Hollywood Taken Page 28

  Worman sat there like he was frozen in place. When he finally spoke, it was clear that he was out to save his own skin. “I want it in writing that I won’t go to prison, then I’ll tell you everything.”

  “That’s not the way it works,” I said. “You talk, we listen, then we got to the DA and see what he says.”

  Worman shook his head. “Not good enough.”

  I looked at Olivia. “I think we’re done here.”

  We were at the door when Worman called us back. “Okay...okay...I’ll tell you what you want to know. Just promise you’ll ask the DA to cut me a break.”

  We came back over to him. “Let’s start with you telling us where we can find Vasilisa Popov.”

  Worman brushed the sheen of perspiration off his forehead. “Maybe at the airport, if you hurry.” He looked at the clock on the wall. “Her plane leaves for Moscow in twenty minutes.”

  SIXTY-THREE

  Olivia rushed out of the interview room and called the Los Angeles Airport Police. After her call was transferred through channels, they managed to stop Popov’s flight as it was pulling away from the gate. Lance Worman’s assistant was then arrested and transported to Hollywood Station. It was late afternoon by the time Olivia and I met with her in an interview room.

  “Why am I here?” Popov demanded in a heavy Russian accent.

  Lance Worman’s assistant was about forty, with thick dark hair and hazel eyes. She was short, with a powerful build and the demeanor of someone who was used to getting her way.

  Olivia laid things out before reading Popov her rights, going over what we knew about the blackmail for sex ring, the levels in the game called Prank, and the involvement of her employer.

  She then told Popov what Worman had said. “Your boss told us you were complicit in what happened, working with Ben Allman and others in procuring girls.”

  “Nonsense,” Popov said. “He big liar. I know nothing about what you say.”

  Olivia looked at me, then read Popov her rights. I expected that she would lawyer-up and our interview would be over, but she surprised us by agreeing to waive her rights and talk. When she spoke again, her demeanor had changed, maybe the reality that she was in big trouble was beginning to sink in.

  “I tell you what I know, but it is not too much,” Popov said.

  “Let’s start with you explaining how you came to this country and went to work for Mr. Worman,” Olivia said.

  Popov took several minutes, telling us that she had been born in a small town in rural Russia, before moving to the city of Kursk as a girl. She’d been determined to lift herself out of a life of poverty and moved to Moscow in her twenties where she studied English. That eventually led her to getting a job with the Federal Migration Service in Russia, where she learned the ins and outs of passport and visa requirements for the federation, as well as those for several other eastern countries, including the Ukraine.

  “And, you used that knowledge when you went to work for Ben Allman, didn’t you?” I said.

  “I meet Ben when he do marketing for company in Russia. He convince me to move to this country, and the rest, as you say, is history.”

  “You helped bring girls into the country, in some cases forging their passports and visas.”

  She smiled. “I help cut corners, that all.”

  “How many girls?”

  “I sorry?”

  “How many girls did you help gain entry into the U.S.?”

  She shrugged. “I lose count. Maybe forty or fifty.”

  I looked at Olivia, the scope of our investigation becoming clearer. “Tell us about your work with APN, and specifically Chloe Foster.”

  “I help bring some girls here to be nannies, that all.”

  “And Ms. Foster?”

  “I don’t know her.”

  “Of course you do. She helped Ben Allman and your boss get girls from the Ukraine.”

  Popov shook her head. “No. I only help with visa documents so girls could come from that country. I not do anything else.”

  “Tell us about Anna Levkin,” I said, thinking she knew a lot more than she was telling us.

  “Ben wanted special girl for his family. When he saw picture of Anna, he want me to help get her to this country. I forge documents so it happen.”

  “And when she got here, Ben used Jason Murray to get her involved in the game.”

  “I think so, but I not told about details. All I know is Ben say she was popular girl and wanted to push her high in game. I told Anna didn’t want that.”

  “And she became an Expendable, marked with M-5.”

  “If you say so. I don’t know.”

  “What about your boss?” Olivia said. “What was his role in the game?”

  Popov shrugged. “All I know is he work with Ben and get dates for girls.”

  “It’s called prostitution.”

  When Popov didn’t respond, I decided it was time to lean hard on her. “We know there’s a lot more to what happened. Your boss and others have told us a woman named Matrona runs the game of Prank.” My eyes bore into her. “And I think I’m looking at her.”

  Her voice rose and became defiant. “That crazy. I also hear that name, but I not Matrona.”

  “Don’t lie to us,” Olivia demanded. “We’ve followed the trail. It starts in Russia and the Ukraine and leads all the way to Hollywood. You have the skill and expertise to bring girls into this country. You are Matrona. You are the controller of the game of Prank.”

  Popov’s eyes filled with tears, her emotions taking over for the first time. “I already told you, I get girls here for Ben and Lance. I know what they been doing, but I not Matrona.” She wiped the tears off her face. “Maybe you should talk to Laura.”

  “Ben’s wife?”

  She nodded. “I think she know who is Matrona.”

  SIXTY-FOUR

  We spent another hour with Vasilisa Popov, but she insisted that she was merely the go-between for Ben Allman and Lance Worman, helping bring girls into the country illegally. As Olivia and I drove to Allman Marketing Group, where we were told Laura Allman was working for the day, we processed what Popov had told us.

  “Do you think Laura Allman could be Matrona?” I asked.

  Olivia cut her eyes to me for an instant as she drove. “Matrona is a Russian name. Maybe Laura thinks of herself as being in control of the Russian woman she had working for her.”

  “She admitted knowing that her husband was using Anna the last time we talked to her, after originally denying everything. Maybe she had a more direct involvement in his business.”

  “As in, being her husband’s partner?”

  I nodded. “He works through Popov and blackmails Chloe Foster into getting the girls. Laura takes it from there and works with the Matchmakers to control the Daisies.”

  “It’s possible, but, if that’s the case, she hid her actual identity from everyone except her husband. It also means, she murdered him.”

  I remembered Grant telling me that Matrona had cloaked herself, like a player in a video game. “There’s an old saying, something about if you really want to hide something you put it in plain sight.”

  Olivia smiled. “Let’s go see if that holds true.”

  Leo and Al had followed us to the Allman’s place of business. After checking in with the receptionist, we all met with Laura Allman in a large conference room near her deceased husband’s office.

  As we settled in and Bernie trotted off to a corner, Laura explained the boxes and stacks of paperwork on the far end of the table, “Excuse the mess, I’m in the process of packing up the office. The Allman Marketing Group is history.”

  “We understand,” Olivia said. “All things considered, it’s probably for the best.”

  She levelled her dark eyes on Olivia. “Did you find out something about Ben’s death?”

  “We’ve done some further investigation and learned that a man named Lance Worman and his assistant Vasilisa Popov were involved in the sextorti
on ring with your husband.”

  “Sextortion.” She shook her head. “That makes it sound terrible.”

  “It was terrible,” I said. “Girls, just like Anna, were sexually abused, and, in some cases, murdered.”

  She swept back her luxurious dark hair. “I know and I’m sorry. I wish I could go back in time and change everything.”

  Al spoke up. “You can’t change what’s happened, but you can level with us about your involvement.”

  “I wasn’t involved. I’ve already told you that I found out what Ben was doing and was horrified. I told him to stop and he said he would.” Her eyes glistened. “I believed him. I guess if I could change something, that would be it.”

  Al shook his bald head. “Not good enough. You expect us to believe that your husband was involved in brining illegals into the country and forcing them to be sex slaves, and you knew nothing about any of it.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m telling you. Ben was very secretive.”

  “But you did the books for his company. You had to know what he was doing.”

  “I didn’t,” Laura spat, tears spilling from her eyes. “And, that’s the truth, whether you want to believe it or not.”

  Al fixed his eyes on her. “We’re here to find out the identity of Matrona and I think I’m looking at her.”

  Laura brushed her tears, cut her eyes back to Al. “If you believe that. You’re sadly mistaken.”

  It was a good act, but none of us believed it. We’d given Al some credit for being partially right that our case involved prostitution. As a reward, we’d let him take the lead and he’d played things just as we’d rehearsed beforehand.

  It was now Leo’s turn to lean on Allman. “Things will go a lot easier on you if you tell us everything. I’ll personally talk to the DA and tell him you were cooperative, but you’ve got to level with us.”

  Laura didn’t look at him, instead keeping quiet and crossing her arms as her tears came again.

  Leo gave her a moment, then said, “Tell us about Ms. Popov.”

  She cut her eyes to him. “I heard Ben mention her name as someone he did business with, but I don’t personally know her.”

  “That’s not what she says. She told us you know who Matrona is.”

  Laura lowered her gaze again. “I’ve already told you, I don’t know her and I don’t know this Matrona woman.”

  I glanced at Olivia who nodded, a signal to take things to the next level. I stood and removed the handcuffs from my purse.

  “Stand up and turn around,” I said to Laura.

  Her pretty features hardened. “What for? What are you doing?”

  “I’m arresting you as an accomplice to sex trafficking and murder.”

  She remained seated, her head slumping down as she lost all control. I gave her a moment, then reached for her arm.

  “Stop,” she shrieked. “Okay, I’ll tell you everything I know.”

  I took a seat. “We’re listening.”

  She found a box of tissues and blotted her tears. “Ben did tell me about the game, but only after I confronted him about his involvement with Laura. He said something about...I think the girls were called the Daisies. He said Anna was the perfect candidate for what he called Prank, and he thought she would eventually make us millions.”

  “And you did nothing about it,” I said, in disgust.

  “I begged him to stop. I even threatened to leave him, but it was useless. He told me we would eventually be rich beyond our wildest dreams, and that we could even buy a private island someday.” She wiped her nose. “I agreed to keep quiet and I know now that was wrong.”

  “What about Worman and Popov?”

  “I knew their names and that they had an interest in the game, but that’s all. I never even met them.”

  “And Matrona?”

  Laura cut her eyes to me, then looked away. “I’ll say it for the last time, I don’t know who she is.”

  I fixed my eyes on her. “Not good enough.”

  She didn’t look at me, heaved out a breath and lowered her voice. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing more I can tell you.”

  I stood again and held out my handcuffs. “You can give us her name, or you can go to jail. It’s your choice.”

  Laura looked at me for a long moment. She brushed her tears away and stood, holding out her hands. “Then take me to jail.”

  SIXTY-FIVE

  Laura Allman was arrested and booked into jail, but we knew we had a lot of work to do if we were to make the charges stick. We all believed that she knew who Matrona was, but was deathly afraid of telling us her identity. If we didn’t come up with something additional to give the DA reason to file charges on Allman, it was likely that she would be set free. That meant, other girls still in the game of Prank, working as Daisies and Swags, would continue their life of sexual slavery. Olivia and I were determined not to let that happen.

  Bernie and I got home just after seven where I found my roommates with Robin, Otto, and Felix, the interior decorator he wanted our butler to meet. Felix was about fifty and impeccably dressed, in a white suit and soda jerk hat, with a blue bowtie. The outfit was probably meant to be a trendy fashion statement, but he looked like the neighborhood ice-cream man.

  “I believe this house needs an entire gut-job,” Felix announced after Robin introduced us. “This place is like a cave. If I didn’t know better, I’d think a serial killer lives here.”

  Natalie looked at me. “You wanna tell him, or should I?”

  “Be my guest,” I said.

  Natalie told him the story of Bobby Craven murdering his family in the house, including the fact that he’d beheaded them and carried their heads downstairs.

  “Oh, my,” Felix said after she’d finished. He looked at Otto. “I think we have our work cut out for us. Would you care to show me around a bit more?”

  After Otto left with Felix to show him the kitchen, I said to Robin, “He seems nice enough. Maybe a bit on the fussy side.”

  He smiled. “That’s why I thought he and Otto might be a match.” Bernie came over to him for some attention. Robin ran a hand through his fur, then said to me. “Do you have a moment?”

  After Natalie and Mo left us, saying something about having a new plan for their BS Challenge, I took Robin into the study and closed the doors, sensing he had something important on his mind.

  I took a seat as he handed over a video tape from a backpack he carried. “I found this on my doorstep this morning. I have no idea who delivered it.”

  My emotions surfaced. “It’s just like the first one that Daniel left me.”

  He nodded. “I thought me might want to watch it together.”

  I blinked several times, my eyes filling. “Let me get the VCR player.”

  It took me a couple minutes to retrieve the player and set it up with the TV in the corner of the room. I held the tape up and looked at Robin. “You ready?”

  His half-smile was wistful. “No, but I guess I have to be.” He took a breath. “Go ahead.”

  I pushed the tape into the player and took a seat next to Robin. The images on the TV flickered and were disjointed before we saw the brother we’d never known appear. Daniel set the camera on what looked like a ledge of rocks and walked away. I realized he was near a body of water, maybe a small lake.

  “His eyes,” Robin said as he took in the image of our brother. “It’s like looking into a mirror.”

  I nodded. “Like yours and dad’s.”

  Daniel began speaking and our attention went back to the TV. “Hi Kate. If you’ve received this second tape, I’m assuming you’re there with Robin.” He took a moment, then said, “Hello Robin. It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m your brother, Daniel.”

  Robin’s eyes filled and he took a breath. “This is so hard.”

  I squeezed his hand as my heart raced and Daniel went on. “As Kate has probably told you Robin, this is the story of our lives. While we’ve never met, what I have to say impacts
both you and Kate. As you both probably know by now, Dad left some money for us in a trust fund. That money was stolen by Harlee Ryland and her grandfather. I was forced to withdraw it all and give it to them under threat of death. I’m sorry about that, but please understand I had no choice.”

  I sensed that Daniel’s emotions were surfacing as he continued. “I want you to know that Dad was murdered by Ryan Cooper. His execution was ordered by the Rylands, just as my mother’s death was later orchestrated by them.”

  Daniel brushed his tears away. He seemed distracted, looking away for a moment before continuing. “What you may not know, is that my mother told me that Dad took that money from the Rylands as evidence of their drug dealing. He was planning to go to the authorities. Before he was murdered, he knew that Ryland was closing in on him and had a friend deposit the money in an offshore account.” There were more tears. “Our father was a good man, who tried to do the right thing by all of us. Please, always remember that.”

  There was another hesitation and Daniel disappeared from the screen for a moment.

  “What do you think is going on?” Robin asked, as he tried to regain his composure, and make sense of what was happening in the video.

  I blotted my tears. “I’m not sure. Maybe there’s...”

  Daniel appeared back on the screen and continued. “I’ve got to make the rest of this quick. In my last video, I told you that I believe everything in the universe is connected. I’m now convinced that’s true. Kate, you know a man. His name Pearl. He worked with Dad a long time ago. Pearl is...”

  There was a sudden jostling of the camera, like maybe someone had knocked it over. The lens took in the sky, before the camera appeared to come to rest in the grass. The images then suddenly went dark.

  “What just happened?” Robin asked, looking at me.

  I sucked in a breath and choked, “I’m not sure, but I think something happened to our brother while he was taping his message. Something bad.”

  SIXTY-SIX