Familiar Lies (7 page)

Ruby asked when and Max suggested the following night. Ruby said she had to work, but she agreed to meet after her shift at The Hustle. Max confirmed the meeting, reminding her to be careful and to delete their conversation from her phone immediately, to which she agreed.

As he placed the phone on the coffee table he took a deep breath and stared at the DVD player. He grabbed the remote and pressed the eject button. The tray slid open and the shiny silver disc sat there, staring back at him. The very thought of even touching it filled Max with revulsion, but he had to do something with it.

Tomorrow, he decided.

He slid down into the couch and sleep took him, hard and fast.

Max awoke the following day feeling as if he’d been hit by a truck. His body ached from the booze overload, his head still pounded and his mouth felt as if it had been filled with cotton.

He glanced toward the DVD player. The disc remained where he’d left it, waiting obediently. Forcing himself to move, he got up and retrieved the disc. He held it out and away from himself, as if it carried some sort of communicable disease. The images it contained replayed themselves in his mind and Max knew that it would be a long time before they faded—if they ever did.

He couldn’t leave the disc out for just anybody to find, not until he’d had the opportunity to talk to Vanessa again. Then it would need to go to the police, along with the address of the house where he’d found it.

Or did it? What would they think when he brought them the disc? His fingerprints were on it, reasonable considering he’d touched it to pick it up in the first place, but they’d ask questions. They’d want to know why he’d followed Gabe Harris in the first place. They’d wonder how he let himself into a stranger’s house without permission. They’d ask why he didn’t report what he’d found immediately and why he’d decided to watch the DVD himself.

Police were concerned with convictions, first and foremost. How could he know that they wouldn’t try to pin this whole mess on
him
, the easy suspect? Or, at a minimum, arrest him for complicity?

He had to hide the disc for now, at least until he had a chance to talk with Vanessa and find out exactly what she knew. He needed to know who he was dealing with, what these people were capable of. Vanessa was afraid; Max needed to know what she was afraid of.

Only then could he consider involving the police.

Unless, of course, he’d already gone too far for that.

* * *

After hiding the disc behind the dresser in the bedroom, Max showered and dressed, grabbing a quick breakfast of toast and orange juice a little too close to its expiration date. He barely tasted it, his mind caught up in the details of everything he’d learned over the past couple of days.

After driving to Vanessa’s house, he sat in his car and watched the house. He fought the urge to simply walk to the front door and bang on it until somebody came and answered his goddamn questions. Vanessa, her husband or her son; it didn’t matter as long as somebody started talking.

But he couldn’t do that and he knew it, so he bided his time in the car until he saw his chance. Forty-five minutes after he’d arrived, he watched Vanessa walk through the house, visible through the picture window in the family room.

Max didn’t hesitate. He got out of the car and walked straight up to the front window. He tapped on it and she jumped, clearly startled. When she caught sight of him, Max saw the fear and dread on her face. She was more afraid than he’d thought. She looked ten years older. Bags had formed under her eyes, seemingly overnight, and her face took on a weary, haggard expression. A part of him, however, took at least some satisfaction that she might now be suffering a little for her sins.

She walked to the door and opened it. Max met her there.

“I told you never to come back here,” she said, glancing into the living room behind her. “Peter’s home.”

“It’s time you start talking,” Max said.

“Drop this. What part of that don’t you understand?”

“You said Josh made up stories. I found a DVD that tells me otherwise. You’re the one who’s lying here.”

Vanessa’s mouth formed a thin line as the gears turned in her head, but she didn’t reply.

“You know something. Stop bullshitting me.” Max glared at her. “Unless you want your husband to know about all this.”

“You wouldn’t do that.”

Max raised his eyebrows.

Vanessa’s eyes went hard and cold as she shook her head. “You’re as bad as they are.”

“Hardly,” Max said. “And I think you know that. It’s why you’re so afraid.”

“Of course I’m afraid. You’d be too if you had any sense.”

“Tell me everything you know and I’ll leave you alone. I have to know what I’m dealing with here.”

Vanessa sighed. “You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?”

“It was never well enough and you know it,” Max said. “Meet me in an hour, same place as last time. And don’t even think about not showing up.”

Vanessa arrived at the diner as Max had requested, taking a seat across from him at a table near the wall, away from most of the people. This time, she left the sunglasses on. She wasted no time getting started.

“I don’t know who they are exactly. I think they’re Russian or maybe from some other Eastern Bloc country. Immigrants. They all talk with the same accent.”

“How did Josh get involved with them?”

“Through that club.”

“The Hustle?”

Vanessa nodded.

“Who’s Julie?”

“I think they were together.”

“Before or after he met you?”

“Both.”

“Julie’s gone. Disappeared.”

“How do you know that?”

“Someone told me, someone who knows her. Someone concerned that something happened to her.”

“She might have run. I hope that’s what she did, at least.”

“Tell me about Gabe Harris.”

“I don’t know much about him,” Vanessa said. “He manages that strip club, though.”

“He doesn’t own it?” Max couldn’t remember if Ruby had told him that or not. It was becoming hard to keep all the facts straight in his head.

“No. Somebody else owns it.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know his name, but I know that I never want to see him again. He scared me.”

“You met him?”

“If you want to call it that. He showed up at my work with two of his goons and a manila folder.”

Max thought of the man in the white suit who’d shown up at the house where he’d found the DVD. “He didn’t wear a white suit, did he?”

“Maybe. I don’t remember.”

“What was inside the folder?”

“Pictures of my family. My husband at the building where he works, getting into his car. And pictures of my son at his school. My son! Can you understand how frightening that is?”

“Did he threaten them?”

“He didn’t have to. He just stood there, holding the photos and looking at me with eyes that were just…cold. Empty and black, like a snake.”

“Did he know about you and Josh? Or Josh and Julie?”

“He must have known something. Why would he have shown up, otherwise? Why would he threaten me like that?”

“So let me get this straight,” Max said. “You had no ties to this club or Gabe outside of Josh.”

“Mr. Williamson, I’m a middle-aged housewife who went through some kind of midlife crisis or temporary insanity or whatever. I had a lapse in judgment and I did something unforgivable with your son. Believe me when I say that there’s not a day that goes by when I don’t hate myself for that. But I can’t change what happened and now I can’t seem to get away from it.”

She took the glasses off and Max could see she’d been crying on the way over to the diner. “Do you want to know what I think happened?”

“Of course.”

“I think your son got caught up with a girl who was in way over her head with some very bad people.”

“So you do think they had something to do with his death?”

“I don’t know for sure, but it’s possible.” She cast a furtive glance out the diner’s front picture window. “You said you found a DVD. What did you mean by that?”

Max relayed what he’d seen on the video. He watched Vanessa’s face register increasing levels of disgust as he recounted each detail of the scene. She seemed truly shocked.

After Max had finished his account of the DVD, Vanessa sat silently for a few moments, processing the information. “What did you do with the DVD?”

“It’s safe.”

“You kept it?”

“Of course I kept it. It’s evidence.”

“If you get caught with that—”

“I won’t.”

“You need to take it straight to the police.” She thought for a moment on that. “But they’ll ask questions…”

“I won’t tell them about you.”

Vanessa nodded, but she seemed less than convinced that she’d be able to get out of this mess without being implicated. “What you found in that basement and that DVD…it sounds like one of those prostitution rings that you hear about on the news. Human trafficking.”

Max agreed that it appeared so on the surface. “Clearly Gabe and this Caldwell person are involved in something for sure.”

“Maybe Julie found out,” Vanessa said. “Maybe she knew something and they shut her up.” The realization set in fast. “Oh, god. What have I gotten myself into?”

“You need to calm down and think this through,” Max said. “We both do.”

“If Julie knew what Gabe and Caldwell were doing then Josh surely knew too. She would have told him.”

“I think we can count on that.”

“This person you said you talked to, the one who was concerned about Julie…how are they involved?”

Max told Vanessa about his meeting with Ruby and the details of what they discussed in the car.

“You shouldn’t get involved with anybody from that club,” Vanessa said. “You don’t know if you can trust her.”

Max hadn’t considered that. “I think she’s on the up and up.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Vanessa said. “If she’s involved with them, maybe even a part of whatever they’re up to then you’re putting yourself at risk by sharing anything with her.”

“Possibly. Or it’s possible she’s telling the truth.”

“I hope she is,” Vanessa said. “If not, we’re both already dead.”

* * *

Max pulled into his driveway and parked, his thoughts given over to Ruby and the details of the conversations they’d had. Vanessa had planted the seed of doubt about her and now Max found he couldn’t stop the questions that were growing from it. He replayed the conversation they’d had after their first meeting in The Hustle’s parking lot, searching for any indication that he might be getting the runaround.

Ruby had seemed genuinely concerned about her friend, but the more Max thought about it, the more possible it became that she might be hiding something. She’d been the one to make contact with him, letting herself into the car that night. However, she’d been forthcoming with information about Gabe and Julie.

Unless, of course, she’d been lying. That could change everything.

Max retrieved Josh’s letter from his pocket and read over it again as the engine cooled. Josh mentioned a cabin in his letter, but no one Max had spoken to thus far had said anything about a cabin. And, according to the letter, Josh had been convinced that Gabe knew about this cabin and two other things:
the girls
and
the money
.

The girls…more girls like Amanda? Could Vanessa be right about Gabe and Caldwell? Were they running some sort of human trafficking ring? But Gabe had gone to that flophouse with the awful basement, so wouldn’t he already know about “the girls”? In that scenario, what Josh said in his letter didn’t make sense. Were there other girls, girls that Gabe
didn’t
know about?

And the money…Max could only speculate.

Gabe Harris and a man named Caldwell had both been perceived by Josh as threats. It seemed the next logical step should be shining a spotlight on these two men, something beyond Max’s power. The police needed to get involved for that to happen and the DVD could be the catalyst for that. He’d take it to the cops right away and tell them everything he knew. Then he’d be rid of it. He was getting in over his head now; better to involve the pros and bow out before he screwed things up.

Max got out of the car and headed toward the door.

He froze when he found the lock busted and the door ajar.

Max opened the door slowly, his heart pounding as adrenaline flooded his system. Butterflies fluttered in his stomach and he swallowed hard. Something told him not to open the door, to just turn around and walk out. To go to the police and tell them everything now, while he still could.

But he had a sneaking suspicion. He had to know.

He stepped inside the house and found it had been thoroughly tossed. The recliner had been turned upside down, the couch cushions had been removed for someone to search beneath them. Every drawer in the kitchen had been opened, their contents rifled through.

Bypassing the mess in the living room, Max stepped slowly and carefully toward the master bedroom. Alarm bells rang in his head telling him again to leave, that the person or people who did this were very likely waiting inside for him, but he ignored them.

Again, he had to know.

Max stepped into the bedroom and looked around. The bed had been stripped, the mattress removed and leaned up against the wall. The closet door stood open, the contents spilling out and into the room. Shoeboxes opened, clothes torn from the rack and tossed carelessly onto the floor.

He turned to the dresser. It sat against the wall, the drawers open, the clothes inside removed and tossed to the floor. Max walked toward it, feeling a sense of dread wash over him. At the dresser, he knelt down and reached behind it, feeling for the DVD.

It wasn’t there.

Max pulled the dresser away from the wall in order to get a look behind it and his eyes confirmed what his fingers had already told him. The disc was gone, taken by whoever tossed the house.

Max’s heart ratcheted up a notch, beating harder than before. He turned, expecting to see someone there in the room with him, probably with a gun. He wondered if he’d feel it when they put a bullet in him and left him lying on the floor of his bedroom in a pool of his own blood.