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.”
“Is there any sign that Gabbibb is involved in any way?”
“No, but I would doubt if anyone who was going to get involved in terrorism in this day and age would leave their name and address,” Jerry said.
“What’s their aim?”
“The usual shit. Death to America, death to the Jews, et cetera, et cetera…”
I thought it over for a minute. There’s lots of reasons a guy could go to a site like this. Maybe he read about it in Newsweek, maybe Tom Brokaw was talking about it, or maybe he wants to keep a handle on what his enemies are doing. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions.
“What about the Bank of the Canary or whatever it is?” I asked.
“Like I said before, maybe he has money that he doesn’t want the government to know about,” Jerry said.
“Like if you invested in a very profitable porn site?”
“Yep, that would be a reason,” Jerry said.
29
I got done at Jerry’s at about five minutes to ten, which gave me just enough time to make the drive to Eagle Heights. I asked Jerry to loan me his video camera and he gladly gave me some space-age thing that fit neatly in one hand. It was ergonomically shaped so that it was easy to carry and maneuver.
In the middle of my ride over to Jerry’s, I had a startling moment of sanity. Kelley was right about me sticking my nose into things. I had come a long way, but this whole deal was getting way beyond my scope. I figured if I could catch Stephanie and Tyrone or Baldy or all three of them on tape and show the FBI and the cops the website, it would make arresting them relatively easy. The whole evil thing could be stopped, and they could do it better than a goofy social worker pug who read too many comic books. Maybe my friends in the Crown Vic would be the guys who would ultimately be the saviors in this deal after all, and, though I wasn’t following their directions, the ends would justify the means.
