Telling Fortunes in Phoenix
Chapter Thirty

Blake

Clip clop, clip clop, clip clop, clip clop. Footsteps advanced endlessly, never near, never far, approaching through a mist that hid nothing. Clip clop. Suddenly in front of him stood Ms. Parks, the so-called fortune teller.

Confused, Blake questioned himself. He must be dreaming. He’d taken Sara Parks to jail yesterday and, yeah, he felt guilty about it. So he worried about her and this worry had caused him to dream. He dreamed of suspects and witnesses all the time. And victims. Victims most of all.

And she’d told him about human trafficking and, however she had come upon the knowledge, what she said seemed to be true. He had questions and maybe his subconscious wanted to tell him some conclusions he’d reached. He comforted himself with this rational chain of mental events, unaware that this level of introspection rarely occurred in dreams.

He remembered heading to Ajo with Gavin, one of the younger detectives. Gavin’s partner was out and the young jock had been desultorily working on paperwork at the precinct headquarters. Blake didn’t want to partner with a young man since they tended to escalate difficult situations. He would have preferred anyone else, even that old slob Carruthers, but this could be dangerous and he shouldn’t go alone.

“Excuse me.” Sara spoke, interrupting Blake’s chain of thought.

“Yes?” he said.

“You asked me to tell you what I know. So I gathered as much information as possible and I need to give it to you now.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Good,” dream Parks said. “Did Nik describe the people at the ranch?”

“Yeah.” Detective Blake was getting bored. Then another woman appeared, tall and blonde and probably a looker before she’d settled down to ranching for twenty years. Sara introduced her.

“This woman’s ranch is the distribution center for a small monthly operation. She collects healthy families from Mexico then sells kidneys from the adults and sells the children to a broker.”

“This is her partner.”

A new presence coalesced from the mist and Blake knew this guy. Eddie, Eddie. What was his last name? Wyatt. Guy had a lot of friends, even hob-nobbed with Sheriff Joe. In fact, this was Gavin’s partner, the one who took the day off leaving Gavin to do paperwork.

Blake snorted a little laugh. His dream self had obviously grabbed the first male that turned up in the hodge-podge of his mind.

“That’s not him. The guy at the ranch is short, wearing khaki’s.”

But he looked at Eddie Wyatt anyway. The man looked like an aging underwear model or used car salesman. His blond good looks sparkled darkly in the misty background. He seemed… evil.

“That’s because he is evil,” Sara said.

“Is he there now?” Blake asked.

“I don’t know. But the victims are there. I saw them. They were drugged and the two I showed you carried them into rooms. I think they’ll be moved on soon unless you can replace them.”

“Yeah, that’s probably so. I’m on my way.”

“Oh,” Parks said. “You know where they are?”

“Yeah, Stepan told me.”

“Stepan?”

“A guy who’s dating Maureen Sturgis’s son.”

“Ah. Medium height, dark, muscular?”

“I haven’t seen the man but I’ve spoken to him on the phone,” Blake said.

“Right. When?”

“A couple hours ago. He’s the one who told me to get down there. His mother has the kids.”

“So the five kids got away?”

She looked happy now and Blake was glad to see it. He felt bad about putting her in jail. “Four,” he said. “The oldest boy is still out there.”

“Well, looks like you’re doing fine without my help.”

“She looked sad again.”

“No, you’re the one who pointed me in the right direction. I think. We’ll have to see what happens out there, of course. From what I’ve been told there’s a Russian gangster terrorizing a woman, so he might be the guy.”

“I have to leave soon,” Sara said, “but a couple more things.”

A blonde teenage girl appeared, replacing Eddie. “This is the cop’s daughter. She’s with me in Tent City. Only she has black hair, now, and is booked under the name of Ruby Jenkins, age twenty-two, no ID. Her real name is Julia Mallory Wyatt and her age is seventeen. She got thrown in jail while researching the local children’s sex trade. She’s helping her father.”

“He’s using his daughter to track down clues?”

“No. She hacked his computer and found evidence. She thinks he’s running a clandestine investigation. He doesn’t know she’s in jail but when school lets out he’ll be wondering where she is.” Sara looked like she might cry. “She thinks he’s a hero.” She used both hands to flick tears out of her eyes and the moisture sparked blue as it flew into the ether.

Blake shook his head. This dream was beginning to wear him out. As if on cue Ms. Parks began fading away into the mist. Just before she disappeared she spoke again. “Oh, I almost forgot. That blonde woman seems to be addicted to heroin. If that’s any help. And Blake, can you get us out of here? Me and Julia? Her alias is Ruby Jenkins. And me, Sara Parks.” Then she faded away for good.

Blake pulled into the service center at the junction of I-10 and Highway 85. Gavin went off to get a drink while Blake got gas. He then took the opportunity for his last civilized pee before the long road south. As he stood over the urinal he ruminated on the strange dream and smiled. When did he dream that, last night? That didn’t make sense. He didn’t know he was going anywhere last night. He tried to remember what he and Gavin had been talking about for the last half hour.

Blake was not a fanciful man. He’d experimented with drugs in his college days but had never seen things that weren’t there. He’d had two concussions in the past twenty years but neither of them had caused hallucinations or even mood swings. Why would he now remember a rational discussion with illustrations as if it had just occurred? The pictures of the ranch woman, of Eddie and Julia Wyatt seared across his mind’s inner eye. What. The. Fuck.

His hand shook as he zipped his jeans. He stumbled to the sink and vomited. A truck driver started into the lavatory but hastened out at the sounds of retching. Blake rinsed his mouth and the sink. Well, shit. Maybe he should turn around and replace an emergency room.

Nah. He’d figure the rest out later. They had to get to that ranch now, they had to hurry. He found Gavin and they took the southern road, deeper into the desert.