Full Bodied by Mia Gold

Author:Mia Gold [Gold, Mia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mia Gold
Published: 2021-05-12T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

She worried about that the entire taxi ride over, which took them into a respectable residential neighborhood not far from the beach. Bungalows and two-story colonial-style houses with lawns and backyards stood proud and prosperous, their whitewashed walls gleaming in the moonlight. The streets were quiet, with only the occasional car passing and a few people on their front porches enjoying the night.

They were almost at the address Samuel had given her when her phone rang. Maronique.

“Hey, Ruby, I’m calling from the hospital.”

“You’re still working?”

“A fourteen-hour shift is nothing to me. I got some more info on those cases. You wanted their names and addresses, but when I looked at them it struck me as strange and so I did some more digging, in between seeing more than fifty patients, checking the dispensary paperwork, and going to three staff meetings.”

“Sorry.”

Maronique had enough drama in her life without Ruby dumping more onto it.

“Don’t worry about it. So I noticed something. None had any fixed addresses.”

“Why not?”

“Because none had any paperwork. They were all here illegally.”

“They were all trafficked?” Ruby noticed the taxi driver glance at her through the rearview mirror. She turned away to look out the window.

“Maybe. Some of the names were foreign, while others were Caribbean. But even those from the Caribbean were from other islands, not in the Bahamas but actually from other countries.”

“Odd.”

“Very odd. I’ll text you the names and the addresses where they were found.”

“Thanks a million, Maronique. If there’s anything I can do, just tell me.”

“Can you lend me ten hours of sleep?”

“Wish I could, but I’m running short myself. Bye.”

Ruby thought for a moment. So were all the victims really trafficked? Why would someone target them?

Because they’re vulnerable, that’s why.

Ruby let out a little shudder.

The taxi pulled over near an intersection of two residential streets. Ruby had given him an address a block away in order to mask where they were going.

That didn’t seem to work. She caught him stealing a glance down the street they had to take. Ruby realized she should have known better. Taxi drivers knew everything. She really needed to make friends with some. Her cases would probably go easier.

They waited by the curb until the taxi drove out of sight. Once its tail lights rounded a distant corner, they headed down the street for Madrigal.

It turned out to be a house much like any other, only distinguished by a larger-than-usual street number on the mailbox, an extra wide driveway that accommodated two cars side by side, and a dim light on the porch illuminating an intercom and camera visible even from their vantage point half a block down the street.

Ruby figured that the causal passerby wouldn’t even notice the slight differences that marked it as something other than a regular house. The neighbors must know what went on in there, though. Ruby wondered what they thought of that.

She turned to Lenny.

“All right, so you’re going to go in and ask for a Mexican girl named Ruth. Actually, no.

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