Gone Awry
Dani and Charlie just looked at each other in shock. What the hell was going on with this case? It seemed that every step they took sent them spiraling in a completely different direction. Dani let out another breath as the tech went in search of a memory stick to dump the files from the machine.
"I think you owe us an apology," Rhonda said. Dani raised a brow.
"Apology for what?" she asked.
"For thinking we didn't have any merit in following Vaughn," Rhonda answered.
"We don't owe you an apology for anything. For all we know, whoever killed Vaughn went and killed Noah too. You wasted time and this little boy's life is hanging in the balance," Dani shot angrily. She snatched the memory stick from the agent's hand and stormed off. Charlie just gave Rhonda and Dave a smile before following her. He found Reese leaning against the hood of the car.
"You ok?" he asked.
"She and I were at the Academy together. She always got on my nerves," Dani admitted.
"She seems a little headstrong," Charlie noted.
"Let's get this back to the station and see what we can make of it. If we're lucky, it will lead us right to our perp," Dani sighed. Without waiting ro Rhonda and Cave, the two detectives headed back to the station. Charlie stared out the window as Dani pulled into the parking lot. He still hadn't told her about her father's involvement with the Bank of LA shootout or in his own case. He knew she needed to hear about it but right now…it wasn't the right time.
"Crews," Dani said, snapping him from his daydreaming.
"How about I look through the files and you fill Davis in," Charlie offered.
"No, I can handle this," Dani replied and sat down at her desk. Charlie just nodded and headed into Karen's office.
"What do you have for me?" she asked.
"Well our dead guy wasn't the kidnapper but he was trying to buy the little boy," Charlie answered.
"Dani is looking through some emails now to see fi we can figure out who he was going to buy Noah from," he added.
"Feds have been called in?" Karen asked. Charlie nodded.
"Good. Good work," she said. Charlie excused himself and sat down at his desk just as Rhonda and Dave approached them. The federal agents that had met them at the apartment followed behind.
"Thanks for leaving us at the scene," Rhonda muttered.
"Just trying to move the case along," Dani answered as she hit the down arrow on her keyboard. She was on the second to last email between Vaughn and someone named BenD. Most of the correspondence was brief and referenced links to a message board to a site called Playground Productions, Inc. She hadn't accessed the site yet.
"Find anything interesting?" one of the agents asked.
"This is so sick. They make it sound like they're exchanging furniture. Asking about specifications," Dani said in disgust.
"Any indication who the seller could be?" Charlie questioned.
"Just have his email address. We can try and get his IP address…see if the company can give us a name," Dani answered, scribbling down the address on a piece of paper. She handed it over to one of the agents who promptly disappeared. Dani clicked on a link in the earliest message. A website came up with an error message informing she didn't have access to link in question.
"This guy is smart. You can't see the site unless you have an account," Dani said. Rhonda had been examining the web address and glanced down at her notes.
"Looks like you have to pay to join," she commented. Dani looked up.
"Frances has several subscription bills to this site," she explained.
"Well what do we do?" Dani asked.
"Wait and see what the Feds turn up," Dave suggested.
"Or…we could join the site…see if we can talk this BenD person directly," Charlie said.
"Are you nuts?" Dave shot.
"Why? Don't cops do that all the time?" Charlie asked.
"You hear that from your prison buddies?" Dave quipped back.
"Hey…back off," Dani snapped/
"In case you've forgotten, Detective. Charlie was found innocent," she added sharply.
"You don't really talk to many people in solitary, Dave," Charlie interjected.
"I say we go with Charlie's idea. We may be able to catch him faster, trick him into meeting us," Dani said.
"So you're willing to use department money to support a child pornography ring?" Rhonda asked.
"We're saving a child's life," Dani answered and click the link to the register page. She went through and filled out all the information. Just as Dani was about to fish out a credit card, Karen walked out of her office.
"Lieutenant," Dani called. Karen veered from her path and over to Dani's desk.
"We're trying to catch this son-of-a-bitch at his own game. But it's a paid subscription," Dani began to explain.
"Can you send in money orders?" Karen asked. Dani scanned the page.
"Looks like it," she answered.
"Do it that way," she said and walked away.
"I hope you know what you're doing," Rhonda said.
'If you knew how to do your job correctly, I wouldn't have to do this," Dani grumbled, hitting the 'submit' button. She was taken to a log in screen and entered the username and password she'd chosen.
"Let's find this bastard," she sighed.
The four detectives spent the next half hour browsing the site and the message board. They were able to pinpoint the threads that Vaughn had accessed. Reading the topics in full helped to elaborate on Vaughn and BenD's communications. It appeared that BenD had what he called 'a new product' he was auctioning off.
"Look…a new post was made this afternoon," Dave commented. Dani scrolled down the page.
"BenD wrote, 'Sorry for such late notice but due to unforeseen consequences, I have opened the auction up for another twenty-four hours. Please send your bids to my account'," Dani read.
They were pulled from the screen when the agent returned, looking unsettled. All four detectives looked up from the computer screen.
"Any luck with the ISP?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah…the domain name and the email address was purchased a couple years ago by one Jack Mariner," he answered.
"Well he reopened the auction for twenty-four hours. We need to win the auction or else we're never going to see this kid again," Dani sighed.