WMC 18 - 18th Abduction by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Author:James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473562981
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2019-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 59

Denny thought over the win-win suggestion I’d made, while looking into my hard blue eyes—and he took it to heart.

He said, “I met Carly at the Bridge one night about three months ago. I was sitting at the bar. Carly was a couple stools down, and I started talking to her. She was very cute. I moved over next to her. I bought her a drink. I asked her what kind of work she did and she told me. She said she didn’t make a lot of money and was trying to pay off her college loans.”

He shrugged. I drummed my fingers on the table. I wanted him to get to it. Faster.

Lopez said, “I told her I’d be happy to help her work off the loan and I’d give her a pretty good deal, a fifty-fifty split after taking out for expenses. She laughed. Asked me what I meant. I told her and she told me I was crazy.

“So about a month after I made that offer, she called me and said she wanted to do it.”

Conklin said, “She agreed to be a prostitute?”

Lopez said, “She had decided. I didn’t pressure her. Not at all. She said she wanted to try. I made a date for her. I drove her to the Big Four. I like that place because they don’t ask any questions.

“I stayed in the parking lot while Carly was having her date. I had told her I would be lookout in case of trouble. She made a couple hundred bucks and told me to make another date for her.”

“And you did?” Conklin asked.

Lopez said, “Once or twice a month. That was all she would do. Hey. To be honest, Sergeant, I don’t know for sure that she even liked guys.”

“Explain,” I said.

“Just a feeling I had. Look. A lotta girls who turn tricks hate men, don’t you think?”

“Go on with your story, Denny. There’s a line forming outside, people waiting for this room.”

He looked up at the two-way mirror and waved.

I slapped my hand down on the table and his attention came back to me.

Lopez said, “I picked guys who weren’t too gross, and she seemed fine with it for a month or so. Then, a few weeks ago, she said she didn’t want to do it anymore.”

I said, “Is that right?”

I took out my phone, showed Denny the pictures of him coming down the stairs at the back of the motel.

“You recognize this guy?”

He looked at the picture, eyes moving over the small screen, pausing, clearing his throat, then saying, “That’s me.”

“That was a week ago,” I told him.

“I was there,” he said, “but not with Carly.”

I was ready with my follow-up questions. I asked him if he knew Adele Saran and Susan Jones. I showed him the picture I had of all three of them together at a table at the Bridge.

Lopez said he’d seen them there but never spoken to Adele or Susan.

He added, “Those are the missing women I heard about?”

“I think you know that.

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