“That he wasn’t Chinese, but he spoke Xiang.”
Funny hair? Could she have meant blond? The analogy to the Komodo dragon’s split yellow tongue, written in the secret language, flashed through Luckey’s mind. With Shan’s revelation, certain information he’d gathered was beginning to come together. “Ask her if she associated any kind of smell with him. This is very important.”
Another conversation ensued. Shan nodded. Ally looked at him. “She said he smelled like the grumpy old farmer who supplied leeks for one of the markets on their street in Loudi.”
Leeks. A white vegetable like onions and...garlic.
Luckey got excited over the details she’d provided. “What about the man who’s been handling her here in Austin?”
Ally got an answer from her. “He’s Chinese.”
“Does he speak Xiang, too?”
The answer came back. “No. Mandarin.”
Just then the front door bell rang. Luckey hurried to answer it and, as expected, found a female agent from the trafficking division who spoke Chinese there. He accompanied her inside and introduced her to Shan before turning to Ally. “Tell Shan I’m going to headquarters with her and Agent Chen, where we’ll make her comfortable. After she’s been processed, you can all visit her.”
Ally quickly conveyed his words to Shan, who got up from the couch. She hugged her before they all walked to the front door.
In an aside to Ally, Luckey said, “I’ll phone you as soon as I can about Saturday.”
She nodded, but it killed her to see him go. “Make it soon.”
Once they were gone, she turned to her parents. “I need to get to the university. When I come home later we’ll talk.”
No doubt they were dismayed by her swift departure, but Ally needed to keep busy or she’d go crazy, until she could be with Luckey again.
Chapter Nine
By late afternoon, Luckey and Agent Chen had talked to all but one of the fifteen female victims who’d been brought into the security housing area for debriefing. Their conversations had been recorded and would be printed out for the files.
He’d heard a different story from each one as far as where they’d come from and their individual circumstances. But one thing remained constant: they’d been kidnapped in their mid to late teens and locked up like animals. They were told nothing and had no hope of escape. He couldn’t wait to go to the jail and interrogate the men who’d been arrested. But he had one more victim to visit.
A different female agent met him at the door. “This girl is from Jakarta, Indonesia.”
Luckey’s pulse picked up speed. They went inside. He told the agent what questions he wanted her to ask the girl. Soon he got an answer that solidified the theory he’d been forming.
“She said the man who first kidnapped her was waiting for her when she was the last one off their school bus to attend a gymnastics meet.”
“Can she describe the man?”
The agent translated his question, then told him, “She says he smelled like a pigsty.”
“Has she been around pigsties?”
“She says her grandfather was a pig farmer. Their family had to help deworm the animals with garlic and wormwood.”
Luckey reared his head back. “Ask her to tell us anything else she remembers about her kidnapper.”
The response came in a minute. “He spoke Indonesian, but he was big like a lot of American men.”
“Does she mean fat?”
Another question. Another answer. “No. He had a tall, muscular build.”
“Did she see his face?”
More conversation Luckey couldn’t understand. “No, just his hair.”