‘Troy heads our human trafficking task force,’ Zimmerman said. ‘He was in Cleveland this morning, interviewing some young women rescued from a massage parlor operation. I brought him back when you told me about the young victim of this morning’s shooting.’
Troy nodded to all of them. ‘The Cleveland operation had ties to organized crime. We know of at least three rings operating in the tri-state area that are similar.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Suspected ties. Suspected rings. Suspected organized crime. We don’t have any proof.’ Then his eyes gleamed. ‘But we do have undercover operatives in two of the organizations, one of which is a deep cover op.’
Scarlett sat up straighter, new energy pulsing through her body. ‘Can we talk to them?’
Troy shook his head. ‘We can’t risk it. Even the one that isn’t in as deep is too far in for us to grab for a chat. He gets time off in two days. He’ll stop in and talk to us then. The one who’s fully immersed only communicates with his handler and only when he has something to say. We’ve sent a message to his handler, but so far we’ve heard nothing back.’
‘I thought so,’ Scarlett said with a sigh. ‘But I had to ask.’
Troy’s look was sympathetic. ‘I understand your frustration. I know who these operatives are and where they are, but I’m about as helpless are you are. However, finding the victim in the alley this morning was an amazing break for us.’
Scarlett thought of Marcus, thought he’d be bristling to hear Tala’s death referred to in such a way. Scarlett was bristling herself, but understood what Troy meant. ‘She broke her leash.’
‘To protect her baby, we understand,’ Troy said. ‘The child is all right?’
Scarlett nodded. ‘Yes, she is.’ She briefed them on the events of the afternoon, noting the scowls on the Feds’ faces when she mentioned Marcus’s involvement in finding Tabby and interviewing Annabelle Church. ‘We’re sending a SAR team out to hopefully retrieve the mother and sister. I don’t know if they’ll be able to identify the men who took the Anderses or not. The women may have been gone by then.’
Zimmerman nodded. ‘I knew about the search for the mother and daughter. Isenberg and I talked right after you all finished questioning Ms Church. I’ve got resources ready to aid the search if necessary, but for now, I’m leaving it in MCES and CPD’s corner.’
Scarlett appreciated Zimmerman’s willingness to have Isenberg lead the search. Lynda had allowed FBI resources access to their investigations as well – grudgingly at first, but it got easier each time. That Zimmerman had acquiesced this time surprised Scarlett, though.
‘You look surprised, Detective,’ Zimmerman said dryly, as if reading her thoughts, and once again she wondered at the disappearance of her legendary poker face. Marcus, she thought. It had been slipping since she’d first heard his voice.
‘I am,’ she admitted. ‘I thought you would have yanked the reins from us, considering one of your own was killed today.’
Zimmerman shrugged, his expression abruptly remote. ‘These women didn’t pull the trigger and Isenberg’s cops know the lay of the land better than we do. We’ve agreed that we will question the women jointly.’
‘What about the old woman found at the Anders house?’ Kate asked. ‘The aunt. Can she be questioned?’
‘Not yet. She’s still unconscious,’ Scarlett said. ‘I called on my way over here to check on her. The hospital has my number. The nurse promised they’d text me the instant she wakes up. What about Chip Anders’s factories? Did you find any evidence of trafficking there?’
Zimmerman nodded, his smile grimly satisfied. ‘Oh yeah. We did simultaneous raids on all three.’ He glanced at Deacon, apology written all over his face. ‘That’s where I was when you called to tell me about Agent Spangler – and why I couldn’t go with you to notify his wife.’
Deacon nodded. ‘I understand. It’s all right. I covered it.’
At a cost, Scarlett thought. But that went with the job. She’d done her share of notifications and it never went well. But at least she’d never been attacked. Poor Deacon.
‘We pulled out so many illegals,’ Zimmerman continued, ‘that the factories would have needed to shut down operations even if we hadn’t padlocked the doors after clearing out the employees. They didn’t have enough labor to maintain even a basic operation. The people we took into custody will take a while to process. We don’t have sufficient interpreters to take their statements, so we’re still in the identification process.’
‘But we have isolated out the other two members of the Bautista family,’ Troy said. ‘Efren and his son John Paul.’
‘Bautista,’ Deacon explained when Scarlett frowned in confusion, ‘is Tala’s last name. Immigration Services contacted me just as I was about to meet you.’
‘They got a hit on her fingerprints,’ Scarlett murmured.
Deacon nodded. ‘I was going to tell you when I first saw you in the lobby, but we ended up discussing the other case. Tala and her family – mother, father, sister and brother – came into the US from the Philippines on an H2B visa. It’s since expired. It was only good for a year and they’ve been here for three.’
‘That’s the temporary labor visa?’ Scarlett asked, and Agent Troy nodded.
‘Technically it’s supposed to be for temporary seasonal labor,’ Troy said. ‘Hotels, amusement parks, stuff like that. It’s not supposed to be for agricultural jobs, but once they get here, it happens. Over seventy percent of victims of trafficking come into this country legally. They don’t sneak in. They’re lured here by the promise of better jobs.’
Scarlett blinked. That fact she hadn’t expected. Seventy percent? ‘Holy God. Is that what happened to Tala’s family?’
‘We think so,’ Zimmerman said. ‘We haven’t gotten anything from her father and brother yet. They were afraid to talk to us. Apparently Chip Anders told all his victims that we’d put them in jail if we caught them because their visas were expired.’
‘So the rest of Tala’s family are now here illegally,’ Kate said with a frown. ‘I hate when this happens. These victims are tricked into coming to the US by bogus labor recruitment firms operating in their own countries.’
‘Like the Philippines?’ Deacon asked.
Kate nodded. ‘It’s one of the top four countries we see victims coming from, second to Mexico. India and Thailand are third and fourth.’
‘They’re sold out by fellow countrymen trying to make a buck,’ Scarlett said quietly.
‘Basically,’ Troy agreed grimly. ‘And not only are they lied to about the jobs they’ll get when they arrive, but they often have to pay exorbitant recruitment fees for the privilege.’
‘The average is a year’s wage in their home country,’ Kate added with an angry shake of her head. ‘Sometimes it’s offered to them as a “loan”, but with interest rates so high they’ll never pay off their debt. Their wages are gone before they even start working. And that’s the ones who even get any wages. So many of those forced into the sex trade get nothing at all.’
‘And when they arrive in this country, they find it’s all been a lie and they’re forced into slavery.’ Troy’s expression grew weary. ‘Sometimes it’s slave labor like Chip Anders’s factories, and sometimes it’s sexual slavery like the raid we did on the massage parlor this morning. Sometimes the victims are held by force or by threat to family members – here or back home. Sometimes they’re made to live at the factory, like many of Anders’s victims.’ He shrugged. ‘And sometimes they just don’t know how to get free. Their captors take their visas and all their travel documents and then allow the visas to expire.’
‘Which is what happened to Tala’s family,’ Scarlett said, her jaw clenched.
Kate sighed. ‘And then their captors tell the victims that they’re here illegally now and that Americans hate illegals. They tell the victims to be afraid of the police because we’ll arrest them. Most of these people come from countries where law enforcement is corrupt at best, brutal at worst, so they are afraid of us.’ She sighed again. ‘And the truth is, even when they do come to us for help, a lot of the time we have little control over what happens to them next.’