A Song of Their Own
Chapter 11
"Ready?" Hotch was adjusting his own hidden microphone as he addressed Prentiss. They'd pulled up in an expectedly top end car and were getting ready to enter Hope Filled Families.
"Ready. This has to work, Hotch. We really don't have any other way into this organization."
"We'll make it work. She seemed to take the bait yesterday."
Emily gave a humorless laugh. "Or she thinks we did. Now we just have to let her reel us in." She paused a moment. "Hotch? What do you think about Will LaMontagne?"
He knew she was asking if he thought they would find him. And whether he would be whole, physically and morally. "He's a good man, Prentiss. I've no doubts about that. But if he's been found out…." He let the sentence trail off. They were both worried about how their colleague would react.
Emily was resolute. "So we need to get in there and get these guys before we allow anything else to happen."
They exchanged the kind of look the team members often did when they knew they were about to encounter an unsub. The kind that assured each other of unfailing support and protection.
"Agreed. Let's go."
"Mr. and Mrs. Roget, it's nice to see you again." Adele Marcan shook each of their hands as she greeted them.
"Please sit down." When they'd settled themselves, she inquired, "Have you had a chance to think things over?"
This time, Mr. Roget took the lead. He cast a hostile, arrogant look at his wife who quickly looked away from him. "We have. We've decided on an older child. That will take the pressure of caring for an infant away from my wife." Hotch was doing a masterful job of portraying the slimy executive who wanted to appear socially acceptable while dominating his spouse.
Mrs. Roget kept her eyes averted from her husband, allowing Emily to study the rest of the office while appearing to cower in response to Howard Roget.
Marcan studied the tableau before her, confident that she'd found prospective 'buyers'. She and her colleagues occasionally encountered a couple who both were depraved enough to acquire a child for illicit purposes. Most often, however, there was a dominant spouse coupled with a submissive one, with the submissive unable to defend either themselves or the child. She thought she was looking at such a couple.
Without resuming eye contact with her husband, Francine Roget stated her agreement. "Yes, an infant would be a lot of work. Probably more than I could handle."
While she was speaking, Hotch had time to appreciate that Emily was doing a masterful job of suppressing her usual confidence while drawing on her own hidden anxieties to exude the right emotion. No one was more aware of the emotional price of undercover work than Emily was, and yet she had embraced the task for the sake of the children. As he often did, Hotch admired the dedication of the woman with him.
Marcan was satisfied. "Shall I show you our selection of older children again, then?"
"Please," Howard responded.
They looked on as she scrolled through forty seven pictures of children. Emily counted them, letting Hotch focus on choosing one as their 'selection'. The children looked to be between eight and twelve, of various races and ethnicities. Most were female. All were posed, and Emily's jaded eyes made out some provocation in the poses. One child stood out. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl. Both agents remembered from a previous case that there were premium prices to pay for such a child.
"That one,"Hotch pointed at the monitor screen to stop Marcan's scrolling. "I'd like to see that one."
Garcia could not only hear the conversation, but was actually watching what Hotch was watching, courtesy of a camera in his lapel pin. "I know it's Hotch, but I hate Howard Roget. It sounds like he's shopping for jewels…or a dog."
"Hang in there, Baby Girl. They've got her hooked. He's just playing a role." Morgan tried to reassure her.
"But it's still…disgusting." JJ had struggled to find a word, but she agreed with Garcia.
"Which is why it needs to end." Rossi spoke for all of them.
Reid was busy at a map. Since they only had the one location, Morgan didn't understand why it was important. "Hey, Kid, what are you doing over there?"
"Triangulating. From a single point. I know, Morgan, it does't seem to make sense." He got that look on his face that he always did when he went into "teaching mode". "But think about it. In Houston, we had three different agencies, and a private home belonging to Michelle Gill. We can eliminate the private home, she already owned it before the agencies opened, and her murder was most likely done to keep her quiet. But look at the others. More importantly, look at the youth shelter where at least three children presented, and where it sits in relationship to the agencies. It gives us a zone of operation. Not really a comfort zone, that applies to an unsub for a different kind of crime. But a zone of operation. It creates a radius for us. If we take Hope Filled Families and create a similar radius, we have a zone of operation here in New Orleans."
Once again they were all grateful to have a genius on their side. "You may be on to something , Reid." Morgan was approving. "Garcia, look at the surveillance team data from last night. Focus on Marcan and her supervisor. Overlay that with Reid's zone of operation. Let's see what we get."
"On it."
Back at the agency, the two BAU members felt like they were coming to a critical point in the exchange. Emily knew there was something additional the task force would need if and when it came to a trial. As Francine, she asked, "Will you need to repeat the home study? We had one done in Chicago."
Hotch tried to create a sense of urgency. "Home studies seem to be quite time consuming. We have a trip scheduled next week. I'd hoped we might have completed our transaction by then…." He'd used the word 'transaction' purposefully, testing whether they were on the same wavelength with Marcan.
The adoption coordinator was dismissive. "Home studies are nice, but not absolutely necessary. We perform them more when we're dealing with the state, which requires them. When we're facilitating the adoption of other children, we are free to use discretion." She passed a meaningful look in Hotch's direction.
"Discretion is always warranted," he said, taking out his wallet as he did so. He pulled out five one hundred dollar bills, hard won from the budgeting wonks at the FBI.
Marcan eyed the money but made no move to pick it up. "Do you have an attorney, or will you be representing yourselves?"
"That's not allowed, is it?" JJ was listening in, aghast.
"I have the sense that anything is 'allowed' if the price is right." Rossi's voice dripped with its usual sarcasm.
On the screen in front of them, they could see Hotch's hand deliberately laying down an additional five one hundred dollar bills, one bill at a time. Then they heard his voice.
"We've decided to streamline things. We'll be representing ourselves."
Emily/Francine reentered the conversation. "Will we be able to meet the children before we decide?"
They realized they must have hit on something when Marcan suddenly looked uncomfortable. The team members in the hotel suite all exchanged glances.
"Well, that may be an issue. You see, only one of these children is local. The rest can be brought in, but they are in more distant sites. If you have time constraints…"
Howard Roget was angry. He snatched his bills from Marcan's desk. "You've been leading us on. Is this your version of 'bait and switch'?"
Marcan waved him down, seeking to calm him. She looked around the office to see if they'd brought undue attention. There were a few clients looking in their direction, but they each got back to business when Roget quieted.
"Relax. It wouldn't be more than a day or two before we could have the other kids here. But," and she had a gleam in her eye, " I'm thinking that you won't need to see the others. The child who is local is this one." She brought up the photo of the blond-haired, blue –eyed prepubescent girl they'd seen in her previous scrolling. She looked at them, pleased with herself. "What do you think?"
Both agents knew this child would lead them to the local headquarters of the ring. Their interest in this child would be the key to saving her, and so many others. They didn't dare a glance at one another.
"She's…..pretty," said Francine, dully.
"She's beautiful." Howard/Hotch was trying to appear lascivious without actually appearing to be lascivious. He looked at Marcan. "When can we see her?"
"See her, not meet her. Like she's merchandise. Ugh." Garcia was disgusted.
"He's playing a role, Baby Girl. And he's doing it well." Morgan was admiring his boss's performance.
Marcan was ready with her response. "I can arrange for you to see her tonight. Shall I bring her to you?"
Hotch was ready for this one. "I'd rather not do anything at the hotel until it's finalized. It's my place of work and residence, and it could be a bit awkward if things didn't work out…."
They needed to force a meeting off site, in hopes of getting closer to where the children were being held. From the description the previous victim had given of the house where they were kept, it was unlikely the traffickers would agree to a meeting there. But they must have an alternative location.
"I understand. What if we have you meet her at a park? There's one nearby that might be nice."
The agents knew an outdoor location would make surveillance and tracking easier. Emily responded.
"The park would be lovely. Shall we meet at say, " and she pretended to be looking at a busy day planner, " four PM?"
Marcan was agreeable. They shook hands and agreed to meet together with the 'merchandise' at four.
Hotch took a long route back to the hotel, watching to be sure they weren't being followed.
"Ugh, I need a shower." Emily was disgusted.
"You were perfect, Prentiss. The disgruntled socialite and dominated wife rolled into one."
"You know Hotch, it scares me sometimes what we learn from our work. I would never have known someone like Francine existed….let alone Howard…." She got a grim smile from him at that. "And then to bring her to life…..really, I need a shower."
Hotch was already getting back to business. "We need a game plan."
"I know. What if they want us to take her today? Should we?"
"We need to work that through. If we take her, we save her. But we might lose the others. We may need to leave her in position another day….or more…so we can find where they've got the other kids."
"This is where you're going to hate me, Hotch. I don't know that I'll be able to let her go once I'm near her."
Hotch, the parent, completely understood. Hotch the FBI unit chief, knew they had to work for the nebulous 'greater good'. He reminded Prentiss of this.
"I know. I know here (pointing to her head) but not here ( touching her chest). So if you need to drag me out of there kicking and screaming, you have my permission."
When they got back to the hotel, Hotch was intrigued with Reid's geographic profiling.
"The park is in the radius you've described. What else can you tell us, Reid?"
"Well, Garcia was able to help me focus in on a couple of areas, and then she found some census information, down to the block. I think we're looking in this neighborhood here," and he circled one in marker. "It's a very poor neighborhood, mostly rentals with high turnover rates, a few unoccupied buildings as well."
The team members all knew that 'unoccupied ' buildings were often 'occupied' by those who were engaged in illicit activities, as well as those officially labeled as 'homeless'.
Reid went on. "A location here would make sense. There wouldn't be consistent neighbors to notice activity, they could come and go as they pleased. And even the police would be less likely to patrol."
The latter statement acknowledge the paradox that high crime, poor neighborhoods were often less patrolled than those with more affluent, demanding residents.
Reid concluded. "I think we should focus our attention here."
Hotch felt a need to be cautious. "We'll meet with them this afternoon. We should have surveillance teams ready to move in any direction, but if we need to focus our attention, we'll do as Reid suggests and focus on this neighborhood."
Hotch and Emily took another circuitous route to the park. Satisfied that they weren't being followed by anyone outside the task force, they parked the car and entered, finding the area near the playground as instructed.
"What if she looks scared?" Emily was anticipating her own response to the state of the child they were about to meet.
"Unless she's in immediate danger, we need to let this play out." Hotch was aware he would suffer his own temptation to rescue the child immediately, but also knew he needed to resist it….they both did.
"Here they come." Emily was looking over Hotch's shoulder, in the direction of the far parking lot. "She's with Marcan."
Suddenly Emily grabbed her unit chief's arm. "Hotch!" This came in an excited whisper. "Over near the van they came in. I see him! I see Will LaMontagne!"