“Actually, no one.”
Stanson sat back, a surprised look on his face. “Then why were you there?”
“I believe there’s a connection between whatever is going on there and my sister’s death.”
“What? How?”
“First, you tell me what interest the police have in that building.”
Stanson drew out a breath. “Fine, but I think it goes without saying that I wouldn’t be here telling you this unless I knew you could keep your mouth shut. We’ve been watching that place for a few weeks now. We believe it’s a high-class brothel.”
So, it had been about sex.
“Why all the surveillance?” Hunter asked. “Has to be more than just a brothel.”
“Well for a start, there’s the clientele, a lot of prominent people that we don’t want to piss off without probable cause. The other is that we don’t think it’s just any brothel. We believe the women working there are illegals being forced into prostitution.”
“What? You think the women are being held there against their will?” Cady asked in horror.
“You must have a good reason to think that,” Hunter said.
Stanson nodded tiredly. “We have one of the girls. Found her beaten nearly to death nearly three weeks ago in an alley. In the beginning she woul
dn’t talk, but eventually we managed to convince her that we weren’t going to deport her and that we could keep her safe. She’s Serbian, came here on a tourist visa and stayed. She was kidnapped from an alley behind the restaurant she worked in. She’s guessing someone who knew she was here illegally sold her out. They brought her here, forced her to work as a sex slave. Some of the things she told us…” Stanson shook his head, looking sick. “She said she was beaten after she was caught trying to escape. They must have thought she’d die before she was found, but luckily someone saw her and called for an ambulance.”
“God, I feel sick,” Cady said.
“So, what do you have?” Stanson asked.
Hunter relayed everything they had so far. Stanson got up and paced, obviously thinking. “So you think Worthington may have had something to do with this? But he lived in Chicago, not Dallas.”
“Maybe he didn’t want to have anyone connect the dots back to him in Chicago,” Hunter said.
“What sort of role could he have had? Do you think he was just a customer?” Stanson asked.
“Angie took most of these photos while she was still working for Worthington. Did he come to Dallas often?” Cady questioned.
“I’ll find out,” Hunter said. “Maybe he was just a customer, but part of me feels like he was up to his neck in this shit. Was the Serbian woman living in Dallas when she was taken?”
“No, she was taken in Chicago.” Stanson looked sick.
“So, maybe Worthington played a role in sourcing these women,” Hunter guessed.
Stanson ran his hand through his hair. “I’ve got to think about this. I need to tell my boss about what you’ve found and see what he wants to do with it.”
“You need to lean on one of these guys, find out what they know.”
Stanson nodded. “These fucking bastards are going down. But I need you to ease off. We can’t tip our hand. I could get a warrant and go in now, but I want to get whoever is running this operation.”
Hunter’s jaw tensed but he nodded. “Fine, it wasn’t getting us very far. But, I’m not letting this go. I can’t.”
“I understand. I’d feel the same way if it was my sister. But you will share what you find out and you won’t do anything stupid, understand?”
Hunter stood, putting his hands on his hips. The tension was so thick in the room Cady could barely breathe. She reached up and squeezed Hunter’s wrist.
“We just want to find out what happened to Angie,” she said to Stanson. “Don’t keep us out of the loop and we won’t keep you out either.”
Stanson looked at them before nodding and leaving. Hunter shut the door and turned the deadbolt. He turned around and looked at her. “What the hell did Angie stumble on and why didn’t she tell me?”