Tricks & Treats: A Romance Anthology (11 page)

Chapter 1

“Jesus,” Mitch Swanson muttered as he crouched over the woman’s body. He looked up at his brother and partner, Peter. “This is the fifth one in the last six weeks.” He stood, but he couldn’t take his eyes from the lifeless form in front of him. The woman was naked but for a barely-there, blue thong and the piece of plastic sheeting that had been wrapped around her.

The late October air held a damp chill that went straight to his bones and he pulled his leather jacket tighter. Par for the course for St. John’s, he figured, counting his blessing that at least it wasn’t snowing. He and Peter watched wordlessly as the crime scene techs finished their work, before they loaded the body into the van to transport it to the hospital for an autopsy.

The medical examiner’s report would take time, but Mitch bet that they would find a deadly combination of ecstasy and fentanyl in her system, and little else. He knew that her death would be labelled an overdose. And she would go unidentified and never be reported as missing. Just like the others. No amount of canvassing the streets of St. John’s, the night clubs and the gentlemen’s clubs would come up with any answers or people willing to admit they knew the women.

But like always, Mitch held out hope that this time would be different. He hoped that somehow the person who had dumped her here like a bag of trash had slipped up, left something behind, some clue that would lead them to who was behind the deaths of at least five women.

“Fuck, we need to find this asshole,” Peter cursed beside him. “We need to find out who’s putting these drugs on the street.”

“We will,” Mitch responded, not sure if he was trying to convince his brother, or himself. He narrowed his eyes on the body, training them to take in the crime scene, hoping to find something that would be useful.

“Think it’s Irish?” Peter asked.

Mitch shook his head. Earlier that year, they had dismantled the crime network of the Irish mafia in the city by killing one organization head and jailing the other. “I don’t know. The Irish are scrambling right now. Maybe they’re pushing bad drugs as a way to make some money. Let’s get Steve and Joe and pay a visit to Colin O’Connell in jail,” he told Peter, who already had his phone out to call their teammates. “See if he knows anything about it.”

With the body finally removed, Mitch started at one end of alley, and walked slowly to the other. His eyes trained to the ground, and the piles of garbage and filth, looking for something that was out of place. That wasn’t always an easy task in an alley where people throw garbage, and meet up for nefarious purposes.

But then his eyes settled on one thing that definitely stood out from the trash bags, cigarette butts, syringes, and used condoms.

“Holy shit,” he whispered and crouched again. Using a latex-covered hand, he picked up a cell phone, and turned to Peter. “Think this belongs to our guy?”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Peter laughed. “You don’t think that someone would dump a body and drop his cell phone in the process, do you?”

“I sure hope so,” Mitch laughed. Knowing that it might be a long shot, he tapped the screen. It was locked. “Criminals slip up all the time. How many convictions have we gotten from a lucky break? Either way, let’s get this back to the precinct. Maybe Steve can take a crack at unlocking it.”

He pulled an evidence bag from his pocket and before Mitch could fully stand upright, the screen of the phone lit up and the device vibrated and played an old Trooper tune in his hand. Someone was calling it. Mitch couldn’t believe it. He accepted the incoming call, and turned up the speaker so Peter could hear as well.

“Hello?” Mitch answered.

“Who’s this?” the person on the other end said in way of a greeting.

“Simon Smith,” Mitch gave him a phony name.

“You got my phone?”

“Probably, I just picked this one up.” Mitch improvised. “I found it outside a bar on George,” he said of the nearby bar-lined street.

“I want it back,” the man insisted.

“Sounds good to me,” Mitch said. “Come meet me and you can have it.”

“Where’re ya at?”

Mitch looked around his surroundings, making sure that he was far enough away from the crime scene before revealing where he was. He said the name of a nearby business. “I’ve got to get to work though, so you’d better hurry.”

“Alright b’y, I’m not far,” he said, and before Mitch could say anything else, the call was disconnected.

Mitch looked up and Peter was smiling at him. “What a stupid son-of-a-bitch. Did this solve just fall right into our laps?”

Mitch thought it might have, maybe they’d gotten lucky and no one else would be hurt. But he was careful to not get too cocky. “It looks like we might be close,” he admitted. They were silent, both mulling the case, both keeping their eyes open for the owner of the cell phone, who should be along soon.

It wasn’t long before they were approached. “Hey,” he called out. “You Simon? You guys got my phone?”

Mitch held up the phone. “That depends. Are you the guy I was talking to?”

“Yeah,” he said, getting close enough to reach out for his phone. But he was shorter than Mitch and when Mitch held it above his head, forcing the man to jump for it. “What the-”

Mitch pushed his jacket aside and flashed his badge, which was clipped to his belt. “How about you come with us?” Mitch asked the man. “We’ve got some questions for you.”

Chapter 2

“Just tell me where the drugs came from,” Mitch insisted, as the man, identified as Burton Davis, sat across from him in the dingy interrogation room. Before him on the table, five full-coloured photos of the deceased women sat in front of him.

“I don’t know, man.”

“You’re lying,” Mitch insisted. “Listen Burton, if you don’t cooperate, you’re going down for five counts of murder,” Mitch embellished the truth. They didn’t actually have enough to pin any crime on him, let alone murder. Steve was currently putting Burton’s information through the system in hopes that he’d have some outstanding warrants they could hold him on. “If you tell us where these women got the drugs and who wanted you to dump the bodies, then a judge will look more favourably on you. It’s up to you.”

Burton paused. “If I talk, I’m dead.”

Mitch knew they were getting somewhere. He sat in the chair and looked at Burton straight on. He leaned across the table. “We’ll protect you if help us. You did dump that body right?”

He nodded, not saying anything.

“Did you give them the drugs?”

Burton hesitated, then shook his head. “It was the guy at that club.”

“What club?”

“Leather & Lace.”

Mitch sat back, he’d heard of it. It was an exclusive club that operated in St. John’s. But it wasn’t like the pubs or night clubs that littered George Street, in the city’s downtown core. From what he’d heard, this one catered to a high-class clientele and providing them with a meeting place, where the men and women of the business and political arenas could mingle and make backroom agreements – oh and they could also their have every sexual need met. Mitch had never heard of problems from the people at the club. He wouldn’t expect to. With all of the higher ups rumoured to be part of the club’s clientele, they were politically untouchable. But if someone they were distributing poisonous drugs, they needed to be stopped.

“Leather & Lace is killing these women?”

“Not the club itself,” Burton insisted. “It’s one of the guys there. And it’s not intentional,” Burton told them. “At least, I don’t think so.”

“Does this guy have a name?”

He shrugged. “Some Russian guy.”

Mitch’s interest was piqued.  He knew that under a man by the name of Yuri Petrova, a Russian crime syndicate, involved in drugs and human trafficking, was making a move on the city. But he wouldn’t be successful, not if Mitch and anything to do with it. “You have a name?”

Burton shrugged again, annoying Mitch more and more. “A guy asks you to dump five bodies and you don’t even get his name?”

Shrug.

Losing patience, Mitch pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He exhaled. “So why did you do it? Are you just an extremely helpful guy?”

“He gave me money.”

“The Russian guy?”

Nod.

“And then what?”

“I would get a text to come to the back alley of the club. I’d show up. He’d already be out there-”

“With the bodies?”

“Yeah.”

“So, who were they? Who are these women?”

“I never asked.”

Mitch sighed loudly at another dead end. “What connection did they five women have with the club?”

“I don’t know.”

“Were they targeted or just unlucky to have been given poisonous drugs?”

Burton didn’t answer.

“Burton?”

“I don’t know.”

“That isn’t good enough,” Mitch told him. “If you don’t give us more, we can’t offer you a deal.”

“The Russian guy works at the club. He’s not the owner, but he’s close to him. From what I heard, he brings in girls to the club, like professionals, you know. He’s the only one that I dealt with.”

“He works at the club,” Mitch repeated, and stood, and walked to the door. “Okay, good.”

“Hey,” Burton called out to him from the table. “What about my deal?”

“Oh, you’ll get your deal,” Mitch said, his tone dismissive. He opened the door and Peter and Steve walked in. “You’re under arrest,” he said, walking out the door. He walked down the hall to see if he could find his Captain. He had to see a man about a warrant.

“Absolutely not!” Captain Lewis shook his head. “We can’t invade the privacy of the club owners and patrons without cause.”

Mitch was shocked. “But sir, we have cause. We have five dead women. And a witness who says he picked them up at the club.”

“You’re going on the word of a guy who has a mile-long rap sheet. He’s just talking to get a better deal for himself. How do you know that he didn’t kill them himself?”

Mitch thought of the dull man he’d just interrogated. “Honestly, he’s not smart enough.”

“I said no,” his superior officer insisted. “Issuing a warrant on Leather & Lace, going into a club like that would be a huge violation of privacy for everyone in job. We’ll all lose our jobs.”

Mitch knew not to argue with that tone of voice, as much as he wanted to. So he said nothing and walked out of the office. He was on his own with this case. There was something strange going on at Leather & Lace, and he was going to find out why.

Chapter 3

Mitch and Peter were sitting at a corner table at Brewed Moon, a downtown St. John’s cafe, nursing their coffees and the disappointment from not being able to pursue their investigation. They both sat frustrated, brooding over their coffees. They had to get into the club, find the “Russian guy,” and build a strong case to take back to their Captain.

“You don’t think maybe that Burton was fucking with us?” Peter asked.

“I don’t know,” Mitch answered. “But I don’t think so. There’s something going on in that club, and if we don’t find out soon then more women are going to die.” He leafed through file on the table between them, which contained the crime scene reports for each of the women. “What do we know about these women?”

“If it has anything to do with Petrova,” Peter frowned, discussing the Russian monster, “they’re probably trafficked for prostitution. Eastern European maybe?”

Mitch nodded. “That’s what I was thinking too. Bring them here, make some money, ply them with drugs and dump their bodies. Nobody asks any questions or identifies them.”

“Is Leather & Lace into prostitution, though?” Peter asked. “We’ve never gotten any indication that sort of thing was going down there.”

“I’m sure lots of things happen behind those closed doors,” Mitch said. “That’s why I’m going there tonight.”

Peter didn’t have a chance to respond before Juliana Lark, the café’s owner walked over to their table. Mitch looked up and slammed the file shut.

“You guys are quiet,” she noted, putting two plates in front of them. Each contained a chocolate chip cookie which was broken into multiple pieces.

“What’s this for?” Mitch asked.

Juliana shrugged. “They were broken, and I can’t sell them,” she explained. “And I saw you both brooding over here. I thought you might like something sweet.”

Mitch had always thought Juliana was gorgeous. But as a result of his previous investigation into her café, she was prickly, cold to him. Thankfully, though, she’d started warming up to him. He looked up at her and smiled. he was wearing a skin-tight black leotard with cat ears and a tail. She’d even drawn on a nose and whiskers. He cocked his head to the side at her appearance. “What’s with the get-up?”

“It’s Halloween,” she responded. “The real question is why aren’t you dressed up?”

Mitch looked down at the black v neck t-shirt and jeans he was wearing. His team worked the street as part of a specialized anti-gang unit, and they dressed casually to blend in. “Because I’m an adult. And I’m at work.”

Juliana smirked. “I am also an adult at work,” she told him pointedly. “It doesn’t mean I can’t have a little bit of fun.” She tilted her head at him.

“Hey, I have fun,” he responded defensively. He was, in fact, caught up imagining some fun he could be having with her.

Juliana raised an eyebrow and turned her head to see a customer waiting at the counter. She turned around and started walking back to the counter, but she looked at him over her shoulder. “I’m not sure you even know
how
to have fun.” The sway of her hips in the tight outfit transfixed him for a moment, and he found it hard to look away.

When she was gone, Peter spoke, pulling Mitch’s gaze away from Juliana, as she stood behind the counter, serving her customers. “You’re going to the Leather & Lace Halloween party?” Peter asked him. “How exactly did that come about? That place is exclusive. And they certainly don’t welcome cops.”

Mitch shrugged, not willing to go into too much detail. He had called in a favour from a member of city council who owed him one. Mitch rarely hid things from his brother, especially when it came to the job, but it was something that he didn’t want to get into in public. “An opportunity to go tonight presented itself. I found an in.”

“You just happened to find an invitation to an exclusive sex club?”

“I guess so.”

“And what are you going to do while you’re there?”

Mitch smiled before responding. “What do you think I’m going to do? I’m going to look around. See if I can see who’s pulling the strings. Find this Russian guy, and see if he’s distributing the drugs.”

“We don’t have a warrant to go in there,” Peter reminded him.

“I know that. I also know that without a warrant, there’s no way they’ll hand over their employment records. This is our only option. I’m just going to the party.”

Peter shook his head. “I don’t like this,” he said. “You going in on your own. It doesn’t feel right.”

“I’ll be fine.” He leaned in again, and dropped his voice to an almost imperceptible whisper. “As far as dangerous undercover ops go, a Halloween party at a sex club will be a walk in the park. Nobody will know I’m there investigating. It’s just a party.”