There's Something About Bailey

Jess sat in a hotel room in the capitol city nursing a migraine with an ice pack when Antonio returned to the room.

"Did you find anything out?" Jess asked anxiously.

"No. The brothels don't open until night. And I don't think it's as accepted around here as we thought. I was asking around for girls Bailey's age and a couple of men almost took a swing at me. Of course that might have something to do with this Cambodian/English dictionary, it doesn't seem accurate. I might have been propositioning them."

"…Well you accomplished half your mission. They now all see you as a pervert. Throw that away. Take this with you when you go out tonight. It's from the office, one hundred percent accurate."

"How are the visions coming?"

"They're not. I must have watched this tape fifteen times. I don't know why I'm so damn blocked."

"I do. You're trying too hard. You have to relax."

"How can I relax when this child is being raped and she's within miles of me and I can't help her?"

"You never really got over not finding her, did you?"

"There's something about that girl. She's not the only kid we haven't found, but...I don't know. I think about her all the time."

xxxxx

It was after eleven and Antonio had been searching for hours. He had been asking for an American girl, but so far all he had seen were Cambodian and Vietnamese children. A tourist in the area, whom Antonio met coming out of one of the brothels, gave him a tip as to where he might find American children. Antonio was headed there.

xxxxx

"Have you spoken to Antonio or Jess?" Nicole asked Brooke as soon as she came in that morning.

"Antonio is looking for Bailey now. And you have an assignment. Cassie Duplantis, sixteen. She disappeared Monday after dinner. Her parents called it in, but the P.D. didn't give it to us until now. The forty-eight hour law should not have applied here. She was scheduled to testify against Michael Wheeler on a statutory rape charge on Tuesday."

"I guess I should start with him. How old is he?"

"Nineteen."

xxxxx

Antonio entered the brothel and was shocked by the sight of children that couldn't have been more than four or five running around, some leaving with costumers for the night. They were the youngest he had seen. The other brothels had girls over nine and that was bad enough, but this nearly made him sick.

The head of the brothel, a woman, approched him. "Thirty dollar per girl for hour. Sixty for whole night."

Antonio cleared his throat. "Um...I'm looking for American girls, blond hair, blue eyes."

"We have American girls. They gone for night. Come back tomorrow. I save them for you. Tonight you want one of them?"

"Yeah." Antonio asked for the two youngest girls he saw. Maybe he couldn't save Bailey tonight, but he would save them.

xxxxx

"I haven't seen Cassie in months," Michael told Nicole.

"You don't seem very mad at her. She was going to have you sent to prison."

"It wasn't her fault. Her parents made her talk to the cops. They controlled her whole life. I know what that's like."

"How?"

"My dad's the same way. Cassie loved me. She wouldn't have gone through with it."

xxxxx

In the next room, Brooke was talking to Michael Wheeler's enraged father. "That whore was going to say my son raped her."

"That's not exactly what she was going to say."

"She might as well. Their sex was completely consensual, but because he was eighteen, they were going to put him a prison and he would have been a registered sex offender for the rest of his life."

"You must have been furious with her."

"I didn't have anything to do with that little slut disappearing."

xxxxx

"What do you think?" Brooke asked her agent.

"Michael seems...I don't know, mellow. Totally at ease. I think he still loves Cassie. He wasn't at all worried about going to jail."

"The father was pretty angry with her."

"But why would Cassie sneak out of the house to meet Mr. Wheeler? How could he have gotten to her?"

"John could have used Michael as bait to get Cassie somewhere remote."

"No. Michael wouldn't do that. His dad has a hold on him, but he wouldn't put Cassie at risk."

xxxxx

Jess looked down at the little girls Antonio brought back to the hotel as he explained his actions.

"I had to take them, Jess."

"You weren't actually supposed to buy any kids."

"I know, but I couldn't leave them there."

"Antonio, if we take these girls to the police, our cover is blown and we will never get to Bailey."

"What am I supposed to do, bring them back? Anyway, I bought them for the night. It would look suspicious if I brought them back before morning."

xxxxx

Nicole was speaking to one of Cassie's friends about Cassie and Michael.

"Michael's dad is psycho. He probably is too."

"Why do you think so?"

"Because that other college boy Cassie was seeing was psycho too. I guess that's what she's into."

"Cassie was having a relationship with another guy over eighteen?"

"Yeah. Ryan, something, I don't remember his last name."

Nicole cell rang. "Thanks...Scott?"

"It's Haslett. Cassie's body was just found."

"I'm on my way back in."

xxxxx

"Another one," Brooke said.

"Yeah. So maybe this Ryan kid found out about what was going to happen to Michael and panicked."

"And killing Cassie the day before she was supposed to testify against Michael would take the attention off him."

"Either that or it was John Wheeler."

"Give all your information to Homicide."

Brooke and Nicole would never know who killed Cassie, and, as it would turn out, Homicide would never find out either.

xxxxx

Jess couldn't stand the thought of returning those children to that horrible place. Her mind was reeling with the words that had been told to her countless times since she became an agent: don't let anything get in the way of you doing your job. Keep your eye on the big picture. Don't let your feelings get in the way. She sighed, "Tomorrow morning you'll bring them back. Tomorrow night you'll go back early and we will find Bailey and we can help the police take down all the places you went to. That will happen before anyone buys them again."

Antonio nodded, hating the idea as much as she did, but knowing it was the only way to bring Bailey home tomorrow.

xxxxx

Night fell the next day, and Jess, armed with many Cambodian police waited at a distance as Antonio went into the brothel. He was only in there for a few minutes, but it seemed like forever. Jess's heart was pounding. If Antonio came back out with a girl who wasn't Bailey, the place was still going to be taken down and Jess and Antonio would have to leave without her. What's more, Dan would probably be found and arrested and would not be coming back to the U.S. anytime soon. This could be their last chance to find her.

The curtain moved and Jess lifted her gun, nervously anticipating Antonio coming out and praying he would have Bailey. He emerged and the Cambodian police rushed into the brothel. Jess couldn't move. She was frozen staring at the little girl standing by Antonio's side.

Antonio walked up to Jess.

She looked down at the child. "I have been looking for you." She knelt down. "We're going to bring you home, Bailey."