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For the last few months, we’d been assisting in the investigation of a human trafficking ring that was operating out of Texas. We’d tracked them all the way from Dallas to Houston and found three stash houses but the assholes moved themselves and the victims out just hours before we could get a warrant.
Thinking about those poor girls had my stomach flipping over and bile rising in my throat. And they were girls, each one had been taken mere days before they’d turned eighteen. Some were in crappy foster homes prior to disappearing and some were with relatives that didn’t even care they were missing; making it look as though they were simply runaways waiting until protective services couldn’t force them back into their crappy situations.
The stash houses hadn’t been easy to find and I’d pulled an insane number of favors with my contacts to get the location of this last one. We’d been able to nail down their process while I’d been in the field a few months ago. They’d kidnap a couple of girls and guard them in a shitty house in a shitty neighborhood where everyone knew not to ask questions and not to talk to the cops.
Once they had enough girls or they felt their location had been compromised, the traffickers would get their victims out of the country right away. It was fucking impossible to find them once they left the U.S. They had seemingly unlimited resources, not to mention we had to operate within the confines of the law, things like search warrants and jurisdiction tied our hands.
“I hate to pile on the bad news, brother, but Roe got a hit on another missing girl. Same background as the others.”
He handed me the missing person’s report and the smiling face of Stephanie Marshall mocked me. She looked incredibly young and I hated the fact that the most likely outcome would be that she’d never be found. Reading the paper quickly, I confirmed what Kane had just told me.
“I’m really tired of this, man. It feels like we’re failing these girls at every turn. Each tip that we get has gone cold by the time we convince the task force to look into it. I’m starting to think that we’d be better off investigating on our own.”
He stared at me, absently running his hand over his beard. “So why don’t we?” I leaned back in my chair and waited for him to explain.
“Let’s do a little investigating on our own for a while. Instead of delivering everything we get on a silver platter only for it to be ignored, let’s see what we can find out if we keep under the radar, employ some of our more…off the books skills.”
I thought about what he was implying, what it could mean for our business if we were to get caught running an investigation on the side. And then I looked at Stephanie’s picture again and knew the decision was already made.
“I’m not ready to leave Daisy again so soon and it can’t be you because Winnie’s getting too close to her due date and would probably kill me if I sent you away. What do you think about asking Roe and Sam to partner up?”
“Makes sense, Sam is the best we have when it comes to surveillance and Roe can work anywhere. As long as they don’t kill each other it should work. Want me to ask them?”
“Yeah, that’ll give me some time to come up with some bullshit to feed Greggs.” He nodded once before leaving and I opened my desk drawer, trying to find something for the now full-blown headache.
* * *
“Daddy!”Daisy sprinted into my office and hopped up into my lap, wrapping her small arms around my neck tightly. I hugged her back and let the joy of seeing my daughter wipe away the darkness that I’d been living in all day.
“Hey, cupcake, were you a good girl for Aunt Winnie?”
“Uh huh, she took me to see Lily and we had cupcakes and chocolate milk and Mr. Benji let me help put the cookies in the boxes.”
“I can see that,” I grabbed a tissue out of the box on my desk and wiped chocolate frosting out of her hair. I’d barely finished when she jumped up and began to twirl around my office like a ballerina.
“I’m offended at the amount of energy that child has,” my very pregnant sister waddled into my office and plopped down on my couch. “What I wouldn’t give for an ounce of it.”
“Thanks for picking her up, Win.”
I joined her on the couch and flung my arm around her shoulders. There were moments that I was still stunned by the fact my younger sister was about to have a baby. Daisy had been our family’s sole focus for a long time and it would be nice having another child around for the James’ family holidays.
“Can you go find Uncle Kane, sweet potato? I want to talk to your dad for a second.”
Daisy was out of my office in a flash but I wasn’t worried. She’d grown up in this building and around the entire team, they were just as much her family as Winnie was.
Winnie pulled away from me and gave me her classic stink eye, making me wrack my brain for a reason she could be upset with me, but nothing came to mind.
“I had a nice little chat with my good friend Lily,” she crossed her arms and began tapping her fingers on her opposite elbow.
Worry and jealousy warred within me, I hated that I’d missed my afternoon with Lily and Daisy. It was the only time where she was completely unguarded around me and I lived for those smiles that she would beam my way when my daughter said or did something to make her laugh. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I’d been using my ridiculously cute daughter as part of my strategy to win Lily over, we were a package deal after all.
I kept quiet, waiting for her to continue. Winnie’d never been a very patient person and she was the reigning loser in the quiet game. All I had to do was wait.
She threw her arms into the air, “Why haven’t you asked her out, you big idiot? She’s perfect for you! Not to mention she’s one of my best friends and it would be nice if you dated someone who I actually liked!”
She brought her thumb and middle finger together before flicking me on the forehead. I should have expected the move, it was a favorite of hers when we were children until I’d gotten so much taller than her, she couldn’t reach my forehead without a step stool.
“First of all, ow,” I grumbled, rubbing the sore skin. “Secondly, not that it’s any of your business, I intend to ask her out when she’s ready.”
