“What is it?”
“It’s methadone. It works really good. You might feel drugged up at first. But it will take away the pain.”
Methadone was one of the strongest pain medications I knew of. Girls that had had their faces fractured and eye sockets broken would take that stuff. It certainly wasn’t for someone who was walking around without any visible broken bones.
“That’s a little strong for me, I’m all right for now,” I said.
“You should probably take it or one of Stephano’s men will make you take two of them,” Ana said as she looked up at the camera in the corner of the room.
I was starting to see what was going on. The girls needed to be drugged up so they would listen to Stephano, but he didn’t pick light drugs. He picked things that would get the girls addicted. That way, even if they wanted to leave, they wouldn’t leave because they needed their drugs so bad. It was sad, and I could only imagine the withdrawals that the girls went through after he sold them off. Those men probably had to deal with some really dangerous medical issues.
PART FOUR
Chapter Nineteen
JACKSON
“Is Victor around?” I asked the security guard at the front of the Port Authority main building.
“Yeah, who’s askin?” the man responded.
“My name is Nate. I need to talk to him about a problem I’m having.”
Luckily, Nate and I looked pretty similar. Nate, Chase, and PJ were finalizing the equipment we needed for surveillance while I got us an appointment with Stephano. I felt in my comfort zone as I made my way from the front gate to the back area where PJ had described I would need to meet with Victor.
After spending the last few years as an investigator, visiting back rooms to get information was something I was very comfortable with. I didn’t expect that Victor would give me any trouble, at all. Guys like him were usually law abiding, for the most part, with families that they were trying to support. Victor probably got a fee for referring women to Stephano and for keeping the high quality women coming through his door.
As I walked toward the security guard who I suspected was Victor, I was slightly surprised by his age. He was well over 60 years old and I hesitated to think that he would be involved in the human trafficking world of women.
Of course, a person of any age could be involved in illegal activity, but I just thought someone of Victor’s age would have too much sympathy for the women and wouldn’t be interested in being involved in something so illegal.
“Hey, I’m Nate. I’m looking for Victor,” I said to make sure I had the right person.
“You need something?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a girl I need to get rid of.”
“I ain’t no hit man. You’ve come to the wrong place,” Victor said as he turned around.
“Nah, man, I got this girl. I had her come over from Russia, but she’s driving me nuts. I need to pass her off. She’s sassy as fuck and I can’t handle her.”
Victor turned around and looked me up and down. My size was always a difficult factor. Because I was tall and had muscles, many people thought I must work for the police. I tried to offset that initial opinion by talking poorly and dressing in ragged clothing, but it was always something people thought of.
“Let me check you for a wire,” Victor said.
Surely, I could have protested. But I wasn’t wearing a wire, so there was no reason he couldn’t check me. I felt bad for the guy. It was obvious he was just doing this to get some money so maybe he’d be able to retire someday. Certainly, he wasn’t a hardened criminal.
At least from the looks of him, Victor looked like a normal guy working a normal job. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who was going this job to meet women. I could see that as being a motivating factor for being involved with Stephano. Maybe I was wrong, Maybe Stephano and Victor had some sort of side thing going on for Victor to hang out with the women. Nothing would surprise me in a business like this.
“No wire, man. I just gotta get rid of the girl.”
“I can set up a meeting with Stephano. Give me a call at this number tomorrow and I’ll see what I can do.”
Tomorrow wasn’t really good for us, but I didn’t want to seem too eager to talk with Stephano. Everything I said was being analyzed by Victor, and if I said one wrong thing, he was likely to kick me out and we wouldn’t have a contact person at all. Our whole plan would be ruined.
I felt the adrenaline running through my veins as I tried to manipulate Victor into doing what I needed him to do. I was really liking this side of the job. I made a mental note to consider some more exciting work when this job was done. Maybe I didn’t need to stay in the shadows so much.
“How about I sell her to you today? She’s a bitch, man, and she doesn’t speak English. I’m about two minutes from just dropping her into the river, you know what I mean.”