Momma Lupe, Book 1 in the Ty Connell 'Novella Series. A Mystery/Suspense Thriller. Cooking or killing -- Momma Had Her Funny WAys by Michael C. Hughes

had been grabbed the same way after she had. That the sister
too had had been brought to Boston and had also been turned over to
the bikers to break her
in , like you’d break in a young horse.
Break their spirit. But the sister, she said, was not like her. She
was frightened and passive. The sister, according to her, was a
wild cat. Fiercely independent, violently against having hard drugs
pushed on her, especially averse to needles and heroin. Impossible
for anybody to
manage or dominate. She cursed at Ma, had deeply scratched the face
of one of the sons, and kicked at the bikers, spat at
people.
    “You couldn’t control Martine,” she said and
fell silent. “She was such a fighter. I so admired her.”
    “Was she older?” Connell asked.
    Ms. Dumont nodded. “By a fourteen
months.”
    “How’d they know about her?”
    “From me. It was so stupid and so trusting.
In the early days Momma just asked me if I had a sister, and I said
yes, and so they went and got her too,” she said, and looked away.
Obviously feeling guilt along with the pain for being the one to
have exposed her sister.
    She dabbed at her eyes and Connell gave her a
few minutes.
    "Where's your sister now?" he asked,
quietly.
    She sat again in silence for a moment.
    "I can't tell you," she finally said. "They'd
kill me."
    Connell understood. And he felt for the girl.
Trapped into in a hellish world. Every word a trap. The truth more
dangerous than lies.
    "Can you tell me if she’s still alive,” he
asked.
    She was silent again for
another moment. Then shook her head 'no .'
    That was all they needed.
    Connell leaned forward. "Miss Dumont, your
name won’t come up. If you tell us what happened to your sister, we
can put the piece together ourselves. Make our own case. There are
a lot of other girls involved here. You won't have to testify and
nobody has to know you spoke to us."
    The girl agonized, looking so thin, pale, and
frightened. Connell thought she looked more like a frightened
little girl of maybe fourteen, than a worldly young woman of
nineteen. But the prospect of justice for her sister was obviously
strong. Something that no doubt had been eating at her.
    Finally, she said, "Martine,
when she first came, she tried the dance business but it was not
for her. She tot she could do it for the money and keep everyone
away from her. Just her alone on a stage in her own world. No
drugs, no men, just dancing. But it is not the ballet business. It
is the sex business. And the slave business. She kept pushing and
kicking at men who came too close. Finally, dey came for her —Ma
and the sons— to try again to break her. What we didn’t know was
dat when Ma brought us to these places, to these people, she sold us to them. Twenty
thousand dollars. Doze bar owners, dey owned us! But it wasn’t only that. Ma
gave a guarantee. If any one of us din’t do ‘xactly what we were
supposed to, they could ship us back to ma and get their money
back. Or get a replacement girl.” She looked at them in horror.
“Can you imagine! A guarantee ! For owning people!”
    She paused again to re-gather herself. She
pulled her housecoat around her a little tighter.
    “Anyway, what happened was Martine quit. Tol
them to go stuff themselves. If dey ever came near her again she
was going straight to the police. She got a small place and even
found a boyfriend. She went back to work as a waitress and found a
small place. Working downtown. In a nice hotel. Their coffee shop.
She was out of it. Out of the dance business. Away from the clubs.
Out of it all. Making a new life. But one day, those sons, dey came
for her. They 'ad a 'uge row on the street and Martine was pushed
into the car. One of her friends at the coffee shop tol me she saw
dat."
    Then the girl fell silent again.
    "Did you see her after that?" Connell
asked.
    Again, she shook her
head 'no .'
    "Where is she, Miss Dumont?" Connell asked.
“Do you know.”
    The girl hesitated for a moment, and then
broke