Snitches Don’t Get Stitches
Vex
I should have snuck into Dahlia’s house last night. Her parents never would have heard a thing. This separation thing lasted two days too long. Tomorrow can’t come fast enough. I pull out my phone and check the security feeds.
Dahlia laughs at something Imogene says.
She’s baking cookies. With all the sugar she just dumped in the bowl, it’s got to be cookies. Why? Why does Dahlia do things just to torment me? I miss that smile. I miss that laugh. I miss everything about that woman.
But now isn’t the time to think about her endlessly.
Plant walked away with another woman, and I need to start getting to the bottom of all of this. Today, that means finding out more about his victims.
Jogging in the park really isn’t my thing, but it’s the least conspicuous way of meeting up with my contact .
She’s waiting for me at a little corner bench by the pond. It’s close enough to the running path not to look odd for a person to stop, but isolated enough that we won’t be overheard. I do one quick reconnaissance round to make sure no one followed me then sit down on the other side of the bench.
“Hello, Vex.”
“How have you been, Charleese?”
“Good. I’m really enjoying school. It’s definitely more fun this go around compared to when I was a teenager.”
Charleese fell for the oldest scam in the book. An older man telling her that he loves and understands her in ways that her parents never could. She ran away from home only to find out he was a human trafficker. By the time I got her out of that situation, she was addicted to drugs and barely alive.
“Why did you want to know about that women’s shelter? The Nest always has an open bed.”
I raise an eyebrow at her.
“Fine. I won’t ask any questions.” She leans back against the bench, staring out at the water. During the spring and summer, there are ducks swimming around. But it’s too cold for them now. They’ve flown south for the winter. “It’s on the up and up. A friend of mine from group therapy lives there now. She isn’t getting any weird vibes from any of the staff.”
“What about any missing women?”
“None of them disappeared randomly. Not all women stay at the shelters. Some choose to return to what they know.”
It boggles my mind that they choose to return to their nightmare lives rather than staying someplace safe. But mental trauma runs deep, and it makes us do weird things. “Do you know the names of any of the women that left?”
“I could only get two. If I pushed anymore, she might have gotten curious.” Charleese pulls a slip of paper out of her bag. “These are the names. I’m not sure they’re spelled right, but my friend said they left a couple of weeks after arriving.”
“Thank you.” I hold out an envelope to her .
“You don’t need to give me that. You’ve already given me enough to go to school and live on for the rest of my life.”
Every woman the Payne and I rescue gets the same regardless of whether the place we rescue them from is flush with cash or like in Charleese’s case an idiot, penniless pimp. After what they’ve been through, these women deserve a life without worrying about where their next meal will be or how they will put a roof over their heads. “But I want you to take it anyway.”
“No.” She stands up. “I might not know what this is about, but I bet it’s to help save another woman. So, no, I won’t take your money for helping. But I will say thank you for letting me do this small bit.”
Hopefully, it isn’t yet another dead end like the ones both Torment and I have been running into.
***
“You got me names.” Shock holds out a hand for the paper. “This has to be the worst documented women’s shelter that I’ve ever hacked into.”
Don’t ask. Don’t ask. “How many have you hacked into?”
“Dozens. Most keep terrible records and barely stay afloat. It’s sad that the people trying to do good in the world have such a hard time finding funding.”
After this, I’ll have Shock make me a list of the ones he’s found, and then I’ll fix that issue for the ones actually doing good in the world. “And did you find anything helpful?”
“Threads to tug on, but nothing conclusive. Plant only ‘volunteers’ at the one shelter. Since he’s been there, records show more than two dozen women are unaccounted for. Oh, this is interesting. Just a little after Plant arrived, a medical clinic volunteered to care for the women for free.”
Don’t most shelters have a clinic, hospital, or some medical professionals to do just that? “And why is that interesting? ”
“Because all of the women’s medical records are on file with the shelter.” Shock taps on keys, making different images fly across the screens.
“So?”
“They aren’t supposed to be stored there.”
Huh? I lean forward to read the screens.
“The women’s medical information is private. With the exception of drug or alcohol use. These files contain everything from prior histories of pregnancy to hypertension. They even have extensive blood work results. And I’m talking about extensive.” He clicks through pages and pages of results, all with the same woman’s name on the top.
Why? We’re talking about human traffickers.
None of this makes sense. But it’s a thread. A weird one, but enough to waste the time. “Follow that. I want all the information you can get on these two women. And I want you to check other shelters to see if you can find any that are doing the same thing.”
“On it.” Shock nods.
“Any progress with Barb’s messes?”
Shock shakes his head. “Not yet. I’m running thorough checks on each of the people in her groups. It’ll take a while since there were more people accessing those posts than Barb thought.”
“Keep at it. Contact me if you need anything.” I need to go ask for a favor and talk to a Snitch.
***
Payne smiles as the elevator door opens to his place. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
“Be nice to Vex. He’s having a hard weekend without Prue.”
It’s been a nightmare, not that I’ll admit that to Imogene. “Hello. ”
She gives me a smile and a wave. “I’m going to finish putting the food on a serving platter.”
They’re both pretty dressed up. “You going out?”
Payne smirks at me. “To your woman’s party.”
Is literally everyone in the world invited to her party but me?
“It won’t be so bad.” Payne walks over and slaps me on the back. “I’ll bring you back a sampler pack of the cookies Prue has been making all weekend.”
“You know I could kill you for that, right?”
Payne walks over to the bar, chuckling.
I hate him. I hate everyone. And now I need to ask for a favor instead of giving him a black eye. It’s tempting to ask for a double, but I have to go out on the street again. “None for me.”
Payne turns to face me with a glass in hand. “What’s up?”
“One of our snitches contacted me this morning. Gotta go find out why.”
“Need some backup. I could drop Imogene off at Prue’s and go with you.”
And now I need to ask another man to do my job. Because even with the security video, there’s no way I can watch out for her with an entire neighborhood wandering around her house. “Could you keep an eye on Dahlia today? It makes me antsy to have all those people around when I can’t be.”
“Will do. I’ll keep the guys away from her.”
“You don’t need to do that.” Imogene walks up, holding a little plate for each of us. “Dahlia loves Vex. She won’t be flirting with any of them.”
“That doesn’t mean they won’t try anything with her,” I grumble into the plate.
“Well then, go to the party and growl at anyone that looks at her yourself.”
Imogene giggles at the face I make at her.
Today stinks.
** *
As I step onto the street, a message from Dahlia comes through.
Dahlia: I miss you!
A smile spreads across my face for the first time.
Me: Miss you too, Dahl.
Me: Are you enjoying your time with your mom?
Dahlia: Yes. No.
I should have snuck in last night.
Me: What’s happening?
Dahlia: I hate the idea of having a housewarming party without you.
Every instinct in me screams to go to her.
Dahlia: Mom has got me wearing this insane dress. I should just go hide in your library until the party is over.
WHAT?
Me: Show me
Her mother does wild things. She better not try to talk my woman into something that shows too much skin and makes her feel uncomfortable.
Me: Dahl, if it makes you that uncomfortable, don’t wear it. But definitely send me a picture!
Dahlia: LOL
I can practically hear her laughter in my head.
Me: Waiting on my picture…
Dahlia: Patience is a virtue.
Me: What is that?
Dahlia: Ha ha! Fine, I’ll send you a picture.
The endless silence on her end frays my nerves.
Me: You need help over there?
All it would take is the barest excuse for me to run over to her.
To ignore the fact that there will be a million people waiting for her to attend her own party.
To ignore the fact that there’s no way her parents would ever accept me being in her life .
To ignore all sense and reason to have her in my arms again.
Give me just one little excuse.
A hint that you want me to make the wrong choice.
Why is seeing my woman the wrong choice?
Because you’re a killer, and Dahlia lived a normal life with the picket fence and perfect parents.
Are we going to spend the rest of our lives hiding from her parents?
Because there’s zero way Dahlia and I aren’t spending forever together.
This separation isn’t happening again.
There has to be a way.
Am I really waiting for someone else to fix my problem?
No. Dahlia and I are going to be together.
And her parents are going to give their blessing.
But they’ll never accept Vex the killer.
Vex doesn’t exist. I am no one, according to the government. It’s time to change that. Time to become a person Dahlia’s family would approve of.
The message I’ve been waiting for clicks through. Why is her face devoid of emotion? Is she afraid I won’t like the dress? Or that everyone else will like it too much and I’ll be crazy jealous. I force my eyes away from her face to the outfit in question.
It’s a deceptively simple dress with no adornments except a thin belt cinching in at her waist. All her skin is covered from neck to knees, which is good.
Try not to think about how amazing she looks and all the men who will be drooling over her while you aren’t at her side.
Vex: Dahl, you look beautiful.
This is it. After today, we’ll be together forever.
Dahlia: Say it again.
Me: LOL you’re a nut, but I think that’s one of the reasons I love you so much.
Dahlia: I love you too.
Determination drives me to walk faster than I expected to meet my snitch. Over the years, I’ve developed a series of people that keep me informed. Dahlia would say spy for me, but that infers a bit of legality to what I do.
Nothing about this, even by a stretch of the imagination, resembles legal.
The word of the man I’m about to talk to wouldn’t be trusted in any court of law. Aloysius talks to the people in his head and believes aliens are going to eat his brains if he falls asleep in a bed, which is why he’s lived on the street since I was a kid.
But Al’s also been known to wade into a fight to protect a street kid or anyone in trouble. His aliens might be a little out there, but the street info he gives out has never been wrong.
Slowly, so as not to startle him, I make my way down an alley to the dumpster he’ll be waiting behind. “Hey, Al. I got your burgers with extra onions but no pickles or mayonnaise, two jelly donuts, an apple, and four bananas.” It’s been exactly the same order for decades.
He steps out. “Vex.”
“How have you been?”
“The aliens… I saw the alien’s eyes.” Each word is punctuated with an eye twitch and a finger tap. “They were with her.”
That’s new. Al has never claimed to have seen them recently. It’s always been something in the past or the future. “How many aliens were with her?”
“Two. They took out their tools and hurt her, but she was already dead...” He shakes his head. “…or sleeping. She could have been sleeping. There wasn’t any blood.”
Does he need help? Should I have him institutionalized for his own good? It’s happened before. Cops drag him in every now and again. Then there’s the random do-gooder that finds him passed out on the street. They weren’t wrong. He needs help. But he doesn’t want it, and each time he escapes. I’ll need to have someone keep an eye on him for a little while, carefully though, so he doesn’t get squirrely. “Did they put her in their spaceship? ”
Al tips his head at me, leaving it there for a long time. “Are you crazy? They put her in the back of a van tied down on a stretcher.”
Well, that’s certainly interesting. The likelihood that he saw Marlie is slim, but I need to ask anyway. “Is this the woman you saw?” I hold out a clear shot of her that Shock got off of social media.
“Yeah.” His whole body shakes along with his nod. “But she had different clothes on… and no shoes. They took her shoes so she couldn’t run. But it doesn’t matter, she’ll run anyway. Running lives. Staying dies. One after the other, they died. The aliens killed them.”
Something is very different with him. I’ll make arrangements on my way home. Someone can at least bring him food and make sure he doesn’t stop in front of traffic. “Can you tell me where this happened?”
“Better. I can show you. But we have to be very quiet, so the aliens don’t see us.”
***
“Torment, I found the pickup location.” But no Marlie.
“Send me the coordinates.”
It’s a step. There’s a chance, a slim one, but there’s still a chance that Torment might find her in time.