“Thank you,” she said quietly. “I’ll make sure Marisol knows.”
They walked back to the cars after John went back inside. Adam said, “He should have called me when he found her, I’m sorry.”
“She’s scared of authority, but he’s a good man. Don’t be hard on him-you have a good family here,” Lucy said.
“I do,” Adam said with pride. “They just should have trusted me.”
“They do. But you and I both know that not all cops are the good guys. And Marisol didn’t know if anyone would believe her, or even where she was. She knew there’s at least one bad cop in the neighboring county. It would be smart for her captors to bring in one man in uniform to intimidate the girls, so they would be scared to go to the police.”
Nate opened his door. “Where are we going?”
Adam gave them the street. “The phone company couldn’t pinpoint the exact address, but they gave us a radius downtown. There are several motels in the area, restaurants, some apartments and businesses.”
“If Angelo did in fact pick her up, he may have taken her to a motel. Let’s check there first, show both their photos.” Lucy turned to Nate. “Did Zach come through on Angelo?”
“No known record, at least in the US. Has a Mexican passport, and he used it to fly into Laredo on Friday afternoon.”
“He flew? It’s a what, four-hour drive or so?”
“About that,” Adam said. “So he’s been here since Friday.” He frowned.
Lucy nodded. “You’re on the right path, Adam-he knew she was missing before she called him.”
“She could have contacted him before Tuesday morning,” Adam said.
“That wasn’t my impression after talking to the Honeycutts. They seemed to think she hadn’t spoken to him in two years.”
Adam rubbed his face. “I’ll call in backup.”
“And I need to alert Siobhan. John is right, Marisol needs a familiar face, and she’ll trust Siobhan.”
On the drive back to Laredo, Lucy called Siobhan and told her to meet them at an intersection near the two motels. She didn’t give her any more information, though Siobhan had questions. She quickly got off the phone and called Noah. She filled him in on everything they had, and then gave him her theory. He was silent when she was done.
“I’ll run Zapelli’s name up the food chain. He may not have a record and he may not be flagged, but that doesn’t mean he’s not on someone’s radar. I’m on my way down.”
“To Laredo?”
“Hooper arrived and he’s working with the AUSA serving warrants and getting things done. I swear, that guy is just brilliant. White collar is over my head, and I’m the first to admit it. I won’t know what I’m looking at, and Hooper has done this for years. His specialty is human traffic laundering-his wife is an ICE agent and he’s made great inroads in tracking the money with her help in understanding the business of buying and selling humans. Besides, I’ve already pissed off half the office, why not piss off the other half?”
“Because it’s not like you. You’re the diplomat.”
He laughed. He sounded like he was in a much better mood than when they first were stymied by the law firm. “I try to be, but sometimes it takes too long. Keep me in the loop. I’m already on the road, I’ll be there in an hour.”
Fifteen minutes later, Noah called Lucy back. “We have a location on Angelo Zapelli.”
“That was fast.”
“He just checked into the airport in Laredo. Zach had put him on the watch list just five minutes before, and bam, we just got the notification. His flight leaves in forty-two minutes, I’m working on getting him detained, but get there as soon as you can.”
It didn’t take long for Lucy and Nate to arrive at the airport. Homeland Security had detained Zapelli and he sat in a small room. They stared at him through the one-way glass.
Angelo Zapelli was an attractive twenty-six-year-old with the suave good looks of someone with the perfect blend of Italian and Mexican genes. Lucy could see how the story unfolded-he’d showed Marisol attention, she was flattered and completely unschooled in flirting, and he used that. Got her to trust him, sold her into sex trafficking, covered it up… but she had trusted him. That meant not only did she not know he was the one who set her up, he had probably been doing it for years.
Siobhan had wanted to confront him, but Lucy told her over the phone to work with Adam Villines. “We traced the cell phone the Honeycutts gave her, she needs a friendly face.”
“You’re right. Okay.”
“I talked to Villines. Do what he says. He’s one of the good guys. If you find Marisol, call me.”
“You ready?” Nate asked Lucy when she hung up.
Lucy nodded. “If he’s really selling young women into the sex business, he’s not going to have any respect for me.”
“We can play off that.”
“He’s not going to give it up easily.”
“We have some leeway here. He’s wanted for questioning and attempting to flee the country.”
“He’ll say he didn’t know he was wanted for questioning.”
Her phone rang and she frowned at the interruption. It was Villines. “Yes, Sheriff?”
“We found his motel. They haven’t cleaned his room yet, and the motel is giving us permission to search. I also have two officers at the car rental kiosk working on getting the car before they clean it. We have a good chance-if our girl was in that vehicle, I hope to be able to prove it. Just wanted you to know.”
“Text me if you find anything useful, particularly if you can prove that Marisol was in the car or the motel. Have you found the phone?”
“Not yet, but I have one of my best guys on it and working with the phone company. They know it’s urgent, I will let you know as soon as I know.”
“Thanks, Adam.” She hung up and relayed the information to Nate.
The officer with the Department of Homeland Security who had detained Zapelli approached them. “We’ve put Mr. Zapelli on the no-fly list as your boss requested, and we have his passport. We also retrieved his luggage; it’s in a secure room with his carry-on.”
“Thank you,” Nate said. “We’re expecting Agent Armstrong shortly, if you can bring him here when he arrives.”
“I’ll notify the security office.”
Lucy said, “Nate, let’s search his bags first. I want to make him sit around, it’ll make him mad. Angry criminals tend to slip up.” They didn’t need a warrant because any bags that went through airport security were subject to search and seizure.
“This way,” the officer said and led them down a hall.
Zapelli had checked one medium-sized suitcase and had one laptop in a carrying case. The laptop was off. They would need a warrant to access the hard drive, and Lucy sent Noah that information. He seemed to be in a position to expedite these things.
They pulled on gloves and began a thorough search. The DHS officer asked, “Do you know what you’re looking for?”
Lucy didn’t answer. Nate made small talk.
Zapelli had several changes of clothes appropriate for the weather. He had excessive grooming products, including four kinds of mousse and gel, cologne, expensive shampoo and conditioner. His clothes had been neatly-almost obsessively-folded, and his dirty clothes were in a plastic bag-also folded.
Nothing jumped out at her. She stared at the clothing and toiletries. Nate put the contents of the laptop case next to them. “Receipts for gas, rental car, food, motel. The rental car traveled seven hundred twenty-one miles from when he picked it up on Friday to when he returned it this afternoon.”