Truth & Lies: A Queen City Justice Novel Read Online Free Page A

remodeling project would be good for his balance, but the frustration of the slow progress was murder on his temperament. “There’s not much that could help these hands.” He balled his fingers and dropped his hands back down to the desk. “It’s a case I’m working on. Chinese girl claimed she was being held against her will and forced to work in a nail salon or her parents would be killed.”
    “Oh. I see. I started going there because I had a Groupon and it was close to my house. They did a good job and I’ve been going there ever since.”
    “Do you know who runs it?”
    “I have no idea. The receptionist is white and obviously American, but really young, and most of the other employees are Asian — I think Vietnamese, but I’m not sure.” She laughed. “Most of them don’t speak much English and I’m pretty sure they’re talking about us with each other, but it’s not like I’d know.”
    “I don’t suppose it overlooks a wooded area?”
    She laughed. “No. It’s in the middle of Deerfield Town Center near Mason.”
    “Hmm. That would have been too easy. What’s it called?”
    “Sole Tuscano.”
    Deck turned to his computer and fired up his browser to search for the spa. It came up at the top of Google. He clicked on the site. Deck could easily believe he was looking at a site for a salon in the middle of Tuscany. It was slick with stock photos and well-written copy. Nowhere on the site did it show the photos or bios of the nail technicians or interior photos of the salon. “So short of showing up at all seven hundred and fifty nail salons in the city, there’s probably no way to tell who’s running a salon or if all the employees are foreign slaves.”
    “That does seem like a thankless task,” Vivian agreed.
    “Thanks, Viv.”
    Deck still had the Mike or Michael Milton lead. Worst case, there were twenty within a hundred-mile radius. He pulled up a Lexis Nexus database, to look for men named Mike or Michael Milton. The only interesting option was a Michael Milton of Blue Ash, a suburb of Cincinnati proper.
    A number of different LLCs listed Michael Milton as the owner, most of which seemed to be matchmaking services. The first was an online service that probably hoped to compete with the likes of Match.com and OkCupid but didn’t seem to have much fanfare. Next, an in-person dating service, third, a speed-dating service. Finally, and most interestingly, Michael Milton owned an aggregator of several foreign mail-order bride services. Deck pulled up Dream Come True in his browser. A notice at the bottom of the site clearly stated that background checks must be run on US Citizens before they could communicate through the service to potential brides.
    “Turnabout is fair play,” Deck murmured as he began a background check on Michael Milton. His net worth was… unimpressive. The guy’d had several bouts of extreme debt.  And a number of 1099s over the years for winnings at casinos and racetracks—some more significant than others. It didn’t appear that he owned any nail salons, which would have tied the whole case up with ribbon and a bow.
    Deck switched back to the mail-order bride service.
    “Considering a foreign bride, Murphy?” Captain Rupert’s voice held a hint of humor.
    “Hardly, sir.” Deck spun his chair until he faced his boss. He told Rupert what he’d discovered about the Lees leaving their hotel. “I’m following up on the name Lee Jing gave us, ‘Michael Milton.’ One that I found in the area has finances that are all over the place, and if I were a betting man, I’d bet this guy has a gambling problem. He owns a bunch of dating services, including this mail-order bride service.  It may be nothing, but I want to follow up on this. I feel in my gut I’m on to something.”
    “Your gut has yet to fail me. I’m forwarding your report to police headquarters. Given the lack of a complaining witness, they can decide whether to forward it on to the FBI. Do