Chapter 58

Time didn't stand still. It just became a blur. It started while the other two were sleeping or whatever they did behind that closed door. The trigger was the extremely terse cryptic email from Sylvia.

1. Re Dog ... Jack Evans of Aberdeen.

2. Inside painting ... It is taken care of but too late. The damage is already done.

3. Eyes on the prize.

S.

Of course when I got it, it was just a string of numbers. So we were to stay and watch what happened next, but not participate. Well that suited me fine. I had no idea what to expect, but it should be interesting, I thought. Besides I had my own avenue of investigation to do.

When the two of them awoke, I said, "Okay I need Alice to monitor the events. There should be something happening. Jeremy and I are going to visit Jack Evans of Aberdeen."

"And Jack is?" Alice asked.

"A man who breeds dogs, or maybe he is a man who owns dogs, who breed woman," I corrected myself. "Anyway Jeremy you might want to bring along the curtain rod holder," I suggested.

Jeremy slipped the pump shotgun into the leg of the jeans he had worn previously. They had rested in a pile of clothing headed for a Goodwill store drop box. Earlier we had found one with no cameras nearby.

As a simple peeking team we expected no real push to find us, so we were planning to drop things where they might do some good. After the operation we would just pack up and go home. Leaving almost everything we had purchased for the job behind. I had no idea how Sylvia or Andrew planned for us to accomplish our egress, but they surely had something in mind.

Even though it was in an hour and a half drive time to Aberdeen we did it in just over an hour. Yes we drove a little fast, but also Jack lived on the south side of Aberdeen and outside the traffic pattern of the city.

Since we knew he had dogs, we decided to approach him through the front door. I got out of the clearly marked taxi and went to the door. He swung it open without question. When he did I asked, "I'm looking for this woman," I said showing him a picture I had taken of Izo with my cell phone earlier. He opened the door as I had expected. I hit him in the solar plexus just as killer had taught me. I used more force than he would have, since I wasn't nearly as large.

Jack went down like a chainsawed tree. Jeremy came in carrying the trouser covered shotgun. Jack was totally conscious but gasping for air. What he saw must have looked like a bug. The man had on a knit ski mask and tinted ski goggles. He also had a short barreled shotgun.

He lifted Jack to his feet then placed him in a kitchen chair. Jack was younger than I had expected. He was only a few years older than my twenty six years. I couldn't believe how young I was to be in charge of something like this. I should be home sitting in a white frame house breast feeding a baby, I thought.

Instead I was about to interrogate a man about some beasty porn. Shit where did I go wrong, or should that be where did I go right. This had to be more fun than running a vacuum and dusting.

Jeremy had him seated at the kitchen table. He was still having difficulty breathing. "I expected we would have had to kill Rover by now," I suggested to Jeremy.

"So Jack can you speak yet?" Jeremy asked.

"What the fuck do you want?" Jack had to struggle to get that much out.

"Feisty little fuck, isn't he?" I made a real show of putting on my surgical gloves, then I walked around the kitchen opening drawers till I found a large knife. "It isn't a cleaver or pruning sheers but it should do," I said.

"Not nearly as neat, but it will do the job," Jeremy agreed from behind his ski mask.

"Now Jack let me assure you that you are not going to be our first rodeo. There is a lot of competition in the porn market. We work for one of the distributors you and Mistress Izo have upset. So here is the deal, I'm going to ask you some questions. If I don't like the answers I am going to chop off a part of your finger. So you have thirty chances to tell me the truth. After that I give up and bury this thing in your chest. Shall we begin?"

"You don't have to threaten me, I'm not sworn to secrecy or anything. I am just the dog's manager. He is owned by a friend of mine whose wife uses him. I told Mark we could make a few bucks by renting the dog. You know letting him use his talent," Jack said.

"By making him a movie star?" I asked.

"See most movie dogs require a handler to help them in the movie. Mickey is so well trained, the chicks just had to stroke him a few times. Let him sniff her cunt, then get on her hand and knees and he will mount her. It's as simple as that," he said.

"Well I have always heard you can teach a dog anything by repetition, that just proves it I guess," I said.

"We didn't hurt anyone," he said.

"Jack see the problem is, I don't believe you. Oh I believe you about the dog and all, but I expect you have more than one client. I also suspect that you own them. That friend Mark and his wife probably just train them for you now." He looked worried.

"I'm not here to break your rice bowl, but I do expect the truth," I raised the knife.

"I told you the truth just not all of it," he said.

"Next time the whole truth. Do you understand?" I asked. Making a small cut over one of the joints in his pinkie. He bled some so I handed him a dish towel. I took some of the blood to make a mark on his forehead.

"So who pays you?" I asked. "Izo or the Priest?" He looked at me like he was trying to decide whether he wanted to give it up or not. I made sure the knife was the deciding argument.

"I bring the dog and when he does his thing, the Latin guy pays me," Jack said.

"How much do you charge?" Jeremy asked.

"Three hundred dollars," Jack answered. "The dog don't get a cut, so it's all mine. The couple don't even charge me to train the dogs. They might even pay me for it, if I was really greedy."

"Okay, so where does Izo come into it?" I asked.

"She directs the actors," Jack said. "I'm pretty sure they are all street kids. She gets them cleaned up and dressed, or undressed. Then she directs the fifteen to thirty minute videos, then they make compact discs for sale," he informed me.

"So who does the camera work?" I asked.

"It is always her or the Latin guy. They kept it small, since it is still illegal to make that shit. The kids are too young and the animal thing is pretty taboo," he said.

"Yeah, so how many did you make?" I asked.

"Three or four dozen," he replied.

"Did you know about the others?" I asked.

"I knew they were making more, I have no idea how many," he said.

"So what ages were the kids?" I asked.

"I've seen some girls without any boobs at all hanging around. I don't know how old they were, but I expect they were pretty young," he said.

"You heard them speak. How young do you think they were?" I asked.

"Maybe ten years old," he said. "I swear I didn't have anything to do with them. I just did the dogs nothing more. I did not recruit the kids. It was someone else."

"And who was the someone else?" I asked.

"That dominatrix woman and the priest," he said.

There is probably a war coming between our boss and yours. If I were you I would forget about me and the bug. If you warn them it's coming, we will be back to finish you. You do understand that?" I asked.

"We just have his word that the perverted father is involved," Jeremy said once we were in the outside.

"Jeremy, do you think he is guilty?" I asked when I was in the taxi.

"Of course I do," he said.

"Then we aren't going to need to take him to court. We just have to work out the proper punishment and then arrange it," I informed him.

"So what would be proper?" Jeremy asked.

"I sorta of had exposure for what he is in mind. Also we probably need to take all his money," I suggested.

"And how do we do that exactly?" Jeremy asked on the drive back to the suite.

"I don't know. Usually you find what a person wants most, then you use that to steal their money," I further suggested. "In the priest's case, I think he wants to be a saint. But more than that he wants to keep on making money while pretending to be a saint."

"So we expose him," Jeremy said.

"That's part of it. We play the tapes for a reputable reporter after this show is over," I suggested. We need to have the cops raid the hostel, his home and Izo home as well. All as part of the kidnap attempt that is going to be foiled. If they do that there should be plenty in the public record on the perverted priest.

"How do you know it's going to fail," Jeremy asked.

"Because Izo is going to meet them at the hostel to deliver their payment. On the way she is going to lose it. When she doesn't have it, the bad guys are either going to go take their payment from the priest, which would be fine, or they are going home. Killing the priest on the way out of town is optional," I said.

"What makes you think she hasn't already met them," Jeremy asked.

"They aren't going to want to be here more than overnight, then hold the ambassador for a few days. Coming in and hanging around would just be stupid. Izo is making the payment, because the priest doesn't want to be seen with them.

I promise you she will get a call after which she will leave the house. Then she will lead us right to them. Shortly thereafter there will be a raid and most likely they will all die. But before that happens someone will steal their payment from Izo. It will be the easiest way. Since they will not be paid even if that is all that happens they may just leave. Their presence will be known to the world, the priest will most likely have to answer to someone for that. If there is to be trouble, then my muckraker friend will be interested in the muck I have for her. So we explain the ties to a very nice reporter I know. I know her from another visit I made here once, so we can trust her.