of the tables and leaned over behind Declan, her arms looping carelessly around his neck. “How much longer do you think you’ll be?”

The look he aimed over his shoulder held just the right amount of irritation. “This is going to take two or three days, Eve. I told you that.”

With a theatrical sigh, she dropped her arms and stepped away. “I’m going to go look for a snack.
Tráigh.
”

“Take your time.”

There was a snicker from two of the men as she turned toward the door. “That one is always hungry,” one man muttered to the other in Slovenian.

“If I had some privacy I would give her something to eat. Something she would choke on,” the other responded crudely in the same language. The two exploded into a burst of laughter that had Declan sliding them a cool glance.

Eve continued to the door as if she hadn’t understood a word they uttered. In the hallway she looked around carefully before heading to the stairwell. She’d get the snacks first, before she forgot about the excuse that had released her from the room again. But she was a little more skittish this time as she wandered the floors hunting for vending machines. There was a very real part of her that didn’t want to run into Malsovic again.

Although she’d alerted Declan about her destination, she didn’t recall him mentioning a camera outside the entrances or lobby area. That didn’t prevent her from furtively looking for one as she made her way toward the laundry room. She wouldn’t have known for sure the metal door on the ground floor marked Employees Only was the entry she wanted if there hadn’t been a small wooden wedge between the door and jamb to keep it from closing all the way. Sending a cautious look around, Eve opened the door and bent to retrieve the wedge, then slipped inside to find herself on the first step of a cement stairwell. Setting the wooden piece on the stairway she crept down slowly, hoping she was in the right place.

The din that greeted her as she descended told her that she was. There was a line of large canvas sided wheeled laundry hampers parked haphazardly across the space. They were situated several feet in front of a row of industrial strength washers and dryers, all of which seemed to be running. The noise level wasn’t as deafening as Eve would have imagined, but it still would mask any conversations held here.

She didn’t see Brina at first. It wasn’t until she stepped around the jagged line of carts that the woman was visible as she straightened from where she’d been bent over one. She turned, the load of sheets she was carrying nearly obscuring her face. Eve saw the woman’s feet stop moving and knew she’d been sighted. The load of linens lowered. Brina.

The noise from the machines would make anything other than a close conversation impossible. Eve closed the space between them, half grateful for the sound level. Even if someone happened into the vicinity there was no way they’d be overheard.

“Did anyone see you come down here?” The Serbian woman’s expression looked guarded, and Eve wondered if she were regretting her earlier decision to continue their discussion. Shaking her head, Eve said, “I closed the door behind me.”

The words had something in the woman’s face easing, but she dropped her load of laundry and gestured for Eve to follow her.

She did so, slowly. The place was poorly lit, a cavernous concrete pit with a spiderweb of old ductwork crisscrossing overhead. There was a distinct odor of mildew in the space. Brina stopped by the last of the laundry carts and Eve understood that the location would obscure them from the view of anyone descending the stairs.

“I saw a man earlier today that I recognized.” Eve wasn’t certain how much time they’d have so she started right in. “A bad man. The name I know him by is Lafka Malsovic. He has…” She was about to describe his tattoos, but the other woman’s reaction told her it was unnecessary.

One hand to her throat, Brina replied in Serbian, “He has many names but the only one that matters is
monster
.” The shudder that racked her body punctuated the words. “He is dangerous. A liar and a brutal man. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he is the one who killed my friend. He threatens us often. Hurts us. I put nothing past him.”

That matched with what Eve had heard about the man from Raiker, but she was more concerned about the experiences that were responsible for the fear and loathing on the woman’s face. “Why is he here? Do you know?”

Brina studied her, as if for the first time considering the ramifications of talking to her. “You are…police?”

Eve shook her head. “But I can help you,” she assured the woman. “If you tell me what is happening here, I can get help.”

Mouth twisting, the woman said fatalistically, “There is no help. Police will send me back to my home country and my family would still owe Malsovic a debt for bringing me to America. They cannot pay and there are no jobs for me there, or marriage. No man wants to marry a woman who has been forced to…” Her features hardened. “But I do not care for me. Dajana. Someone must pay for what was done to her. And if that someone is Malsovic, all the better.”

Eve glanced over her shoulder to be sure they were still alone and then angled her body for a better view of the stairway. “How did you get to America?”

Brina looked away. “I answered an ad,” she muttered in such a low voice Eve had to strain to hear her. “That is how I met him. I could pay four thousand dollars, or he would have a job for me when I got here. Working in a hotel for three hundred American dollars a week.” It was evident from her voice that the amount seemed like a fortune to her. “I would give him half my wages for the first year to repay him for his troubles. I would have paid even more for the chance he was promising. He showed me pictures of other girls he had helped. I knew it was a risk, but the risk I thought was in getting caught. Being sent back.” An expressionless mask came over the woman’s face. “But the reality was far worse than I feared. I have been here more than two years. We are prisoners, all of us. We do not leave the hotel, and we are not allowed to keep any money.”

Eve swallowed hard. The situation was as bad as she feared, but somehow hearing those fears put into words made it harsher. “What about Xie Shuang? You said earlier she keeps all your tips.”

A flash of real fear flickered over Brina’s face and she sent an uneasy glance at the stairwell. “Malsovic works for her. She pays him to bring her workers and we work here for nothing. There were thirty of us. One less now.” The words were tinged with grief.

Eve studied Brina for a moment. With the man’s reputation for brutality and the housecleaner’s reaction to his mention, there was more here than had yet been revealed. An ugly suspicion bloomed. “What else does Malsovic do here?”

Brina ducked her head. “He…he finds men. Almost every night there are several for each of us.” The woman refused to meet her gaze. “That money he shares with Shuang, but he keeps most of it, I think.”

“Oh my God, you’re living a nightmare.” Sympathy twisted in Eve’s chest. The horror of the women’s plight was almost too much to contemplate. But she was too familiar with stories much like the one Brina was telling to doubt the woman’s truthfulness.

The housekeeper bent and rolled down one of the white cotton socks she wore to reveal a thick black bracelet around her ankle. “If we get even a few feet outside of the hotel an alarm goes off. They can track us through this bracelet. We are brought back. Beaten. Nearly killed.” She bit her lip. “No one has tried to leave more than once.”

“Where do you stay?” Eve asked quietly. There was a helpless sort of desolation welling up inside her just thinking of what Brina and the others were going through. It couldn’t come close to the impotence and violation the women experienced every day and the knowledge made her physically ill.

“There are two rooms on the fifteenth floor that have been filled with bunk beds. We sleep there, and one of the men stands guard all night.” Brina slid an uneasy glance at the stairwell again before returning her gaze to Eve. “I must get to work or I will be beaten. You say you want to help.” She dug into the pocket of her apron and came up with a hotel key card. Handed it to Eve. “It is a master. It will open all the rooms.” Her eyes were dark and intense. “You can see that I tell the truth. Our rooms are 1501 and 1502. Shuang is in 701 and Malsovic is in 823.”

Eve hesitated but didn’t reach for the key. “What will happen to you when they find you’ve lost your master key?”

“That is Dajana’s.” Brina’s lips quivered for a moment before she tightened them. “She will not be using it anymore.”

Eve took the key card and dropped it into her purse. It was too good an opportunity to pass up, but she prayed it didn’t end up costing the woman far more than she expected. She reached out and grabbed Brina’s hand. “I am going to get help for you, but it might take a few days.” She wasn’t sure how they would coordinate their mission here with a rescue op for the women trapped in virtual slavery, but she was damn sure going to make sure it happened. And if Adam Raiker couldn’t facilitate it, she had contacts who could. “Can you hang on for a little while longer?”

The woman’s laugh was bitter. “What are days compared to years? I want to believe, but I will not let myself hope. Hope has died inside me. Now you must go before you are caught here, and then it will be too late for both of us.”