Truth or Lies?

by A. Gomez

  I plopped down on my bed and opened the laptop. She started chatting about her assignment she’d been on for the past month, talking about how awful sex trafficking is and how the public is truly not aware of just how close to home this is. I nodded, listening to everything she was saying, thinking how ironic all this was and how right she was about it being so close to home. I’d been shot at and almost killed by an overdose due to some mafia-like Chinese Triads, who were possibly the source of the sex trafficking in this area. And all this because they either didn’t want me to testify or to hold the group therapy session. She sat at the foot of my bed and placed her camera down by my legs. Her camera looked high tech and very expensive.

  “Your camera looks new from the last time we saw you.” I observed.

  “Yes, it is. It has a lot of features. I can even email pictures from my camera to work or myself. Very useful when you’re in the middle of gunfire and you are not sure if you will get out alive.” Her voice grew quiet as if she were reliving some of the events in her mind.

  “Do you mind if I look at your pictures?” I asked.

  “Of course not! In fact, do you mind if I connect my camera to your laptop so I can upload a few of the pictures and send them to my email? My work has cut off the wireless service on this camera because my assignment is technically over. Also, my laptop is dead and I cannot find the plug for it.”

  “Not at all!” I answered enthusiastically, excited to see her pictures from her last assignment. “Help yourself. I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to since we last spoke.” I handed her my laptop. She got comfortable on the bed next to me and plugged her camera in. The images began to pop up incredibly fast. Too fast to see what any of them were.

  “Don’t worry,” she said, “I only have one hundred this time and they won’t all go on your computer. I have to select the ones I want to email,” she added. “Those will stay on your laptop until you delete them. You can always go back and view them should you choose to do so. The others were just uploaded for viewing purposes only.” She began to sort through them and then handed me the laptop.

  “Here, start here.” She pointed to the month. “This is September, when I first arrived in Austria. All the pictures that you see here are of young girls that were able to escape from the sex trafficking world,” she stated. “I was able to talk to all the girls I took pictures of and interview almost all of them. I have a hundred pictures but that doesn’t mean I have pictures of one hundred girls.” She paused, her face suddenly serious. “There were so many girls. The youngest I met was twelve years old.”

  “I thought you said you were in Kosovo?” I asked.

  “Yes, that is where I ended up and had to leave quickly. I had to meet my contact in Austria and from there we traveled to Serbia and then Kosovo. I’m sorry, but I can’t say who he or she is or why they were even in Austria. You can understand that.” She gave me a smile.

  “Of course,” I answered, smiling back. “Belín, you said travel. I’m assuming you mean travel by car or train or bus?”

  “Yes, it was several of us and we were in a small van. We needed to stop at certain towns on our way to Kosovo,” she continued. “You see, these towns are where some of the girls lived and returned to once they escaped their horror. I had to interview them. I had to ask how they managed to escape.” She watched me as I scrolled through all of September.

  “And? What did they tell you?” I wondered.

  “A few of them told me they got away by mere luck. Others said the authorities were finally able to find them. And still others mentioned a group of vigilantes helped them.”

  “Good gracious, Belín. Look at all these faces. They look like babies. And they’re all smiling, happy to be home no doubt.”

  “Yes, very happy. These girls you are looking at are older teens. They all came from a good home and a good family. No drug problems, no abuse and none of them had social issues or problems,” Belín added. “A few of them had boyfriends, in fact. This is the public’s misconception about this horrible world.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, puzzled.

  “These girls were recruited, for lack of a better word,” she explained. “These sex traffickers have what the authorities call ‘Romeos.’ These are attractive young men that meet the girls through social media and build a relationship with them, telling the girl they have fallen in love with her. They ask her to come to him and promise they will build a life together and he will take care of her forever. And being a young, naive and inexperienced girl, she believes him… She begins to think,” Belín continued, “this handsome man loves her and wants her and before anyone is aware of anything, she is making plans with him to go meet him.”

  I continued to scroll through, reaching October and noticing the girls were much younger. I would have ventured to say late elementary or early middle school age. I gave Belín a look of utter shock. How could anyone let this happen?

  “I see you’ve gotten to the pictures of the youngest girls I found,” she said. “It is definitely difficult to understand how this can happen or how anyone can have a twelve- year-old girl in the sex trafficking world.”

  “Belín, I know I see a lot of this in my line of work, but never like this. I usually get the kiddos that need help with the recovery process. I just don’t know what to say.”

  “It is difficult to look at, I know, but the public needs to know so we can help stop this. This sort of trafficking produces more money than drugs could ever produce. You see, once the drug is consumed, that is it. It’s gone. The person may come back for more or they may overdose and die. But with just one girl in the sex trafficking world, she can be used over and over and over again. She can make them hundreds of thousands of dollars upon hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is quite staggering.”

  “You said your investigation is leading you to Dallas. Can you say where in Dallas?” I asked.

  “I can’t say where but I will say, it’s in the same county as where your parents live. My contact there has told me most likely the men involved in this are well-respected men in their community,” she mused. “Which, in my opinion, sounds more dangerous. They are better able to get closer to children.”

  “I’m not surprised to hear that there are pedophiles and sex traffickers in my home town,” I said with a disappointed tone. “It usually is someone that’s close to the victim or someone related to them that commits these crimes.” I kept scrolling through the pictures. “Have you and Ben talked about what you’re doing and your assignment?”

  “Yes, we’ve discussed it a little. He knows a great deal about what I’ve seen and what these girls have told me. I suppose in his field he needs to be well informed.” She paused for a long moment. “He also told me a little about what you two are dealing with. He could only say certain things but I was able to fill in the blanks.”

  “Yes, well, after what’s happened to me and what you’ve witnessed, it’s really no secret,” I said.

  She paused and eyed me for a moment. “Isabel, the errand your mother sent Charlie and me on… was to thank Joshua Rockwall and to deliver his birthday gift from you.” She was watching me, waiting for a reaction. I stopped scrolling and looked up at her.

  “What?”

  “We went to the hospital to see Joshua. We took him the cake your mother bought as well.” She giggled at the memory. “When we walked in with that cake and he saw us, he was so excited. He thought I was you and kept calling me Isabel, baby.” Belín found it amusing and was giggling harder. “I did not realize we look so much alike. Ben did say the other agents are having difficulty telling us apart.”

  “Belín, get to the point!” I snapped, getting a little irritated.

  “Oh, yes,” she continued. “Once I started talking, he quickly realized I was not you, obviously because of my Spanish accent, and I explained how sorry you were that you couldn’t come yourself. I was about to say why but Charlie cut me off and gave him only part of the truth. I th
ink he said you weren’t feeling well.” She took the laptop and began to scroll through the pictures. “At that point, I gave him your gift and Charlie placed the cake on that little table with wheels. And Isabel, how unromantic you were… what you had inscribed on the back of his watch… ‘Be patient with me. We have all the time in the world,’ what was that? There was no I love you or anything, just a heart and your name. Are all Americans like you?” she asked, disappointed.

  “No, just me.” My chest ached at the thought of Josh. “Did he like his gift?”

  “I think so. He was looking at it for a very long time before he put it on.” She looked slightly bemused at the thought of Josh. “He was asking a lot of questions about you. The man looked like he was in agony, he was so distraught,” she added.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I said dryly. “But, I’m sure his other girlfriends will help him feel better.”

  “Isa,” Belín began, “there are no other girlfriends.” She turned the laptop around to show me two more pictures of girls. It was the two girls on Josh’s phone. “Do these two girls look familiar, Isa?” She quickly scrolled to another shot of one of the girls. “Remember, I said that Ben could only tell me certain things but I was able to fill in the blanks? Well, these girls were one of those blanks. When I was showing Ben my pictures he immediately had an unusual amount of questions about these two particular girls. I quickly caught on and asked him a few questions as well. He answered what he could and I filled in the blanks.” She sounded proud of herself.

  “Belín, I don’t understand. How are you connected with these girls? These are the girls I saw on Josh’s phone.” Then Ben’s words came back to me, echoing in my head, “Josh is good at all things tech, including cell phones.”

  16

  I covered my mouth, astonished. All those instances Ben glanced at me when he was talking about Josh’s background in computer science and technology. That time at the hospital when he didn’t seem surprised at all at the girls on Josh’s phone. He also added how there were usually more girls. It all made sense now. Those girls weren’t girlfriends on the back burner. This was in fact work related! And I didn’t believe him. I was such a bitch to him. “Ugh!” I cried, covering my eyes.

  “Belín, how?”

  “These girls’ names are Elsa and Inara.” She continued, “Both of them are from Kosovo, Elsa is eighteen and Inara is nineteen. They are both here in the U. S. but I’m not certain where… yet. I have an idea, however.” She passed me the laptop so I could continue scrolling through the pictures. “They are the prime example of wanting a better life and being tricked by a Romeo. The Romeo promised them a wonderful life in the U.S., he told each of the girls he loved her, he wanted to be with her, build a life with her…” she said. “The Romeo was able to send each of them a passport and somehow get them into the United States. I don’t know how but they are both here.”

  “And Josh is involved because he was able to see activity online from the people who brought them here,” I added. “Oh, my goodness! Did the girls know each other in Kosovo?”

  “No, they were from two different towns in Kosovo. However, they may possibly know each other now since they are in the same city together and were both tricked by the same handsome Romeo.” She continued, “And yes, Josh is involved because he’s very good at what he does. He was able to find out where these girls are but the FBI is not telling me. Fear of jeopardizing the case, you know.” She waved her hand in the air as if it were a silly thought.

  “So, this is the story you’re following here…these two girls. You suspect they may be somewhere in Dallas, don’t you?” I asked, stunned.

  “Yes.”

  “So, Josh was telling the truth,” I stated.

  “Yes, he was,” she said.

  “And once again, I behaved so horribly.” I closed my eyes and exhaled heavily. “How can I ever make amends? Will he ever forgive me? I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t.” I was guilt ridden. “I should’ve stopped to listen.”

  Belín pushed the laptop aside and took my hands in hers. “Isa, he is the epitome of a man in love. He is completely in love with you and I believe you can do no wrong in his eyes.” A smile flashed across her face. “My father has always said that whatever man loves Isabel Grace will need divine patience,” she snickered.

  I frowned. “I’m not that difficult.”

  “Enough for him to need divine patience.” She was still giggling.

  I giggled a little, feeling more regret than anything else. I handed her the laptop so she could finish uploading and emailing. I wanted to get dressed and run to Josh. I wanted to hold him and beg his forgiveness. I wanted to be with him.

  “I can sense what you are thinking, Isabel. Is there anything you want to talk about?”

  I thought for a moment. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to see Josh anytime soon or at all,” I replied. “Ben said it would be better if I didn’t distract him so he can recover and now I have to pretend I have feelings for David again.” I was despondent.

  “If it were me,” she exclaimed, “I would go to him, declare my feelings and throw myself into his arms and never let go. At least that’s how we think in Spain,” she said passionately, hugging herself. “Who cares what Ben said and what you’re supposed to do. You could die tonight and will have never declared your love for Joshua Rockwall.”

  “So, is that what you did with Ben?” I eyed her, smirking. “Declared your feelings and threw yourself into his arms?” I teased. She looked at me smiling, her eyebrows wiggling at me but didn’t answer. “You naughty girl! You two have done way more than just talk.”

  We started laughing uncontrollably. Ben walked in without knocking, his hand on his weapon. He must have just heard a commotion instead of laughter.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked.

  I stopped laughing and tried to wipe the smile off my face but couldn’t. Belín turned to look at him and greeted him more affectionately than usual. He was caught off guard. His eyes flashed to me.

  “Relax, Ben,” I said, still smiling. “Belín just confessed her passionate love for you so I know everything…well, almost everything.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him.

  He flushed crimson, cleared his throat and fidgeted with securing his gun. “Um, Isabel, this is all very untoward, I know, but if you could please keep it to yourself…”

  “Oh, don’t worry, Ben. No one will hear it from me. And for the record, Belín didn’t spill the beans, I managed to fill in the blanks.”

  “Thank you,” he sounded relieved. “I’ll leave you ladies to your girl talk then.” He and Belín gazed at each other warmly before he left us.

  “You two are very good at keeping secrets,” I said. “He always looked so shocked and taken aback every time you went to kiss him on both cheeks.”

  She shrugged her “not giving anything more away” shrug.

  I reclined on my pillows, watching Belín work on the laptop, pondering on what she had said… “she would go to him if it were her.” I knew Ben wasn’t going to let me see Josh. And then there was David—I had to make it seem as if I was willing to try at our relationship again. As far as I understood, no one could know or suspect that he and I weren’t a couple. Huh…how to get around all this and still go to Josh.

  “Belín,” I started, “you and I are going to have a mammo very early in the morning tomorrow.

  She looked up from the laptop, smirking. “I knew you had a little deviance in you. Tell me what I need to do.”

  I sat up. “First, tell me if Ben knows what you just showed me.”

  “No, he thinks I’m still clueless on the Joshua and Isabel Grace situation.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Are men really that stupid?” she asked. “Does he not think that we talk? That I don’t talk to your mother?” She continued, “I only have sisters, Isa, but…are your brothers that stupid?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Yes, they are.”

  She giggled, “So, tell me the p
lan.”

  “Since everyone seems to think we resemble each other, then tomorrow they are going to have the worst time telling us apart.” I walked over to the mirror to look at my hair. “My hair is a little too wavy compared to yours, so I’m going to flat iron it tonight. We’ll both wear it in a pony tail tomorrow and we’ll make sure to only put on press powder and blush – nothing else. I don’t think anyone will come in to the exam with us but we’re going look like twins just in case you need to be me.” I turned to look at her. “Get your jeans and if you have it, a white t-shirt.”

  She walked over to her bag and pulled out a pair of skinny jeans and a plain, long sleeve, white T. I fished out two pairs of blue socks from my dresser and handed her a pair. I laid everything out on the bed and matched my clothes to hers.

  “Isa,” Belín, chimed, “what about our shoes?”

  “Just wear what you have. I doubt they’ll look at our shoes off hand. It will probably take them a while to figure things out.”

  “Oh, my goodness, you have thought this through,” she declared. “But what if we run into David at the hospital?”

  “Then I’ll just say you have an appointment to see a doctor there and it’s none of his concern.”

  “This is perfect!” Belín sounded excited.

  “Great!” I said. “Let me put everything in my closet so no one sees and get started on my hair. I’ll let my mother know what we’re doing so if we need her help for any reason she’s not caught off guard.”

  I quickly put the clothes away and started flat ironing my hair. My arm was starting to throb from all the moving around and fixing my hair. I kept wincing and grunting every time I lifted it to hold my hair and run the flat iron through it—a small price to pay for the end result. I finally finished, taking a quick look in the mirror. It looked just like Belín’s smooth locks. I was impressed with myself—bad arm and all. Once we both put our hair in a ponytail, I believed no one would be able to tell us apart. My pulse quickened with anticipation. I could hardly wait.