Page 14 of Forgotten Girls

Styles soon discovered that dealing with Sheriff Jenna Alton wasn’t as easy as he had anticipated. She couldn’t understand the reason to remove a girl in potential danger from a safe house just to be interviewed by them and refused absolutely to give them the details of her whereabouts. He glanced at the images on Beth’s laptop screen, took in her blank ashen expression, and cleared his throat. “Beth is going to send you a small portion of the media files we found on Shoebridge’s property. It’s his private collection. It’s sickening. Take a look and call me back if you change your mind.” He disconnected and looked at Beth. “Can you send the sheriff a small excerpt of that footage. I believe it’s self-explanatory.”

“I’ve scanned the first three files and they’re all the same.” Beth ran a hand down her face and then looked at him. “It’s times like this, I wish I weren’t an FBI agent.”

Horrified at what he’d seen on the screen, he nodded. “Agreed, but we need proof he’s abducting kids and involved in selling babies and children into slavery. Likely he’s involved in murder as well.” He ran a hand down his face trying to block out the images stamped in his brain. “The people involved were careful to keep their faces off camera. These movies wouldn’t be enough to convict the men we believe are involved. Ginny and Ava aren’t talking. Making even abduction and deprivation of liberty charges stick will be a problem.”

In truth, all they had on Shoebridge was possession and maybe distribution of child pornography. He had no absolute proof that Shoebridge abducted Ginny. He’d never seen the man, and Ginny was so twisted in her mind that whatever she said in court would go in Shoebridge’s favor. He chewed on the inside of his cheek. He understood Beth’s inner struggle to take down monsters like this and then trust the legal system to do the right thing. Agreed he’d see many such men walk in his time. He looked at her. “I know this stirs memories you’d rather forget, and I know deep down inside you want to do the right thing. What you feel now, I feel too. Trust me, if it were legal, I’d break both their necks in a heartbeat.”

“You would?” Beth looked at him, her expression softening. “That’s good to know. I figured it was just me who wanted to exterminate every last one of them.”

Styles nodded. “Yeah, but not doing it and taking them in is the difference between us and a psychopath. We might want to kill them, but we don’t act on it… Well, I admit, sometimes I let my disgust with the men who abuse kids sway my judgment, and my takedowns of them are never gentle if they resist arrest.” He shrugged. “It’s my way of getting even for the kids, but I never take it too far. I just let them know they’re dealing with a man and not a helpless kid, is all.”

“You could just shoot them if they make a break for it.” Beth shrugged. “Many city cops wouldn’t think twice about taking down men like Shoebridge and Benson with a bullet. It’s only fools like us who run after them and bring them in alive.” She looked away from him, her shoulders dropping in defeat. “This evidence will get them five years if we’re lucky. It’s not enough. If we catch them, they’ll be out hurting kids in three years. That’s not acceptable.” She turned slowly to look at him. “We must build a convincing case.”

He started the engine, and after waving to the deputies, they headed along the driveway. “I agree. If you enter the doctor’s address into the GPS, we’ll go and search his house. Although, I believe we’ve stumbled on a team. This cache of thumb drives might be their entire private collection. You could be right about Billy’s paternal father. I noticed he has brown eyes, unlike me and Ginny. Shoebridge, according to his driver’s license, has blue eyes, and guess what? Benson has brown.”

“That poor girl. She went through hell and yet she’s sticking by him. It’s hard to believe she figured Shoebridge was protecting her.” She shuddered. “The doctor gives monster a whole new meaning. The man disgusts me. They both do, but he swore an oath to do no harm.” Beth pushed both hands through her hair, removed the band around her ponytail, and slid it onto her wrist. She pulled a comb from her pocket and slowly combed her hair staring into space.

Styles glanced at her. “I can see the wheels turning in your mind. What are you thinking?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.” Beth put the comb away and retied her ponytail.

FIFTEEN

Blackwater

After driving for forty minutes, they discovered Dr. Benson’s residence. A rustic log cabin on the outskirts of Blackwater set on the edge of the forest and shielded from the road by a line of trees. Beth climbed out of the SUV and scanned the area, noting it was five miles from town without any neighbors to worry about. In fact, a perfect place to hide a child. She followed Styles to the front door and stood to one side as he picked the lock. The door opened and the stink of cigar smoke drifted out in a miasma of nasty. This man didn’t just enjoy cigars, he bathed in the smoke. She looked at Styles and pulled a face mask from a pocket. “I think that stink is as disgusting as the smell of dead bodies.” She pushed the face mask over her nose and then pulled on examination gloves before stepping inside the house.

They found a family room, a kitchen, and bathroom. Two bedrooms. One room was used as the main bedroom and the other smaller room held office equipment but had a cot in one corner. A closet held a few empty hangers. Beth walked into the office and stared at the desk. The room was unkept and dusty. On the desk in the dust she found the outline of a laptop. All the drawers in the desk hung open. “It looks to me like he made a fast getaway and took everything with him.”

“Not so fast. It’s the same as Shoebridge’s house.” Styles moved his scanner over the surfaces. “No prints. The place has been wiped down.”

Dismayed Beth stared at the room. “Go and search the rest of the house.” She checked the bed. It was too neat and the bedding smelled musty. No one had slept there for a time.

“Come and look in here.” Styles’ voice came from the other room.

Beth walked into the bedroom. The first thing she noticed was the unmade bed, the second was the clothes that Styles was holding up. “He had a kid here? I’ve checked him out and he had no children of his own. He’s a doctor, which makes it so much worse.”

“I found these on the bed.” He tossed a pair of PJs to her. “Look at the size. How old do you figure? Twelve?”

Hands trembling, Beth examined the clothing, fingered the pink teddy bears, and nodded. “Yeah, or younger.” She pushed the clothes into an evidence bag and sealed it and then took a pen and wrote on the outside. She looked at Styles and shook her head. “We have to catch this guy before he hurts anyone else.”

“It’s my top priority.” Styles scanned the room. “They’ve left most of their things behind. I’d say they had a bag packed and ready to go.” He looked at her. “I know this case is cutting deep, Beth, but stay focused. Right now, you’re the only weapon we have to put these animals away and take down the entire organization.”

Unsettled, Beth led the way out of the bedroom and stood in the hallway leaning against the wall. Memories of her time in foster care after her father murdered her mother came into her mind in a torrential rush. The years of sexual abuse she’d suffered had triggered her need to rid the world of monsters. She looked at Styles, trying to gain her composure. “I know. The problem is when I walk into a bedroom and see things like that, it brings back too many bad memories.” She searched Styles’ face. How could he ever understand what she went through in foster care? “I don’t have flashbacks, so you don’t have to worry about PTSD. I’ve lived through many of the things these girls are suffering right now, and I need to stop it. All that’s on my mind at the moment is an all-consuming need to bring these people to justice.”

“Mine too.” Styles scratched his cheek and took a tentative step toward her. “You’re trembling.” He slipped one arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him. “I wish I could have been there to protect you. It breaks my heart to know what you went through. I look at you and think, how did that small woman survive?” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You did survive, Beth. I’m here now and together we will stop this happening to other kids if it’s the last darn thing I do.”

Usually when men put their hands on her, Beth’s skin crawled and her reaction was usually violent. To her surprise, she leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder finding comfort in his warm embrace. Without realizing it, her hand snaked around his waist, and she gave him a squeeze. “Thank you. That means so much to me.”

“That’s okay.” Styles straightened and smiled at her. “I couldn’t find a root cellar, but I’ll check the loft and then we can head back to the motel. I hope Sheriff Alton changes her mind about allowing us to speak to Ava. If she doesn’t, we’ll head back to Rattlesnake Creek. I want to get copies of all the media files we discovered to the violent crimes against children division ASAP. They have the resources needed to identify the victims in the files.”

The need to do something burned in Beth and she nodded. “I can start uploading them to the server via my laptop. I’ll create an encrypted folder with eyes-only protocol to ensure the files aren’t leaked or hacked by anyone.” She waited in the passageway for him to pull down the loft steps and climb up to look inside the small dark area.

“There’s nothing here.” Styles pushed the steps back into place. “Wolfe will do a forensic sweep when he gets here in the morning. We’ll hand over to him and head on home.”

As her mind planned the next steps in the investigation, Beth followed him out to the SUV and then walked up to the deputies watching the place. “The medical examiner will be here in the morning with his team. We’re heading back to Louan. Thanks for your assistance.”

“Not a problem, ma’am.” The deputy behind the wheel smiled at her and tipped his hat.

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