Her Texas Ranger Hero (2 page)

“You're welcome to the information in the files. But first, come over here. There's something unique about this particular body. I would like to show you a piece of evidence that has me puzzled.”

Dr. Wolff walked to a shelf holding some labeled boxes and took one down. After lifting the lid, he showed Luckey the soiled, bloodstained, pale pink silk dress inside, folded so that the hole made by a bullet was visible.

“The young woman was wearing this when her body was brought in. Here. Put on some gloves.”

Luckey pulled out a pair from the carton and slipped them on.

“Go ahead and look on the underside of the skirt,” the doctor urged.

Curious, he turned it inside out. To his surprise he saw writing on the material, all the way around from the waist down, unusual characters that meant nothing to him. His brows knit together. “Is this Chinese?”

“It looks like a form of it, but none of our experts here recognize it. Don't let your eyes deceive you. What is written here was not done in red ink, but blood.
Her
blood.”

Luckey moaned inwardly. “I need copies of the pictures you took of the writing.”

“Certainly. Anything you want.”

“Did the detective investigating this case know about this?”

“He examined the inscriptions, but as I said, we couldn't tell him anything about them. I have no idea if he's following up on any of it.”

“Can I see the body now?”

“Right this way.”

Luckey was taken to the morgue and shown the deceased. She'd been a lovely young woman with refined features and long black hair. He returned to the coroner's office and gathered information from the files of the four bodies, photocopying everything for his own records. The reports revealed three of the deceased were of Chinese origin and one was Indonesian, as he'd been told. They were all short—between five-one and five-two—and most likely sixteen or seventeen years old.

“The clothing is different on each one,” he muttered thoughtfully.

The doctor nodded. “I performed the autopsies. The Indonesian victim was strangled. Hers was the first body found. The second victim was stabbed in the chest. The third girl was wearing only a slip, had bloodshot eyes and died from suffocation. As you know, this latest one was shot in the back.

“These women appear to have been innocent victims. They were attacked and murdered before being transported to another spot to be dumped. But this latest victim was different from the others. She had broad shoulders and powerfully muscular legs. This suggests that she was into sports—or perhaps she was a ballet dancer or gymnast.

“And there's something else you'll see in the forensics report. I found a substance on the sleeves of her dress. Whoever dragged her body had DMSO cream on his or her hands.”

“What's that, exactly?” Luckey asked.

“Some kind of topical painkiller.”

“You didn't find traces of it on the other three bodies?”

“No.”

“Details like that are going to help me build this case,” he murmured as he examined the writing on the fabric again. “I've never seen anything so strange before. Did you find out if there was something special about this dress?”

“It's silk, well made. There's no label to tell us where it might have been bought or what manufacturer made it.”

After thanking Dr. Wolff, Luckey tossed his gloves, picked up the files and photocopies and drove back to headquarters. He was happy to find his boss still in his office. Luckey knocked on the door and was told to come in. He put the information from Dr. Wolff on TJ's desk.

“Take a look at all this. What we've got here is evidence that these four young Asians were violently murdered. When you asked me to attend that trafficking conference a month ago, I was impressed by the panel. It included everyone from Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Postal Inspection and the US Attorney General for the eastern US.

“The deaths of these four women fall in line with the latest statistics from the National Human Trafficking Hotline. To date, it has received more calls from Texas than any other state in the union.”

“That makes sense, considering our extremely diverse population,” TJ mused.

Luckey nodded. “Our close proximity to Mexico makes this the most crossed international border. But I never realized that Texas contains a quarter of all American trafficking victims, and that almost a third of the calls to the hotline come from our state.”

“That many?”

“I know. I was surprised, too. Twenty percent of the 50,000 people annually trafficked from foreign countries into the United States come through Texas.”

TJ shook his head.

“Unfortunately, we haven't yet pinpointed the source of the female trafficking activity coming out of China. But today the coroner showed me two things that might have given us our first lead.” Luckey explained about the cream and then he got to the writing. “Check this out.”

He opened the file and showed his boss pictures of the mysterious characters written in blood on the underside of the latest victim's dress. “I'm not sure what this means, but it could open up this case once I get some answers. No one in forensics can read it or translate it. I'm thinking I need to find an expert in Chinese as a place to start. I'll call the language department at the UT Austin and go from there.”

“Excellent start, Luckey. Keep me posted.”

* * *

A
LLY
D
UNCAN
CHECKED
her watch. Ten after three in the afternoon. Her graduate students had turned in their theses. Now that it was spring break, she could spend her time studying them before setting up appointments for her students to come in and defend them, once classes started again.

She texted her mom that she'd be home in half an hour. They were planning to take some of the orphans to Zilker Park. Years earlier, Ally's father had established the Austin orphanage for Chinese children with disabilities. They would ride the Zilker Zephyr miniature train and enjoy a picnic on the grounds before dark. With her father back from Washington, maybe he'd go with them.

After reaching for her handbag in the desk drawer, Ally started for the door and opened it, only to collide with a tall, rock-hard, masculine body. “I'm sorry,” the man murmured, and grasped her upper arms to steady her, while securing a file folder under his arm.

After noting the badge on the pocket of his khaki shirt identifying him as a Texas Ranger, she lifted her head and let out a quiet gasp. The man was gorgeous. He had neatly trimmed dark blond hair and rugged features, but it was his brown eyes roving appreciatively over her face that infused her with warmth. She stepped back, forcing him to release her.

“I was looking for Dr. Duncan.” His deep voice resonated in the room. “I'm James Davis with the Texas Rangers.”

She swallowed hard, unable to remember the last time she'd met anyone so attractive. “You've found her. I was just leaving, obviously, but it's apparent you're here on official business.”

“
You're
the Director of Asian Studies?” he blurted.

Ally took a quick breath. “I'm not what you expected?”

The hard line of his compelling mouth softened into a smile. “Frankly, no.”

She chuckled. “You don't fit the type of student I normally see in my classes, either. Please, come in and sit down.”

He waited until she'd gone back to her chair behind the desk. “The secretary out front said that spring break has started and I might not find you in, but I took a chance, anyway.”

Ally's cheeks were burning; she could feel it. She cursed herself for acting like a starstruck teenager instead of a twenty-eight-year-old woman meeting her first legendary Texas Ranger. “How can I help you?” she asked.

“First, may I ask you a question? Has anyone from the police department been here to talk to you yet?”

She looked surprised. “No. No one.”

He removed the file from under his arm and opened it to retrieve some pages, which he handed to her. “I'm just starting an investigation. These photos were taken by a forensics expert after the latest body of a young Chinese girl was brought into the morgue last week.”

Latest?

Just like that the conversation had turned to something hideous, something Ally was very familiar with. Women from the Hunan Province of China were noted for their beauty. Men from all over the world were willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to traffickers in order to enslave these poor young women. It was too sad and ghastly to dwell on. Her hands trembled a little as she lifted the first page and stared at the photocopy.

“Do you recognize this?”

Nothing could have surprised her more when she saw that the page contained writing rather than a woman's picture.
Not just any writing, though.
The realization of what she was looking at caused Ally to break out in a cold sweat. Reading it, she felt her stomach muscles clench. She lifted the next page and the next, until she'd read the horrifying contents of all six, then she shot to her feet.

“Where did you come across this?”

“On the victim's body. All this was done in her own blood on the underside of the dress she was wearing.”

Ally moaned.

“It's apparent this writing has great significance for you.”

She closed her eyes for a moment before she sat back down. “This girl knew she was going to die. The writing is a desperate plea for help in the only way she could communicate in order to prevent her captors from knowing what she was doing.”

The Ranger seemed perplexed. “Is it in Chinese, then? The chief forensics expert said they couldn't identify it as such.”

Ally took a deep breath before launching into an explanation of what he'd brought her. “This message has been written in Nüshu, a secret language that has evolved over a thousand years in the Hunan Province of China. Nüshu means ‘women's language' and comes from a remote area of Yongzhou City in Jiangyong County.”

“Why secret?”

“Since the traditional Chinese culture was male-centered, girls were forbidden from any kind of formal education. Nüshu was developed for the women to educate themselves. They were sequestered away from men, and males never learned their language. These sworn sisters took an oath never to reveal their secret language to anyone.” Ally picked up the first sheet and studied it again. “This victim was begging for help.”

The Ranger studied her intensely. “How do you know all this?”

“For one thing, my best friend, Soo-Lin, was born in Yongzhou and has lived there all her life, except to attend the university in Changsha.”

He cocked his attractive blond head. “Which means you've lived there, too?”

Ally sat back in her chair. “I'll have to give you some background. My birth name is Allyson Forrester Duncan.”

The moment she said her full name, she saw a flicker of understanding in his eyes. “Duncan...as in former Senator Lawrence Duncan from Austin, then ambassador to China, who now resides here in Austin instead of Washington, DC? It's been in the news.”

“He's my father.”

“Incredible that you would be the expert I sought out first,” he murmured.

“My mother's name is Beatrice Forrester Duncan.”

“Forrester,” he said aloud. “Her name came up among a few others at a conference I attended recently. The panel praised her work devoted to ending the trafficking of female victims from the Far East here in Texas.” He sat forward. “Your mother...”

“Yes. I have fabulous parents and am extremely proud of them.”

“How could you not be? Tell me more about your life in China.”

“We spent equal time in Beijing and Changsha, for fifteen years. Twice annually we flew home to Austin for two weeks, then went back. Being thirteen years old when we moved, I had tutors and was at the perfect age to pick up Mandarin and Xiang—a dialect of the Changsha region. As soon as I was old enough, I studied at the University of Changsha, under some brilliant teachers.

“Soo-Lin was also studying there and became my close friend. I spent time at her home in Yongzhou and came to love her family, as well. I loved it in China. I never wanted to come home and almost didn't.”

“Why did you, then?”

The Ranger was direct, but then, that was his job.

“Last year my father was recalled to Washington. A new ambassador was named, but my dad now serves as a consultant to the president for Far Eastern affairs. So we returned to the Duncan family ranch here in Austin. I joined the university faculty last fall.

“Dad flies back and forth, but my mother and I stay here. She's more involved than ever in her work against trafficking and I help her when I can. We're committed as a family. If I'd stayed in China, I would have missed my parents too terribly.”

Ally heard Ranger Davis clear his throat. “You've led a fascinating life. I'm so glad I decided to seek your department out first.”

“I must admit the hairs stood up on the back of my neck when I read what's on those pages.”

“Mine, too, when you said what they contain.”

“It was through Soo-Lin I learned about the secret language.”

The Ranger got to his feet. “When we bumped into each other at the door, you said you were on your way out, so I won't keep you. What's your schedule like tomorrow? I'd like to meet again. Get from you an exact translation of what's written on the dress so I can build my case. Out of four similar cases in the last ten months, this is the first piece of tangible evidence to turn up.”

“You mean the other bodies were all young Chinese women, too?”

“No. One was Indonesian, but I highly suspect they were all victims of human trafficking. It's imperative we find the person or persons who did this. Unfortunately, there are thousands of trafficking victims currently working in the underground sex trade here in Texas. Trying to escape often means death. Even if these girls don't die, it's nearly impossible for them to get their lives back on track after going through something like this. The men who are responsible need to be caught and locked away forever.”