“We’re wondering if you’ve seen Angelo Calabrese lately.”
“Come to think of it, things have been weird around here lately.”
“How so?”
I let Sal do all the talking. The less they know of me, the better.
“He usually is out and about but even the threat of rain won’t keep him inside for days.”
“Days? That’s odd. Where are his men?”
“Some are at dock five, that’s all I know, it’s very hush hush. That’s the only rumors I’ve heard all week. It’s been slow.”
“Great. Well, let me know if you see Calabrese.” Sal scribbles his cell number on the blotter on the man’s desk is littered with soda bottles and wrappers from microwaveable food.
“Mind if we walk around a bit?”
“It’s your dock,” he explains. “We’ve pretty much left it alone since Calabrese came in. Conti was an ass. Made our lives hell hoping we’d pull up and leave.”
Sal nods. It looks like he knows this, and I don’t doubt it.
“Thanks.” Sal shakes his hand.
I stifle my gag knowing how sticky his hand is going to be after that exchange judging from the porn on the small computer sitting on the corner of his desk. This would be missed by most visitors as there is no sound coming from it to give away the dirty secret.
We walk away as if nothing out of the ordinary is going on.
“We need to check out the warehouse near number five, we should find something there. The entire place can’t be empty. It’s busy twenty-four-seven everyday but the holidays, and even then, there’s still work that has to be done,” I inform Sal.
“Okay. But stay behind me.”
We play cloak and dagger using the moonless night as our blanket to cover us for safety, and when we get to the warehouse, we open it, and the stench can’t be denied that there has been human cargo here.
“It’s got to be hostages,” I whisper.
It’s a smaller warehouse and I can tell the stench is from body fluids and the floors are filthy. There are shackles and some beds. We walk around and duck when a flashlight shines through one of the few windows then moves on.
As I turn, my foot hits something in the floor and I trip. My hand hits a latch and I find it to be in an odd place. I nudge Sal and we put our ears to it. We can’t hear more than a clatter here and there.
I pull out my infrared gun and give it a go, there are people moving below us. So, this is how they did it. Hiding the girls underground makes sense, no one would ever think that he’d spend the money to build a cell under this building.
“The girls,” Sal says to me with a questionable lilt to his deep voice that is louder than a whisper.
“Must be.” I’m afraid to give into any excitement that it’s been this easy to find them. “I think there are about twenty-five, there might be guards there and they must be moving them somewhere soon. They can’t stay down there for long periods of time, too much work to feed and take care of them, it will draw attention with that many men coming and going for no reason, the building is empty.”
“True. But if we barge in now, we jeopardize our surprise attack and we don’t have enough men until Marchello gets here.”
“Right.” I look to him for a suggestion as soft light bathes us from a streetlight outside the doors.
“We’ll assume it’s them. We still haven’t found Angelo.”
“That’s what’s so weird, he loves for everyone kiss his ass. He’ll walk around just for people to suck up to him and make him feel important. Or inflict some pain for a perceived wrong,” I add.
“There are ships coming in tonight. One is from Colombia, but it’s from a company I couldn’t find anywhere. Then, there’s our ship. But Dante said he’s slowing it down as he didn’t want it in port until afterwards.”
“Good. what was the name on the manifest?”
“Luigi Oil Imports and Exports. It sounds so odd,” he comments.