Smuggling Blood Page 11

  Fifteen

  Pulling the old car up in front of the clinic, Gabriella gazed at the front door, watching two women as they enter the building. Their bodies were hunched and their skin had become drawn and pale. Weight was off their bodies, and they moved like women that were more than three times their age. The drugs had clearly set in on the women, causing them to come in and sell their blood to get another fix of the drugs they so desperately wanted.

  "Now, that's just a shame," Gabriella said to herself as she pulled the keys from the ignition and placed them into her purse. Gabriella got out of the car, and let the door swing closed behind her before she began making her way up the half block to the entrance of the clinic.

  Watching her surroundings, Gabriella saw a shady looking man coming from the other direction. With the way he held himself, like he was trying too hard to blend in and look casual, Gabriella knew this man wasn’t someone likely to be from the KGB. He seemed focused on the entrance of the clinic as he shiftily made his way to the front steps. This was the perfect opportunity to intercept, so Gabriella quickened her pace.

  "Excuse me, ma'am, I'm very sorry," the man apologized and nodded at the woman who had converged with him at the entrance to the steps. "Please, you go first."

  "Thank you, sir," Gabriella nodded in return. As she moved by the man, between him and the railing, she bumped against his side. A firm and hard object sat on his hip, tucked inside his pants and shirt. The woman who'd been working the world of underworld espionage for so many years knew exactly the feel of what it was. A revolver, and not anything new. More than likely it’d been snatched up during some kind of a burglary or home invasion, and now was bootleg on the street. Nothing that would have been taken or purchased by any of the regulars that had licenses to carry guns.

  "Hold on there, buddy," Gabriella said, shifting quickly and hooking the man's arm with her own. "Come with me, right this way."

  Gabriella kept her feet moving as she still continued to hold on to the man's arm, pulling him and causing him confusion all at the same time. "Ma'am, I need to get into the doctor's office," the man said with a false sense of urgency in his voice, "I have an appointment."

  "Your appointment's gonna be to go to prison," Gabriella said quietly, letting the man know that she knew what was going on with him.

  "What do you mean prison?" The man stared at her with wide eyes. "Why do you think I'd be going to prison? That makes no sense."

  "What do you mean it makes no sense? You've got a gun on your hip. If you ask me, I bet you're going in there to kill Patel."

  "Kill Patel, he's my doctor, why would I do that?" the man protested.

  "Because he killed someone that you love," Gabriella said with a slight smile. "My name is Gabriella. What's yours."

  "My name is... " The man paused, trying to think up something to tell the woman that wouldn't lead to his eventual capture.

  "Trying to think of a name?" Gabriella asked. "Look at me, sir. I'm not Indian, I'm not going to be here long term, and I'm surely not gonna turn you in because I'm trying to divert you from this, so please, just tell me your name."

  "My name is Jay." The man looked to the floor, as he did so, Gabriella released her grip on his arm. "But I didn't come here to harm Dr. Patel. Why would you even think that?"

  "Because you're carrying a gun. I felt it when I brushed by you, and I know what a gun feels like. Dr. Patel is not a man who hasn't had threats in the past. He has security, he has people to help him. If you went in there and tried to kill him, you'd be dead long before he would."

  "And how would you know that?" Jay questioned. "How would you know what he has for security?"

  "Because I'm his girlfriend," Gabriella said, causing Jay’s head to dart up and look her in the eye. "I know, I'm not very proud of it either. Like a lot of people around, I thought the man was a saint, helping everybody out, but then the story started to come in about who he really was. And well, now I'm actually a little bit afraid to break up with him, because who knows what he'll do to me if he's hurt all these other people."

  "I wasn't gonna kill the doctor," Jay said quietly. "I'm just here for an appointment. I carry the gun for protection, it's licensed with the police."

  "Jay, I'm not here to give you a hard time. I'm not here to take your gun away. I just don't want you going into a situation that's gonna get you killed. If I had to guess, sir, I would say that someone very close to you got some bad blood, and if they didn't die, they came damn close. But you look like a man that's hurting inside, the kind of hurt that won't go away, which leads me to believe someone in your immediate family was killed by the doctor. Just go home, don't make them lose another person to this man."

  "Ma'am, I don't know what you're talking about." Fumbled Jay, trying to get the words out and have them sound legitimate. "I... I... I don't know really know what you're talking about, but I'm not someone that's interested in killing this man. All that will do is give me a life in prison."

  "Jay, be honest with me, because I'm trying to be honest with you. I'm not asking you to admit that you're going to do anything, or that you have any thought to do anything, because I know that can land you in a lot of trouble. I'm just asking you to go home. You don't have to convince me that you're here for the right reason. That it's just some kind of an appointment. I understand your pain, but it would be fool-hardy for me to let you walk in there during the middle of the day to do something like this."

  Jay stared at Gabriella, knowing that anything he said, she would see directly through. Her instincts and her knowledge felt more than just the likes of a girlfriend of the doctor. She had an understanding of what he was all about, and she had an understanding for his behaviors. Feeling a trust in the woman that he couldn't explain, Jay fumbled with the thoughts in his mind of letting her know about too much, too quickly.

  "Just go home, Jay. It's okay. You don't need to prove anything to me or anybody else. You just do exactly what you want, when you want. But don't kill the doctor. Prison is no place for a man with a good heart."

  "How do you know all this?" Jay asked her, his face turned into one of distrust, expecting that the woman may be manipulating him and controlling him the way she may want.

  "I know so much because I've seen Dr. Patel in action for a while now. And like I told you before, it disgusts me." Gabriella looked down both sides of the street to check their surroundings, seeing crowds of people moving forward. "Why don't you come with me to my car and we can talk?"

  Feeling instantly on edge, Jay bristled at the comment, knowing that getting himself into a confined location would add more complications to everything that he was doing.

  "Why don't we stay out of your car." Jay suggested. "Maybe we can just go for a walk."

  Nodding her head in agreement, Gabriella started to stroll toward her car as the man walked by her side, but slightly back to keep himself in position.

  "Do you feel comfortable now?" Gabriella asked. "I left you with a clear shot of me. Your gun's on your right hip, I'm on your left, with you flanking me slightly, you could draw on me and shoot me in a second. That should prove I have some trust in you."

  Gabriella’s words were clear and precise. She easily sniffed out Jay’s attempt to control the situation and she reflected it back to him words.

  "You seem to know a lot about these kind of things," Jay noted. "How does a woman like you wind up knowing these sorts of things, are you with the police?"

  "No, I'm not a police officer. I was just in the military for quite some time."

  "You were in the military?" he asked. "I did four years myself."

  "Well, we have that in common, don't we?"

  "It seems like we both also may have a distaste for Dr. Patel," Jay said the doctor’s name with distaste, letting on for the first time, his frustrations with the doctor. "I wonder if we could help each other out in some kind of a way?"

  "Do you trust me enough for that?" Gabriella asked. "You just met me, you don't r
eally know anything that I'm about, other than I'm the girlfriend of the man that you wanna kill."

  "I never said I wanted to kill... " Jay started, before Gabriella interrupted him.

  "I know, I know. You don't wanna kill the doctor. Don't worry, Jay, I'm not gonna turn you into anybody," Gabriella said, showing some frustration. "To tell you the truth, I'd love your help. Dr. Patel has a lot of power and he knows a lot of people. I've attempted to get away from him one time before but he had my visa revoked."

  "Didn't that work out to your advantage? I'm sure the government came and tried to kick you out."

  "I wish it had been that easy but Patel made sure that it wasn't. He had them relist me as a national. The visa got flipped and it looked as if I wanted to leave the country and use a visa," Gabriella explained, fabricating the story as quickly as she could. No matter the trust that she felt for the man or how useful he could be to her in her mission, she was not about to let on the true nature of who she was

  "So you're stuck here?" Jay asked. "If you need to hide, I could help you with that."

  "It wouldn't matter," Gabriella said softly, allowing a woeful tone to enter her voice. "Say you hid me somewhere, the moment I step out, I'm the most obvious person around. I'm a five-foot-one woman with white skin in the middle of New Delhi. I scream tourist everywhere I go when people look at me. Immediately noticeable, the kids run up to me trying to sell me things, and the men working their tents down at the bazaar, all try to sell to me until they realize that I'm the girl from the neighborhood. They would pick me up and drag me in within seconds if I tried to get away from Patel."

  "Do you really feel like he yields that kind of power around here? I know people enjoy him and love what he's done, but I don't think he's the kind of man that can get the police to do things for him."

  "Jay, just think about it. The number of police officers there are here in New Delhi, and then the administration within the police office. I'm sure there's a few people in there that have needed his expertise. They've needed his blood. And if I know Dr. Patel at all, he provided it for them free of charge, in order for them to look the other way with other situations. There was no chance that anybody in their families was going to die."

  "It was my son," Jay finally admitted, feeling the words slip from his lips before he had the opportunity to stop them. "He was a good boy, very young. I used to love to watch him with his friends. And then he'd come in and we'd talk about how he was going to be one of the next great players for India. He was just so full of life, and now it's gone."

  "I'm so sorry Jay, it's a pain that I can't even imagine," Gabriella could relate, feeling the loss of Antonio deep within her heart. Although he wasn't a child, she knew that the next closest thing was the spouse. And if Jay's pain was even a slight fraction of what she felt, it had to be agonizing for the man. And knowing that it was his child, she was sure that her pain was only a slight sliver of his.

  "I'm still not saying that I wanted to kill Patel, or that I will kill Patel."

  "I haven't asked you to admit anything, Jay. I just don't want you to go in there and make a horrible mistake. I made the mistake of getting mixed up with that man, and it's been haunting me for two years," Gabriella said.

  "Two years?" Jay questioned. "If you've been around here for two years, why haven't I seen you?"

  Holding herself still, Gabriella built up some tears inside and let them start to fall, just as if she had been on cue in the theater production on Broadway. "For the first few years he kept me locked up," Gabriella sobbed quietly.

  "What do you mean locked up?" Jay could feel his anger building up at the idea of the woman suffering so badly.

  "He had an apartment on the other side of New Delhi. Once we had started to see each other, he made sure I stayed over there." Gabriella looked down into her lap, fumbling with her keys between the fingers of each hand. "Once I told him that I wasn't interested in the relationship anymore, he became enraged. He beat me."

  "I'm sorry that happened to you, ma'am." Jay felt a tenderness for the woman. "I knew he was a vicious man, but I didn't know that."

  "He had to make sure I didn't escape. He handcuffed me to a radiator. He told me that if I yelled for help, that his men would come in and they'd beat me. It only took one or two times of yelling, before I realized that I needed to stop. They wouldn't break my bones, but they'd just beat me until I couldn't stand. They never hit me on the face though. Patel always told them, leave her face alone. It's perfect." Gabriella stared down and let her eyes go misty. "He came to see me, at first, every day. Mostly for sex. Obviously, I wasn't interested in having sex, so it was far from consensual. He just turned into this animal. Nothing like he shows the other people around. He was primal and savage. So he thought as time went on, I was becoming more dedicated to him. That I was there for him and that I truly loved him. Finally, a few weeks ago, he told me he'd let me go, but that I always belonged to him, and if I chose to disobey him, I'd find my way back to being chained down."

  "So even though you're walking around town, he's still in control of you, and there's no way to really stop him, is there?"

  "There is one way." Gabriella glanced her eyes up at Jay. "I had the same idea as you. I wanted to kill him. I figured if I could do that, I'd stop it happening to any other girls. That I could just stop out his sick ways, and then forever more, everybody would be fine. Even if it landed me in jail or dead, but at least I’d have done some good."

  Feeling the words he had said to Priya come back to him, Jay felt he had met a kindred spirit in Gabriella. A woman that didn't see what would happen to her or with her future, but instead, wanted to make things right, no matter how vicious it was.

  "Gabriella, why don't you come with me?" Jay offered. "I have some people that I'd like you to meet. Some people that had to deal with the negative side of Dr. Patel. I think they can make you feel better, because we all have a similar feeling about the man, and we want similar results."

  "Jay?"

  "Yes?"

  "Is this group you're bringing me to a collection of people that wanna see Patel dead, and they're serious about doing it?" Gabriella asked, in a soft voice that showed no harm.

  "I'm not gonna lie to you, Gabriella, it is." Jay admitted, but he held his tone firm.

  "Then I'm in."

  Sixteen

  Gabriella left Jay’s apartment with him and his wife, they worked their way back out onto the street, taking a short walk up to a cafe. The corner was no different than any other place in New Delhi. The shops were vibrant, the foot traffic was heavy, and everybody was trying to make a dollar, the best way they knew how.

  "It's right in here in the restaurant." Jay extended his arm to Gabriella, and let her walk in front of him and his wife.

  "I don't see the point of this meeting," said Priya frustrated with all that had happened to Jay. "Just a bunch of people who wanted blood, nothing more."

  "Priya, you don't have to agree with what's going on, but don't stop others," Jay said quietly, following in the door behind the other women. Getting a nod from the person behind the counter that was taking people's orders, Jay knew he was given the okay to return to the back of the business. Drawing strange looks from customers, the three passed by the counter, moved out into the back kitchen, and then into a small office that was occupied by five other people.

  "Hello everybody. How are you?" Jay greeted, nodding to the group in general. "It looks like we have everybody here."

  "Who is she?" asked an older woman with a shawl around her shoulders and looking with an accusatory eye. The bony crooked finger that came from the woman was swollen with arthritis on the joints as she pointed it out to Gabriella.

  "My name is Gabriella." She tried to sound as friendly as possible. "I've had my own run ins just the way you all have with Dr. Patel."

  "Trust me, everybody. Gabriella is a good person, and she has been wronged by Dr. Patel just as the rest of us have. For her, it was in a more perso
nal nature."

  "But can she be trusted?" said the old woman, still not having dropped the finger of accusation at Gabriella. "It doesn't bother me for someone to come to our meeting, but they must be trustworthy. Anybody who breaks the trust, it could lead to death for most of us.

  "I can assure you, I'm in no way here to infiltrate your group for Dr. Patel," said, Gabriella. "And why do we all continue to refer to him as Dr. Patel? Does he really need the moniker of Doctor, considering how he's behaved is the last thing you'd consider a doctor to do?"

  The heads in the room nodded up and down in agreement, and the older woman had a small smile come over her face.

  "You don't like him, do you dear?" said the older woman.

  "I hate him." Gabriella maintained strong eye contact with the women, giving her a good smile. "And so, you all know, he disrupted my life in a way that I'll never forget. I was held captive for a number of years by a man that everyone considers to be so respectable in the community. Even if I wanted to tell others, there's no way any of them would believe me."

  "She is one of us." The older woman clapped her hands together gently. "You're going to fit in with us. We all have a disdain for that man."

  "I would just like to ask everybody to allow Gabriella to open up in her own time.," Jay suggested. "We all need that time to get adjusted to the group before we start to tell the things that made us come here.

  "I'm tired of being here," said the older man. "This isn't a group of action, this is a group of just whining and complaining. If I had wanted a support group, I could have gone to the local hospital and found one there."

  "Fernandez, calm yourself," coaxed the older woman. "You're always so anxious for blood, always anxious to be fighting with someone. We've talked about this, it won't make you feel better."

  Giving a quick look to her husband, Priya felt a bit of pride pool up in herself that she was not alone with her view of how to handle Dr. Patel. The blood-lust that others felt was not in her makeup. She had no desire to torture the man or hurt him, but simply, she wanted answers for what had happened."