Chapter 7
JOSH
Iheard her little gasp and wondered if she realized she was inching closer to little space.
For all that she’d been through, the moments of lightness made me swell with pride and praise her until I couldn’t think of any more words.
I wanted to show her what a good girl she was for being so brave.
What she’d experienced made my heart ache.
I rode down in the elevator to meet the FBI team.
I entered the conference room to find a long wooden table with chairs all around. Three men, all in dark suits, huddled near the far end, speaking in whispered tones. The shortest of them was six-foot-two. One had his jacket hitched to reveal his gun on his hip.
I was not bringing my little Tinley into this room for this group to intimidate her into speaking.
As I drew closer, one of them spotted me.
He stepped between his two colleagues and headed in my direction, hand outstretched.
“Hi. My name is Agent Dan. This is Agent Nelson and Agent Sparks.” He shook my hand. “You are the one who found the girl?”
“Tinley.” I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest. “Yes, I had some clothes brought up for her. She’s getting changed.”
“And she just found her way into your room?” Agent Sparks had not joined us. He mimicked my stance. “How did that happen, sir?”
“Josh Burroughs.” I dropped my hand and leaned against the table. “I guess you could say I happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
“And thank God you were. Can you paint the picture for us?” Agent Dan smiled. He was the good cop in this conversation. If Agent Sparks was the bad cop, what did that make Agent Nelson?
“According to the security camera, you rode up in the elevator with two of the men who brought the women here. And you spoke to them in the hallway.” Agent Nelson was the fact guy.
“I spotted the two guys in the lounge in the lobby arguing, then a third person joined them. They continued arguing. They aren’t our normal demographic of guests, so I followed them up in the elevator.”
“They were from Budapest. And don’t speak English,” Agent Nelson added and turned to me. “Do you speak Turkish, Mr. Burroughs?”
“I don’t speak Turkish, but when I encountered them, they spoke heavily accented but perfect English.
I just mean, our hotel is geared toward couples and families and two men arguing in my lobby seemed out of place.
” I rubbed my chin. “If nothing else, I wanted to see if I could assist them in any way.”
“You always take such a keen interest in other hotel guests, Mr. Burroughs?” Agent Sparks asked.
“Uhm, Jack.” Agent Nelson glared at him.
Jack held up his hand.
“It just seems convenient that you would get off the elevator with them. And the woman entered your room without hesitation.”
“Jack.” Agent Nelson grunted and grabbed Agent Sparks’s arm.
“Mr. Burroughs here is the COO of Grant Enterprises.” He looked in my direction.
“What does it matter what he does? I’m trying to ascertain how he happened to get involved.”
“Jack,” Agent Dan chimed in. “He owns this hotel.”
“And fourteen others around the world.” I smirked and hopped onto the conference table.
This wasn’t going anywhere good and I had to get back to Tinley.
“Listen. I understand this has been a long night for you guys. And if you haven’t had a chance to speak with Agent Stanley, I understand.
We have worked with the FBI before in Las Vegas and New York, trying to do what we can to shut down these human traffickers.
I’d like to help you guys in any way we can.
I take it as a blessing that Tinley didn’t see me as a threat and might speak to how desperate she was to throw herself into the unknown to get away from what I can only imagine is the unspeakable horror she’s been through in the last two years.
She is willing to talk, but I imagine that will be more difficult as time goes on. ”
The men went back to the other end of the room and huddled and chatted. Agent Dan came back to speak with me.
“You’re right. Let’s speak to Tinley and then we’ll have a better idea of what we’re dealing with.” Dan shook my hand.
“Can I ask if you’ll please remove your coats and have a seat when she walks in? She’s spent the last two years being passed around and ordered around by men. If you could try to look a little less intimidating, that would be great.”
They all nodded. I left the room and went back up to get Tinley.
I knocked on the door.
I heard a squeal and what sounded like a muffled shit.
“Tinley, it’s me, Josh.” I knocked again. “Are you okay?”
The door swung open. She blinked rapidly and then turned back to the room. A splotch of pink stained the comforter.
“I’m so sorry.” She ran into the bathroom and grabbed a towel. “I’m such a klutz.” She proceeded to wipe up the stains and it made it worse. “OMG.” She rubbed at it with all her might.
“Tinley.”
She continued to rub the stain. Tears ran down her cheeks.
She was so upset about a stain.
“Tinley.” I stepped toward her, and she flinched and fell on her side. She stood up and flopped onto the bed.
“I’m sorry. I can’t do anything right.” She sobbed. “I’m broken.”
“No.” I kneeled in front of her but didn’t touch her.
She wiped the tears from her eyes. “What do you mean, no?”
“No, you are not doing this.” I placed a hand on her knee. She didn’t flinch or pull away. “You are not broken and you’re not going to talk about yourself in that way.”
She pouted and shook her head.
“You had a shitty thing happen… ”
She rolled her eyes.
“Okay, a lot of shitty things happen to you, but that’s the point, they happened to you.
You didn’t do anything or cause any of this and I think the way you’re dealing with it is incredible and brave.
” I squeezed her knee and then let her go.
I stood back up and held out my hand and guided her to stand by me.
“So how are you doing on your list?” I looked her up and down. “I see you managed to get dressed.”
She giggled and then stopped.
“Been dressing myself for a long time now.” She smoothed out her T-shirt.
“But I guess it’s been a while since you picked out your own clothes.” I stood back. “Everything fits?”
That garnered me another sassy eye roll.
“What about shoes?”
She reached into a bag and pulled out a pair of blue Converses. She sat down and I kneeled back in front of her.
“May I?”
She nodded.
I put her shoes on and tied them in double knots. The jeans were a little baggy on her, but the T-shirt was the right size. She grabbed the burgundy hoodie and handed it to me, then stood up.
I helped her put it on.
“Zipped or unzipped?” I straightened the hood.
“Zipped.”
I zipped the jacket up halfway and stood back to examine my handiwork.
“Perfect fit.”
“It’s too big.” She hugged herself. “But I like it.”
“Good.”
“So let me give you a little preview.”
She listened and nodded when I told her about the agents who were waiting to speak to her.
“If there is something you don’t want to answer or you feel uncomfortable at all, you let them know.”
“You’ll be there with me, right?” She reached for my hand.
“Of course, sw—” I cleared my throat. “Tinley. I won’t leave your side.”
She squeezed my hand.
We left the room and walked side by side down the hall. Tinley’s head was on a swivel.
“Remember my promise.”
She nodded and relaxed a bit.
We rode the elevator down in silence. The conference room floor was practically empty. A vacuum ran at the other end of the main hallway that led to all the different conference rooms.
“In there.” I pointed and we walked into the room. She dropped my hand and peeked in. She stepped in and stopped. She looked back. I stepped in next to her. She walked to the agents with her hands shoved into her pockets and her head held high.
I couldn’t keep the grin off my face but dropped it when Agent Nelson glared in my direction.
“Mr. Burroughs, perhaps you would like to wait outside while we speak with Ms.—”
Tinley cleared her throat. “Tinley Peterson. And I would like him to stay, please.” Her tone deepened.
Her face remained blank and expressionless.
It was unnerving. It gave me a bit of a clue on how she survived the last two years.
It also pissed me off. Like she closed herself off from the world and since I was in that world, I didn’t like it.
“Of course.” Agent Dan pulled out a chair and motioned for Tinley to sit.
She sat and pushed the chair next to her out for me to sit. She nodded and the ends of her mouth turned up a little. It was a minuscule movement, but I saw it. Strictly for my benefit because when he turned back to the FBI, she was all business.
“So, Ms. Peterson.” Agent Dan flipped open a folder. “Just to confirm some information, you are Tinley Ann Peterson from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You were born on October sixth, two thousand and one.”
“Yes.”
“And you were traveling with a companion at the time you were taken, a Mr. Damon Driskill?”
“Yes.”
“What was your relationship with Mr. Driskill?” Agent Nelson asked.
“He was my boyfriend at the time.” She paused and rubbed the table with her fingertips.
“You hadn’t been dating long?” Agent Dan asked.
“We’ve been friends forever. He and I met in high school and were friends, but we didn’t start dating until after college.”
“Can you tell us a little bit about what happened before you were taken?”
“You mean that night?” she asked. Her eyes blinked rapidly.
“Well, why don’t you back up a little more and tell me about your trip to Europe.”
Tinley rested her hands in her lap. She peeked at me, and I nodded.
I gave her the encouragement she needed.
She told them the story. About the trip they saved up for.
About the club they were invited to, although she was vague as to the type of club.
She went into descriptions of the guy who had invited them.
She offered amazing detail but didn’t ramble on.
She had the agents enthralled with her story.
Even Agent Sparks wiped at his eyes a few times.
The interview went on for another hour, the agents asking Tinley more follow-up questions.
She was exhausted by the time they started winding down.
The agents took a break to confirm something.
“Hey, Tinley, you’re doing so well. You okay?” I squeezed her arm, and she nodded.
“I’m just ready for it to be over.” She bit her bottom lip.
“I know. It will be over soon.” I wanted to remove her little lip from the punishment of her teeth.
I wanted to gather her in my arms and run away with her.
Away from these men who I believe were generally concerned, but they were also trying to make their case.
They weren’t necessarily looking out for Tinley’s best interests. That was now going to be my job.
“Tinley, we just have a few more questions, and we’ll let you go.
” Agent Dan laid his hand flat on the table.
“This will be uncomfortable for you, but I need you to tell us about some of the men you have been with, if you had any names or knew where they were from and… what kind of things they were into.”
“What they were into?” Tinley’s voice dropped an octave and sweat popped out on her skin. “But why?”
“It will give us more information on who they were, where they came from, and why they had targeted you.”
Tinley swayed in her seat and pushed herself back to place her head down. “Tin—”
“Please, I can’t do it.” She straightened back up but pleaded with me. “I can’t tell you what they did to me.” She turned toward the agents. “You wouldn’t understand.”