Zack (In the Company of Snipers Book 3) (9 page)

Once again, Alex refused to let her rise out of her chair.

Zack was impressed. This woman had actually barked back at his boss, a feat few had tried. The stare down continued, but he’d caught desperation in her voice loud and clear. The men in her life had failed her.

“I’ll ask one more time,” Alex said calmly. “Who are you looking for?”

She hesitated, glancing at the door.

“I haven’t called anyone, Mei–if that’s your real name. No police are coming to get you.”

She melted, her lower lip quivering as her demeanor softened. One more minute of the stare down continued before she burst into tears. “LiLi.” She hiccupped. “I’m looking for my daughter.”

Say what?
Zack looked closer. Mei Xing was scared. That’s why the tough girl act. She’d been scared at the hospital, too.

David grabbed the box of tissues from the nearby credenza and pushed it into her hand. She took several, wiped her face, and tried to compose herself.

“Come on now, don’t cry,” Alex soothed. “Tell me what’s going on. Tell me about LiLi.”

Mei hiccupped again, the tissues against her mouth and nose. He still gripped her wrist, but she didn’t seem to mind. Dark eyes flicked over his face, searching. At last she dabbed her eyes and spoke. “My little girl. She was coming home from school. She’s only six. One minute, she’s getting off the bus. She’s smiling at me. The next minute, some guy attacks me and...They stole my baby,” she whispered. “In broad daylight. Right in front of me. They took LiLi.”

Tears poured down her cheeks, and that didn’t help. Zack’s defenses went right out the window. Her story stabbed his heart. What the hell was going on in Anacostia?

She pushed the picture of herself peering into her laptop computer screen back toward Alex. “I met your agents at the hospital, so I followed them. You guys can get into places I can’t, and I...so I....” She fingered her very official looking ICE badge, and just that fast Hagatha was back. “What else could I do? I couldn’t get past your stupid firewall!”

“Yeah, well, that’s not going to happen.” Alex chuckled softly as his hand moved from her wrist to her shoulder.

“But you don’t understand. I’ve been looking for so long, and she’s just six.”

Zack glanced at David and Alex. Alex was patting her shoulder like he did this kind of thing every day. David looked genuinely concerned, but neither of them seemed as affected as Zack felt. “Boss, umm, I’ll go check for any missing person reports.” He had to get away. “And I’ll find out about any AMBER Alerts that might have—”

“I already know.” Mei glared at him through teary eyes. “They never issued one. I’m not important enough.”

“Who the hell told you that?” he asked in amazement at the bold-faced lie.

“No one. It’s just that the detectives asked me a lot of questions. They said they’d issue one, but they never did. Then another man called. He wouldn’t give me his name, but he said he worked with the police. He told me I had to file a missing persons report first, and—”

“Wait a minute.” Alex stopped her. “A missing person report? Are you serious? They didn’t treat this as an abduction?”

She buried her face in her arms and sobbed. “I’ve been everywhere–the police, my congressman, the governor. No one will help me.”

Zack turned away. Something about the woman was sucking him in, and it had to stop. She sounded desperate and sad. So much in love with her missing child.

“Someone’s been telling you a helluva lot of lies,” Alex said gently.

“I know,” she squeaked. “I can’t trust anyone. Everyone’s against me.”

Zack never thought he’d live to see the day. His boss had pulled Mei into his arm. The sight of her crying against Alex’s shoulder shook Zack. The haughty ICE agent had been reduced to a little girl. He turned away.

“Everyone isn’t against you,” Alex said quietly, “but someone’s done a good job of hosing you. How about if we find out about the AMBER Alert business? That shouldn’t take long. Then we’ll find your little girl, okay?”

“Really?” Mei lifted her head. “You’d really help me? After all I’ve done?”

“Yes, ma’am, we will.” Alex nodded to Zack and David. “You work with my two agents here, and we’ll find your little girl. We’ll find LiLi.”

“But why?” She hiccupped through another stifled sob. “You don’t know me.”

Alex was quiet for a minute. “It’s what we do, Mei. We do what others can’t. Or won’t.”

“Thank you,” she said timidly. “Thank you very much.”

Alex turned to Zack and David. “David. Come with me. Zack, stay with Ms. Xing. See what else she knows.”

“You must hate me,” Mei said, her voice hushed and tired.

“No, ma’am. I don’t.” Zack would’ve agreed with the statement earlier, but after spending hours with her, he didn’t know how he felt. Some of her story made sense. Some didn’t. The detectives she described and named did not work for the police. He’d checked. And the mysterious man on the phone who’d told her there’d be no AMBER Alert? Another dead end. Zack had worked plenty with the police officers. There was no way they’d blatantly disregard a mother’s plea for help. Heck, most of them had children. If anything, they were over-the-top rabid dogs when it came to crimes against kids.

Too many other things didn’t add up. Someone was one step ahead of her all the way. Or she was lying. He would’ve agreed with that conclusion the day before too.

“So tell me again. Why do you think your daughter is caught up in the child trafficking ring?”

She sighed another long drawn-out sigh, like she’d done with every repeat question. “Because it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Where’d you hear about it?”

“At the Emergency Room. A police officer told Claire the whole thing smelled bad.”

That surprised Zack. “You were at the ER? When?”

She blanched white, her dark lashes bleak against the pale of her skin. “After they found the second little girl in the garbage.”

“You saw her?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I went to the morgue too.”

“You what? How could you do that?”

“I had to make sure.”

“How did you know we’d found Chai?” he asked gently. This woman was one surprise after another. He couldn’t get the baby at the morgue’s partially decomposed body out of his mind. How could she?

“I bought a police scanner when LiLi first went missing. I had to.” She looked away. “Then I used my, umm, influence to get into wherever I needed to go.”

He didn’t know what to say. No wonder she was gaunt. The woman was running on empty. “How many fake IDs do you have?”

“As many as I need.”

Inexplicably, his hand reached across the table. Her hand was ice. “You won’t need them again. I’ll help you.”

She didn’t answer, but there was definite fire in her eyes when she eased her hand out from under his.

Mother tapped at the door and peeked in. “Hey, Zack. Got a minute?”

“Sure. Be right there.” He turned to Mei. “I’ll take you home as soon as I’m finished.”

She nodded tiredly. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“So, how’s your new girlfriend?” Mother said the second he stepped up to her desk.

“Whatcha got?” Zack ignored the catty question. She never changed. Leave it to her to pick up on the vibes he wanted to ignore. The woman had radar. Yeah. Mei’s story touched him. So what?

“I asked a friend of mine to run your little button through his new generation RXD spectra-analysis machine.” She handed him the evidence bag. “He works for a private lab that handles some of the country’s toughest forensic evidence. The new analyzer they’ve got can scan a sample in micro-seconds. It breaks it down to 20 millimeters of—”

“Just tell me if it’s worth anything.” Zack waved her technical explanation off.

“It’s worth seven dollars, just for one button. It’s got three diamonds in it. They were covered with grime, but that’s not what’s important. Look at this.” With a flourish, Mother set a colorful bar chart with a conglomeration of vertical lines on her counter. “The spectra-analysis report lists everything that came into contact with the button.” She pointed to one particular green line. “See this right here?”

He followed her manicured fingernail. One word leapt off the page. “Cocaine? That little girl’s been around cocaine?”

“At least the button was. Look at this.” Mother traced a thin yellow line, but too many other words vied for his attention. Coffee. Watermelon rinds. Lard. Vodka. Dog feces. That beautiful baby was buried beneath sludge. She’d suffered. Someone hurt her, tossed her out like garbage. If not for Marty....

“Zack.” Mother’s voice softened. “Zhen Ting had the button in her hand. I can prove it. See this yellow line? Those are her skin cells.”

He could barely speak.

“And these two lines here.” She highlighted bright orange and brown lines. “I eliminated yours, but two other people touched it, only I don’t know who they are. I’ve got nothing to compare.”

“Could be Marty.” Zack scrubbed a hand over his face. “He handled it.”

“Or whoever dropped her in the dumpster,” Alex said. He had come up behind them, his hand to Zack’s shoulder as he peered over the counter at the report.

Mother kept going. “I’ve got more. This button is made from a shell found in New Guinea. The only place in the world that uses buttons like this is a high-end men’s suit shop in
Le Marais,
Paris, France. They’ve got some kind of an exclusive contract.”

“Bet it’s expensive,” Zack muttered.

“Let’s just say you’d be spending a month’s salary to buy a suit there, unless you’re making a whole heck of a lot more than I think you’re making.” Mother usually crowed when she was successful, but this time she was subdued.

“More pieces of the puzzle.” Alex cut to the chase. “Who bought it?”

“Here’s the list.” She produced another sheet of computer paper. “Recognize anyone?”

One name leapt off the page. Mr. Tony Brown.

“How is this guy involved?” Zack asked. “He’s everywhere.”

“That’s what you and David are going to find out,” Alex said easily as he and Zack stepped away.

“Thanks, Mother.” Zack rapped his knuckles on her countertop before he left. “Good work.”

He wasn’t prepared for her tender smile.

“Get ’em, Zack.” She dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “Don’t let them hurt any more little girls like the pretty baby you found. She and Zhen Ting deserve justice. Someone needs to pay.”

His thoughts exactly. All he could do was nod. It seemed the op was hard on everyone, not just him. He turned an abrupt about face and joined his boss.

“Speaking of David, did he already leave?” Alex asked, looking around the deserted office.

“I think he was stopping by CPS on his way home.”

“Child Protective Services? Again?”

“He’s checking another lead.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Sure he is. More like he’s checking on Chai Yenn. How about you? Still working with our little mother?”

“I was about to take her home when Mother called. Poor woman took the bus here. Guess she had a flat tire.”

“And?”

“I don’t know, Boss. Someone’s trying damned hard to keep this kidnapping from going public.”

“You believe her?”

Zack nodded. “Yeah. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I do.”

“David checked the AMBER Alert. No report of a missing child was ever filed.”

“The detectives were fakes. Maybe everyone she thinks she talked with, too. She’s sure hard set that her daughter’s abduction is mixed up with the child trafficking ring though.”

“I don’t know how,” Alex breathed quietly. “More likely she latched onto the first thing that made sense. She’s desperate. See what you can find out about the father. As long as you’re taking her home, sweep the place for bugs. Someone’s intercepted every move she’s made. Whoever’s behind it, they’ve got to have her place wired somehow.”

“But why? She’s just a single mom working a dead end job. She’s right. She’s a nobody.”

Alex shrugged. “It doesn’t make sense, but have you felt her back?”

That came out of the blue. “Ah, no. Sure haven’t.”

“I noticed when she fell apart. Mei Xing is thin as a rail, Zack. That woman is killing herself looking for her daughter.” Alex aimed his index finger at the Sit Room. “If what she told us is the truth, we need to find her little girl, and we need to do it fast.”

Now it was Zack’s turn to blow out one of those long suffering sighs like Mei had been doing. “I’m on it.”

Just take me home.

Once inside the sleek sports car, Mei fastened her seat belt, pushed back into the leather seat, and tried to ignore her luxurious surroundings. There was a time a car like this one would have impressed her. No more. Agent Lennox guy had it all. The parking garage he parked in was protected from the weather. He didn’t even have to scrape windows on his Porsche. And here she was, sitting in the same seat where only yesterday some working girl had wriggled her disgusting butt. Ewww. The irony did not escape Mei. Just the fact that she was here proved she was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, almost as low as that hooker.

The soft yellow glow of the overhead lights faded as Agent Lennox pulled the vehicle up the ramp, punched in his secure access code, and pulled silently into traffic. This was the last place she wanted to be, beholden to another rich man. The night traffic slipped by.

“Can I get you something to eat?” he offered. At least he was polite.

“No, thanks. I want to go home.”

“I still have one question.”

“And what would that be?”

He’d already downloaded everything from her laptop, and grilled her for hours. What could possibly be left unanswered? The only reason she’d allowed the miserable day to unfold the way it had was because Alex Stewart made her believe. Almost.

“There are still a few things we didn’t get to. All I want to know is why the attitude?” Agent Lennox didn’t rise to the challenge of her nasty remark like she expected. “Why were you so hostile with David and me at the hospital yesterday? You didn’t even know who we were before you ripped our heads off. What was that all about?”

He’d never understand. How could he?

“How far would I have gotten if you knew who I really was?” She flipped the stolen badge snapped to her belt. How dense could he be? “I’ve done so many illegal things. If I’m going to find my daughter, I can’t be weak. If that comes across as mean and nasty, I’m sorry. I really don’t care what you think of me, Agent Lennox. I have to find her.”

There. Now leave me alone.

She turned back to the window. People flew by in their nice clean cars, oblivious to the mess that was her life. The night was dark and her mood darker. Another day without LiLi was another day wasted. Mei bit her thumbnail and pushed the fear down one more time.

“Where is her father?” he asked gently.

That was another thing. Why was Agent Lennox being so nice and civil? Why did he act like he cared?

“He was a friend in college,” she snapped.

“So you two didn’t marry?”

“No, Agent Lennox, we didn’t marry.” Resorting to sarcasm, Mei riveted her eyes to the outside scenery one more time. “He was a medical student with a different plan for our future than mine. When he found out I was pregnant, he packed up and left. I haven’t seen him since.”

This agent was persistent, but dragging up the sperm donor mistake from her past didn’t help.
Sheesh. Kick me while I’m down, why don’t you?
She hadn’t thought of Christopher in years, and she didn’t want to think of him now. He’d left her high and dry and run home to Mommy and Daddy like the privileged spoiled brat he was. In doing so, he’d avoided the responsibility and inconvenience of a baby born out of wedlock. Other people might not have a problem with that scenario, but the only heir to the most prestigious cardiovascular surgeon in New York City had to be above reproach. He had a reputation to protect.

“What’s his name?”

“Christopher Elias Jones the Second.” The name fell from her lips like ice.

“The heart doctor’s son?”

“You know him?” Great. Agent Lennox and the biggest mistake in her life were probably best friends. Wouldn’t it just figure?

“No. Only what I’ve read in the paper. He did the heart surgery on the Vice President last year.”

She preferred the gloomy scene outside her window to the gathering disquiet inside the car. Who cared what Dr. Christopher Elias Jones the First did? After he’d offered to buy Mei’s silence for a million dollars, she’d never seen him again. He didn’t care about her or his only grandchild. No. The important thing was to ensure neither Mei nor LiLi interfered with his son’s career. A baby with someone
like her
might not look good on a résumé. That she told him in no uncertain terms to go to hell hadn’t set well with the self-absorbed physician. His son, either.

“There’s no chance he or his parents might have abducted your daughter?” Agent Lennox parked at the curb in front of her low rent apartment in Anacostia.

“I don’t see how. They’ve never seen her.” A quiet sob sneaked up on her. For too long, Mei had blamed herself. Something was wrong with her. She wasn’t good enough for Christopher. Mei knew better the moment she first held her newborn daughter. It was never about her or LiLi. Neither was it the fact that she was Chinese American. No. Christopher and his parents were the problem. It was best they were out of her life. They’d never be good enough for LiLi, not if they lived to be a thousand.

Mei stared at her bleak world, the cold rain drizzling like she wasn’t already cold enough. His hand settling over hers startled her, but when she turned with all her angry words ready to fly, she caught the light in his eyes. The tenderness was unmistakable. For that single moment in time, it seemed he saw her. She wasn’t invisible.