finding Ratana waiting for him behind the reception desk.
As he stepped up to the desk, he heard the crinkling of paper behind him in the small waiting area. Peter turned to see a stocky Asian man, dressed in black slacks and a black polo shirt sitting in a chair reading a newspaper.
“That’s the driver!” Emily bolted out of her chair. “He brings the girls from the house down to the massage parlor.”
“Peter,” Ellis called out, “try to get the guy to look up at you so we get his face on tape.”
“Mister,” Peter said, “is that today’s paper?”
The man looked up briefly and nodded his head at Peter.
“You want newspaper?” Ratana asked.
“Nah, that’s okay. Now that I think of it, there’s probably one in my hotel room.”
Peter dug the full money clip out of his pants pocket and pulled off five one hundred dollar bills. She handed him a pad of note paper and a pen, and he scrawled down the name of the hotel and his room number.
“There you go.” He held out the money and the note but did not release them when she tugged on them, getting her attention. He lowered his voice to a quieter, more serious tone and dipped his head down closer to hers. “You will bring the girl to my hotel room at nine o’clock tonight, right? Because I don’t like being made a fool of.”
She leaned to the side and peered around Peter, presumably at the man in the waiting room. Was she seeking his confirmation?
“Yes, yes, I bring her. Nine o’clock.” Ratana yanked the money and note out of Peter’s hand as he loosened his grip on them. “No worries. I bring her.”
CHAPTER 18
Peter stepped up into the FBI van to a round of applause. With one hand in front of his waist and one hand behind, he took a dramatic bow.
“Great job, MacKenzie,” Ellis praised.
“It was all for Molly.”
“You could always become an actor if the reporter thing doesn’t work out,” Colin kidded as Emily elbowed him lightly in the side.
“I’d say Oscar worthy,” Isabel added with a few claps of her hands.
“Too bad you couldn’t get that girl’s name,” Colin said.
“I think the girl knew she was being watched,” Peter said. “You know, the camera over the door.”
“Yeah, you have to be very careful when a camera is on you,” Colin smirked, clearly referring to Peter looking at his shoes. “Forgetting can leave you, shall we say, exposed.”
Peter’s cheeks flushed red.
“Oh, Colin, stop that.” Emily playfully slapped his leg. “Peter, you did a great job.”
“Now, about my car.” Ellis stuck out his hand and Peter tossed the car keys to him.
Emily swiveled her seat to face Tony. “Now what?”
“Now we move on to phase two.” Ellis stood and addressed the group. “We mobilize our respective teams, stick to the plan, and we rescue those girls.”
Molly’s image flashed in Emily’s mind. A stillness fell over the van like a hush. From the somber looks on the others’ faces, she suspected they were likely thinking about her, too. Time was ticking away. As important as it was to set the other girls free, if they didn’t rescue Molly that night, she may be lost to them forever.
~*~
Colin, Emily, and Peter got in position at the Paradise Valley Hotel. Colin had called earlier in the day and made arrangements for the hotel to clear a block of eight rooms on the third floor, hoping to keep any other guests from traipsing through their operation. He brought along three of Paradise Valley’s young police officers, dressed in street clothes.
FBI Special Agent Tony Ellis took charge of the entire operation, and he had outfitted each of them with state-of-the-art earpieces with embedded microphones. Peter retained his glasses, both for continuity and for taping their end of the takedown.
Emily sat in the lobby with two of the plain-clothes officers, out of the way but with a clear view of the entrance, anxiously waiting for Ratana to deliver Molly. Colin waited with Peter and the other plain-clothes cop in the third-floor room. The plan was for Colin to move to one of the vacant reserved rooms as soon as Peter was alerted their guests had arrived. The plain-clothes cop was to hide in Peter’s closet until he was needed.
At five minutes to nine, Ratana and one of the Thai girls walked through the hotel’s entry, escorted by the husky Asian man. Seeing Molly was not with the woman, Emily’s heart began to race and her palms