Page 107 of Danger Close

“I’m not even going to ask why you have that,” I said as I shut the trunk lid down on a screaming Clark. Thankfully, the duct tape over his mouth kept him quiet.

“It’s an occupational hazard,” she said, with a shrug. “So, are you ready to tell me about how you killed a man with a squid?”

I chuckled.

“There was a dirty uranium shipment in Monaco…”

My brother had a torture shed. He didn’t call it that. He just said it was a “work” shed, since his wife no longer allowed him to conduct enhanced interrogations in the house. She said it was bad for the spirits… whatever the hell that meant.

“Welcome to the party.” Jericho crossed his arms in front of him, his forearms covered in blood. “I hear I’m offering this one a job.”

He nodded to the woman at his side. Norkus.

Her arms crossed as she observed the three bodies strung up by their wrists in a stress position.

“This one already died,” she said, exasperated, like the man had just been too weak to keep on living.

The man was beaten and mangled at her hands, and it was his fault.

“So this is Raymond Clark.” Norkus appraised him, then scrunched her nose in disapproval. “Rather unimpressive.”

Clark was still gagged. If he hadn’t been, I’d assume he had a lot to say.

“We’ve gotten quite a lot of information from these three.” Jericho tilted his head pensively.

“They sang like canaries.” Norkus’ commentary wasn’t necessary, but it was amusing.

“Oh?” I said, when neither of them enlightened me.

“Ladies first,” Jericho said with a sweeping bow towards Norkus.

“I’ve been tracking shipments that have been coming into the United States. Just a few irregularities that, on their own, seem like small clerical errors. Weights that don’t match listed cargo, that sort of thing.” She paced back and forth. “Human trade coming into the United States is a tale as old as the nation, but something funny happened when those irregularities ceased.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” If the trade had stopped, surely that’s a good thing.

“Do you think human nature changed in the last six months? That all the bad guys just suddenly stopped trafficking humans?” She lifted a brow. “No, the only reason no supply was coming in was because they found another supplier.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning they’re getting supplies of human bodies from the inside.” She blinked, staring at me, as if I was supposed tounderstand her cryptic language. “The calls are coming frominsidethe house.”

“Sweetheart, can you just spit it out?” I wanted to get back to Teresa.

“They’re trafficking humans, Guerro.” She looked at me like I was a few fries short of a Happy Meal. “These three, specifically, have been picking people up, and disappearing them, and enriching themselves in the process, using their status as Immigration Customs Enforcement Agents to cover their tracks.”

My head shot up to Clark whose eyes widened.

“He used a government vehicle to torment his ex,” Norkus shook her head. “I mean, we should expect a shit ton of government fraud, waste and abuse.”

Norkus paced, her hands balled at her side.

“What do you expect from an agency thataccidentallydeports dozens ofactualcitizens a year with no recourse?” She turned to one of the guys, the one with a scar down his face. “You have one fucking job!”

She poked him on his bloody chest, and he groaned, air wheezing from his mouth as he gurgled.

“What the hell did you do to him?” I asked, looking at the blood dribbling down his chin.

“I cut out his tongue.”