Jillian Chantal

This week is a picture prompt week for the ladies of Tuesday Tales. We’ve each chosen a picture posted by our fearless leader and written under 300 words inspired by that photo. I am back to working on my thriller where the protagonist (a former NYPD officer) is seeking a runaway who he believes may have been kidnapped by a human trafficking ring. We pick up the story where he and his cohorts have found a secluded warehouse where some of the victims are being kept.

Be sure to check out the other tales here.

They left the last prisoner for me to handle and I tied his arms and feet. As soon as they were all taken care of, I tried to shake some intel from them. “Is this the only place you have for hiding the women you take?”

“Why should we tell you anything, Cop?” the biggest, meanest looking one asked.

I didn’t want him to know I wasn’t wearing a badge anymore, so I went along with his mistake. “I can see by the tats on your knuckles that you’re very familiar with prison. I’m quite sure you know the first to squeal gets the deal.”

He spat on the concrete floor. “Ain’t nobody in this crew gonna squeal.”

I threw my head back and laughed. “Yeah right. We’ve got you tied up all the way to Rikers and back—hell, maybe even a stint in the federal system based on where these ladies may hail from—you and I both know there’ll be a rat somewhere in the mix. May as well be you or one of these other three who get the deal.”

“Forger it man. You got nothing. All these ladies are here voluntary-like. Go on and ask them.”

I knew at this moment, he was probably right. They’d tell me anything they thought these guys wanted them to say but once we got them sobered up and away from here with a chance at freedom, at least one or two of them would talk. Some wouldn’t if this was the only life they had to return to. I wasn’t naïve about that at all.

“Oh, we intend to ask them.” I loomed over him. “Once we get them fed and off the drugs you’ve doped them up on.”

The man didn’t answer. He merely spat on the ground again.