Ghost Fall (CIA Ghost Series Book 3) Page 9
“See, all that worrying you were doing was for nothing.”
Parker smiled, knowing he was right. “It was pretty nice, I have to admit.”
“Are you actually admitting I was right and you were wrong?” Turner kiddingly asked.
Parker rolled her eyes, “yes, maybe just this once. Don’t get used to it, though. It won’t happen often.”
Chapter 8
It was just after nine o’clock, and Parker called Cole to see how he was making out. With his initial greeting, he sounded pretty bored.
“Well you sound pretty chipper,” Cole said, observing his partner’s tone. “I’d say your night’s been going better than mine.”
“No action, huh?”
“Nothing. Not a single peep. Our girl Misty left for work about an hour or so ago. Haven’t seen any movement around the house since then.”
“OK. We’ll go to the strip club then and poke around.”
Cole coughed. “Umm, how bout we change assignments?”
“No, I’ll be able to get places you wouldn’t,” Parker laughed.
“Brag about it why don’t you. You have your old ball and chain with you?”
“If you’re referring to Ryan, then yes I do.”
“You do realize you’re on speaker, right?” Turner interjected.
“Oh. Well I guess I do now. C’mon, you and Turner take the house. It’ll give you a chance to have some snuggle time,” Cole teased. “There’ll be nothing else to do.”
“You really think you should hit the strip club?”
“Think about it. If you go, with the way you look, you’ll be getting as much attention as the girls on the stage. Plus, you cant take Turner.”
“Why is that?” she asked.
“Are you kidding? With those girls? He’ll have a heart attack as soon as he sees the stage.”
“Very funny, Cole!” Turner responded.
“C’mon, I fit in with that crowd more than you do. How many strip clubs you been to?”
“Who are you talking to?” Turner wondered.
“Either one of you.”
Parker sat back and eagerly waited for her boyfriend’s answer. “Yes, I’m interested in the answer to that as well.”
Knowing he was now on the spot, Turner stammered for a reply. “Uhh…”
“Well?” his girlfriend asked.
“One,” he carefully replied, seeming unsure of his answer.
“Are you sure? You don’t sound quite so convinced.”
“Yes. Just one. It was a bachelor party for a friend of mine,” Turner said. “That’s where they wanted it.”
“Oh. So did you enjoy yourself?”
“Uhh…no, not really.”
“Why not?”
“Cause there was nobody there that looked like you,” he told her, leaning over for a kiss.
“Oh, stop it,” Cole said. “You’re gonna make me throw up over the phone.”
“And you?” Turner asked.
“Me what?” Parker responded.
“How many times have you visited a strip club?”
“Well, we don’t need to go into that.”
“What? No, no, no. If I had to tell, so do you.”
“C’mon Parker, give it up,” Cole chimed in.
“For work purposes or otherwise?”
“Either.”
“Uhh…seven,” she barely whispered.
“What was that?” Turner asked, not quite hearing her.
“Seven!” she loudly said.
“Well aren’t you the party girl,” Cole told her.
“Stop it. It wasn’t any fun being…”
“What’s that?”
“Nothing.”
“Why so secretive, Parker? C’mon, give up the goods. It’s OK if your boy toy knows. He’s not gonna kick you to the curb.”
“Really, Cole?”
“Give.”
“Four times I had to work as a…dancer…because I was undercover on an assignment!” she said, making sure to emphasize the assignment part. “Not for pleasure.”
“What about the other three?” Turner wondered.
“Two were because I was looking for somebody. The other time was when I was eighteen. I was with a bunch of people and that’s just where we ended up.”
“Maybe I was wrong. Seems like you’re more familiar with those places than I am!” Cole expressed.
“Ha ha. If you want it, Cole, it’s all yours,” Parker sarcastically told him.
“Thank the Lord,” Cole said, sounding relieved.
With reinforcements on the way, Cole immediately left to go to the strip club. Parker and Turner pulled up to the corner of Misty’s house and sat there, preparing for a long night. Turner leaned over to try and snuggle with his girlfriend.
“What are you doing?” Parker laughed.
“Well, I figure we’re gonna be here a while. Might as well get comfortable.”
“And frisky?”
“That too.”
Parker gently pushed him away, not wanting to engage in any extracurricular activities. “We probably shouldn’t do that right now, tiger.”
“Oh, come on, there’s nothing happening here,” Turner pleaded.
“Well, we won’t know that if we’re busy doing other things.”
“Oh, fine.”
Parker smiled, amused by his playfulness. “Don’t worry. Soon enough we’ll have plenty of time for other things.”
Cole, on the other hand, seemed to be making progress at the strip club. He spent the first hour he was there just admiring the ladies on stage. He also was interested in seeing what Misty would do. In the time he was there, he hadn’t seen even a glimpse of Misty. Hadn’t heard of anyone speaking her name either. Finally, he went to one of the servers and asked about her.
“Misty’s off tonight,” the woman stated.
“Off?”
“Yeah.”
Knowing she must’ve left her house and went straight to a rendezvous with Arsenyev, Cole knew he had to move quickly. He showed a fake police badge and slipped one of the bouncers a couple bucks to let him go back stage in order to talk with some of the girls. He figured one of them had some inside knowledge. He asked the bouncer which one of the women seemed to be friends with Misty Sweet. He was directed to a woman named Brandy Love. He found her and pulled her aside to have a private conversation with her.
“What do you want?” she asked, annoyed.
“Looking for some information,” Cole responded, showing her a badge.
Brandy rolled her eyes, unimpressed. “I don’t know nothing about nothing.”
“Well, we’ll just see about that.”
“I’m losing money by just standing here,” she defiantly said.
“You could lose a lot more than that if you don’t help me.”
“What do you want?”
“I’m looking for Misty.”
“Don’t know where she is,” Brandy replied, making a face like she couldn’t be bothered.
“You really wanna play this game?”
Brandy shrugged. “What do you want her for?”
“I don’t want her. I want someone else. I think she can help me find him.”
“Him? What him are you looking for?” she asked, hopeful of hearing a certain name.
“This guy,” Cole said, showing her a small picture of his target. “His name’s Oleg Arsenyev. He also runs around with this guy,” he said, showing his friend. “This guy’s Pavel Zubov. They’re real bad guys and I want them. I heard Misty’s got a relationship with Oleg.”
Brandy thought about it for a minute before deciding to play ball. “Yeah. Yeah, I know Oleg. Creep.”
“What’s that?”
“He’s a thug. I can’t stand him,” Brandy fumed.
“Do you know where he’s at?” Cole asked.
She shrugged again.
“Look, is Misty a friend of yours?”
“Yeah. She’s like a sister.”
“I’m not interested in her. I want Oleg and his buddy. They’re dangerous people and I want to put them away. Do you know where I can find them?”
“Yeah, OK. Why not? I hate that jerk anyway. Especially after what that crumb did to her,” Brandy told him.
“What’d he do?”
“Few months ago. He really worked her over. She had bruises all over her face and arms. He really did a number on her.”
“How come?” Cole wondered.
“Who knows with a guy like that. He’s got a temper. Anything could set him off.”
“So what’s she doing with a creep like that?”
“Listen, when you work in places like this, you’re not usually dealing with the cream of the crop,” she explained.
“Where’s Misty at? She’s not at her home. I saw her leave and assumed she came here. They told me she’s off tonight though,” Cole informed her.
“If she’s not at her house, then she’s probably at Oleg’s.”
“I don’t have a record of him having a house in the area.”
Brandy shrugged, “probably not in his name. He’s sly like that.”
“You know where it’s at?” Cole asked.
“Maybe.”
“Well, do you wanna tell me?”
“It’ll cost you,” she told him.
“I can get this jerk away from your friend and all you’re thinking about is money?”
“Gotta pay the bills, don’t I?” she asked.
Cole sighed, but still reached into his pocket for his wallet anyway. He pulled out some money, five twenties, and handed it over to her, which she all too happily accepted.
“Now, where are they?” Cole asked.
“Well, I’m not sure about Zubey. That’s what they call him. He might be with Oleg, I don’t know, they’re usually pretty tight.”
“Where?”
“He’s got a place over in Santa Monica on Washington Ave. I’ve been there a few times when he threw some parties.”
“He usually have bodyguards or protection or anything?”
“Not that I ever saw,” Brandy replied. “He usually dished out his own beatings. He doesn’t need a lot of help for that.”
“If I find out you’re lying to me and they aren’t there, you’re gonna be in a lot of trouble.”
“Don’t sweat it. He’ll be there. If this is what it takes to get Misty back, then it’s my pleasure to see that creep get taken away in handcuffs.”
They talked a few minutes more, Cole wanting to make sure that he was totally satisfied with the story she was telling him. After getting some more background on everyone, he was pretty sure Brandy was telling him the truth. She seemed to have a genuine hatred for Arsenyev for roughing up her friend. She didn’t think Misty could leave the Russian on her own, out of fear of getting beaten up again, so cooperating with what she thought was the law, was the next best thing to helping her. Though she hated Arsenyev with a passion, she didn’t have the same feelings for his buddy, Zubov. He was obviously an associate of Arsenyev’s, but, at least according to Brandy, never seemed to have the same bad tendencies as his boss. He seemed much more polite and thoughtful, at least when it came to the ladies. Zubov treated them with much more respect. Brandy wrote down the Santa Monica address for Cole, just so he had it.
Satisfied that he was getting everything he could out of Brandy, Cole then left the strip club with the intention of heading over to Santa Monica to hopefully take care of their targets. He called Parker on the way to give her a heads up on the developments. Cole wanted them to split from Misty’s house and meet him over there. Parker wanted to try and verify the information first before leaving.
“Hold on,” Parker said. “Let’s see if we can find something on this house first.”
“You don’t trust her?” Cole said.
“Not without checking it first. We don’t know what her intentions are. Maybe she’s honest, maybe she’s not. If they’re there, we can wait five minutes to check it first.”
Turner had his laptop with him and she gave him the address to see what he could dig up on the house. After a few minutes, he found the legal owner’s name of the house. Parker put Cole on speaker so he could listen in.
“Interesting,” Turner said.
“What’s interesting?” Parker asked.
“The legal owner of the house is an Orin Asten.”
Parker looked confused. “Who is that?”
“Well, I’m gonna keep driving there just in case,” Cole stated.
Turner shrugged, continuing to try and work his magic with the computer. A few minutes went by and Parker could tell by the look on his face that it wasn’t going so well. He wasn’t coming up with anything.
“I can’t seem to find anything on this guy,” Turner stated.
Parker was bothered by something and kept looking at the name. “Wait a minute, wait a minute.”
Turner instantly stopped typing and turned his head toward her. “What?”
“Orin Asten. Oleg Arsenyev. Orin…Oleg. Asten…Arsenyev,” she said.
“You think it’s an alias?”
“It’s gotta be.”
“Good thinking, Parker. Must be an alias. Too close to be anything else,” Cole agreed. “Stop fiddling around over there and get over here.”
Parker sighed, not really wanting to leave their position. She looked up and glanced through the windshield. She leaned forward to get a closer look, something grabbing her attention.
“Should we go?” Turner asked, putting his laptop away.
“What?” she responded, not really hearing the question.
“Cole? Should we go meet him at Arsenyev’s house?”
“Uhh, no. No, I don’t think so.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because we have our own problem,” she revealed.
“Huh? What problem?”
“Well, I don’t know about Oleg Arsenyev. But we’ve got Pavel Zubov right here.”
“What?” Turner asked, anxiously looking through the windshield to find him.
Parker pointed toward the house, Zubov walking toward the rear. “Looks like he’s about to enter through the back door,” Parker said.
“Should we have Cole come back?”
“No, we’ll be fine. Cole?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re gonna be on your own there,” she told him.
“Why? What’s up?” Cole asked.
“Well, you might have Arsenyev there, but we’ve got Zubov here.”
“What? You’re kidding!”
“You know I never kid you.”
“I sat on that house for hours and didn’t see a soul. You’re telling me you’re there and all of a sudden somebody shows up?”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much the size of it.”
“Of all the luck,” he huffed. “You need my help?”
“Nah, we can take care of it.”
“By “we”, I’m assuming you mean you,” Cole stated.
“Either way.”
“All right. Be careful. Remember, no hero stuff. If it looks too hot, back off until I get there.”
“I could say the same thing to you,” Parker told him.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I mean it. Don’t go barging in like your hair’s on fire.”
“I got it, I got it. I’ll check back in with you in a little bit.”
“OK. Hopefully we’ll each have good news to report.”
“So what do we do?” Turner hurriedly asked.
“First, we calm down,” she smiled. “Second, I go to work.”
“Do you want a hand?”
“No thanks, sweetie,” she replied, kissing his cheek. “I got this.”
“But what do you want me to do?”
“Just sit there and look pretty.”
“Gee, thanks for making me feel useless,” he dejectedly said.
“You’re not. You have an important role.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“You’re the lookout. If he escapes, you let me know which way he goes,” she informed him. “Or, if company arrives, like his boss, then you come save me, OK?”
“Yeah.”
“Got your gun on you?”
Turner motioned toward his bag in the back seat. “It’s in there.”
“Get it out just in case.”
“Be careful,” he told her, kissing her before she got out of the car.
Parker stood just outside the door and leaned through the open window. “Remember, if he takes off, let me know.”
“I got it.”
Parker started walking in the direction of the house, though on the opposite side of the street so as to not give herself away. In case she was being watched, she planned on going down the street, then coming back up to sneak her way inside. Once she got to the end of the sidewalk, and out of view from Misty’s house, she crossed the street so she could gain the element of surprise. She slowly walked back up the street, on the same side of the house.
“A light just went on in the living room,” Turner reported.
Upon hearing that, Parker ran up the street, knowing that Zubov obviously wasn’t on the lookout for her.
“Good. Let me know if you notice anything else,” Parker said, slightly out of breath.
“You got it.”
After a couple minutes, she made it to the neighbor’s house. Parker knelt down by the edge of the fence, keeping everything but her head behind the cover of the wooden panels. She waited there for a few minutes, just surveying the house, looking for signs of movement.
“Ryan, let me know if you see something in the front window,” she told him.
“Well the curtains are up.”
“You should still be able to see a shadow if he walks by.”
Without knowing exactly where Zubov was, she didn’t want to move in too quickly. It was always possible he knew he was being watched, put on a light in the living room to throw them off, then waited for someone to approach the house, ready to ambush whoever it was. Parker was patient enough to wait for the right opportunity. Whenever a car would pass by, Parker pretended that she was reaching down to tie her shoe. Ten minutes went by, not another word from Turner about seeing Zubov’s movements. She knew she couldn’t stay there all night. She’d have to make a move at some point.
“Anything else?” she asked.