Breaking Point
Page 22
“Think we can lean on them?”
“Yes. Not yet, though. I saw their desk calendar. They had ‘11–12’ circled on Thursday—the time the trucks came in from El Paso—and ‘3 a.m.’ circled on Sunday. Something is going on then—we need to be there. My guess? The girls were brought in from El Paso last night, and are being shipped out on Sunday. The same girls, or a different group. But if we catch them with any underage girls, we can nail them.”
“Excellent—we’ll put together a tactical team.”
“I took some photos, can you run them? I don’t know that they’ll help, but I want to ID his boss. At least, I think he’s in charge—he stayed in the office and made the other guy do the talking. He made my instincts twitch but I didn’t get a really good look at him. The pictures are from an odd angle because I was pretending to text and didn’t want to be obvious.”
“Send them to me. I still think Rachel’s wrong not to let you use your office with this case. I’ll talk to her.”
Lucy’s stomach tensed. “Don’t. Please. The situation is already volatile, and I don’t want to make it worse.”
“Are you sure?”
He doubted her request, and she didn’t blame him for wanting to intervene. If she thought that he could fix everything that ailed her and Rachel, she’d let him. But it would only make things even more treacherous. She wasn’t lying to Nate that she would have to leave at the end of the year if things didn’t improve. She didn’t want to leave. But having Brad or Nate or anyone else interfere? It would be the kiss of death.
A young woman in a narrow skirt and crisp white blouse knocked on Brad’s open door and said, “The conference call is starting. SSA Murphy is already on and Assistant Director Stockton of the FBI has requested to join.”
“Get him on. What about Donovan?”
“They’re bringing her in now.”
Brad and Lucy walked down the hall to the conference room where a state-of-the-art telecommunications system enabled them to video conference with four different locations. The large screen was split between El Paso and DC. A young girl—she couldn’t be that young, Lucy thought, considering she wore a badge and gun on her hip—was working the equipment with ease. This must be the whiz kid Brad was talking about. She was in her early to mid twenties with long white-blonde hair pulled into a sloppy bun and wore no makeup, making her look younger.
“I’m Agent Lucy Kincaid,” Lucy said by way of introduction. “FBI.” She extended her hand.
The girl slapped her hand side to side instead of shaking it. “Hey,” she said. “Aggie Jensen.” She went back to typing. “Director, you there?”
Rick’s voice, then his face appeared. “Yes. I have Kate Donovan with me as well. Kate—how do I make this wider?”
On the DC end Kate typed a few buttons and the camera on the computer zoomed out. She sat next to Rick with a cup of steaming coffee. Kate drank coffee like water.
“And we have Murphy in El Paso,” Aggie said informally. “Here we have Kincaid and head honcho Donnelly. Everyone sound off?”
When it was clear that the communication was acceptable, Rick began.
“I brought this team together because we don’t have the luxury of time. You should all be up to speed regarding the shooting in El Paso. If, not, talk to Agent Murphy, who was debriefed by civilian consultants yesterday and understands the situation. To summarize, Bella Caruso is a private contractor working for an organization that rescues sex slaves in the US. She has been undercover for the last year as Doctor Isabella Carter. She is not a doctor, I don’t have the information as to how she was able to establish such a cover, but we don’t want to blow it because it would put her in greater danger than she already is.
“I should also state that Bella is a friend of mine, so I have a personal stake in this. Her brother and I were Navy SEALs together. Extracting her—even against her will—might be our only option, but I’m relying on this task force to give us actionable and accurate information.
“Our goal is to protect Bella while secondarily building a case against Martin Hirsch and the unsub he is partnering with. The unsub goes by the name of Z. He is meeting with Hirsch in an unknown location. All we know is that they left El Paso within the last hour and are heading east. I need to brief the director on this and other cases, so I am turning the com over to SSA Kate Donovan. She’s recently been promoted to assistant director at Quantico and she’s in charge of cybercrime instruction. She is my point person on this matter. When Agent Donovan speaks, consider it coming directly from me.”
Rick nodded and walked away, leaving Kate at his desk. Kate adjusted the camera on her end so it showed mostly just her.
“I want to add,” Kate said, “that we don’t have any direct evidence of human trafficking at this point. Everything is circumstantial, which is why intercepting them this early could blow a conviction. We have an agent working closely with two girls who were rescued in Phoenix, but as of now, it’s a delicate situation. We have confirmed that there are three, possibly four, underage girls in jeopardy and they may be in San Antonio or en route to San Antonio. They have now become our focus. Where is everyone? I see Kincaid, Donnelly, Agent Murphy?”
“This is it,” Brad said.
Gianna said, “I’m working closely with the El Paso Chief of Police, but he’s still dealing with the fallout from the shooting last night, which dropped six bodies. I’ll fully brief him.”
“Two people in El Paso and two in San Antonio? We need more—and we can’t rely on the civilian consultants, not for the active investigation.”
Gianna said, “Perhaps you can give us an understanding of exactly how we’re going to be working with RCK? I’ve worked with consultants before, but not in such an in-depth capacity.”
“This is now an FBI investigation into Martin Hirsch, West-East Transport, and the unsub known as Z, but we’re relying on information from RCK because of the time-sensitive nature. If those girls are shipped out of the country, we lose all jurisdiction and likely any chance of getting them back. RCK was instrumental in the joint FBI/DEA op taking down the Flores Cartel, and they were hired to vet DEA and FBI in San Antonio after Nicole Rollins was uncovered as a traitor. They have the expertise and resources to assist.
“But this is still a joint FBI/DEA op. We’re going to build a case against Hirsch and his associate Damien Drake in the shooting last night and work from there to tie them to sex trafficking. We hope that when we extract Bella Caruso, she’ll have hard evidence that we can use. Agent Murphy? Status?”
“Thank you, Kate. Call me Gianna. I was informed early yesterday by JT Caruso and Kane Rogan about Hirsch in El Paso. It’s my understanding that Bella Caruso is a former cop and now a private investigator? Either way, according to them, she works for a private organization and while I understand this is a gray area in the justice system, I’m not looking to jam her up. But she has answers.
“Last night there was a shooting at a bar outside of El Paso. Based on witness statements, which included Mr. Sean Rogan and Mr. Jack Kincaid, a meeting occurred between Hirsch and a local criminal named Diaz, and when Hirsch didn’t get the answer he wanted from Diaz—who runs most of the girls in town—Damien Drake shot and killed him in cold blood. Raul Diaz has a rap sheet a mile long, but his murder sets into motion a chain of events that I don’t know that Hirsch is really prepared for. Or maybe he is and intended to start a war.
“According to witnesses, Hirsch offered Diaz’s men a position on his team, they didn’t answer favorably, and Hirsch himself shot one of the men. A fire fight began. Six dead, one man remains in critical condition—the one in critical is one of Hirsch’s men and we have him under lock and key. He survived surgery but hasn’t regained consciousness. The police chief has some information about the Moore Brothers—they are the individuals who made a deal with Hirsch. He’s working on tracking them down and expects to have one or all of them in custody by the end of today.”
“Excellent,” Kate said.
&
nbsp; Gianna continued. “From the information and evidence we’ve gathered, it seems that Hirsch wanted Diaz to use Hirsch as the exclusive provider of sex workers. Not quite sure how that works.”
“It’s transportation,” Lucy said. “He wants to turn over his operation to locals, and then be responsible for moving humans to and from their key locations throughout the I-10 corridor, coast to coast.”
“Any transportation pipeline is lucrative, especially of this magnitude,” Brad said. “Control transportation, control the drug trade. It would be the same with human trafficking.”
Lucy said, “Once they have the network in place they can use it for anything—people, drugs, guns. Hirsch owns multiple trucking companies throughout the southwest, and we’ve located a possible new acquisition here in San Antonio.”
Kate said, “White Collar has opened an investigation into the finances behind the trucking companies and are building a timeline and financial profile. I hope to have a preliminary report tonight. But this is secondary—we’ll use the information to track them, and ultimately build our case, but we need to find those girls before they disappear.”
Gianna said, “We raided a trucking company this morning. RCK found a body in a truck and reported it last night. The place has been cleared out. The only truck that remained was the one with the body. According to our witnesses, there were two other trucks the night before which means someone retrieved them.”
Lucy wondered if Sean had planted tracking devices on any of the trucks, but she didn’t ask. Instead she said, “Two trucks came in last night at the San Antonio company we suspect Hirsch bought. Do we have photos from the El Paso company?”
“Yes. We put out an arrest warrant for the registered owner of the truck, Milo Feliciano, but he’s in the wind.”
Kate said, “If Hirsch and his people hear about the raid, they’re going to know we’re onto them, which could make them both reckless and more dangerous. Lucy—did you have a report from San Antonio? You checked the moving company.”
“Last night, Nate Dunning and I staked out the place. Two large single-trailer commercial trucks came in just after midnight. Three black vans left fifteen minutes later. We followed, but didn’t want to tip our hand. We lost them in a downtown neighborhood.
“Since, I’ve learned that a woman who runs a group of prostitutes—including underage girls—has a house in that neighborhood. My contact in SAPD is working on getting the exact location. We have a tip from Bella Caruso that three or four underage girls that traveled with her from Phoenix to El Paso were brought to San Antonio. We have no photos, but if we see anyone who fits the bill, I think we should extract them.”
“We could be putting the investigation in danger,” Kate said. “There’s no evidence that Hirsch moved them. In fact, he was still in El Paso as of last night.”
“If they’re sent across the border, we may never get them back,” Lucy said.
“Point taken. Use your best judgment.”
Lucy continued. “Detective Tia Mancini is willing to work with us on whatever we need. We met today and considered, if we get eyes on the girls, putting together a raid. Between Tia’s office and Brad’s office, we should have enough people.”
“And your office,” Kate said.
“My squad is spread thin right now. Ryan is in Austin, we have two new agents including another rookie.”
“It’s a two-, three-hour operation tops,” Brad said.
Lucy didn’t say anything. She knew they needed help, but she didn’t want to make the call.
“Do you have a SWAT team in place?” Kate asked Brad.
“Partly—I’m the SWAT team leader but work with Leo Proctor all the time.”
“I know of Leo—he’s one of the best in the business,” Kate said. “I want him and his team backing your plan.”
“I concur,” Brad said. “I’ll call him, give him the heads-up in case it comes to pass. We have an MOI with FBI SWAT, there’s no red tape to cut through.”
“Who’s staking out the house?” Kate asked.
“We’re still trying to locate it,” Lucy said. “We know the neighborhood, not the exact address. Tia is working on it, when we get eyes on it we’ll get out there.”
“You, Dunning, and who?”
“Me. And Brad.”
“Is Nate on a time-critical case?”
“Like I said, he has a heavy work load right now.” This was getting ridiculous, Lucy thought.
Kate seemed to read between the lines. “Brad, you good with this?”
“Yes, ma’am, I have Kincaid’s back. And I can call in a couple agents for the weekend if we need them.”
“Sean and JT are on their way back from El Paso,” Lucy said.
“They’re focused on the undercover asset; we’re focused on these girls,” Kate said. “It’s hard to separate the two at this point, but we need to. If the asset is on site in San Antonio, we need to protect her cover. Arrest her, take her to FBI headquarters, sit on her until we decide whether to put her back into play or extract her. Agreed?”
They all concurred.
“I’ve emailed you all my cell phone number and email,” Kate said. “Call or text me with any questions. I’m available 24/7 for the duration of this task force. I’m hoping for a speedy resolution. Remember: priority for El Paso is to build a case in the bar shooting against Hirsch and Damien Drake, locate the Moore brothers and interrogate them, and interrogate the survivor when he regains consciousness. San Antonio, our priorities are to determine if Hirsch is local, if so track him, identify this ‘Z’ he’s working with, and locate the underage girls our asset identified. Photos and names have been distributed to everyone. Anything else? Questions?”
Lucy said, “I reached out to my contact at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. JT had an idea and I think he’s right—if we find Hope Anderson, or at least learn what happened to her, we can extract Bella Caruso without trouble. This all started because Hope’s stepfather sold her to Martin Hirsch for a thousand dollars.”
There was silence. Brad tensed next to her, and Kate shook her head in disgust.
Lucy continued. “The two girls rescued in Phoenix can’t testify to the murder of Officer Beck, but they have information about Martin Hirsch and his organization. They are currently in protective custody. According to JT, they are unwilling or unable to talk at this point but are being treated for injuries and with counseling will likely open up. One definitely wants to help, but she’s scared.”
“No one can blame her,” Kate said. “I don’t mean to sound callous, but the sooner the better.”
“I’ve been communicating via email with Laura Dixon, who runs Genesis Road with her husband. They work with trafficked minors. She’s helping us gather all the background information on Hope Anderson. I’ve asked her if I can talk to Christina Garrett, one of the girls who was rescued. She’s going to try to make that happen.”
“You don’t sound confident.”
“We’re emailing, it’s hard to discern tone in email, but she’s protective. They’ve been through hell and back, I don’t blame her.”
“We’ve all been through hell, Luce—push. I know you don’t want to, but more information is to our advantage.”
“Understood.”
There were no further questions, and Aggie terminated the call and started packing up the equipment. Before Lucy could talk to Brad about their plans, Kate called her directly.
“Hi, Kate.”
“What the hell is going on there?”
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s fucking with my task force. Is Brad there? Put me on speaker.”
Lucy did. “Kate,” she said, “please don’t flex your muscle. My situation with my new boss is difficult, and if you jump in you’re going to make it worse.”
“I don’t care. Brad—what’s going on?”
“Rachel Vaughn is a good cop, but she has a distinctly different style than Lucy.”
She didn’t go into more details. There was no reason to.
“You need backup. You can’t go in blind.”
“I have Brad.”
“I’ll make the call,” Brad said. “I don’t agree with this bullshit, but I understand it. Anything I can do to smooth things over I will—but I’m not going to make a move without SWAT, and FBI SWAT is the best we have locally. Leo’s not only a personal friend, but my SWAT team trains under him because he is the single best trainer in the state of Texas. And it’s a damn big state.”
Kate didn’t say anything for a minute. “Luce? You good?”
“Yes. I’ll make it work.”
“I’ll do it your way, but if I think you need a partner on this, I will make the call, understood?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll tell Dillon you said hi.” She hung up.
“I told you it was fucked,” Brad said.
“Tia will call me when she has a location on this house.”
“Get some rest—best time for a raid is the middle of the night. They’re always the most fun.”
* * *
“What the hell happened?” JT demanded.
The four of them—Sean, Kane, Jack and JT—were standing at a small airstrip where Kane and Jack had lost Bella. They stood around the car that they’d been tracking.
Kane stared at JT, and Sean feared they were about to come to blows. JT had been up and down all week because of Bella and the danger she was in, but for the first time—especially after talking to her—it seemed that they were making progress.
Then Hirsch dumped the car and jumped into a plane.
“We have to find them now,” JT said.
“Could she have said she’s not going to San Antonio because that’s where she’s actually going?” Jack suggested.
“Hell if I know anything at this point!” JT walked away.
Jack almost went after him, but Kane shook his head. “Give him five.” To Sean he asked, “Can you track the plane?”
“If I had the equipment and had logged it when it took off. Finding it in the air will be next to impossible, unless I had an airport radar system and unfettered access, which in this day and age is next to impossible.”