Chapter 29
Foggy just looked at the soggy mess on the floor with disbelief while Matt raged.
"This has gone too far!" he snarled, clenching his fists with impotent anger.
Karen was slumped in her chair with her head in her hands, elbows propped up on the desk. "Matt, you need to calm down," she said with a weary voice.
"No! I will not calm down! First, they go after Nyah, now they come into our office and threaten you and try to burn the place down with you in it!" His voice continued to rise as he spoke until he was yelling.
"I don't think he was actually trying to burn the place down, Matt," Foggy said.
Matt spun towards him, ready to take out his anger on the closest person, but Karen was suddenly in front of him.
"Matt, he's not the enemy," she said soothingly. "Neither am I."
He threw his arms up in the air and turned, taking several steps away and taking a deep breath to try to calm down.
"We have company," he announced just before a knock came at their door.
Agent Boyd opened the door and took in the mess and the state of the three friends. "You guys have had an exciting day," he said, entering the room and closing the door behind him. "I heard the lame story you told the fire department. Why don't you tell me what really happened?"
"I can do better than that," Karen said walking to her desk and grabbing her cell phone. She tapped a button and came over to the agent and handed it to him.
He listened attentively while the recording of her encounter with Farley played. When it was done, he held up the phone.
"Quick thinking, Miss Page. Send this to me."
Matt couldn't wait any longer, "what took you so long to get back to us? You said a few days. It's been over a week!"
Boyd looked down at the floor, "well, it's proven harder than I thought to figure out who I can trust at the office."
"What's that mean?" Karen asked.
"It means that I have never had to sneak around and figure out who I can and cannot trust, that's all," Boyd said with exasperation.
"You're lucky," Karen said, "at least you have someone you can trust."
"You guys can trust me."
"Can we?" Matt asked. "We go to you and you don't call us back, then we get a visit from Farley. It's a little suspicious. How did you even know about the fire?"
"I didn't. I was on my way here to talk to you. I figured it was safer than having you come back to the office and risk running into Everett."
Matt wasn't completely convinced, but let it go. "So, what now?"
"I brought my boss in on the case and he agrees that there is definitely something going on. I got in touch with Miss Lopez and I'm going to see her when I'm done here. I would like for one of you guys to come with me, to put her at ease. She seemed really nervous on the phone."
Matt had already contacted her to let her know the agent would be in touch and she hadn't been overly happy about the prospect, despite her earlier assurances, so he agreed to go with Boyd.
Before they left, Boyd had one more concern. "Do you guys need protection? I can get you into protective custody based on this."
Foggy started to agree, but Matt shook his head. "If we disappear, it's going to look suspicious. They might close down even more, and we'll miss our chance to catch them and save these women."
"I think Karen needs to go," Foggy told them.
"I agree," Matt said.
"Ok, I will arrange it."
"No! Wait a minute!" Karen sputtered. "I'm not going anywhere! I'm not scared of these guys."
Matt and Foggy both gave her disbelieving looks.
"Ok, maybe I am a little scared," she allowed. "But I'm not going to hide. You guys need me! If we stay away from the police station and keep our heads down for the next couple of weeks, we should be ok."
Boyd looked confused, "why the next two weeks?"
"I mean," she quickly corrected, "until this is over. Hopefully soon."
Before Boyd and Matt left, they compromised by letting him set up surveillance from the street on their office. It made Karen feel better, but Matt and Foggy still felt that Karen was in danger. He desperately wanted to pay Farley a visit as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen but knew that wasn't an option. It would be like waving a red flag and letting Farley know that they were working with the Devil. He would have to figure something else out.
That night, Matt changed strategies. While following Farley had led them to agent Everett and he had collected enough recordings of the crooked cop's dealings with street thugs, taking bribes and making deals, to convict him of a variety petty crimes, none of it was getting them any closer to tying the DA to the ring. Instead of tailing Farley through the neighborhood, he decided to follow the director of the Women's Clinic, Mrs. Williams. Maybe she would prove more productive to their case. They needed a break in the case, they only had a week until the new moon.
Surprisingly, she did not go from the Women's Center to her apartment. Instead, she drove east to the other side of Manhattan and parked outside of a hotel. From his place hiding in the bushes outside, Matt listened as she stopped at the desk and checked into room 330 under the name of Gwen Anderson.
The hotel was one of the older ones, not quite run down, but not one of the shiny modern ones, so it still had old fashion fire escapes on the alley side of the building. He was able to get into the building via a window on the third floor into an empty room. The door had a direct view of the door to room 330. Other than that, Matt was at a loss. The room that Williams was in faced the street, so hanging outside the window wasn't an option.
Looking around the room, he noticed the airduct in the ceiling. He had never been reduced to creeping through ductwork, but there was a first time for everything. Pulling the desk chair under the vent, he pried the grill loose and pushed it up into the duct, out of the way. Then he jumped to grab the lip and pull himself up. As his feet were dangling down into the room, he heard the distinctive tones and click of the card keypad unlocking the door to the room. Hurriedly, he pulled the rest of his body up into the hole as a man and woman walked into the room, turning on the lights.
He carefully repositioned the grill over the hole so that it appeared to be covered to the casual observer and began to creep through the duct towards room 330. One thing he immediately noticed that the movies and TV neglected to mention, is how noisy shoes are on the metal of the ducts. He had to be extra careful when he moved his feet so that the soles of his boots didn't squeak loudly. They also didn't mention how thin the metal is, so it wanted to give and bend with him as he moved through it. He had to distribute his weight just right to keep it from flexing and making noise. Finally, it was slow going, especially carrying the video recorder. Room 330 was just four rooms down the hall from the one he entered, but it took him a good ten minutes to inch his way there quietly.
When he finally arrived at the room, Williams was in the shower. Through the grate, Matt had a good vantage point from the middle of the room, but he couldn't tell if the grating was open enough to allow a good view for the camera. If not, the audio will have to do.
If there was going to be anything to record, he reminded himself. She could just be having a fling with a married man. He settled in to wait.
After several minutes, Williams came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel and using another to dry her hair. A quiet knock came at the door and she moved to answer it. Matt should have been shocked that the DA was on the other side, but somehow wasn't. He started recording.
"Did anyone see you?" Williams asked as he shut the door behind him and followed her into the room.
"Of course not. I've got this down to an art." He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her neck, inhaling deeply, "damn, you smell good."
She turned in his arms, let the towel drop, "I missed you."
Matt was uncomfortable being a voyeur to their tryst, but he had to stay in case they said anything that could be used to link Montgomery to the trafficking ring.
Afterwards, lying in bed together their talk did indeed turn to business.
"I think you need to leave town for a while," Montgomery told her.
"Why, they don't have anything on us. Even if they did, your people can handle it. What's the use of having half the police force on your payroll if you can't buy security?" she pouted.
"Don't pout. It's not a good look on you," he said. "Everett says he thinks someone is snooping around at the field office, but he doesn't have any solid yet."
"Everett is a nervous idiot. He's always jumping at shadows."
"I think we need to back off and you should find some business out of town for the next couple of months."
"Two months," she sounded alarmed. "What would you do without me? Or are you thinking about replacing me?" Her voice rose, "because if you are, you better be warned that I'll…,"
"That you'll what?" he cut her off, sitting up and looking down at her. "You aren't stupid enough to threaten me are you, Cynthia?"
She immediately changed her tone, "no, baby, I would never threaten you. I love you, Silas. I just don't understand why your guys can't just take care of these troublemakers."
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached for his clothes. "This isn't the movies, where I can do whatever the hell I want. I still have to be careful. Shit, I thought you were smart enough to know that. My guys have them scared, so they should back off. We just need to wait and see what Everett finds in the field office. If there's nothing, then we can get back to business quickly."
"We need to. There are so many potential girls coming through the center our clients are missing out on. There was a gorgeous blonde that was 16 through the other day that your friend upstate would love to get his hands on!"
He turned a gave her a kiss. "There will be plenty more. Hell's Kitchen is a catchall for homeless and runaway girls. Just be patient." He sat up on the edge of the bed and reached for his clothes.
"Are you leaving so soon?" Williams cooed. "It's still early."
"And I have ton of paperwork waiting for me to finish. I just wanted to finish with you first," he smiled as he stood to get dressed.
"I still don't think I need to leave," she tried again.
He sighed, giving in, "okay, stay. But don't do anything until I give the word to start back up. Understand?"
"I understand, Baby," she said, standing to help him with his tie.
Matt cautiously crept backwards towards the hall, trying not to make any noise. When the door opened to the room, Montgomery looked out to make sure the hall was clear, then stepped out and shut the door behind him. Halfway down the hall, he pulled out his cell phone and keyed in a number.
Before he opened the door to go down the stairs, instead of taking the elevator, Matt heard him say, "Farley, we have a problem I need you to take care of." Then the door shut behind him and muffled the rest of the conversation.
Matt had to wait nearly two hours in the tight confines of the hotel's ductwork before he found a way to exit the hotel without being seen.