“Years.”
Kate pushed down the anger.Remain calm. She looked around the small room and saw that it had a single bed with a dresser and some clothing. “So, you look after this house?”
She nodded.
“Do they pay you?”
She slowly shook her head.
“Great, now we have human trafficking to add to the whole mess.” She quickly sent that message to the DA. Then she escorted the young woman upstairs and sat her down in the kitchen. Sarah cried when she saw her. “Oh, your legal and criminal struggles arejuststarting,” Kate said. To the uniformed officer, she added, “Keep watch on both of them, please.”
At that, Sarah bawled and bawled.
“I still haven’t found Pamela though.”
Sarah looked back at her, tears in her eyes.
Kate went back downstairs again and followed the other hallway to several other small rooms and the two other maids, who were too scared to call out in answer to Kate’s yells. She told them both, “It’s okay. We’ll get you out of here.” She wasn’t sure they understood her. But still Kate found no sign of Pamela. She searched high and low and then came back up with the two females, who were also left in the officer’s charge. As Kate looked outside one of the kitchen windows of the large home, she noted a floor over the garage. “Is anybody in the rooms above the garage?”
Sarah shook her head.
“But, of course, I don’t believe you, so whatever. It doesn’t really make a difference what you or your husband say.” Kate walked outside and looked at the garage, opened it up, stepped inside, and managed to make her way upstairs. But nothing was there. It looked like it had housed people at one point in time, but nothing was here now. As she turned away to leave, she caught an odd sound. She listened to it and frowned because she couldn’t quite place it. Then she remembered something Simon had said.
She called him. “Hey, I’m at the parents’ house. You won’t believe some of the stuff we found here, like human trafficking. There are fourteen-, fifteen- and sixteen-year-old girls here who have been working at the house as maidsfor years—without pay.”
“Jesus. Funny how Pamela hasn’t mentioned anything like that.”
“I’m hearing a weird sound, nothing that I can really pinpoint. But there’s no sign of Pamela.”
“I was afraid of that. I was hoping she was there, but you know how hard it is to get any information.”
“I know. I know. And because we found these girls, I’m not upset about it. Believe me. I still feel like Pamela has to be here somewhere.”
“She’s not being very cooperative, and she’s scared.”
“Yeah, her parents are pretty scary, but it’s still not helpful. We have to find her and to figure out what’s going on, before we can help her.”
“Let me talk to her again,” he said.
“No, just tell her to give me a sign, some kind of a sign, so I can figure out where she is, if she’s even alive. Do you know for a fact that you’re not talking to dead people?”
When she heard him on the other end almost choking, she said, “Okay, fine. I’m hearing a weird whirring sound.”
“Whirring,” he said thoughtfully.
“Yeah, you know? Like something going around and around.”
“She’s riding the bike,” he said suddenly. “She’s on the bike. It’s all she has for sound.”
“What do you mean, it’s all she has for sound?”
“I don’t know. All I can tell you is that it’s all she has for sound.”
But, with that, she pocketed her phone and turned, beginning her search. By following that sound, she got to the far end of the garage and found a door inside a closet. She popped open the door and stepped inside. In there, in a room in utter darkness, she flipped on the lights to see a young woman on an exercise bike. She appeared to be crying silently, as she pedaled the bike faster and faster and faster. Kate stepped over in front of her and reached out a hand to touch her arm.
The woman shrieked and stopped pedaling.
Kate waved a hand in front of her eyes, realized this was, indeed, Pamela.