He popped the cork on the bottle of champagne the monitor had left in an ice bucket on the credenza and uncovered the tray of hors d’oeuvres. He poured two crystal flutes and placed the tray at the foot of the bed. When they were comfortably settled in the elegant Louis bed under the silk sheets and blankets, he handed her one of the flutes. They touched glasses and he said, “Fuck, Chloe. That was fantastic. I don’t think I could get tired of this if we did it for a hundred years. I think we’re even better at it than we were before.”
She looked at him with a gleam in her eyes and said, “I don’t know about a hundred years, J.J. We’d both be pretty rickety by then.”
“That’s true. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get it up when I’m a hundred. But admit it—you love it when I smack your butt.”
“I know I do, but don’t overdo it.”
Chapter Nine
Office of Strategic Investigations Division, Broward County Sheriff’s Office, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Thursday morning, September 11, 2014
Chloe had made a quick breakfast and hustled J.J. out of the house that morning. She was anxious to get into BSO and catch up with Kaylin and Del. They had not seen Kaylin and Jack at the club the night before. She wanted to know if her partners on the task force had come up with anything interesting on Anne Marie yet, or if she had been cleared. Oh, God, she hoped the woman had been cleared. Needless to say, she did not mention her suspicions to J.J. He would lose his mind if she said she thought his senior partner’s wife might be involved in human trafficking. She was hoping that her gut instinct was wrong and that Anne Marie was just an over-privileged Fort Lauderdale housewife.
Chloe picked up the phone and dialed. “Hey, Kaylin. Did you guys turn up anything on Anne Marie McGrath yet? I know I just gave you the heads up, but I’m anxious to either find something or rule her out.”
“I just bet you are. You haven’t said anything to J.J. I hope. It’s a little early for that.”
“No. I haven’t said anything. I know he’ll lose it if he finds out Anne Marie is a person of interest in our investigation.”
“I can imagine—given your history. Maybe it will turn out to be a massive coincidence.”
“I sure hope so.”
When they got off the phone, Chloe began doing what she had told Anne Marie was her specialty—a computer background check. And why had the woman suddenly looked disturbed when she mentioned that?
She ran all the family names—husband, wife, two children, grandparents, siblings, and the law firm—through the county public records, the state corporate filings records, state and federal tax and lien records, bankruptcy records, pending litigation databases, LexisNexis, and Google. By the time she was done, she had a huge pile of paper to comb through. One thing stood out while she was running the searches. There didn’t appear to be any records for Anne Marie Harrison-McGrath before their marriage license and the date of their wedding in 1994—no school records or legal records of any kind had turned up. Everyone left a paper trail. It was unavoidable. The birth certificate for Anne Marie Harrison was matched to a death certificate two years later. Who the hell was Anne Marie Harrison-McGrath?
As she combed through the pile of paper she made notes of other avenues to follow, other states to check. A fifty-state search would be a monumental undertaking. She needed to narrow down the scope of her inquiries. Detailed searches of this nature took a substantial amount of time and effort. Sure, she could give it a lick and a promise. But the deep-down dirt was just that—deep down, and it took some digging to bring it to the surface.
At a glance, it looked like all was not roses and champagne at the McGrath household. There were a number of creditors who had filed lawsuits against the couple, and the house was heavily mortgaged. The Uniform Commercial Code Search, or UCC search, had turned up two liens against Anne Marie’s Folly as well. It looked like the economic downturn had hit them hard, and the economic rebound was slow to come.
Chloe made lists of all the properties owned by the McGraths. She checked their names in the Secretary of State’s database to see if they were officers or directors of any corporations or companies and if those legal entities owned any property. By noon she had another list of possibilities to check. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she hoped she would know it when she found it. In the back of her mind she was wondering where they would keep five teenage girls so that no one would see or hear them. One couldn’t just park a commercial shipping container in the backyard of a ritzy neighborhood and hope no one noticed. She pulled in a couple of uniforms to do drive-bys of all the properties she had turned up so far just to see if anything jumped up and bit them. Without search warrants, they couldn’t enter any of the buildings for the purpose of searches. They didn’t want to raise any suspicions in the suspects, so they couldn’t just pay a friendly call on the McGraths. They needed probable cause to get search warrants, and so far this was all wild speculation, emphasis on wild.
Slowly she began to narrow down the list of properties to those owned by MPI, LLC, a Florida limited liability company. The Managing Member was another limited liability company, but its corporate address was the same as the law firm. Digging a little deeper, she found that the corporate annual report was signed by Daniel McGrath. Of course, Chloe would expect any good lawyer to build layers into the corporate structure. The company seemed to concentrate on acquiring distressed industrial sites near the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades. Chloe began to pull copies of vesting deeds from the public records. One thing that troubled her was that many of the deeds and mortgages were marked, “Prepared by, Record and Return to: John J. Temple, Esq.” That didn’t necessarily mean anything, she assured herself. J.J. would naturally be pulled in to close real estate deals for the firm’s senior partner. He wouldn’t necessarily know what was going on in any of the properties after the closings. Still, it creeped her out to see his name on the documents. She did not have a good feeling about this situation. No matter what happened, it didn’t look good for her relationship with J.J. One way or another, he was going to be pissed. There was no way she could avoid following up on this lead, nor would she want to. The lives of five teenage girls depended on it. No stone was too small to turn.
* * * *
Chloe and Kaylin met for a quick lunch at a greasy spoon near the courthouse to go over what she had found. The lack of personal history for Anne Marie was suspicious, and a portfolio of commercial properties near the port and airport didn’t look good. It still wasn’t enough to get a warrant to search the McGrath properties.
“Chloe, we’ve got the uniforms doing random drive-bys to see if there is any unusual activity at any of the properties. Without something concrete, there isn’t much more we can do.”
“I’d like to take a look at them myself—maybe late evening or after dark.”
“Hon, that could be very dangerous. You can’t do something like that by yourself.” Chloe knew Kaylin was worried about her. She knew that she had been depressed and not acting like herself. Her feelings for J.J. ran deep, and she was feeling guilty that they had not yet been able to find the girls. Those feelings were diametrically opposed, and they were tearing her apart.
“We are not getting anywhere through regular channels. We can’t just wait until they’re shipped off to God knows where in one of those steel coffins.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, please. At least grab a uniform from the task force as backup, or I’ll take a ride with you tonight myself if you want, but don’t go off on your own. If you’re right, these are very dangerous people.”
“J.J. has a bar association meeting or something tonight. The moon is almost full. This would be a good night to do a little scouting. I’ll pick you up at eight o’clock.”
“I’m not happy about this, but I can’t let you go out alone. Jack won’t like it, but I’m not about to let Jack Dalton Brown take over my life completely. These Doms have a way of wanting to ru
n a girl’s life, all for her own good, of course.”
* * * *
Thursday evening Chloe had the list of MPI properties on the front seat of her Acadia. She was paging through and mapping a route to check out all the locations in the most efficient manner without wasting a lot of miles.
Kaylin climbed into the car, glanced at the list, and said, “The commercial areas around the port are pretty much deserted at night, and I think those have the highest likelihood of producing results.” They agreed to check those first. They both wore black T-shirts and jeans with running shoes. They had badges and guns tucked into their waistbands and their hair tucked up into BSO ball caps. “Let me just say, I really don’t like this idea. Del and Jack would both have my ass if they knew we were out here on our own about to do this.”
“I know. I don’t like it either, but we have to do something. Time is slipping by. They won’t keep the girls in town indefinitely. Maybe they are waiting to fill out a wish list or just to make up an even dozen or something. Who knows? The girls may already be gone.”
They had driven past three of the locations on the list without any results. The first two warehouse buildings had tenants with active businesses. It would have been impossible to hide the girls at either location. The third building seemed to be empty without any lights or signs of recent activity. Its two small windows were dirty and covered with security grills. Debris was piled up against the doors, and there was no indication of recent habitation, no lights, no garbage in the Dumpster.
At the fourth location, which was also heavily secured, they saw indications that people had recently been there. There were numerous scuffed shoe prints in the dirt in front of the rear entrance. Chloe and Kaylin dragged a crate over to the small windows in the back garage-style overhead door. They illuminated the interior with their flashlights and peered in. There was no one inside the big open space, but it had the same look as the shipping crate—personal items and trash, candy and hamburger wrappers, some abandoned clothing and a few dirty blankets strewn about the bare concrete floor. Unless this building had been used as a crash pad by some of the area homeless, it was possible that the girls had been kept here. Without a warrant, they had no probable cause to enter the premises since they could clearly see that the girls were not inside.
“Let’s call Del. Maybe we can get a warrant first thing in the morning. We can check out the junk that was left behind to see if we can get a DNA match to the trash left in the shipping container.” Chloe looked excited.
“Good idea. I’ll ask Del to get working on the warrant. The sooner we get inside there the better.”
Del had a contact at the courthouse, and early Friday morning they had their warrant for the one property only. Chloe, Kaylin, and Del accompanied the CSI Unit to the scene and had it parked in the rear of the building to attract less attention. They would rather that the neighbors were not aware of the search. Since the warehouse building was vacant, the CSI team entered and collected all of the detritus littering the floors. They fingerprinted all the viable surfaces including the one small bathroom—five girls, one tiny bathroom sans bath. The conditions were pretty horrific.
“Damn it. We missed them.”
“We don’t know yet that they were even here, Chloe. We have to wait for the DNA results.”
“I know. I feel it in my gut. They were here.”
“Okay. Let’s check out some more of the McGrath properties tonight. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find the one they moved the girls to. This doesn’t necessarily mean the McGraths are involved in this personally. Someone could have just squatted in a vacant building. We can’t jump to conclusions here. That could be disastrous. I have to say that Del was not happy with our midnight scampering last night. I just hope he doesn’t mention it to Jack.”
Chloe laughed. “You should have left well enough alone when they didn’t like each other. If they are going to be buds, I see a hot butt in your future.”
“Very funny. If your Dom finds out…”
“If J.J. finds out I’m checking out all the properties owned by the McGraths without any concrete evidence of their involvement in a crime, I don’t think I’ll have to worry about my butt. We won’t be together anymore—probably won’t even be speaking anymore. I’ll have proved him right in what he said nine months ago.”
“Well, we may just have found some concrete evidence if the DNA on all this junk checks out. It might be enough to bring Mrs. McGrath in for questioning. You won’t be able to keep this from him indefinitely.”
“No, I guess not. Right now this is classified information in an ongoing investigation, so I couldn’t share it with him even if I wanted to. Either way, I think our relationship is toast.” Chloe felt a fist close around her heart and squeeze.
* * * *
Chloe, Kaylin, Del, and the rest of the task force were on pins and needles waiting for the DNA results that would definitely tell them that the missing girls had been in that warehouse. The information had been shared up through the chain of command by their sergeants. McGrath, Loveless, Scott, Jones, Balman & Temple, LLP was not the biggest law firm in town by any means. It was a prestigious boutique firm, and Dan McGrath did have contacts and a measure of pull in local politics, so the powers up the chain wanted to be sure to cross every t and dot every i. It was small consolation that at least the girls were not still being kept in a shipping container—not that they couldn’t end up back in one. A rush had been put on the DNA tests, but it still took time to run them, as much as they wanted instantaneous results. They should have fingerprint matches much sooner than the DNA reports.
Chloe’s phone rang at eleven and she jumped on it. “Detective Carlton.” She was hoping it would be the lab with DNA results.
“Hi, baby. Can you break away for lunch today? I had a closing cancel at the last minute.”
Chloe was conflicted. She wanted to see J.J. in the worst way. They had not seen each other the day or night before, but that would mean keeping her confidential information confidential. It would be a strain. “Sure, babe. Where do you want to meet?”
“How about Hot Tomatoes on 4th just down from Las Olas? There’s a parking garage across the street, and it’s close to the office in case this closing heats up again. The purchasers had a hitch in their financing, and they’re trying to work it out.”
“Fine. I like that place. It’s fast and the food is good. See you at noon.”
J.J. was sitting at a booth near the windows when Chloe walked through the door. He immediately stood up and gave her a hello kiss that sizzled right down to her soles. She kissed him back like it might be the last time. Oh, shit. It might be the last time. He looked delicious in a light gray, summer-weight suit. Several of J.J.’s attorney friends stopped by their table to say hello, and this time he didn’t hesitate to introduce her. Wouldn’t you just know it? He would pick now to do the right thing when she had a gut feeling that her doing the right thing was going to cause him big problems.
“Hey, Nick, this is my girlfriend, Chloe Carlton. Want to join us?”
“Nice to meet you, Chloe. I’m afraid I can’t. I’m meeting some people from the office. Let’s get a beer one of these nights soon and catch up.” Chloe smiled at the handsome, dark-haired attorney as he made his way to another booth at the back of the restaurant.
“Nick’s a good guy—the managing partner of one of the big firms in town and a Gator, too. He knows everyone. And I mean everyone. I’ve never seen someone with as many friends as Nick. You can’t go anywhere with him without six people stopping to say hello.”
J.J. got up to get their burritos when they were ready, and they both tucked into the delicious food. When they came up for breath he said, “Can I see you tonight? I missed you yesterday.”
“I’m afraid not, J.J. I have some things scheduled tonight that I can’t accomplish during the day.” Chloe was nervous. She certainly didn’t want him to know just what she had planned for that night. Her clandestinely checking
out his partner’s properties would not make him smile. J.J. had a way of seeing into her head. She didn’t know if it was the Dom thing or if it was just the “powers of J.J.”
He looked disappointed. “How is your investigation going? Any new leads?”
“The investigation is heating up a bit, but nothing concrete yet. We’re still waiting for some test results. Everything takes time.”
“Isn’t that the truth? Whenever something looks simple, it turns out to be complicated. Like this closing. Should have been a slam dunk, but there was a snag at the bank at the last minute. Well, if you get done early enough, call me, and maybe I can come over.”
“Okay. That sounds good. If not, we can get together this weekend.” They finished eating, chatted in generalities, and lingered over their ice teas for a few minutes before going out to the sidewalk for one more kiss. Damn. She was going to have to go through that whole pain and loss thing again when this was all over. She didn’t have a good feeling that this was going to work out. She had better enjoy him while she had the chance to store up some good memories.
* * * *
The day continued with more plodding and good old-fashioned police work. Chloe was busy following up leads and continuing to comb through the pile of searches for any nuggets of information she might glean. Sometimes the smallest mention in the body of a document could lead to something. That was the case today. While reading through the UCC filings on the boat, Chloe came across the mention of another address where the debtors had additional assets stored. She hadn’t seen that address before, and added it to the list of places she and Kaylin planned to visit that night. One just never knew when an insignificant item would lead to something of importance.
Late that afternoon, they got the latest DNA results back. They matched the results from the shipping container. Fingerprint matches also indicated that the same five girls had been imprisoned in the warehouse they found on Thursday night.
Chloe's Rescue [The Black Iris Club 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) Page 8
