Truth & Lies: A Queen City Justice Novel Read Online Free PDF
Author: Elizabeth Bemis
right after she left for the US, so my boss decided not to join their network.”
“Is that unusual?” Dana asked.
Eva shrugged. “It didn’t seem so at the time.”
The name “Prava Ljubav”was familiar. It meant “True Love” in Croatian, and Dana flipped through the pages in her notebook, from her interviews the day before. Bingo! It was the same service that Stana Novak had used. However, Stana had gone straight to the source and not used a local service.
“Can you excuse me for one moment?” Dana asked. She checked her watch. Eleven thirty here made it five thirty in the morning in Cincinnati. She stepped across the open air café for privacy and hit the speed dial number for her boss.
“Sherwood.”
He had the audacity not to sound tired. Dana was convinced he didn’t actually need sleep. The man was a robot.
“It’s Dana, sir. I think I might be on to something with the mail-order bride service.” She explained what she knew.
“Get to the point, Yenichek.”
“I want Elena Kovać’s sister to place me as a mail-order bride, to see if we can get any bites.”
His answer dripped with incredulity. “You want to become a mail-order bride?”
“I want to see if we get any hinky hits from that service the team can follow up on. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to meet with the families of the missing girls.”
“How much is this going to cost me?”
Dana named the price that Stana Novak had paid directly to Prava Ljubav . It was a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of her last-minute plane fare to Dubrovnik.
“Fine. Keep me apprised.”
“Will do, sir.”
Eva’s eyes tracked her progress back across the dining area. She sat down and leaned forward. “I want you to help place me as a mail-order bride directly with the Prava Ljubav service.”
Wednesday, November 12—9:30 p.m.
Oakley Neighborhood, Cincinnati, OH
After three very long days of searching, Deck had exhausted all means of finding where Lee Jing had been held—short of doing a one-by-one, in-person search of the seven hundred and fifty nail salons in the Tri-state. He still didn’t have any concrete information on Michael Milton, other than he occasionally gambled and he wasn’t very good at it. And he’d discovered nothing that could lead to any reasonable judge granting a subpoena for more information.
He’d even called the offices of Dream Come True and asked for Michael Milton. The receptionist took his name and number and said that Mr. Milton was out of the office, but she’d have him call. Of course, he hadn’t. Deck didn’t know what he’d ask him if he did. “Say, do you own a nail salon that employs slave labor?” seemed like a quick way to get hung up on.
As Deck leaned back in his La-Z-Boy, he took a slug of beer from the bottle on the end table beside him. His computer sat across his lap and he made a decision to start thinking outside the box. He felt deep in his gut that the mail-order bride service preyed on the same sort of women that human traffickers would, so he went to DreamComeTrue.com and signed up. To join the service, he just had to offer up a credit card and a $50/month fee. There were, of course, hefty additional fees when a potential groom went to meet his bride, as well as when she came to the US, regardless of whether they actually married. However, since he wasn’t exactly in the market for a bride, mail order or otherwise, he figured he wouldn’t be paying those fees. He could afford to donate fifty bucks to the cause of a wild-goose chase in order to catch a human-trafficking ring, especially since he was on the cusp of working off book on this case.
The terms of service on the site were crazy long, and he skimmed through to make sure he wasn’t agreeing to offer up his first born or anything ridiculous, but he’d be willing to admit that his eyes had started to glaze over by the bottom of the page. Based on the warnings on the front of the site, he’d
“Is that unusual?” Dana asked.
Eva shrugged. “It didn’t seem so at the time.”
The name “Prava Ljubav”was familiar. It meant “True Love” in Croatian, and Dana flipped through the pages in her notebook, from her interviews the day before. Bingo! It was the same service that Stana Novak had used. However, Stana had gone straight to the source and not used a local service.
“Can you excuse me for one moment?” Dana asked. She checked her watch. Eleven thirty here made it five thirty in the morning in Cincinnati. She stepped across the open air café for privacy and hit the speed dial number for her boss.
“Sherwood.”
He had the audacity not to sound tired. Dana was convinced he didn’t actually need sleep. The man was a robot.
“It’s Dana, sir. I think I might be on to something with the mail-order bride service.” She explained what she knew.
“Get to the point, Yenichek.”
“I want Elena Kovać’s sister to place me as a mail-order bride, to see if we can get any bites.”
His answer dripped with incredulity. “You want to become a mail-order bride?”
“I want to see if we get any hinky hits from that service the team can follow up on. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to meet with the families of the missing girls.”
“How much is this going to cost me?”
Dana named the price that Stana Novak had paid directly to Prava Ljubav . It was a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of her last-minute plane fare to Dubrovnik.
“Fine. Keep me apprised.”
“Will do, sir.”
Eva’s eyes tracked her progress back across the dining area. She sat down and leaned forward. “I want you to help place me as a mail-order bride directly with the Prava Ljubav service.”
Wednesday, November 12—9:30 p.m.
Oakley Neighborhood, Cincinnati, OH
After three very long days of searching, Deck had exhausted all means of finding where Lee Jing had been held—short of doing a one-by-one, in-person search of the seven hundred and fifty nail salons in the Tri-state. He still didn’t have any concrete information on Michael Milton, other than he occasionally gambled and he wasn’t very good at it. And he’d discovered nothing that could lead to any reasonable judge granting a subpoena for more information.
He’d even called the offices of Dream Come True and asked for Michael Milton. The receptionist took his name and number and said that Mr. Milton was out of the office, but she’d have him call. Of course, he hadn’t. Deck didn’t know what he’d ask him if he did. “Say, do you own a nail salon that employs slave labor?” seemed like a quick way to get hung up on.
As Deck leaned back in his La-Z-Boy, he took a slug of beer from the bottle on the end table beside him. His computer sat across his lap and he made a decision to start thinking outside the box. He felt deep in his gut that the mail-order bride service preyed on the same sort of women that human traffickers would, so he went to DreamComeTrue.com and signed up. To join the service, he just had to offer up a credit card and a $50/month fee. There were, of course, hefty additional fees when a potential groom went to meet his bride, as well as when she came to the US, regardless of whether they actually married. However, since he wasn’t exactly in the market for a bride, mail order or otherwise, he figured he wouldn’t be paying those fees. He could afford to donate fifty bucks to the cause of a wild-goose chase in order to catch a human-trafficking ring, especially since he was on the cusp of working off book on this case.
The terms of service on the site were crazy long, and he skimmed through to make sure he wasn’t agreeing to offer up his first born or anything ridiculous, but he’d be willing to admit that his eyes had started to glaze over by the bottom of the page. Based on the warnings on the front of the site, he’d
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