Secrets of the Dead (18 page)

“Thank you so much,” Eve said as she turned to lead the way to the alcove that housed the soft drinks and ice machine. “I think the ice machine is stuck and I can’t get my hand up there far enough to unplug it. With your help I’m sure we can get it to work.” She kept up the chatter until they reached the area in question before dropping the farce entirely. Drawing out her cell phone, she spoke in Serbian, “I have something to show you.” Positioning herself in front of the ice machine, she waited for the other woman to stand beside her. Bringing up the pictures she’d taken in the morgue, she murmured, “A body was found in the river.”

Brina’s gasp told her better than words that their victim had been ID’d. “Dajana.” Her whisper was thick with unshed tears. “It is my friend.”

“I’m sorry.” The words were as inadequate as the rage Eve felt on both women’s behalf. “I know this is a horrible shock.”

The housekeeper handed back the phone. “How did you find her?”

“I just told others what you had shared with me. There will be help coming. But you can’t tell any of the others.”

Brina’s expression was bitter. “There is no one else I would trust, now that Dajana is dead. The others are too afraid. They think they might be next. And Buppha, the girl with me in the room, she tells all she knows to Shuang. She thinks to get favored treatment. Shuang paired us because I got behind yesterday. To make sure I am working my hardest.”

A thought occurred. “Do the owners of the hotel ever visit here? Do you think they know what is happening with you and the other women?” Maybe the trafficking ring went deeper than Malsovic and Shuang.

Brina shook her head uncomprehendingly. “There are no others. Shuang is the owner of the hotel. I know this because last year I overheard her and Malsovic talking. She said the place is hers and if he did not do as she says, he could leave.”

Shocked, Eve stared at her. Raiker had said the place was owned by a group of Pakistanis, but she knew it was possible to create a false front to a property to hide true ownership. It was something she’d have to share with the man to be looked into further.

Belatedly aware of the passing moments, urgency began rapping at Eve’s skull. “You must get back before Buppha gets suspicious. Can I find something that belonged to Dajana in your rooms? A toothbrush or hairbrush…” Her words tapered off at the other woman’s headshake.

“All has been collected and taken away, but no one has asked about the pass key. Maybe they have not thought of it yet.” She took a deep breath, as if willing emotion away. “The police…they care that Dajana is dead?”

“Yes. And what is happening with all of you here at the hotel will be investigated,” Eve assured her.

The woman looked unconvinced. “Sometimes they need evidence. Like you asked for Dajana’s things. They are gone, but I can get you more proof of what they do with us.”

“Leave that to us.”

But the woman’s face was mutinous. “I can bring you something from Malsovic’s room. He has cards. All of us have a picture on one. He hands them out, in a deck, you see? For the men to pick which of us they want. He has many decks. I could bring you one. You could show it to the police.”

Nausea, a nasty tangle of it, twisted in Eve’s belly. Somehow the information underscored the callousness with which Malsovic regarded the women. They weren’t people. They were things. Possessions to be bought, sold and bartered.

And she tended to think the cards would be valuable indeed. Not just to provide a push if justice moved too slowly. But to supply a photo ID to law enforcement of all the women being held, so they’d know who needed rescuing when a raid was launched.

“You are not to go to his room. It’s too risky. If he caught you…” He might kill her. Eve left the words unsaid, but the fear she felt for the housekeeper was all too real. Lives were meaningless to the man. And he thought he owned these women.

Skirting her gaze, the housekeeper turned to leave. “I must get back to cleaning.”

Eve stopped her with a hand to her arm. The vow came from her lips before consciously formed in her brain. “I’ll go to his room. I’ll get a set of the cards to show to the authorities.”

Brina fixed her with a look. “You promise this?”

Already Eve was regretting the words. In light of the argument she and Declan had had last night, she knew without asking that he’d disapprove of the plan. Disapprove being an understatement. But she also recognized that Brina would endanger her life to get her hands on the evidence, and Eve couldn’t have the woman take that kind of risk.

She didn’t want to make another trip to the morgue.

“Yes. I promise.”

Brina nodded once and walked away. Leaving Eve with no practical idea for how she was going to keep her word.

She thought about it as she descended the stairway. As she made her way to the dining room and placed an order with a waitress there for room 311. It had taken a pretense to get Shuang out of her rooms yesterday, but Eve couldn’t imagine what kind of farce she could enact to convince Malsovic to vacate his room, short of pulling a fire alarm. And that would have consequences beyond her intent.

Dropping down on a couch in the lobby, she considered the problem. She was no closer to a solution when she saw a familiar face at the far end of the lobby, walking swiftly, a bit hunched over. Eve thought he was headed for the back lobby exit, but he disappeared around a corner. It was the man who had tailed them yesterday. The one who had attempted to force them into a car a few days previously.

He’d been speaking with Malsovic yesterday, she recalled, getting to her feet. She wished now she’d gotten close enough to overhear what they had been saying. Curious, she trailed after him, half expecting that by the time she reached the bend in the hallway where he’d disappeared that he’d be gone. He wasn’t. She pulled out her cell, pretended to be engrossed in it as she stood where she could keep him in her peripheral vision. He lounged against a wall, across from the exit as if in wait for someone. Moments later he was joined by Malsovic.

The two spoke for several minutes, their expressions furtive. Then to Eve’s surprise, they both walked out the door together. Without thinking twice she rounded the corner and, cell still in her hand, half jogged to the exit they’d disappeared through. Neither man was in the vicinity when she peered out.

She couldn’t believe Malsovic would leave the property after the tongue-lashing he’d gotten from Shuang last night for having done so. Eve waited another minute but saw no sign of either man. Slowly she walked back to the lobby. Last night he’d claimed he’d been searching for things the group would need for their next kidnapping attempt. Shuang hadn’t appeared to buy it. Clearly little trust existed between the two. And now, after being expressly forbidden to do so, he appeared to have left the premises again.

It was possible he was on an errand for Shuang this time. Or that the men had only walked outside to finish their conversation in private.

It was also possible that she’d just been handed a way to get into Malsovic’s room without being detected. Slipping her cell back in her purse, Eve swiftly left the area, crossed the lobby and headed for the staircase again. At this rate she should be pounds lighter before this assignment was over. She used the time walking upstairs to text Raiker that Brina had made a positive ID on photos from the morgue, without mentioning what Eve meant to do next.

Sometimes it was easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.

On the surface, there was nothing about room 823 that stood out. She’d waited in the stairwell until the hallway was empty, and the housekeeper assigned to the floor was busy before slipping inside the room. She tried the safe in the closet and found it locked. Then Eve moved to the drawer of the desk and found nothing of note inside.

Undeterred she went to the dresser. Her fingers faltered when she unearthed two thick black metal bracelets beneath a pile of shirts. Ankle monitors, just like the one Brina had shown her. Eve didn’t need to wonder if one of them had belonged to Dajana. Shoving the drawer in, she pulled open another. And discovered stacks of cards bound together with rubber bands.

Withdrawing one, she slipped the band off and fanned the cards out. Revulsion rippled down her spine. In each picture a woman was posed in skimpy lingerie and suggestive poses. It was exactly as Brina had claimed. Eve was unsurprised. The woman hadn’t been wrong yet. She secured them again with the rubber band and dropped them in her purse.

A quick search of the rest of the drawers and the closet turned up more ammunition for a gun that wasn’t present, at least not anywhere she looked. Next she checked under the mattress. Finding nothing, she looked beneath the bed. Pulled out the nearest item.

It was a bundle of some sort, wrapped in a man’s flannel shirt. When Eve unrolled it she saw another handgun, a passport and a driver’s license issued by the state of Virginia. The image on the license had her catching her breath. She used the edge of the shirt to flip open the passport. Both photos showed the same man. The one she’d seen a picture of on her first trip to Raiker’s office. And again, of the decomposing corpse found at C&O Park. The kidnapper known as Marlin Hobart.

The names on the identification both read Steven Gosling. Drawing out her phone, she took a photo of the license. Flipping through the passport she saw the man listed Sydney, Australia as his native country. But he’d made frequent trips to Serbia and the US.

And somewhere along the line he’d crossed paths with Malsovic. The fact Malsovic had the dead man’s belongings made it seem even likelier that he’d been Hobart’s killer.

The only other thing under the bed was a rifle and boxes of ammo. Carefully she replaced the bundle, straightened and smoothed the bedspread back in place.

Her gaze landed on the laptop sitting on top of the desk. Crossing to it, Eve lifted the lid, half expecting it to be turned off or password protected. To her shock, it was on, open to a search page. The browser language was set to Serbian. Perhaps Malsovic had been called away abruptly. Or maybe he thought the fact that the language was in his native tongue would be enough of a deterrent to anyone who came looking.

Eve checked the history, bringing up each of the last five searches. The subject of every one of them was Rizqi bin Osman.

The man who had owned the hotel until seven years ago, she recalled. Raiker had said he’d operated a human trafficking ring much like the one in the hotel now. But why was Malsovic checking on the man?

She tucked the questions away for later and moved the search window down to look at his desktop. It was empty. Undeterred, she went to the hard drive and looked for stored documents. Found nothing.

Her pulse was pounding, her heart rapping in her chest. She’d been inside the room for nearly ten minutes and there were few things she wanted to experience less than being here when Malsovic came back. She restored the laptop to its previous window, closed the lid and walked to the door. Checking the peephole, she saw no one nearby so eased the door open to look out. She wasn’t worried about the couple coming down the hallway toward her. They wouldn’t know the room she was departing wasn’t hers. But the housekeeper just down the hall would.

The walls seemed to press in on her as she waited for the housekeeper to roll her cart to the next room. To go inside it. If Eve had needed proof of what Lafka Malsovic was, she’d seen it here today. Justice couldn’t come soon enough for the man.

The first chance she had she darted out of the room and beelined for the stairwell. It was another one for the books. Despite the fact that breakfast would be sent to 311 in thirty minutes or so, once again Eve had lost her appetite.

_______

“I took your
men through a simulated breach on Raiker’s property multiple times. They have an excellent grasp of the plan that will get them inside to access the family’s area.” Shuang had brought the weapons down again. Now she stood listening to Declan explain what he’d covered with her employees that day. “I sent their iris photos and fingerprints to my friend inside.” Later in the afternoon Malsovic had come to the room for the first time, and Declan had followed the same procedure for him. He’d left immediately afterwards, without exchanging more than a few words with the other men. Declan gave Shuang a thin smile. “There’s a little matter of the second half of my payment to be discussed.”

“First I need to see screenshots proving that they are in Raiker’s security system. Show that to me now, and I will wire the payment immediately.”

“I will send you the screenshots this evening. Then if the money doesn’t appear in my account within an hour, their identification will disappear from the system.” He watched the rage bank in her expression before it was masked. “You are a businesswoman. I’m sure you understand.”

“Of course.” The politeness in her tone matched his. “You have done us a great service. I am grateful for your assistance.”

“It was a pleasure.” He aimed a look in Eve’s direction and she lazily unbent her legs from where they were folded beneath her and rose. She wasn’t wearing boots today and hadn’t had a knife. She’d allowed Amin to search her purse, but none of the men had made a move to frisk either of them. Declan knew the action had less to do with trust and much more to do with the fact they the men hid second weapons just as he did. Three against one—or even two—were comforting odds.

“I will look for the email no later than seven o’clock. You can deliver it by then?”

He inclined his head. “It will be there.”

“Then you are free to go.” Her smile looked forced when she gazed at Eve as she came up to join them. “You go to the bank again today?”

“It’s so tedious, but yes. We have a buyer for our house and we need to get the liens lifted against it so we can…”

“Honey, Ms. Shuang doesn’t want to hear about our personal situation.” Declan collected his weapon from the pile on the table, nerves jumping. He could sense the readiness in the other three men. They were just waiting for a signal from Shuang. But he thought they were safe enough inside the hotel. She wasn’t about to order a shootout there.