At 8 a.m. Hotch puts Garcia on speakerphone. Reid, Emily and Catarina are conferenced in from North Carolina. Her handler had simply called in the morning with the okay for the agent to help as much as she saw fit.
"Okay, Speed Racers, buckle up because I'm about to take you on a wild ride. First, I found two charter boat companies whose income and tax records don't make sense. One is most likely a drug running front and I sent a little flag to a friend at the DEA. The second one, however, is most likely our traffickers. Every 3 weeks they have 6 tours in one day. Now, since all other days there is only one tour a day I'd say that other day is the one you all would be most interested in."
She takes a deep breath. "Charting the times back to dates when Katie's teams noticed increased activity around Gutierrez' house the dates are within 2 days of each other each followed up by a large party at his house the night before the next 6-tour day."
"Obviously, that's him selling off a batch of refugees," Rossi points out. "But what about the 2 days after the captives are brought ashore? There's not enough time to train the girls in just 2 days."
From the speakerphone, Catarina speaks. "He has people over at that time to get a preview of the captives he buys. They can choose the one they want and how they want the girl trained."
"All men?" JJ asks.
"Sadly, no. Though men are the only ones looking for the underage girls, if that's any consolation at all."
"Not really," JJ admits.
Garcia pipes in with more information. "I tracked that charter boat through facial recognition and found all the women with Emily, sans Catarina, of course, as well as the driver of the truck. If and until I get pictures of the three dead men I can't be sure they are the ones on the boat or not. But since one man had his arm around Rosa, I think it's safe to say that is her father."
"Where did they get taken when they left the boat?" Reid asks.
"Getting there, Genius," Garcia answers. "All the refugees were put in a green panel van that I was able to track through the city to a warehouse in a rundown industrial park across town. Though many buildings are still in use others are empty and some are slated for demolition, though it doesn't look like anyone is in too great a hurry to get them down."
"Low risk of being seen or of looking suspicious," Morgan points out. "We need to get a look at that warehouse."
Hotch nods. "Morgan, JJ, go check it out. If you see anyone stay out of it. If it's empty and open see what you can find that might get us a warrant."
Morgan and JJ nod. They quickly leave, JJ especially happy to get away from files for a couple hours.
"Anything else, Garcia?" Hotch asks.
Garcia winces. "Just one more thing that is really, really yucky."
"What is it?" Hotch pushes.
"One of the sub companies of the group that owns the warehouse owns a crematorium."
Those in the room glance around at each other. It is doubtful the John and Jane Does Garcia are running will link back to this group if they have such an effective way of disposing of bodies.
"Good job, Garcia." Hotch says. "Prentiss, Reid, Catarina, you need to talk to the refugees again. We need to know exactly how many people came on the boat with them and how many lived to make the trip to shore. That's the only way we can even begin to hope to figure out how many people we are searching for. On this end, Rossi, get with the chief of police. We need to get that crematorium checked out. Garcia, anything you can find that could give them cause would be helpful."
"Yes, sir. Running it now."
"Okay, Katie and I will keep flagging files. Let's bring this one home today." Hotch disconnects the call, hoping they will at least save this batch of refugees and shut down this one network. He knows, as they all do, that there are hundreds more out there but this one was theirs to take down and they would do what it takes to do so.
As a precaution, Morgan insists he and JJ put on their vests before looking around the outside of the warehouse. They walk around the outside, looking for anything that might be enough to get them a warrant to enter the building. As they get to the back, they see something even better.
"Open door," Morgan points out. "As law enforcement officers we should make sure it's not vandals or vagrants."
JJ chuckles. "You are so full of shit."
He grins. "Let's go. Keep your eyes and ears open."
"Right."
Turning their phones to vibrate, they step in and wait as their eyes adjust to the dim light inside. Just as the captives Emily had questioned said it was full of big crates and empty boxes. They walk slowly around the perimeter. At one point, Morgan bends down, picking up a child's doll. JJ just shakes her head, imagining a child working so hard to bring it with her only to lose it here. It would take a lot to make a child give up such a treasure.
"Fucking bastards," she mumbles. Her phone vibrates against her hip. She answers quietly. "Jareau."
"JJ, why are you whispering?" Hotch asks.
"We found a door open. We are checking to make sure vandals and vagrants aren't damaging private property," she replies.
"Bullshit," Hotch tells her. "Be quick about it. We need you to—"
He stops speaking as the sound of automatic gunfire screams through the phone. He hears a grunt and the sound of the phone falling, followed by return fire from one of his agents' guns.
"OFFICER DOWN! REPEAT: OFFICER DOWN!"
Hotch's blood freezes as he hears the screamed alert, followed by more gunfire from multiple guns…and then silence as the phone cuts off.