I would like to thank everyone who has been reading my story. I have decided, after this chapter, to change the rating to M. I'm afraid things are going to turn dark. Graphic, I would say no, but dark definitely. I hope everyone will keep reading. Thanks for the reviews as I do enjoy receiving them.
"The first thing is that the lab is still running the prints they were able to lift off of the hotdog wrappers and money Callen and Sam brought back and we are still running our suspects images through facial recognition databases. So far, no luck." Nell said.
"There is something about this whole alias thing that has been bothering me. Why not just come up with a fake name? Why go through all the trouble of finding someone who died years ago in order to basically steal their identity? It's obvious, from our investigation that they are not undercover cops or part of the witness protection program. Do we all agree?" Sam asked.
"Yea"
"Yea"
"Uh-huh"
"Do you have a theory Mr. Hanna?" Hetty asked.
"What if they created their aliases to look like they are U.S. citizens? Think about it a moment. What if they're wanted in another country, and are on the run from the authorities, or they have criminal records in another country? Both scenarios would make it hard for them to enter the U.S.. With a bit of research though, they could find someone in the U.S., who was born around the same time as them, but died young. Then they simply have to apply to the State the individual was born in, as them, and ask for a copy of "their" birth certificate. Once they have that they can apply for everything else they need. They could have the birth certificate sent to an address anywhere."
"That is an interesting theory Mr. Hanna. I will contact the Department of Records for the States of Colorado and Texas. I can see if they mailed the certificates or if our suspects picked them up. If they were mailed they should have a record of where the certificates were sent. We may be able to trace our suspect's identities using the mailing addresses." Hetty replied.
"Thinking along the lines of Sam's theory, why don't we broaden our fingerprint and facial recognition search?" Kensi stated.
"I mean, I'm good with accents and I didn't pick up on anything unusual with the hot dog vendor's dialect when Deeks and I spoke to him. I'm thinking that if he is from somewhere outside of the U.S., that English is not only his first language, but that he is from somewhere accents are not that different from ours. It would be easy for him to pick up the way American's speak in each region."
"If that's the case then Canada would be my first guess." Callen said.
"I'll contact the RCMP and ask them to run the prints and images we have." Hetty replied.
"Concerning our suspect's computers. Nell and I have reviewed half of the files retrieved from their computers. From what we can tell it appears as though they are operating some type of an adoption agency on line." Eric said.
"It's obviously not a legal agency. At the moment it seems as though they advertise their services on a chat room devoted to children's health care. The wording, in the ad, could have a double meaning. Anyone who is there to simply research their child's recent ear infection diagnosis would not even bother with the ad or even think twice about the double meaning. Others would know and click on it. From there they are given an e-mail address. It looks like a few e-mails are exchanged between our suspects and their potential client. Once it is determined the client is legit, our suspects will direct them to a chat room devoted to cars in order for them to obtain a code. The codes look like license plate numbers. Anyone who was on the chat site to genuinely discuss cars would not be any wiser." Nell said.
"Why do they need a code?" Sam asked.
"In order to get into a web page our suspects have set up. The thing is this site is well hidden within a legit local garage sale site, hence the need for a code to get into it." Eric added.
"Once someone has a code, they can go to the garage sale site and click on the "filing cabinet for sale" ad our suspects have set up. An error message automatically comes up. Anyone who was not involved would simply close it down and move onto the next ad. Someone with a code would now type it in where the cursor is and hit enter." Nell replied.
"What's on the web page?" Deeks asked.
"It's basically a shopping list. They place their order for what they are looking for in a child. Everything is listed. Skin, hair and eye colour, age, gender, height, weight and even religion. It looks like once everything is entered a second e-mail address is generated. By now the first e-mail address has been shut down." Nell said.
"Guys, I don't think the people who are using this service are the kind who simply want to adopt a child because they wish to be a parent." Kensi said thoughtfully.
"It's not. The second e-mail address is for our suspects to negotiate with their clients. These children are being purchased. Once the deal is complete and the "product" delivered the second e-mail address becomes inactive." Eric replied.
"We believe the reason for all the different steps on various web sites are a way for our suspects to try and stay well hidden and for them to determine if the potential client is real or a cop trying to pose as a client." Nell said.
"What have we stumbled upon?" Sam practically whispered.