Visible Threat by Janice Cantore Page A

possible for you to get her back.”
    “That’s cutting it very, very close.”
    “Trust me, Simon. You must think very carefully before you do anything. It will be better to cut things close than to make a mistake by rushing in without considering the consequences.” Magda held her breath and watched as Simon considered her words. He had to believe her. He had to let things proceed slowly, to give her time.
    Finally he spoke. “Okay, what you say makes sense.” He held her gaze with haunted eyes. “Just don’t make me wait too long. Please.”

22
    T HE INTERVIEW WAS GRUELING. Ivana spoke for herself, with Helena standing by in case she was needed. Jack felt the girl’s pain spoken in her own words. She kept her gaze downcast as he asked the questions. When she did look up, it was to one of the women present   —Helena, Brinna, or Elisa.
    “Why did you agree to leave Bulgaria and come here?”
    “Demitri promised us jobs and a new life.”
    “Did he tell you where you would work?”
    “He made many promises.”
    “When did you realize he was lying?”
    “When the boat docked. He took our papers and then gave us both beatings.”
    “And after that?”
    “He took us to that house where the men . . .”
    She broke down as she recounted rape sessions   —usually with one man at a time, but once or twice she and her sister were forced to endure gang rape. Any resistance or show of attitude to the men resulted in beatings. What she’d beenthrough in the time she’d been in the United States was heart-wrenching. Even more so when she told them all the promises this Demitri character had made her: money, a good job, a wonderful apartment, expensive clothes, clubs every night, freedom.
    She’d walked willingly into hell, thinking it would be heaven.
    The girl’s strength as she shared impressed Jack but angered him at the same time. That someone like Demitri could so use these women and treat them so harshly made him wish he had the man in front of him.
    And the frustration set in as he realized that while they had a list of crimes to charge Demitri with, and a strong witness in Ivana, she could offer them no solid way to find him. She couldn’t even tell them the location of the house that she ran from.
    He saw how the girl’s story touched Brinna as well and wanted to hug both of them to assure them the monster would be stopped. Was that chauvinistic? he wondered.
    “That was rough,” he said to Brinna after they finished. All in all, they’d been with Ivana for an hour and a half. Jack felt as though he’d run a marathon.
    “Yeah, it was.” She leaned against the wall next to the elevator and looked sapped of strength. “But the tone of your voice seemed to help a lot, Jack. You didn’t scare her like Chuck did.”
    “She was afraid of her own shadow, poor thing. I know Chuck wasn’t trying to be scary.”
    Brinna nodded in agreement.
    “Hey, I think I owe you lunch.” Jack wanted to make her smile. Did her face brighten? He hoped so. “Right now I want to get all my reports to the DA. I’ll call you later and we’ll make arrangements for sometime soon, okay?”
    “Sounds good.” He got the smile from her he wanted when they parted ways in the lobby. Jack mentally scrolled through his schedule, hoping to make time for the lunch date.
    *   *   *
    “Everything the girl said fits trafficking,” Jack told Ben as they drove back to the station. “She was promised legitimate work here, but once she arrived, she was forced into prostitution.”
    “Too bad she couldn’t be more clear about where she was being held.”
    Jack sighed. “Yeah, bad luck that. But then she was terrified, running for her life, so it’s not surprising she can’t describe the house.” He rubbed his chin, chest still tight as he thought about the vicious deception.
    Surprisingly she wasn’t as young as she looked; she was eighteen, an adult   —a cruelly exploited young adult. Her missing sister was four