Birds in Paradise Read Online Free Page B

her bottom lip.
    “What?” I pressed.
    “I—I don’t know.” She was lying of course. And I needed to know what she knew. It could be important. Even if it wasn’t important, I still needed to know. Or else I’d keep thinking about it, wondering about it, and I’d be distracted from finding the missing women.
    “Just between you and me, Brandi. You know I can be trusted with a secret.”
    “It’s nothing,” she said and waved her hand in the air. “Some of the girls say he’s been acting strangely, that’s all.”
    “How so?”
    She leaned forward and whispered, “He’s been interviewing some of the new ones.”
    “For what?”
    “Who knows? He hasn’t been able to enjoy a woman for several years now. I was one of his last. And even back then nothing happened.”
    “Did he interview the missing girls?”
    “I don’t know.” She drew a quick breath. “I’m sure it’s not related.”
    “I’m sure you’re right, but to be on the safe side, I’d like to talk to one of the girls he’s interviewed lately. Can you give me a name?”
    “No,” she said too quickly.
    “Come on, Brandi. I won’t make trouble for you. I’ll be subtle.”
    “No one is supposed to talk about the interviews. I shouldn’t know about them, and neither should you. The girls could get into trouble if Mr. Fu found out that one of them was talking when she should be keeping her mouth shut. And you don’t want to cross Mr. Fu.”
    I’d always assumed that Mr. Fu’s reputation was far worse than what everyone said. Fear gave him power, and I’d witnessed firsthand his compassion. He wasn’t a violent man.
    But what if he was behind the kidnappings?
    “This is important, Brandi. I need a name.”
    She shook her head.
    “Those women could die,” I pressed. “They might already be dead. We need to stop whoever’s taking them.”
    Brandi rose. She looked nervous. “Find Sally Porter. She might talk.”
     
     
    IT WAS WELL AFTER MIDNIGHT and I was still searching for Sally Porter—a woman none of the prostitutes seemed to know—when I noticed that my shadow had returned. Not wanting anyone to witness my meeting with this mysterious Sally Porter—I was still confident I could find her—I gave my shadow the slip at the Ala Wai Canal by climbing into a thick growth of mangrove trees on the bank of the canal. Their web-like roots and limbs swallowed me into their darkness, making me as invisible as the native plants the alien mangrove trees were displacing.
    My shadow poked around the area for a while and then continued down the main road without me. Feeling extremely clever, I climbed out of the tree and brushed mud from my arms and legs. Not only had I outsmarted my mystery man, crouching up in that tree had given me time to think. And that’s where it had hit me. Of course I hadn’t been able to find Sally Porter. I’d been running around like a headless chicken all day and hadn’t been looking in any of the right places.
    Brandi had told me that Mr. Fu had been interviewing women who were new to the streets. Very few women chose prostitution as a fulltime career. Instead, it was a tempting hell that one slipped into...slowly. First, like Tina, a woman might tell herself that she’d do it for just one night to pay the bills. To make ends meet. But the bills would pile up again. And then one night becomes two nights. Two becomes a week. Soon, she’s depending on the money she can make from peddling her flesh.
    Sally Porter, like Tina, was new to the streets. Which meant she was probably still holding out hope of landing a decent job that could pay for food, clothes...rent. If I had any chance of finding her, I needed to visit some of the same shelters I’d used when I was homeless.
    I shivered at the thought of returning to the very places I had firmly vowed to leave in my near-starving past. But for the missing girls, I would have to do this.
    At first, my efforts gave me nothing, and I was beginning to