Green Light (Sam Archer 7) (21 page)

‘
And?’

‘
She just did twenty minutes ago.’

‘
Who?’

‘
Karen Casey, Leann’s mother. Listen to this.’

‘
Karen, it’s me,’
a woman suddenly
said, her voice shaky with fear, her accent from somewhere else,
not New York. ‘
I’m so sorry, but I didn’t
know who else to call. Someone’s after me. It started yesterday. A
few hours ago they tried to get me at my apartment. All the other
girls have disappeared; I don’t know what’s going on but it’s bad.
I think someone’s running us down one at a time.’

Standing there on Josh’s porch,
Archer
suddenly forgot all about the activity on the street around him,
completely focused on the recorded phone message.

‘
I’m getting out before they find me,’
April’s voice continued.
‘I’m laying
low but I need somewhere to stay tonight. My cell’s about to die
but I’ll call back from a payphone in an hour. Please be there. I
really need your help and I didn’t know who else to
ask.’

Then the
message ended.

‘
Can you trace it?’ Archer asked, running what she’d said
through his mind.

‘
Afraid not,’
Ethan replied, his
quiet, deep tone an immediate contrast to April’s shaky
voice.
‘But she said all the girls have
disappeared, Arch. The other women who worked with Leann
Casey.’

‘
And none of them can be contacted?’

‘
Shit, right now we can’t even locate any of them. I’ll try to
isolate the background noises and figure out if there’s anything
there that could tell us where she is.’

Archer
started to reply but then stopped , thinking back to April’s call,
replaying it in his mind.

‘
Arch? Still there?’

‘
Send back-up to the Upper East Side right now!’ Archer
suddenly said, turning and running into Josh’s house.

‘
What? Where?’

‘
West 86
^th
Street. I know where she is!’

Ending
the call, Archer moved past some detectives and took the stairs two
at a time. The Mossberg Hendricks had given him earlier was still
leaning against the bed in Isabel’s room but he ignored it.
Instead, he ran into Josh and Michelle’s bedroom and opened up the
wardrobe, taking Josh’s home defence pistol from its place on the
top shelf.

Loading
the Beretta, he tucked it into the back of his belt then ran down
the stairs and out of the house, heading east.

Ducking
under the police tape blocking off the scene of the shootout, he
sprinted down the road and when he reached Central Park West he
didn’t stop, weaving his way between two passing cars and running
into the Park.

Ethan
didn’t need to isolate the background noise; it had caught Archer’s
attention during the call anyway. There had been a combination of
two sounds that he’d heard before on several occasions.

And they
meant he knew where April Evans was.

TWENTY FIVE

Inside the bar of the hotel on East 86
^th
Street and Park Avenue, April
Evans was sitting facing the entrance, keeping her eyes on the
payphone outside and doing her best to stop her hands from shaking.
Since her narrow escape at her apartment, she’d meandered her way
uptown trying to work out what to do, constantly checking around
her, and had ended up here after taking a detour on the
subway.

As she
sat there, she tried to make sense of what was happening. This had
all started the night Leann was killed; Carlos, their pimp, had
always had an unpredictable and violent temper but he’d made a big
mistake when he shot the two cops as well as Leann. Alex had been
the driver that night and not the trigger-man so he’d decided not
to leave but lay low in the city instead; however April hadn’t seen
Carlos now for a while and guessed he’d run. She wasn’t too sad
about that.

The day
after Leann died, Alex had warned the girls that if any of them
talked to the cops they’d be next. Shocked and frightened by
Leann’s sudden, violent death, the eleven remaining women knew it
was no empty threat but had hoped that despite their lack of
co-operation, the police would figure it out for themselves. Some
detectives and a social worker had come round two weeks ago asking
questions but they hadn’t hung around. April had kept her answers
as short as possible, just like the other girls, Santiago’s threat
ringing in their ears, but had hoped that even without their help
the cops would catch a break and find Carlos. Right now she had no
idea what was going on with the investigation.

Nervous
and worried for each other’s safety in case Alex decided they might
have talked and carry out his threat, the girls had started to ring
round every so often to make sure everyone was OK. Until yesterday,
they all were. However, almost thirty six hours ago three of them
had stopped answering their phones. When April had gone round to
their apartments to check, there’d been no-one home. When that
number had increased to five, it became alarming. By the seventh
and eighth before midnight she’d been extremely frightened and
concerned. She was pretty sure none of the girls would have talked
and certainly not eight of them, so what would Alex and Carlos gain
by hurting them?

This
morning, there’d only been two other women still answering their
phones, Kelly and Cece. Any suspicions April may have had that the
other girls were hiding out or had left town were dismissed when
she’d been on the line with Cece earlier this afternoon.

She’d
heard the moment her friend had been attacked, their conversation
suddenly interrupted, Cece’s scream abruptly cut off and the sounds
of muffled activity coming down the phone.

Frozen
in horror, April had heard what sounded like the phone being picked
up.

She’d
kept listening, the sound of breathing coming down the line from
the other end.

Then
it’d gone dead.

Closing
her eyes, April swallowed. Her cell was in her jacket pocket but it
was out of battery and she couldn’t charge it without going home.
Her remaining money was at the apartment too and she didn’t have
enough cash on her to get out of the city, so her options were slim
and right now she didn’t trust anyone, including the cops. Her last
shot was Karen Casey, who she’d never met but whose number she’d
entered into her phone after Leann had died. She was the only
person left April could think to call who might be sympathetic and
listen.

She had
a quick flashback to the two people who’d come running out of her
apartment building dressed in white overalls. Maybe it was Alex and
Carlos, figuring the girls might have talked or protecting their
backs and taking them out just in case. But despite the fact that
they’d be cutting off their only source of income, why the white
overalls and ball caps? That wasn’t their style; they’d just shoot
them like they did Leann. It couldn’t have been them.

So who
the hell were these people? And why were they doing
this?

April
was getting tired thinking about it, the same thoughts whirling
around her head as they’d done ever since she dropped off the fire
escape ladder and run for her life those few hours ago. Whatever
the reason and whoever these people in the overalls were, April
knew one thing for sure.

She was
the last girl from the group left.

And they
were after her as well.

She
glanced at the people sitting either side of her at the bar, all of
whom were engaged in conversations. She could feel the occasional
gaze settling on her and knew she looked out of place; normally
she’d have come here all dressed up just like the women around her,
but she was in the clothes she’d run in, an old red dress, leather
jacket and black boots.

Despite
the fact she stood out, she figured hiding out here was as good a
choice as any. She’d been sent to a bar four blocks south of this
on several occasions to meet a client but knew Alex and Carlos
would surely check there if it was them behind this. Not wanting to
take any chances, she’d come here instead, four blocks north. She’d
never been in this particular bar before and figured it was a safe
place to lay low until she called Karen again to see whether she
could stay with her tonight. There were plenty of people here which
made her feel more secure; no-one could attack her with so many
witnesses around. If Karen didn’t pick up, she could stay here till
closing and then figure out what to do next.

Taking
another sip of water to moisten her dry mouth, she noticed a man on
the other side of the bar looking at her. He didn’t smile but held
eye contact. She immediately glanced away, feeling a sudden chill
of fear sweep over her, and drained her glass quickly. However, the
amount of water she’d drunk was beginning to have its inevitable
effect; she’d been trying to hold off going as it was getting close
to the hour when she’d ring Karen back but she couldn’t wait any
longer.

Sliding
off her stool, she turned and walked towards the ladies room
quickly, feeling the man at the bar watching her. She didn’t look
back, readying herself to lock the restroom door behind her the
moment she stepped inside.

In a
booth fifteen feet away, his overalls left in the van parked down
the block, the driver of the black van looked up from his untouched
beer and watched the red-headed escort walk towards the restrooms
around the corner.

Giving her a few moments to get out of sight, he slid out from
his seat and hit
Send
on a text message.

We’re on.

On Central Park East, Archer ran out of the exit between West
85
^th
and
86
^th
,
the cold air hurting his lungs as he breathed in hard. He stopped
for a moment, several pedestrians having to step around him before
continuing on their way.

To his left, he saw a grey-haired African American guy in his
sixties sitting beside a series of paintings and framed prints
of
The New Yorker
,
his back to the Park. Every now and then he shouted out an
advertisement for his work, accompanied by the sound of a saxophone
busker down the street; it was that combination which Archer had
heard in the background of April’s panicked call to Karen Casey.
He’d spent a lot of his spare time around Central Park in the
summer with Vargas and had heard the man and the music on many an
occasion when he walked past, heading for the subway
stops.

Looking
around, he saw that the only likely places nearby she could be were
two bars, one three blocks to his right and the other a block
north.

‘
I’ve got to hit the treadmill more,’
he muttered, sucking in another lungful of air as he made a
quick decision and took off across the street.

Inside
the ladies restroom, April walked out of a stall and started to
wash her hands at the basin, looking at the tired, worried
reflection that was staring back at her. If Karen didn’t pick up
she could stay here until closing, but where would she sleep? The
subway? The Park?

And then
what? Could she go to the cops? She’d been evasive when they’d
questioned her about Leann, which wouldn’t exactly help her case.
From prior experience, she also knew they weren’t hugely interested
when dealing with girls like her. She’d tried to get their help a
few years back when a friend of hers had disappeared and they’d
pretty well laughed in her face, another hooker with a time-wasting
story. Unless she had a long history of drug addiction or there
were witnesses to an abduction, a prostitute over the age of
eighteen was hardly ever declared missing. She knew the reality;
they just weren’t considered people worth spending time and money
trying to find.

Sighing,
she dried her hands then moved to the door to get back to her stool
at the bar, twisting the handle and pulling the door towards
her.

However,
the moment she opened it, she took an instinctive step
back.

A large
man was directly in front of her blocking her way.

Ripping
open the front door of one of the two bars, Archer moved inside,
rapidly scanning the place to see if he could catch sight of the
girl. He’d seen April’s picture in the closed case file on Leann
Casey’s murder and knew she had red hair, sea-green eyes and was
twenty years old. She’d stand out.

Looking
around, he saw that none of the women here matched her description.
Cursing, he turned and headed for the door. Wrong guess.

However,
as he reached for the handle he hesitated and glanced to his
right.

There
was an unoccupied stool at the bar. That wasn’t unusual but the
cushion on the wood was still partially pushed down from someone
sitting there recently and there was an empty glass on the woodwork
in front of it which the barman hadn’t cleared. No-one had left the
place when he ran towards it or in the last few moments.

Looking
back at the front door, Archer then noticed something else through
the glass panel.