Chapter 16

Thanks to Ogilvie’s continued co-operation May and Kevin were able to round up a few more members of The Family before they wound down the operation as per Captain Andreychuck’s orders. Irena’s helper, Leon was found dead in his apartment so May and Kevin had to be satisfied with putting a dent into The Family’s activities. However, they knew they were still out there preying on unsuspecting women and the detectives hoped that sooner or later they would get another crack at them.

As for Denise, May was true to her word. As soon as the case was concluded, she and Kevin made a trip to the real safe house and told her the good news.

“Has she been co-operative and not causing you anymore problem,” May asked Evans.

When the constable nodded and stated, “not even one escape attempt.” May and Kevin laughed.

“Well, since you’re free to go now, anywhere you want to go. We can give you a ride if you want?” May asked Denise who was hurriedly stuffing her few belongings into the over-sized purse. The same one she took out of the house on the night of her escape.

“Here, you can have this.” May handed her the bundle of 10 and 20 dollar bills she had been found with.” But no switchblade. That’s a restricted weapon so we’ll hang onto to it.”

Denise mumbled thanks, quickly grabbed the money and stuffed it down in the bottom of her purse.

“Now what about the ride, my offer’s still good but not for long,” May asked again.

Denise shrugged, thought a moment and said, “okay, how about a ride downtown. I wanta eat some real food like burgers, fries and milkshakes and then I wanta take a bus outa town. It’s like, so I can go somewhere else and forget about The Family.”

“Sure,” May said. The detectives left Evans and her partner cleaning up the safe house and with Denise in the back, drove downtown again

“Here we are, anywhere in particular you want us to drop you off?” Kevin asked.

Denise shook her head. “No, anywhere is okay.”

“Right,” Kevin said as May pulled the car over to the carb.

“Well, I guess this it. Thank you for everything,” Denise told May as she hopped out of the car. “You too Kevin, even though you probably thought I was a real brat.”

“You take care of yourself. Are you sure you’re gonna be okay now?” May asked.

“No problem. Like I said before, I can handle myself just fine. I just want get out of this city. Okay.”

May nodded. She and Kevin watched Denise hurry down the street, wondering if they’d seen the last of her. Once she a block away May put the car in gear and slowly followed Denise as she moved in and out of the crowds of shoppers.

“Looks like she’s going somewhere in one hell of a hurry,” Kevin stated. “Almost as if she’s making a beeline for something.”
“Yeah, probably in a rush to find some real food,” May replied.

“Right, but she’s passing all kinds of burger joints so it seems to me as if she’s not really that hungry.” Kevin said.

May said nothing. She continued to drive slow enough to keep the girl in sight. Moments later they saw her enter the bus depot.

“Guess she’s more anxious to leave than we thought. Probably buying a bus ticket right now,” May said.

“More likely, gone to collect that knapsack she mentioned when we first talked to her. She’s been strangely silent about it so I’ve beginning to think she might have taken more than the switchblade and a few hundred dollars. What if there was a whole shitload of money in that room with the old man who died and she took it all. Maybe that was the main motive for The Family being so anxious to find her?” Kevin looked at May.

May was silent for a moment before turning to her partner. “Look, despite her attitude, I kinda liked her. She’s a gutsy girl who managed to escape from a mafia-type gang. Besides, Andreychuck says she’s untouchable. His orders are to let her go so why don’t we just leave it like that and call it a day.”

Kevin looked at his partner. “But if she’s got money that doesn’t belong to her, that means she stole it and we should go retrieve it.”

May shrugged and told her partner again. “The Captain says just let it be. As it stands we can’t actually say there was money or anything else stolen. It’s all speculation and even if something was stolen, it belongs to the mob and nobody’s gonna show up to claim it. Especially now that they think Denise is dead.

When her partner said nothing, May assumed they were in agreement and put the car in gear. She was about to pull away from the curb when her phone rang.

“It’s Andreychuck,” she said as she took the car out of gear and answered it.

“He says he wants a meeting with us. He says it’s important and he wants us to meet somebody who’s been watching us from the sidelines.

“And I didn’t know we had fan base.” Kevin laughed and said let’s go. Maybe they can explain what the hell is happening here a lot better than you did.”

Once inside the bus depot, Denise slowly made her way through the crowds with her head on a swivel. She kept looking around expecting the detectives to appear at any moment. They had to know about the knapsack, especially after she slipped up and mentioned it during the interview. For a while she was so fearful of May and Kevin of pouncing on her like a cat with a mouse, she just lingered inside the depot.