The Spirit Survives (35 page)

He phoned Ben but got his voicemail. He left a message the he would meet him at the Omni Hotel at 4:00 p.m. He wanted to inform him of what he had done and to strategize. He also asked if he could take him to an early dinner.
 

Given that he was on vacation, the constraints that he usually was under as an FBI agent would not be present. He would be Gerry Stewart helping his friend Ben Harris locate his fiancée. When he and Ben found the people responsible for this, there would be hell to pay.

Chapter 75

Russia only recently drafted legislation to close a glaring gap in their laws, which had led to many thousands of young women being sent abroad for exploitation as sex slaves or sex workers. The legislation focused on trafficking for the sex industry, which earned criminal gangs and the Russian Mafia seven-billion dollars a year. One of the primary legislators who drafted the legislation said that the profits of the slave trade were bigger than those from drugs. It was estimated that roughly 160,000 women were trafficked from Russia alone each year.

With so much money to be made, Sergey Ivanova expanded his drug trafficking and other criminal activities to include sex slaves from Russia, Mexico, Central Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe. He meant to establish his USA Russian Mafia as the primary source of sex slaves in the United States, Mexico and the Middle East. Oil-rich Arabs were particularly interested in his females. He found out in short order, however, that these men much preferred white American girls and women. They would pay top dollar for American girls and women from age twelve to forty years old. It was rare that anyone over forty was marketable. His organization would pick up runaways from the streets of major cities, get them hooked on drugs, and sell them to the highest bidders. He maintained a catalog of his females produced by the most professional photographers to supply to his customers.
 

When his people landed a “Special Woman,” that is one educated, sophisticated and beautiful he would save them for his highly valued Arab patrons. He set up his principal headquarters for this operation in Houston, Texas and recently brought Viadislav Lenechka from Russia to be the boss of this operation. Lenechka’s street name was Cheche. He only permitted Cheche to personally handle the “Special Women.” Leah Hamilton was one of these prizes.
 

Cheche was well coached and knew the procedure. A lot of the young girls were already hooked on drugs, so they were easy to handle. All he had to do was to supply them with their drug of choice, and they would be very obedient. All the girls and women were meticulously examined for venereal diseases. If one was detected and they could be cured in short order from insignificant disorders like crabs, they would be treated and kept. Anyone of them with AIDS or other incurable diseases were simply thrown back on the streets to fend for themselves. The older women, over twenty-one, sometimes were more difficult to convert. Many were kidnapped to meet a special order from a customer. These orders were handled separately. For all the other women, the catalogs listed the drug of choice of the females as well as their complete medical records. The beautiful full-color photographs showed their beauty and sex appeal. There were specific close-ups of all the important body parts. The customers had grown to trust Cheche and his organization to provide quality women. Most of the women lasted just a few months until the drugs stole their life, but by then the buyers were bored with them anyway. The bodies were usually burned.

Cheche had recently accepted a special order from the Arab Sheik named Ahmed bin Sapr of Saudi Arabia, for a brunette American woman with brown eyes. He wanted mature, sexy and refined. Leah Hamilton met these qualifications perfectly.

Since picking Leah up from the airport, she had proven to be very difficult. She fought him at every turn and she had the will to resist beyond any woman he had dealt with. His technique of breaking this type of woman was simple. He would forcibly inject them with heroin until they were hooked. When their need for the drug was established, they would do anything to get it. At this point, in Leah’s treatment, he had given her two injections and in a couple more days he would have her under his control. In the meanwhile he kept her tied to the bed in his spare bedroom. Sergey had been very specific. Only he would handle this fine piece of meat. Cheche was tempted to rape her, but he was afraid that he might harm the merchandise and the Shiek would not have accepted damaged goods. He did, however, fondle her almost every time he visited the room.

After checking again to make sure Leah was well secured and gagged, Cheche decided that he needed to go by his office to check in with his assistant. He had received an urgent call from Isay telling him that he must come to the office for some critical information. Irsay was paranoid about cell phone conversations, even though Cheche had told him many times that it was safe.
 

* * *

As Cheche walked out the door of his condo, the curtains parted again in another condo and Bea Morgan peered at him with squinted eyes behind her bifocals.
 

Ever since the Russian had taken the girl into the building, Bea had been watching carefully and the girl had not left the condo. If she were a prostitute, she would have left hours before. Bea imagined all sorts of horrible things that could have happened to the girl at the hands of the bastard Russian. She decided then and there that she needed to take action. This might be her only chance to get rid of that damn Russian.

Bea went to her phone and punched in 911.

“What is your emergency?” responded the professional female voice.

Bea took a deep breath and exclaimed, “The Russian man took a woman into his condo hours ago, and she never came out!”

“Who am I speaking with?” the dispassionate voice replied.

“Why this is Bea Morgan. I’m seventy-two years old, and I am scared of him.”

“Where do you live, Ms. Morgan?”

“I live in Clear Lake in the Breakwater Condo’s on Marina Bay Drive, number 704.”

“Tell me in detail what you saw, Ms. Morgan.”

“Well I was looking out the window and saw the Russian man who lives in 614 taking a woman to his place. She had a blanket over her shoulders and I think she was gagged. I’ve been watching for hours, and she never came out. He just left and I think he killed her and will come back and kill me.” Bea broke into tears.

“Just calm down, Ms. Morgan, why do you think something is wrong? Did you hear something?”

“She never came out,” Bea bawled.

“Ms. Morgan, we must have more than that to send a policeman and break into the guy’s condo. Are you sure you didn’t hear anything?”

“I think he killed her,” Bea cried again. “All Russians are thieves and murderers!”

“Well Ms. Morgan, if you hear or see anything other than a woman going into his condo with him, let us know. It may be his sister or his mother staying with him for a few days,” the operator said calmly.

“But I think he killed her,” Bea said again as she slammed down the phone.

Bea Morgan was always a tenacious woman and the older she got the more stubborn she became. She was not going to drop this at all. She wanted the Russian gone.

* * *

Cheche arrived at his office in the Clear Lake area. He had set up a small shipping business selling boxes and mailing supplies when he settled in Clear Lake. He required a front and this business handled that need well. He had become friendly with the other business owners in the small strip mall and was well liked. Isay, another Russian immigrant working on a green card, managed the shop for him. They had two Mexican employees and were actually doing quite well in the little enterprise.
 

Cheche entered the shop and smiled at Mia, who was assisting a customer packing some boxes for shipping. He walked to the back of the shop to the tiny office where Isay was sitting at the desk, drinking his eighth cup of black coffee of the day.
 

Isay was wearing a T-shirt that read, “Texas an’t no place for amateurs,” and a pair of jeans. His shaved bald head glistened with sweat. He looked agitated. He scowled as Cheche sat down in the folding chair in front of the desk. “We are in deep shit!” were the first words from his between clenched teeth.

“What in the hell is the problem?” Cheche inquired.

Isay glanced around and spoke scarcely above a whisper, “I have never seen so much heat on the street. The Houston Police Department and the FBI have gone nuts. They’re looking for a girl who is the fiancée of a former police officer. They’re hauling in anyone who has ever been suspected of human trafficking or selling drugs. All hell is breaking loose! I got hold of a picture of the woman.” He took out a flier from his back pocket and unfolded it. He handed it to Cheche.

Cheche carefully looked at the picture. A knot of fear tightened in his gut. It was the girl he had tied up in his condo. He knew it was just a matter of time before some squealer mentioned his name. He had to get rid of the girl and do it quick. She could mess up his carefully managed business. He put the flyer in his pocket, got up and left the shop without saying another word to Isay.
 

This proved to Isay that Cheche had the girl. He shook his head. “Shit, shit, shit!” he whispered.

Cheche got into his car, pulled out his cell phone and instantly punched in Sergey’s private number. He only called it in a case of emergency and this was such a time.

“This is Sergey, what do you want Cheche?” Sergey said. “This better be important!”

“We got big trouble. The girl you sent me is the fiancée of a former Houston cop and he apparently has ties with the FBI. They’re turning the city upside down looking for her. They obviously know that she’s here. All hell is breaking loose.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone for at least a minute. Then Sergey’s very composed and stern voice said, “Kill her.. Bern is there with two of my best men and I’ll instruct him to come to your place immediately to get the body and dispose of it the same way we did the killer of my daughter. Strangle her so there is no sign of blood if they find you and search your condo. Get a team to come in and sanitize the condominium after Bern and the guys take the body. I don’t want her fingerprints or DNA or any signs that she was ever there. Get rid of any drugs you have in the place. It must be absolutely clean, do you understand?”

“Yes sir!” Cheche answered, “I’ll get right on it.”

“You better not mess this up, Cheche, or it’s your ass,” Sergey grunted as he hung up the phone.

Chapter 76

I had a restless night and managed only a few hours of sleep. I awakened to a stormy, overcast day in Chicago. I showered, shaved and dressed in a polo shirt and jeans. After ordering breakfast, I gulped it down and left for O’Hare at 7:00 a.m. After about an hour I arrived at the airport and turned in my rental car. Remarkably, the flight was on time, considering the weather. I arrived in Houston a little after noon and by one o’clock I was headed to my hotel.

I checked into the Omni, said hello to the manager, and proceeded to room 410. I unpacked the few belongings I’d brought and ordered a tomato basil soup and salad special from room service with unsweetened ice tea. While I waited for my lunch, I called Rex to see if there was any activity in Chicago. After about four rings, I heard the trusted voice of my friend, “This is Rex Herns.”

“Rex, it’s Ben. I’m in Houston at the Omni Hotel. I’m scheduled to meet Special Agent Gerry Stewart later today. I just wanted to check in to see if there’s anything new going on in Chicago, especially with Sergey?”

“I’m beginning to believe that Sergey is implicated in this. I have information that supports your caller that Bo Lopez and Leah were taken to Sergey’s private apartment. I’m personally staking out his place. This is a very sensitive situation, since he’s so well connected politically. I’ll keep you up to date on anything new.”

“Thanks Rex, I’ll call you if anything worthwhile happens here. Thanks again for everything you’ve done. I owe you.”

“Forget it,” he said. “You’d do the same for me. Talk to you later.”

My lunch arrived and I sat down at the desk to eat it. I had a feeling that this was going to be a productive day.

Just as I was finishing my soup, the cell phone rang. I answered it.

“This is Gerry. I know we had plans to catch up over dinner, but I’ve got breaking information. We need to meet right away. I can be there to pick you up in twenty minutes, okay?”

“Sure, I’m in room 410. I’ll be waiting for you.”

I hung up, speculating on what was so urgent.
 

Twenty minutes later there was a knock on the door. I opened it and let Gerry in. He was carrying a briefcase and walked briskly to the desk and took out some papers.

“We’ve got something huge going on here. Unfortunately, Leah got caught in a web of criminal activity. Recently, the boss of the Salazar drug cartel and his top aide were murdered here in Houston. This morning Flores, who headed the largest Mexican drug cartel in Chicago, was shot down while picking up his daughter from school. All signs point to the Russian Mafia, but we feel like there’s a mastermind playing them like puppets. There have long been rumors of a powerful behind-the-scenes mobster who the criminals call the Benefactor. Through our deep cover FBI agents planted in the cartels, we have been informed that the new leaders of the cartels are loyal to this Benefactor. At first we thought he was just a legend, but now we know he’s real. We additionally think he might be a member of law enforcement because of his almost ghost-like existence and his ability to control the cartel leaders with inside information about raids and other law enforcement activities. It appears that he also is in control of substantial sums of money to finance certain drug activities and murders. We believe that he is now controlling the Chicago and the Houston cartels. We currently have an undercover FBI agent who has gone through hell to get to the Benefactor. This agent has been ruthless to get to the man and end his power grab. Any day now we believe the agent will meet him in person. The only man standing in his way of total power of drug trafficking in the United States is the Russian Mafia Godfather. This man may be Sergey Ivanova. If so, the Benefactor needs him dead.”