Chapter 10

“So Denise’s story is beginning to hold a lot of water,” Keven commented as May drove the car.

May nodded in agreement but said nothing. Her eyes were on the road. They were finished with the Bottateli interview and were on the way to the safe house where they had stashed Denise.

“Well, look at that. Do you see what I see? She broke her silence and took a hand off the steering wheel to point out of the windshield.

Kevin looked up and blinked his eyes in disbelief. About a half block ahead and within two of the safe house he spotted the unmistakeable sight of Denise. She was clutching the over-sized purse as she walked down the street.

“Yeah, I can’t believe it. She seems to be in quite a hurry too.”

Both detectives could see while she wasn’t exactly running she was hurrying along at a good pace, but slow enough not to attract too much attention.

“I thought you told Evans and Villencie to watch her like a hawk.” Kevin glanced at May who had sped up a little and was rapidly overtaking Denise.

“I did. I explicitly told them not to take their eyes off her for a second. I also warned them that she was slippery as an eel, but I guess they didn’t take me seriously enough.” May caught up to Denise and ran the police car up onto the curb to cut her off. As the startled girl looked around Kevin jumped out of the front passenger seat and grabbed her arm.

“What the hell.” Let me go or I’ll...” “Or you’ll do what, Kevin interrupted the tirade. Unwilling to release Denise even for a moment, he opened the rear door of the police car with one hand and began pulling her towards it with the other.

Unable to escape Kevin’s grasp, Denise had no choice but to scramble into the back seat. The detective slammed the door shut as soon as she was safely inside. Denise looked around. Since she’d never been in the rear seat of a police car, she instinctively reached out for the door handles to re-open the door. That was when she realized there were no handles. They had been removed and she was effectively trapped in the rear of the car.

“Trying to escape from us already? What’s the matter? I take it you didn’t like your baby sitters too much,” May chided.

She took the car out of gear and turned to look back at Denise who was staring defiantly back at her.

“I wasn’t really trying to escape. I just have to get out of the city right away before The Family finds me. They’ll never give up looking for me you know. I’ve seen them bring a girl back weeks after she escaped.” Denise explained.

“Right, I understand. You’re scared of them and want to get as far away as possible but you gotta understand. If what you say about The Family is true, then you’re not safe being alone on the streets. So why don’t you just sit tight and let us take care of things. Then maybe you’ll be able to escape their clutches for good.”