Lost(8)

She knew it wasn’t Janine, who had been with her the longest. And it wasn’t Janine’s sister, Tasi, who was an airhead and therefore not given much responsibility. That left Lisbeth.

Hanna could tell by the way Lisbeth’s eyes darted around that she knew she was the focus of Hanna’s rage. Lisbeth had made all the flight arrangements, so this was her fault. Now she was going to learn a lesson about owning up to one’s mistakes. Hanna had rescued Lisbeth from prostitution, taught her some basic clerical skills, and given her a life without strange men accosting her every night. But Lisbeth had screwed up somehow, and Hanna couldn’t have that.

At thirty-five, Hanna was a lot older than these girls. Sometimes, she felt almost like their mother, and occasionally, parents had to punish their kids. She started slowly. She held Lisbeth’s gaze as she started walking across the hardwood floor of the enormous room to where the twenty-one-year-old sat.

Hanna said, “Lisbeth, did you hear about the cockup in Miami?”

The young woman shivered and nodded. The expression on her pixie face showed her fight against tears. “I know Hans was arrested. I don’t really know anything else.” Lisbeth brushed her blue-streaked brown hair out of her eyes.

“Don’t I pay you to know what’s going on?” Hanna kept advancing.

“I made the flight arrangements and ensured the kids had all the right paperwork.”

“And spent plenty of my money doing it. Now that’s all gone. We have nothing to show for it. This is a business. We need cash flow. Especially now. How do you think I should handle this?”

“I … I … I mean, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

Hanna reached down, snatched the girl’s long multicolored hair, and jerked her out of the seat. The rolling office chair spun from the force of it. Hanna dragged her across the floor to the balcony.

Lisbeth said over and over, “Please, I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Hanna released her when they were both on the balcony. She said, “Who did you tell about the trip?”

“No one, I swear.”

Hanna repeated the question slowly. “Who did you tell?”

The girl started to cry.

The tears made Hanna snap. She grabbed Lisbeth by the shoulders and shoved her so that she was dangling over the brass railing of the balcony. Hanna held on to her belt, leaving the girl suspended upside down six stories above the cobblestone sidewalk.

Hanna said again, “Who did you tell about the trip? Was it the Russians? Did you speak to the police? You’d better start talking or the last sound out of you will be a scream on your short trip to the ground.” She relaxed her grip so the girl slipped a little bit more.

Lisbeth was crying and screaming now. “I swear I didn’t tell anyone!” She begged for mercy, then mumbled several Hail Marys and another short prayer some priest had probably told her would protect her. He was wrong.





CHAPTER 9





HANNA LOOKED DOWN at the terrified girl dangling off her balcony. She wasn’t sure what to do with Lisbeth, but at least she was getting her message across. Her other two assistants would be much more careful in the future.

Hanna heard the chime that told her the inside door between the apartments was open. That meant her daughter, Josie, was home from school. With some effort, she pulled Lisbeth back onto the balcony. She straightened the girl up and brushed her hair out of her face. Lisbeth kept sobbing.

Hanna said, “Shut up, you stupid cow. Don’t let my daughter see you upset.”

Lisbeth nodded nervously and wiped her nose with her bare hand.

Hanna pulled the girl close and said, “I was going to drop you, but I changed my mind. Maybe you aren’t completely useless.” She kissed Lisbeth on the forehead. “You know I love you girls. Now go get cleaned up.”

Lisbeth scurried off to the powder room as Josie and Hanna’s brother, Albert, who often walked Josie home from school, came in.

Josie trotted out to the balcony. Hanna gave her a quick hug and told her to do her homework before they went out to dinner. She watched as the twelve-year-old scampered back to their apartment, high-fiving her uncle on the way.

Hanna had needed to see a little gesture like that to calm her down. Thank God her brother was such a help.

He joined her on the balcony, where she explained the disaster in Miami.

Albert shrugged his broad shoulders and said, “Just the cost of doing business.”

“I know you’re not involved in the finances of the business, but the money I was going to make from those six kids would have covered a lot of our debt to the Russians.”

“I told you not to borrow money from the Russian mob. Emile Rostoff doesn’t fool around. He and his brother are big on messages. He sent one to the guys in Aalsmeer who were making their own meth instead of buying from him. Two of them were skinned and then dumped on the sidewalk in front of the apartment where they were cooking the meth. They were still alive and screamed for five minutes until paramedics arrived. It was a mercy they died on the way to the hospital. There’s still a bloody outline of their bodies on the sidewalk. That’s a serious message.”

Hanna had heard the story but insisted that she’d had to borrow the money. “If we hadn’t gotten that money last year, we’d be living on an abandoned farm somewhere down in the south. Josie’s idea of culture would be American TV. Besides, what’s done is done. We have to pay them back soon.”