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"Oh, that's good," George said, obviously upset. "Hunter will be happy to see you. I get James to take you."
"Thanks. I'll let you know when I go."
He nodded and opened the door for me. I made my way down the stairs to the main floor where James was waiting with the SUV.
Chapter 4
Hunter
While I watched the stars twinkling in the vast expanse of sky overhead, I got a text from Millar, my contact in the FBI.
MILLAR: You up?
HUNTER: Yes.
MILLAR: Can we meet? There's some movement on that matter you and I discussed earlier about Alexandria. My contact in the Crimes Against Children Unit called me and needs to talk with you.
HUNTER: At this time of night? Don't you FBI types sleep?
MILLAR: The task force never sleeps because these creeps come out at night.
HUNTER: Sure, I can meet you. Our usual place?
MILLAR: No. There's a warehouse down by the old docks. We can spend some time going over things. Meet me in thirty minutes.
I checked my watch. It was three o'clock in the morning. I had enough time to get to the gym, have a shower in the apartment, and make it to the waterfront in time to meet Millar if I hurried.
HUNTER: Okay. I'll be there as soon as possible.
I gathered up my things, and headed to the gym. I had a quick shower, needing the heat of the water to soothe my aching muscles. My hand stung in the water, but it felt good, the steam and heat invigorating me. I dried off and dressed, then took the SUV and drove to the waterfront, to the old docks that Millar mentioned. I saw the warehouse once I turned down a side street bordering the waterfront. It was an old hulk of a brick building, with dark windows that stared out over the bay like dead eyes.
A car was parked at the rear loading dock. I pulled up beside it and saw that it was Millar's sedan. Beside him sat another man wearing the usual FBI blue windbreaker with yellow lettering. He looked to be about forty, lean and sharp-eyed with a shaved head.
"Come inside," Millar said and gestured to the building.
I parked my SUV and got out of my vehicle, then went to where the two men were standing, waiting for me.
"This is Special Agent Cross of the Crimes Against Children Unit." Millar pointed to Cross and the two of us shook.
"Good to meet you," I said and met his eyes. "Glad you guys are going to look into this."
"They'll do more than look into it. They'll take the bastard down," Millar said.
I followed them up to the entrance and watched as Millar unlocked the door before ushering us inside.
"Is this an FBI office?" I asked, looking around at the bank of desks with a dozen computer stations.
"This is the task force's main office in Boston." Cross pointed to a corner office behind a wall of windows. I followed Millar inside and we sat around a large table. "We're coordinating with Alexandria."
Cross went over the case with me, detailing the evidence they had gathered on Spencer over the past six months. None of it was enough to bring charges—it was instead based on the testimony of our informants —so the FBI was happy to learn about the cabin and that it was being used as a place to make child porn as well as abuse children.
"The young girls are all immigrants from former Soviet Republics, like Georgia. They're lured here with promises of a job modelling and then they're abused, taken to parties where they're passed around the men with money. They're drugged, sometimes beaten if they don't cooperate; they're raped and given drugs to get them addicted and then they work for whatever drug they're hooked on. The conditions they live in are horrific."
It made my stomach tighten, remembering the young girl I'd seen come out of the cabin, her makeup smeared, her hair a mess. I wondered what hell she'd been through and what she had left behind back in whatever Eastern European state she'd come from, thinking she was heading for fame and fortune in America.
I hated the men who did this to her and to other young girls like her. I was sure Spencer would have done it to Celia if he could have, and wondered how hard it had been for him to refrain from abusing her sexually. Probably the reason he was so abusive to her physically and emotionally for all those years.
"I'm glad you're going to nail him," I said. "He's been a bastard to his step-kids for years. I'm totally shocked that he's been a pornographer involved in the human trafficking business. How did he get away with it for so long? I never would have believed it."
