Intersecting Lines Book 3
56 Tales of Lost Girls
Los Angeles LAPD Conference Theatre
Kate Murphy's viewpoint
We'd gathered in a large lecture theatre inside the LAPDs Parker Centre, capable of seating well over a hundred people easily, it seemed empty with just the LAPD's Major Crimes team, their support people and we visitors.
It seemed strange to include a couple of District Attorneys, the LAPD media person and the Bureau liaison to the LAPD in the briefing but I'd overheard Stella Bonasera asking and being told that they were an integral part of the Major Crimes team so they were in. I'd mentally shrugged; it wasn't my call anyway and headed inside with Megan where we all now were, together making up the combined team working on this case. We'd gathered to get a full brief from the three people closest to the original case, Miami's Caine, Langstrom from Las Vegas and the NYPDs Taylor. They were sitting on three chairs up at the front of the stage with a large screen hanging down behind them. Major Crimes' video guy, James Watson, was working the AV desk to support their presentation.
Chief Johnson stepped up on stage and looked out over the assembled group.
"It looks like everyone's here so let's kick off, time's a'wastin" I couldn't help but smile faintly at her accent as she looked round at the three on stage. "Ready?" They nodded and she turned to look at Watson, getting a 'thumbs up' gesture. Turning back she took us all in and got us started.
"I've asked the combined team to all join us as we get a better knowledge of what we're up against here, given the case we're dealing' with here seems to have ties back to an old case involving all three of them that goes back a ways, to that end I've asked Lieutenant's Caine and Taylor and Doctor Langstrom to explain what they know about the organisation we're dealing with here" She turned to take them in. "So gentlemen, if you would be so kind…" They nodded and Langstrom watched as Brenda moved off the stage before he spoke, his deep, almost rolling voice easily reaching us without much audio enhancement, though it helped that the acoustics here were excellent.
"Thank you Chief Johnson, I might get us started as the case seemed to have its origins in Las Vegas some four years ago" He shrugged. "Or so we thought at the time, now though I have my doubts…" He trailed off then rallied. "Anyway we were investigating a missing person's case regarding a young woman named Samantha Matthews" A picture of a very attractive blonde who must have been Matthews flashed up on the screen as he pushed on. "She had been reported missing by her parents who hadn't heard from her for several days" Langstrom glanced over his shoulder up at the screen then back to us and continued. "Matthews was working as a hostess at one of the major casino's on the strip but was trying to break into modelling; a work colleague at the casino mentioned that she was going to an interview at a new modelling agency, hoping to get some work there. That was the last anyone who knew her saw of her, well alive anyway" He shook his head then pushed on as we waited.
"A search of her cell phone records identified a number of calls made to a burner cell phone; however a search of her apartment led to an address which turned out to be rented office space. We investigated and found that the space had been rented for several weeks by an offshore-based shell company. All the accounts had been paid via offshore bank accounts and the ID of the people renting turned out to be fake as well" He pulled a face for a moment then continued. "We were running out of leads when we received a call from Lieutenant Caine here about a severed leg they had found in the Everglades which DNA had matched to our missing girl, Samantha Matthews. Apparently the limb had been found as part of a search for another missing woman" He glanced across to Caine who nodded and spoke up.
"We had our own missing girl, Ashley Tanner" An image of another attractive woman, brunette this time, popped up behind them, replacing Matthews' image. "She was a promotions girl seeking to break into modelling. A wildlife ranger discovered a severed arm in the Everglades with further searching finding a leg nearby, as both had been mauled by crocs we thought we had a single murder victim, or at least we did until the DNA analysis confirmed we had not one but two separate victims, the arm belonged to Tanner but the leg was identified as Matthews" The screen split to show both women at once as he continued. "As part of our investigation we identified that Tanner's credit card was being used and located and arrested a woman using it, a Madeline Briggs, who claimed she found the card on the side of a highway" The image of both women was replaced with a booking image of a reasonably pretty honey blonde woman, the card identifying her as Madeline Briggs as Caine continued.
"She had priors for soliciting and a couple of minor drug charges, basically nothing of any real consequence" I pursed my lips, wondering how it all fitted together as Caine kept going. "We couldn't prove anything beyond what we had, there was no hard, conclusive evidence definitely tying her to either dead woman so we were eventually forced to release her" There were nods all through the audience at that, every cop had that happen sooner or later, Caine pulled a face. "Not surprisingly she promptly vanished and when we went to talk to her the state of her premises suggested that her departure wasn't by her choice, the door had been broken down and there were signs of a struggle. A search of the apartment turned up her cell phone and her purse and some financial details which led us to discover Briggs had been working as a receptionist at a modelling agency in downtown Miami" Ray Langstrom nodded and spoke up.
"Lieutenant Caine had called me and we discussed the cases, looking for connections before I flew down to join him" Caine nodded and took up the story again.
"When he related the background to Matthews' disappearance we looked into Tanner's background, looking for similarities. Investigations revealed that both women had apparently been aspiring models; Ashley Tanner was working at a promotions company, shopping centres, night clubs, that sort of thing. Her friends confirmed that Tanner had done some small-time modelling gigs but was hoping to make it a career. We tracked down the agency Ashley Tanner had gone to in response to an ad but there was nothing there, just an empty office suite. The building management confirmed it had been a short term rental, four weeks, the minimum rental period, tracing the company that rented it led nowhere, basically the company didn't exist, the accounts that paid the bills were dummy proxies for bank accounts in places like the Caymans, Vanuatu, the Maldives, all places with no real way of finding out who owned them" Caine pulled a face. "It was also the agency that Briggs had been working as a receptionist at" Langstrom nodded and took over.
"On a hunch I got the LVPD digging and much the same story turned up there, different companies in different places but the same M.O. which was the first thing that alerted us that this was much bigger than a couple of missing girls" Caine nodded.
"So we started digging but we didn't get too far, we had a lot of questions and not a lot of answers" Caine turned his head to look at Taylor who nodded.
"Which is about where I came in" Taylor said. "We had a trailer wipe out a SUV on the interstate heading into New York State and roll. The SUV driver was drunk and caused the accident, but the driver of the semi vanished. Police investigating the accident were examining the rig when they found two things. The first was a secret compartment inside the rig, soundproofed and sealed and fitted out with manacles and chains, basically a goddamned dungeon" Images appeared on the screen of the accident, including a young woman's body in one corner of the compartment, there was a tightening of faces around the room, mine included, at the implications as he continued. "The second was a dead body of a young woman, which DNA identified as Madeline Briggs, the missing fugitive from Miami" I saw heads nodding or tipping as we took that on board even as I wondered what had tied it all together.
"It appears Briggs had probably been asleep when the accident happened and she broke her neck when it rolled" Taylor grimaced then continued. "CSI was called in to examine the vehicle to try and identify her, during which we obtained DNA traces from another woman who had apparently been in the truck at around the time. A search of the databases turned up both Briggs identity and that of the other woman, Geraldine Connolly" Watson put up an image of another attractive woman, this one African American. "Connolly was a missing person from Atlanta; a talk with local police turned out that she was a part-time model who had apparently vanished less than a week before" He grimaced and wasn't the only one, I saw it across the audience as a pattern emerged. "Atlanta PD had found the same MO here as well though they didn't know it was the same at the time; a model that had apparently gone to a new agency and never returned. The address was rented, the agency never existed, all dead ends" He gestured to Caine. "I called Miami to let them know we had found Briggs and ended up talking to Horatio here" Caine nodded and continued the thread.
"Mac called me once he saw the warrant for Briggs and we discussed the case, during which he mentioned the other missing girl" he said. "What raised the flag in my eyes though was the modelling connection. I immediately notified Ray in Las Vegas and we decided to make our way to New York to compare notes" Langstrom nodded.
"This was starting to look like something much larger than we'd first thought; I mean missing women from three different parts of the country turning up in a linked case with the same M.O. obviously meant something, but what?" Taylor nodded and chimed in.
"Meanwhile we were still looking for Connolly and the missing truck driver. NYPD found a car in New York City with the driver dead in the trunk and forensics tied it to our case when we found traces of blood on the back seat which DNA matched to Connolly. Our best guess was the semi driver hijacked the car, which belonged to a machinery sales representative on his way back to New York, when it stopped at the accident scene, got himself and a presumably injured Connolly into the vehicle then forced the driver to head to New York, killing him when they got there to cover his tracks"
"In the meantime we'd identified the semi driver as an owner-operator, Sean Casey, resident of Tulsa Oklahoma. At our request local police executed a search warrant on his home but didn't find anything of interest there, plus his record was clean beyond the usual traffic violations you'd expect of a long-distance truck driver. They did however turn up that he was an ex-Army vet from Iraq and after contacting the Pentagon they provided us with DNA markers to help identify Casey" He shrugged. "Every member of the US Armed forces now has their DNA kept on file for cadaver identification purposes, which turned out to be a big help, as we were able to conclusively tie Casey to the vehicle and dead driver in New York" Langstrom took up the story.
"Horatio and I arrived in New York the following day and we compared cases with Mac, it certainly seemed like there was a connection but we didn't know what. We were still working over possible connections when we learned that Casey had been found" Taylor nodded.
"His body had been found up at the far northern end of Manhattan Island at Inwood Park by a couple of sanitation workers, he'd been shot in the face twice with a 45 handgun; based on the forensics it seemed he'd been killed where he was found and had been dead for about six hours" Taylor shrugged. "There was no sign of Geraldine Connolly" Caine nodded.
"So we had three dead women, all with a modelling connection, another still missing, a dead truck driver and not much else" He glanced at his companions. "We didn't have much to go on however Mac suggested that they flood NYC with missing persons notices to see if we could flush out anyone who might have seen Connolly" Taylor grimaced as he spoke up.
"We hit all the usual channels, not really expecting anything but it was worthy a shot"" His mouth turned down in anger or sorrow as he continued. "Unfortunately it worked, but not as intended, instead her body was found three days later, she'd been strangled and dumped in the Hudson. We think the publicity spooked whoever had her into killing her" He shook his head; I saw several people in the audience doing the same as Langstrom continued the story.
"We conducted a full forensics examination and determined that not only had Connolly been strangled, her body had been subject to several beatings across the soft tissue of her torso and thighs and repeated sexual abuse" I ground my teeth in frustration, now understanding Taylor's reaction. "I've seen similar injuries in other cases, the sort often inflicted by pimps on newly recruited prostitutes to ensure their compliance" he said. I'd seen the same thing too, they were agonisingly painful but the bruises healed and no bones were broken and no internal organs were injured. Taylor was shaking his head. "None of the blows had been inflicted to her face where they might mar her appearance"
I looked up to the image on the screen, Connolly had been a quite frankly beautiful woman, now it appeared she'd been kidnapped and transported across the country to a life as a prostitute, only to be murdered. There was a quiet murmur through the audience for a couple of seconds as people took that in before Langstrom continued speaking.
"It was our supposition that the person who was preparing Connolly for her new life as a prostitute in New York had panicked when her face was spread across the city, realising that it immediately raised the likelihood of someone recognising her and possibly sounding the alarm" Langstrom shook his head slowly. "Instead she was killed to prevent any chance of tying her to her captor" Taylor nodded.
"We were surprised at the possibility that Connolly might have been setup to have her spirit broken for use as a prostitute, the reports from Atlanta suggested she was very strong-willed, plus addicted to what a friend described as a relentlessly clean lifestyle; she didn't drink, smoke, do drugs, hell she was a vegan who ran marathons" He shook his head then continued. "Hardly fit the profile of the usual person who ends up in prostitution" Caine nodded and started up.
"My question was why anyone would try and turn her into a prostitute when she could go to the cops at the first available opportunity and get help?" Caine grimaced then pushed on. "Unless she was not going to be in a position to escape to get help" My eyes narrowed as I thought I saw where they were going with this, a destination I didn't much like the look of. "My supposition was that she was being prepared for prostitution in an illegal brothel, basically held prisoner and forced to service specific clients with specific demands" Caine shook his head again as Taylor took over.
"Such a place would probably be servicing clients with demands that normal prostitutes wouldn't be interested in, otherwise why kidnap someone to work there? Plus the fact that it was illegal would provide a reason why customers wouldn't normally talk to the police, even if Connolly was able to tell one what had happened"" I scowled, I'd been thinking the same, sex slavery, right here in America. Based on the low murmurs running through the audience my reaction wasn't uncommon, I saw Megan shaking her head next to me as Taylor continued.
"We followed up for several days but had nothing to go on, every lead had ended up a dead end" He shrugged. "Ray and Horatio headed back to Miami and Las Vegas, leaving me to follow up here. I thought it'd end up a cold case when about a month later I got a call from Horatio, then another from Ray" Caine exchanged a look with Langstrom, got a nod in return and took up the tale.
"We both received a phone call from the Bureau's Cyber Crimes unit in Washington. During an investigation into criminal activity in the so-called deep web, or dark web, they had stumbled across two of our victims. They had located a cache of so-called snuff videos, where the victims had been tortured to death" A ripple of shock and muttering ran through the audience.
"I had no idea that even existed, that it was just an urban legend" It was Megan's quiet voice from beside me; I glanced her way and frowned.
"Nor I" Caine had paused to let us take that in before pushing on.
"Five videos in total were found, showing two men and three women, two of whom facial recognition software had identified as Ashley Tanner and Samantha Matthews" There were nods across the room as people were already leaping ahead. "The four-hour videos showed each victim being beaten, then tortured slowly over a period of more than two hours, before being killed and their bodies being dismembered. The location in the videos appeared to be the same" His expression was very tightly controlled, as was his voice. "The dismemberment of both Tanner and Matthews was consistent with the state of the limbs that we recovered in the Everglades. I assume they dumped the bodies of the victims in the Everglades where the crocodiles would dispose of the evidence" I nodded to myself; it was a logical conclusion as Taylor took up the tale.
"We got in touch with the Bureau who put us in touch with their Cyber division. They tried to help us identify the others unfortunately we had no luck with the remaining female and one of the males but the second male turned out to be a missing person from Boise in Idaho, they'd been missing for at least a year" A photo of an attractive man, mid to late twenties appeared, with his artfully tousled hair, piercing blue eyes and designer stubble he was handsome enough that if I met him in a bar I'd be more than interested, Langstrom was the next to speak.
"Examination of the video suggested that the male victim, a Dwayne Richards, had been subject to long term physical trauma before his death at the hands of his captors" A collage of images appeared on screen showing the signs of repeated injury, my training was already cataloguing them even as I winced at what they represented. Meanwhile Caine had continued on.
"This was confirmed several months later when the Cyber division contacted us to say they'd located another video, this time on a laptop belonging to a suspect that had been arrested on another crime. Police were looking for paedophile imagery but found not just plenty of that but a selection of these 'torture porn' videos, including two of Dwayne Richards being systematically brutalised. Based on the location it appeared they were all made in the same location as the final, fatal video" Taylor nodded and took over from Caine.
"We had immediately contacted the Boise Police when Richards identity was confirmed and they confirmed a similar MO, another would-be model contacting agencies, it seems he contacted one of these bogus ones and ended up as one of their victims" He grimaced. "Based on what we now know, it appears he was kidnapped, handed over to a maker of these torture films and was subject to regular torture sessions where he was filmed, before eventually being tortured to death, on camera, by the person who made these films" There was a long silence at that as people took in the implications.
"We continued investigating, not getting far when we had a breakthrough of sorts" said Taylor, looking to Langstrom who nodded and took over.
"LVPD attended the scene of a traffic incident involving a semi rig. The driver, a Lionel Collins, had a previous outstanding traffic warrant and was taken into custody. When the salvage people went to retrieve the semi and move it to impound they were alerted by faint banging, it turned out there were two girls in the back of the rig, one from Memphis and the other from New Orleans" They were taken to hospital where it was found they were dehydrated and weak but otherwise unharmed. When questioned they told us that only an hour or so prior to the accident the truck they were in had met up with another semi, transferring another girl from Houston, who had been handed over to Collins the previous day, to yet another semi, bound god knows where" He paused for a moment as we took that in, then continued.
"What we had was the inklings of something much bigger, a network of semi rigs transporting kidnapped young men and women across the country, with evidence that some had ended up in horror videos while it appeared that some were destined for prostitution" Langstrom looked at his two companions. "Needless to say I shared that right away" There were scattered nods as he continued. "Transport across state lines is a Federal offence so we called in the Bureau. Together, working backwards from the time of the accident and based on the recollections of the two women rescued we managed to identify the truck stop where the handover had taken place and found footage from a nearby CCTV camera showing two rigs pulled up close together and far from any other trucks, one of which was the truck involved in the accident. They managed to get an identity on the other truck and alerted police to report in if they saw I" He looked round the audience before continuing.
"There was no news for almost 24 hours, then we heard it had been spotted in Oregon, the Bureau organised for the rig to be trailed all the way into Washington State, to a warehouse in Seattle"
"They moved in when the vehicle stopped, unfortunately the bust ran into trouble, a fire fight erupted and the driver, a Robert Jones, bolted. Special Agent Romanov was unfortunate enough to run into him, receiving stab wounds to the stomach and torso, fortunately she was able to shoot and kill her attacker before he could finish the job" I winced at his matter of fact description, especially given Ana Romanov was sitting down near the front, four rows in front of me, her wife by her side as Caine spoke up.
"Fortunately the young woman being transported in the truck was rescued" He shook his head. "Interviewing all three victims the same details emerged, all three were attractive young women who had applied for modelling jobs in Houston, Memphis and New Orleans, had been drugged and held for several days before being placed on board semi rigs and shipped across the country" He grimaced. "The fact that we had three young women kidnapped and in transit all at once suggested that the scope and size of the organisation was much larger than we had previously imagined, quite obviously their scope was nationwide, New York to Seattle and Las Vegas to Miami and numerous points in between"
"We held out hope that we would ascertain something from our driver in custody, Lionel Collins" It was Langstrom. "Unfortunately two days after his arrest he was shanked and killed in holding. Naturally we investigated and narrowed our suspects down to one man, a repeat offender named Clyde Caldwell; he had a long string of assault with deadly weapons charges and was facing a long term in prison. We went to bring him in for questioning but he was found strangled in a prison washroom" I chewed my lip at that, that couldn't be a coincidence, something Ray Langstrom confirmed. "It is our opinion that the organisation was killing off potential leads and then killing off any connection to themselves; quite obviously, and disturbingly, their reach is significant, including the ability to operate inside the prison system" He shook his head then pressed on.
"So what we have is a group that sets up in various locations across the country, advertises for potential male and female models looking to break into the industry and thus self-selecting attractive victims. From what we've learned from the few rescued victims we've determined that those chosen are drugged, then moved to somewhere secure where they are kept until they can be loaded into a semi-trailer heading towards their ultimate destination. This may entail being passed from one driver to another several times before delivery" Langstrom nodded.
"We have not yet had any success in locating, let alone rescuing anyone who has been delivered to their final destination, or the person who has purchased them, so we are not completely sure of the process" He shrugged. "Obviously the organisation, we are sure it is an organisation, is active across the nation and has set up a transport system to link potential victims to their final destinations, plus has a network in place to handle selection, transport, sale and money laundering of the proceeds of their activities"
I shook my head; he'd just neatly described a sex slavery and trafficking ring operating on a national scale, how had it escaped notice? I wasn't the only one wondering as I heard Seely Booth's voice ring out.
"How the hell are we only hearing about something like this now?" The three on stage exchanged looks before Caine spoke.
"You have to understand, all we have are three rescued victims from one transport operation, a few more missing, later dead, victims and some speculation to link those victims to final fates" He shrugged. "We have a few points of congruence and a lot of idle speculation, all sewn together over a period of years, but until now the only people who had any idea of the potential scope of this organisation were Mac, Ray and I" Taylor nodded.
"Every operation we've accidentally stumbled across has led to a dead end, quite often literally. They killed the driver in New York, Casey, no doubt for bringing the heat down on them, plus they killed the young woman there as well. Collins, the driver we had in custody in Las Vegas was murdered by another prisoner who was in turn killed, there were no witnesses to that killing so that lead died with him" He glanced at the front row to where Ana sat. "Agent Romanov was forced to kill the driver up there, Robert Jones" The two people waiting to take delivery of the woman being transported, Felicity Kruger of Houston…" Her image appeared behind him on the screen. "…were identified as low level criminals, apparently hired to transport the woman to a remote location, leave their victim locked inside the shipping container and collect the money waiting for them, no doubt she would then be collected by the buyer some time later" He shook his head. "Both men had only ever met a single contact, he introduced himself as Mister Johnson, he'd recruited them and told them that if they did the job right there would be regular work for them" He sighed. "Their interrupted transfer of Miss Kruger would have been their fourth such victim in 9 months" I winced at that, four kidnapped women delivered to a single, not all that large city in less than a year…
Taylor looked to Caine who shook his head and took up the story. "Despite our best efforts we've had almost nothing we can take further, until the people behind this made a mistake" He shrugged. "They may have finally made that mistake" Langstrom nodded and took over.
"Trying for all three of us in one place, when the only thing we have in common compared to the rest of the conference attendees is this single case, actually provides proof that the organisation exists and is aware of what we've been doing" He looked round the room as he continued. "Their decision to target us suggests the person or persons in charge of the organisation is aware of our actions and was actively seeking retribution for what little we have achieved" Langstrom smiled, a little ruefully, then shrugged. "That in itself suggests an interesting personality profile which others better qualified than I might be able to work with" The others nodded and I noticed Brenda walking back on stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, obviously we're going to be getting together in groups to discuss this, but does anyone have anything they wish to contribute now, something that may help the case?" She looked around the group. "There's a lot of bright people with diverse experience and worldviews in the room so please speak up" There was silence for about five seconds before I saw a hand raised off to the left. Brenda noticed it and called out.
"Yes Doctor Danville?" Jo Danville rose.
"Obviously I've had a while to think on this, given one of the first cases happened in New York…anyway I gave some thought to the infrastructure necessary to make this all happen, it has to be pretty complex and every case since just suggests it's bigger and more complex than I'd previously imagined" Brenda nodded.
"Please go on" Jo looked around.
"There were seven semi-trailers involved in transporting those three women that were recovered, one girl was shipped from New Orleans and according to the truck's manifest, it was headed to San Francisco with another girl while the third was on her way to Seattle, that's a lot of coordination, or a lot of trucks" I nodded, seeing Megan and some others do the same as Brenda spoke.
"Or quite possibly both" Jo nodded and continued.
"When police looked into the truck that crashed on its way to New York, it was on a perfectly normal cargo run, having sub-contracted to a major freight company, the same as the other trucks had" I frowned at that, it meant that they had a legitimate reason to be on the run, covering the other, far less legitimate, delivery they were making. "Suggesting contacts across the country in shipping and logistics" She frowned. "Or perhaps not, but we need to look into it"
"Indeed, you can bet we'll be taking a good hard look into that very thing" Brenda said. Jo nodded and sat as Brennan's husband, the Bureau agent Booth, stood.
"You suggested the personality profile of the people at the top of this organisation, whatever it's called, might be something for a specialist" Langstrom nodded as Booth continued. "The people at the Bureau's BAU are experts in that sort of thing, we should talk to them, get them to work something up.
"A good idea, hopefully we have enough for them to work with" said Brenda "Please come see me after and we'll get the ball rolling" She looked across at another raised hand, Jordan Cavanagh's partner Detective Hoyt. "Yes detective, you had a question?" Hoyt stood and looked around then spoke.
"Was there anything the three drivers you'd come across had in common?" Brenda looked to the three and Caine answered it.
"All three were ex-military, ex-Army veterans, to the best of our knowledge that was it. They didn't really have the same customers, the same shipping agents, the first one, Casey, worked the east coast, the second, Collins, mostly the southwest while the last, the one in Seattle, Jones, he worked the west coast" Hoyt nodded and followed up.
"Was there a connection within the Army, same unit maybe?" Taylor shook his head.
"Not that we found at first look, but on the other hand we now have the resources to have another look at that so come talk to me afterwards and we can set about looking into it" Hoyt nodded and sat as Brenda spoke.
"Thank you detective. Yes Detective Beckett?" Kate Beckett stood from down front where she was sitting with Rizzoli, Benson and Romanov, I'd picked up that they were friends already.
"I think we need to look into the money that went into setting this organisation up and running it" She spread her hands. "A nationwide organisation kidnapping people across the country, selling them to customers across the country and then shipping them backwards and forwards via a network of trucks, that's going to take a lot of people and expertise to set up and run and it doesn't come cheap" She looked round and shrugged. "Obviously they're making money now but the people behind this had to have had money to set it up" Brenda nodded.
"Good point, when we get back let's try and do some desk work, try and work out how much it would cost to set up: Brenda smiled at Beckett. "I might get you to lead that one Kate, like they say, let no good deep go unpunished" Beckett nodded and sat back as Megan rose her hand and was acknowledged as I turned to see her stand, interested in her question.
"Nothing on how they got the information about when and where they were to pick up their unwilling passengers and coordinate with their delivery people?" Langstrom handled that.
"Text messages, sent from burner phones, when we traced where the calls came from, we found that they came from phones that were changed monthly" I grimaced, someone was being careful. Megan obviously thought so too as her next question showed.
"Were they bought in one place or all over the country?" The three on stage looked between each other then back at Megan before Caine replied.
"That's a good question; we traced the ones we found to New York, Miami, Houston, Chicago and here in Los Angeles, some sold by sellers who had no interest in records, the rest apparently sold on the black market?" Brenda nodded.
"We need to look into that, if some were sold here that gives us a point to start" Megan nodded and sat as I caught her eye and smiled, getting one back as Calleigh Duquesne raised her hand and was noted by Brenda, standing and speaking.
"Nothing came from the investigation into either of the other two dead driver's killings?" asked Duquesne.
"Unfortunately no, Casey was shot twice in the face, but we had no record of the weapon in our database. It hadn't been used before or since" Caine said as I nodded, it made sense, this group were careful and smart. "The person who we suspect shanked Collins in holding was found dead in a Las Vegas jail and his killer was never identified"
"The organisation tidying up loose ends it seems" Duquesne noted, getting a nod from Taylor.
"Yeah, they seem to be good at that" Calleigh sat as Jane Rizzoli lifted her hand where she was sitting next to Olivia Benson and was recognised, standing to be seen by everyone.
"You said the transfer people in Seattle spoke to someone, did you get a description?" Caine nodded.
"Yeah, big guy, African-American, quiet spoken, said his name was Johnson. The place he picked to meet was a bar without camera's covering the tables and it was pretty dark, so they didn't get the best of looks at him. We got a composite drawing pulled together but it's so vague it could be anyone from Mike Tyson to Jay-Z" Jane nodded.
"Probably don't know anything then" She shrugged. "After all they're still alive" Taylor frowned at that then replied.
"They were, but I'd better check and make sure" Rizzoli nodded and sat as Brenda indicated her partner, sitting just down from her on the front row.
"Yes Doctor Isles" Maura stood from where she was sitting between Natalie Dearing and the lawyer, Alex Cabot, they were apparently close friends, going back to long before the trial.
"Do you have a figure for the number of potential victims that may have been abducted by this organisation?" Caine handled that.
"We didn't have the resources for a comprehensive search, but it's got to be dozens over the last few years" Maura nodded.
"We have established a baseline for the profile of abductees, younger attractive men and women who aspire to be models" She looked to Brenda. "Might I suggest that we ask Detective Khan to set up an appropriate algorithm to interrogate the missing person's database to isolate men and women between the ages of 20 and 30 who have been reported missing? Once we have that we can individually sort the records and follow up on those cases that seem to fit the criteria" She smiled politely. "It may give us a much better figure for the size and scope of the operation of this organisation that we are up against"
"Excellent idea Doctor" Brenda turned to where one of her team was sitting, at the end of my row. "Detective Khan, is that do-able do you think?" The man stood and nodded.
"It may take some work, but I believe that it should be Chief" Brenda nodded with satisfaction.
"Excellent work" She looked around. "Anyone else…no? Well then we have a number of avenues to pursue people, so let's get to it"
We headed back to work.
