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His boss nodded again. “I know you do. But one of these days you need to take some time off.”
“I do better being busy.”
TJ’s eyes filled with concern. “I don’t want you to burn out.”
Luckey blinked. “You think I am?”
“Of course not. But my famous Four Sons of the Original Forty Texas Rangers have done a hell of a job for the department this last year. I want you to know you can have the time off if you feel you need it.”
“Can I take a rain check on that?”
He nodded.
Good. “So what smorgasbord of corruption and evil are you going to lay out for me this morning?”
TJ chuckled. “Take your pick of the latest Most Wanted cases that have come across my desk.” He riffled through the pile of files in front of him. “Armed robbery and murder of an armored-car guard. Kidnapping and brutal murder of two women, one of whom was set on fire in her wheelchair. The murder of a prominent CEO...or this latest one—a dead body dumped on the streets, a case that has the police detective stumped.”
“I’ll take that one,” Luckey said without hesitation.
TJ handed him the file. “Of course, it’s not a coincidence that your brother is mentioned in the abstract.”
“Nothing gets past you, Captain.”
His boss made an odd sound. “Go ahead and read it. Afterward I’ll tell you what the police commissioner told me.”
Luckey read the short paragraph to himself. “March 2. 2:20 a.m. Officers Mendez and Davis came across one Asian female of undetermined age found dead a block from the Underground Nightclub in the warehouse district of Austin, Texas. No witnesses. Died of gunshot wound to the back.”
“It’s sparse, all right,” he finally muttered.
TJ leaned forward. “The commissioner informed me that this is the fourth unsolved dumped body in less than a year. One was Indonesian, the other three of Chinese ethnicity. None had ties to friends or family found so far. No matches of their pictures to passport photos from China or Indonesia. No evidence that these girls were in school here, or had jobs and were here on working visas.
“The police have circulated pictures of the women everywhere, hoping someone will identify them, but investigations haven’t turned up anything.”
Luckey frowned. “Did they cover the strip clubs and spas, not to mention the massage parlors?” To be thorough they needed to check out modeling studios, cantinas and residential brothels as well, but it was a grueling process.
“If they did, they’ve had no success.”
Luckey had his work cut out for him. “Sex trafficking is also common in the agricultural, restaurant and nail salon industries.”
TJ shot him a glance. “The commissioner is convinced they were victims of trafficking and has turned the case over to us. What does your brother think? Between him and your father, you’re not all Davises for nothing.”
The compliment didn’t escape Luckey. “Randy disagrees that the deaths were random acts of violence. He sees a pattern and believes they’re related.”
“I’m sure he’s right. If anyone can figure it out, you can. Where are you going to start?”
“I want to see the latest body.”
“If you need backup later, just holler. Good luck.”
“Thanks, Captain.”
Intrigued by this new case, Luckey got up from the chair and headed out of the building to the car park. Once inside his XC90 Volvo, he drove to the county coroner’s office. En route he phoned his brother.
“Guess what? The case of the dead body you discovered has been turned over to the Rangers by the police commissioner.”
“What?”
“I was surprised, too. The captain agrees with your assessment that the four deaths are related. I’ve taken the case. Kind of gives you chills.” When Randy’s application to join the Rangers came up, Luckey would remind his boss of their conversation.
“Well, what do you know? I’d give anything to be working this case with you.”
“As long as we keep it to ourselves, who says you can’t help when you’re off duty? We’ve done it before. I’m going to the morgue to find out as much as I can. I’ll get back to you.”
“Thanks.”
* * *
TEN MINUTES LATER, Luckey knocked on the door of the coroner’s private office.
“Luckey? What can I do for you?”
“How are you, Dr. Wolff?” He’d had a working relationship with the forensics expert for years. Luckey handed him the file.
The older man studied it before nodding. “I examined the body last week. She was probably a sixteen-or seventeen-year-old Chinese woman, shot in the back with a .357 cal SIG Sauer.”
“How long had she been dead when she was found?”
“Six or seven hours.”
“According to my source, three other bodies of Asian women have been found on the streets in the last ten months and there’ve been no arrests made. I’d like to know their approximate ages, manner of death, everything you’ve got.”
“You’re welcome to the information in the files. But first, come over here. There’s something unique about this particular body. I would like to show you a piece of evidence that has me puzzled.”
Dr. Wolff walked to a shelf holding some labeled boxes and took one down. After lifting the lid, he showed Luckey the soiled, bloodstained, pale pink silk dress inside, folded so that the hole made by a bullet was visible.
“The young woman was wearing this when her body was brought in. Here. Put on some gloves.”
Luckey pulled out a pair from the carton and slipped them on.
“Go ahead and look on the underside of the skirt,” the doctor urged.
Curious, he turned it inside out. To his surprise he saw writing on the material, all the way around from the waist down, unusual characters that meant nothing to him. His brows knit together. “Is this Chinese?”
“It looks like a form of it, but none of our experts here recognize it. Don’t let your eyes deceive you. What is written here was not done in red ink, but blood. Her blood.”
Luckey moaned inwardly. “I need copies of the pictures you took of the writing.”
“Certainly. Anything you want.”
“Did the detective investigating this case know about this?”
“He examined the inscriptions, but as I said, we couldn’t tell him anything about them. I have no idea if he’s following up on any of it.”
“Can I see the body now?”
“Right this way.”
Luckey was taken to the morgue and shown the deceased. She’d been a lovely young woman with refined features and long black hair. He returned to the coroner’s office and gathered information from the files of the four bodies, photocopying everything for his own records. The reports revealed three of the deceased were of Chinese origin and one was Indonesian, as he’d been told. They were all short—between five-one and five-two—and most likely sixteen or seventeen years old.
“The clothing is different on each one,” he muttered thoughtfully.
The doctor nodded. “I performed the autopsies. The Indonesian victim was strangled. Hers was the first body found. The second victim was stabbed in the chest. The third girl was wearing only a slip, had bloodshot eyes and died from suffocation. As you know, this latest one was shot in the back.
“These women appear to have been innocent victims. They were attacked and murdered before being transported to another spot to be dumped. But this latest victim was different from the others. She had broad shoulders and powerfully muscular legs. This suggests that she was into sports—or perhaps she was a ballet dancer or gymnast.
“And there’s something else you’ll see in the forensics report. I found a substance on the sleeves of her dress. Whoever dragged her body had DMSO cream on his or her hands.”
“What’s that, exactly?” Luckey asked.
“Some kind of topical painkiller.”
“You didn’t find traces of it on the other three bodies?”
“No.”
“Details like that are going to help me build this case,” he murmured as he examined the writing on the fabric again. “I’ve never seen anything so strange before. Did you find out if there was something special about this dress?”
“It’s silk, well made. There’s no label to tell us where it might have been bought or what manufacturer made it.”
After thanking Dr. Wolff, Luckey tossed his gloves, picked up the files and photocopies and drove back to headquarters. He was happy to find his boss still in his office. Luckey knocked on the door and was told to come in. He put the information from Dr. Wolff on TJ’s desk.
“Take a look at all this. What we’ve got here is evidence that these four young Asians were violently murdered. When you asked me to attend that trafficking conference a month ago, I was impressed by the panel. It included everyone from Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Postal Inspection and the US Attorney General for the eastern US.
“The deaths of these four women fall in line with the latest statistics from the National Human Trafficking Hotline. To date, it has received more calls from Texas than any other state in the union.”
“That makes sense, considering our extremely diverse population,” TJ mused.
Luckey nodded. “Our close proximity to Mexico makes this the most crossed international border. But I never realized that Texas contains a quarter of all American trafficking victims, and that almost a third of the calls to the hotline come from our state.”
“That many?”
“I know. I was surprised, too. Twenty percent of the 50,000 people annually trafficked from foreign countries into the United States come through Texas.”
TJ shook his head.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t yet pinpointed the source of the female trafficking activity coming out of China. But today the coroner showed me two things that might have given us our first lead.” Luckey explained about the cream and then he got to the writing. “Check this out.”
He opened the file and showed his boss pictures of the mysterious characters written in blood on the underside of the latest victim’s dress. “I’m not sure what this means, but it could open up this case once I get some answers. No one in forensics can read it or translate it. I’m thinking I need to find an expert in Chinese as a place to start. I’ll call the language department at the UT Austin and go from there.”
“Excellent start, Luckey. Keep me posted.”
* * *
ALLY DUNCAN CHECKED her watch. Ten after three in the afternoon. Her graduate students had turned in their theses. Now that it was spring break, she could spend her time studying them before setting up appointments for her students to come in and defend them, once classes started again.
She texted her mom that she’d be home in half an hour. They were planning to take some of the orphans to Zilker Park. Years earlier, Ally’s father had established the Austin orphanage for Chinese children with disabilities. They would ride the Zilker Zephyr miniature train and enjoy a picnic on the grounds before dark. With her father back from Washington, maybe he’d go with them.
After reaching for her handbag in the desk drawer, Ally started for the door and opened it, only to collide with a tall, rock-hard, masculine body. “I’m sorry,” the man murmured, and grasped her upper arms to steady her, while securing a file folder under his arm.
After noting the badge on the pocket of his khaki shirt identifying him as a Texas Ranger, she lifted her head and let out a quiet gasp. The man was gorgeous. He had neatly trimmed dark blond hair and rugged features, but it was his brown eyes roving appreciatively over her face that infused her with warmth. She stepped back, forcing him to release her.
“I was looking for Dr. Duncan.” His deep voice resonated in the room. “I’m James Davis with the Texas Rangers.”
She swallowed hard, unable to remember the last time she’d met anyone so attractive. “You’ve found her. I was just leaving, obviously, but it’s apparent you’re here on official business.”
“You’re the Director of Asian Studies?” he blurted.
Ally took a quick breath. “I’m not what you expected?”
The hard line of his compelling mouth softened into a smile. “Frankly, no.”
She chuckled. “You don’t fit the type of student I normally see in my classes, either. Please, come in and sit down.”
He waited until she’d gone back to her chair behind the desk. “The secretary out front said that spring break has started and I might not find you in, but I took a chance, anyway.”
Ally’s cheeks were burning; she could feel it. She cursed herself for acting like a starstruck teenager instead of a twenty-eight-year-old woman meeting her first legendary Texas Ranger. “How can I help you?” she asked.
“First, may I ask you a question? Has anyone from the police department been here to talk to you yet?”
She looked surprised. “No. No one.”
He removed the file from under his arm and opened it to retrieve some pages, which he handed to her. “I’m just starting an investigation. These photos were taken by a forensics expert after the latest body of a young Chinese girl was brought into the morgue last week.”
Latest?
Just like that the conversation had turned to something hideous, something Ally was very familiar with. Women from the Hunan Province of China were noted for their beauty. Men from all over the world were willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to traffickers in order to enslave these poor young women. It was too sad and ghastly to dwell on. Her hands trembled a little as she lifted the first page and stared at the photocopy.
“Do you recognize this?”
Nothing could have surprised her more when she saw that the page contained writing rather than a woman’s picture. Not just any writing, though. The realization of what she was looking at caused Ally to break out in a cold sweat. Reading it, she felt her stomach muscles clench. She lifted the next page and the next, until she’d read the horrifying contents of all six, then she shot to her feet.
“Where did you come across this?”
“On the victim’s body. All this was done in her own blood on the underside of the dress she was wearing.”
Ally moaned.
“It’s apparent this writing has great significance for you.”
