“Not really. Some of the girls talked to each other. One of the girls cried the whole time.”
“Had you ever seen those girls before?”
“No.
“Beside sleeping and eating, what else did you do?”
“There were tablets we could watch movies on.”
“And what happened when the battery went dead?”
“We had a charger.”
Electricity? Whoever built this container put a lot of thought into the construction. I’m surprised they didn’t have a shower. Wait…
“Did you guys have a shower?”
“No, we had plastic containers with wet cloths inside. I don’t know what they’re called, but it helped a little to keep us clean until they ran out.” Xiaolian blew on her tea before taking a sip.
“They’re called wet wipes. Let’s talk about what happened when the doors to the container were opened. Tell me everything you remember.”
“Which time?”
“The container was opened more than once?”
She nodded. “The first time it was at night outside. Two men came in with more food and water. They emptied the toilet and filled up the water container.”
“Did they say anything? How long did all this take?”
“They didn’t say anything at first, but the girl who was crying cried louder, and one of them hit her hard. We were scared, so no one said anything. They weren’t there very long.”
That must have taken place during the ship’s stop in Honolulu. Supply refresh.
“Were you able to see what these men looked like?”
“They looked Chinese, but they had dark skin.”
“Did they speak Chinese?”
“When they talked to us, they spoke Chinese, but I heard them speak English to each other.”
“And the second time the container was opened, you were let out, right?”
“I remember I was sleeping and then I woke up.”
“Someone woke you up.”
“No, the container moved, like something jerked it hard. And then it felt like it was moving.”
“You didn’t hear anything?”
“No, we couldn’t hear anything outside. Then the door opened, and two men came inside. They told us it was time to go.”
“So when you were finally outside, what did you see?”
“Not much, I kept my head down. I was scared. Two people shined a flashlight in my face, and then looked at a piece of paper. They told me to wait by them. After that, they made me climb into a van.”
“Are you sure there were only three men? That’s what you told me earlier.”
“Oh, no. There were four. I remember now.”
“You didn’t see a fifth person? A fat man on a forklift?”
“No. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, sweetie. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
I already knew from Medina that the girls had been separated into the two vans, but I wanted to see if Xiaolian would confirm that.
“Did they put you and the other girls in one van?”
She shook her head. “There wasn’t enough room in the van. Me and two girls were put in another van.”
“Can you describe their faces?”
“It was too dark.”
“What about their voices? Anything weird about the way they spoke?”
“Not really.”
“Did they talk about where you were going or mention a direction or place?”
She shook her head and then reached for her cup of tea. I did the same. Everything Xiaolian had told me thus far matched with what Medina had told me. They corroborated each other. It seemed I had a pretty good understanding of how they’d arrived into the country. What I lacked was information on who ran the smuggling ring and where the other girls had been taken.
We sat alone with our thoughts for a moment or so. Mine were busy processing everything Xiaolian had relayed to me that night and what the next steps would be. I couldn’t be sure what had her mind occupied. Maybe she wasn’t thinking about anything and was simply content to be drinking her tea.
“When you were inside the van, did you still keep your head down?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember at any time one of the men giving you medicine, maybe an injection?”
She started to shake her head “no” but stopped. “Yes, one of the men did this. I forgot about that.”
“Did you start to feel tired after?”
“Yes. How do you know they did that?”
“The doctors at the hospital found a sedative in your blood. It’s a drug that makes you very sleepy.”
“I had a hard time staying awake.”
She yawned, triggering me to do the same. I was about to call it a night when she suddenly gasped.
“What is it?” My heartbeat sped up.
“I remember something. One man had a tattoo.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Later that night, Xiaolian lay in bed, tossing and turning.
She’s walking down a familiar narrow hallway. A man in a white coat is leading her. She still can’t see his face.
“Hurry, we’re late,” he says.
He grabs her arm and hurries her along.
Another image appears. Suddenly she’s outdoors sitting in a garden. It’s peaceful. The sun is out, but a large rose apple tree shades her. Birds can be heard. A nearby water fountain babbles.
Another image populates her mind. This time she is in a room with white walls and no windows. She’s sitting at a small rectangular table. There is no other furniture. There’s a door but no handle.
She hears a voice. It’s the same man who walked with her in the hall. It’s coming from a lone speaker hanging in the corner of the room. In another corner, there is a surveillance camera. In fact, there are two of them.
“Are you ready?” the voice asks.
She nods.
“A man works on the thirty-eighth floor of an office building. Everyday he takes the elevator to the lobby. He exits the building and walks to a nearby food stall, where he purchases and consumes their daily special for lunch. After he’s finished, he returns to his building and enters the elevator. If there is someone else in the elevator or if it has been raining that day, he rides it back up to the thirty-eighth floor. If neither of those two variables occurs, he rides the elevator to the twentieth floor and then takes the stairs. Why? The clock has started.”
She sits there for a moment.
“Time is wasting,” the man’s voice echoes.
“He’s short,” she finally says. “He can’t reach any of the buttons above the twentieth floor but if he has an umbrella, or if someone else is in the elevator with him, then the button for the thirty-eighth floor can be pressed.”
For a brief moment there’s silence. The speaker crackles and the man speaks, but with much more force this time.
“A man and a woman are in a truck. They are speeding recklessly down a street. The vehicle screeches to a stop. The driver exits the truck and runs off. A few moments later he returns with another person. The woman in the passenger seat is now dead. Why?”
She takes a moment to think, but not as long as the last time. “They arrived at a hospital. By the time the man returned with a doctor, the lady was dead. Too late.”
The man on the speaker is shouting and speaking faster.
“A woman is in court. She tells a judge that her sister murdered her husband. The sister claims she was never at the scene of the crime and it’s her sister’s word over hers and therefore the evidence isn’t strong enough. The judge disagrees and tells her this is one instance where one person’s word can singlehandedly trump the other’s.”
There is no debating this time. She answers immediately “The women are Siamese twins.” She pounds the table with her fist. “Challenge me for once!”
Xiaolian’s eyes flickered open as she drew a quick breath, her body growing tense. For a brief moment she’d forgotten where she was, but then her memory
returned. The rise and fall of her chest eased, and the muscles in her legs relaxed as she settled into the mattress. A tear escaped her eye.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The next morning, Kang and I made plans to carpool to the command center. I was in the middle of breakfast with the kids when he arrived.
“I’m a bit early,” he said, standing on my porch.
I waved him inside. “Not a worry, I…”
“Something wrong?” he asked as he turned around to see what had me craning my neck.
“That car parked across the street, I think I saw it the night I brought Xiaolian home.”
The engine started, and we watched it drive off.
“You sure?”
“No, I’m not sure. The shape looks similar. It’s probably nothing.” I shut the door. “Come on. Everyone’s in the dining room.”
“Hi, Uncle Kyle,” my kids said in unison.
“Lucy, you’re growing taller by the day. Ryan, how’s your kung fu coming along?”
He flashed Kang the thumbs-up as he worked on a large mouthful.
“Grab a bite. There’s plenty because of who’s cooking.”
“Silver dollars, my favorite. Nobody makes them like you do, Po Po.”
He gave her a kiss on her forehead, and she smiled.
What a kiss butt.
“Sit, sit,” Po Po said as she pulled a chair away from the table.
Kang sat in the chair right next to Xiaolian.
“Hi, Xiaolian. Do you remember me?”
“Yes,” she said. “You visited me in the hospital.”
“And you’re talking again. That’s great. What do you think of Po Po’s cooking?”
“It’s delicious.”
I set a cup of coffee down in front of Kang. “Hot and black.”
“Just how you like your women,” Ryan finished.
“Ryan!” I blurted as I did my best to counter my giggles.
“What?” he asked with a shrug. “I thought we were doing the innuendo thing.”
“When did we ever do that? And how do you know that word anyway?”
“I hear and see stuff.”
“Well, there will be no ‘innuendo thing’ at the dining table.”
“Have you talked with CPS?” Kang asked, quickly changing the subject. “Today’s day two with her, right?”
“I haven’t. But yes, I think it’s a good idea to extend that agreement.” I glanced over at Xiaolian. It didn’t appear that she knew we were talking about her. “I’ll call once we’re in the car.”
After breakfast, we said our goodbyes to Xiaolian and Po Po and gave the kids a ride to school.
“So what does Xiaolian do all day?” Kang asked after we dropped the kids off.
“She watches a lot of TV with Po Po. The other day, Po Po’s friends came over to play mahjong, and Xiaolian joined them. I think she’s doing fine. Plus, Lucy always comes straight home from school.”
“Seems like she’s easily fitting in. You worried at all about the eventual separation?”
“I am.”
I dialed the number on the business card Rosales had given me. “Hi, Christine. This is Agent Kane calling. I’m fine, thank you. She’s doing well. She’s really opened up over the last day, and what she’s told me has helped tremendously with our investigation. I’d like to keep her for a bit longer if it’s possible. I see. Yes, of course. That was my next question. Uh, huh. Absolutely. It’s understandable. Thank you.”
Kang glanced my way. “What’d she say?”
“She said there may be separation anxiety, but to mitigate it, I should continue to remind her that we’re looking to reunite her with her family.”
“Makes sense, unless her family is a bunch of psychos.” Kang peered in the rearview mirror before switching lanes.
“Now that we know someone most likely abducted her, I doubt that. They’re probably worried to death. I’m sure they have no idea where she is or whether she’s alive.”
“You said the ship arrived from Taiwan, right? We should share Xiaolian’s picture with the Taiwanese police. If she’s from there, the parents might have already filed a missing-persons report.”
“Good idea.” I said. “I’ll have Hansen reach out to the right people.”
“Your conversation last night…” he prompted.
“Yes, right.”
I filled Kang in on everything Xiaolian had told me. “She confirmed a lot of what Medina had already told us, except from her point of view. She never got a good look at any of them or the surrounding area. The only new information she added was that the ship stopped in Honolulu for a refresh of supplies. She said two men brought them more water and food. They also emptied the toilets.”
“I don’t know why I’m surprised to hear they had working bathrooms in the container. They were in there for weeks. You know, I’m actually looking forward to learning more about this container after the CSI team finishes their sweep. Seems like it’s equipped to do so much more than what we saw the other day.”
“The second thing she mentioned was that one of the men compared each girl with information on a checklist of some sort. Xiaolian was pulled aside from the others.”
“Oh, that’s interesting.”
“Even more I’m thinking this organization, the one responsible for that container, may be nothing more than a smuggling operation catering to different clientele.”
“Okay, so Xiaolian was meant for another client, and that client wanted her so he or she could drop her off outside our offices.”
“That would be the line of thinking. Stupid I know, but,” I shrugged, “I can’t imagine what the reasoning is behind that decision. Oh, I almost forgot. One of the men had a tattoo. The only detail she could provide was that it looked like a dragon on a tea cup.”
“Millions of dragon tattoos out there.”
“Yeah, I know, needle in a haystack, but maybe fate will favor. This dragon guy could be a local.”
“While I was with SFPD, we documented the tattoos of Triad gang members. I’ll reach out and get us access. Maybe Xiaolian will recognize it if she saw it again.”
“That reminds me, during my last visit to Hong Kong, I learned that HKP documented the tattoos of Triad gang members. It’s an extensive collection.”
“You still have connections there, right?”
“I do but…”
“What?”
“Does this sound like the Triads to you?”
“My gut says it doesn’t fit. It’s not how they operate. A lot of thought went into building that container. Costly R&D.” Kang rubbed two fingers against his thumb. “Was Xiaolian able to confirm how many girls were in the container?”
“Eleven plus her makes twelve. The exact number of beds in the container.”
“Whoever is behind this spent a significant amount of time crunching the numbers. I wonder if twelve bodies is the sweet spot that maximizes profit.”
“Also, why limit it to young girls?” I said. “They could ship men, women, whomever. Doesn’t matter.”
“They could even ship young girls back,” Kang added. “The shortage of women in some parts of China have led men with money to pay traffickers to bring them a girl to marry.”
“So the prostitution ring continues to have its people gather girls. When they’re ready, the trafficker steps in and transports them from A to B. It’s possible.”
“I wonder who the men were that unloaded the girls from the container. The shipper or receiver?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Agent House greeted us with a smile when we arrived at the command center, a warehouse. Portable tables had been set up, and various men and women were working on their laptops. Some I recognized; some I didn’t. The container was situated near the rear of the building. Large halogen work lamps lit up the inside, where the lab techs were still busy collecting evidence.
“Abby, Kyle. Good morning.”
“Hi, Tracy. I see the techs are still
at it.”
“They are, but we’ve learned a lot so far. Walk with me.”
We followed behind her.
“First off, this is one tricked-out container,” she said, looking back at us.
“Xiaolian talked a little about it,” I said. “Seemed to have a bunch of creature comforts.”
“I’ll say. It has a state-of-the-art climate control system, a self-cleaning bathroom, an air infiltration system, and its own power source, run partly by a generator and camouflaged solar panels on the top of the container.”
“Solar?” Kang repeated.
“We were just as surprised to find that out as well. They’ve been removed; the rectangular panels are over there.” She pointed at what first glance looked like metal plates painted the same color as the container, but upon closer inspection, I could see the solar cells. They were small and confined to the center of each panel.
“The solar panels recharged the battery-powered generator during the day so it could run all night.”
We stopped at the entrance to the container.
“It has an elaborate lighting system controlled by a timer—on during the day, off at night. Not only that, it’s completely soundproof.” House knocked on the side of the container. “You can’t hear a thing that’s happening inside from the outside or vice versa.”
She led us around to the entrance. “The techs said the entire container is swarming with DNA. We might get lucky, but I’m not holding my breath. I imagine these girls were recruited from rural areas with the promise of easy money. I highly doubt they will have criminal records, but our shippers might have been sloppy and left something behind.”
We walked back to the tables. At the front stood a large corkboard noting everything we had learned so far about our investigation. Pinned to it were pictures of Xiaolian, Watts, Medina, and the shipping container. In addition there was a map showing the route the freighter had traveled. There were also screen grabs of the man who had dropped Xiaolian off at the FBI offices, including one of a van.
“That’s new,” I said, pointing to the vehicle.
“Hansen and Pratt found it when they canvassed the surrounding area for cameras owned by local businesses. It’s a black van, so it fits the description. The shot’s not the best, but we were able to pull a partial number on the license plate. So far nothing’s come of it.”
[Abby Kanem - SG 01.0] Suitcase Girl Page 10
