Page 22 of Forgotten Girls

Styles sprinkled crackers over his chili, his mind going back to the day when his sister was abducted. It had happened so fast. One minute she was there and the next minute she had vanished. “If Shoebridge did take this girl, how did he know that she’d be walking home alone at that time?”

“She was already a target.” Beth nibbled on crackers between sips of soup. “This is exactly how a pedophile ring works. Think of it like a baseball club. They have scouts out hunting down possible players. These people are well paid for information on vulnerable kids and protected by the organization.” She finished her soup and reached for a pink donut from a box she’d carried to the table. “I have no doubt that Shoebridge was whisked away to a safe house in another county and collected the girl along the way. Ginny told you she went with him willingly because she believed he was a cop. He’d be using the same ploy every time.” She held the donut in one hand as she sipped her coffee. “His security guard uniform could easily confuse a kid.”

Allowing her speculations to percolate through his mind, Styles swallowed his last spoonful of chili and leaned back in his chair. “If you’re correct, then we know which direction he’s heading. We could narrow down our search to heavily forested counties. Somewhere where he could have an isolated cabin in the woods, but not a small hunting cabin, something more substantial.”

“He’d also need to work. He’d establish himself in the town as a nice guy so nobody suspects anything.” Beth licked sugar from her fingers. “Agreed. Some pedophiles would hide in the forest off the grid, but we’ve already established that Shoebridge’s involvement goes a lot deeper than just abducting kids. If he weren’t deeply involved in this organization, we would have found him on the side of the road with a bullet in his head. The same with the doctor. What we’ve stumbled over by accident when we hunted down your sister is two of the key players.”

Styles brought up files on his computer and scrolled through them. He turned the screen to show her. “I’m just looking at the file of the incident that happened in Black Rock Falls last year. Sheriff Alton discovered a missing girl by accident which led her to three men living off the grid in Cottonwood Forest. These men purchased suitable girls from foster care. The girls were reported as runaways. They were kept as slaves for years and their babies sold to an adoption agency. It says in the files that although the foster parents were charged, the adoption agency and the judge who signed over the children escaped justice. The adoption agency was working through a doctor who brought them unwanted babies with paperwork signed by the mothers giving up the babies for adoption.” He raised both eyebrows. “They had the paperwork from a doctor, and the judge put through the adoptions. The parents no doubt paid a fortune for the babies, but they went through the normal screening process. The hope is they went to loving, rich parents.”

“A doctor?” Beth rubbed her forehead and stared at him. “Ginny mentioned a doctor who came and took away her babies. Do you figure our Dr. Paul Benson is the same man?”

Styles had mulled over this case all night and nodded. “It makes sense that it’s him. He had a practice in Blackwater, which is driving distance to Cottonwood in Black Rock Falls. It’s a central town with good access roads to surrounding counties. If we could discover the doctor’s name on the paperwork, we’ll know for sure.”

“What about the girls taken from foster care?” Beth rested her hands on the table peering at his screen. “What did Sheriff Alton discover about them?”

Scrolling through the files, Styles frowned. “It wasn’t in her jurisdiction. The foster parents claimed the girls ran away but were charged with endangering the welfare of children. So we don’t know how many people are actually involved. Seems to me there are three separate things going on here: the abductions, the selling of foster kids, and the baby adoption racket.”

“Reading these files, we can add murder from our own files, and sex slavery.” Beth shuddered. “It can start in foster care. Kids are abused, passed around, and then vanish. I ran away, but I figure if I’d become compliant, I’d have been sold. I believe Shoebridge is running a halfway house. He prepares the girls so they can be sold at a higher price. Either by using drugs or locking them in small spaces until they obey him.” She rubbed both hands down her face. “This is just one side of the coin. We’re assuming Shoebridge and Benson deal exclusively in young girls, which leads me to the question of who in the organization is dealing in young boys?”

TWENTY-FOUR

Information gathering at this time was paramount, and Beth searched online maps for Bison Ridge. After studying the small communities in the area, she turned in her seat to look at Styles. “Bison Ridge is a small mining town between Black Rock Falls and here. It’s ten miles from Louan, so we can assume Shoebridge is heading in our direction.”

“He’d easily have driven here by now, but why come to a town with an FBI field office? That’s flying too close to the fire.” Styles stood and walked over to her desk to peer over her shoulder at the maps. “I figure if he’s heading this way, he’ll be at one of the outlying mining towns. There are a ton of them all over this part of the state.” He ran his finger over the screen. “At least three, including our town, have the requirements he would need. See here, where the mining areas are surrounded by forests? He’d have seclusion if he had a cabin there and a job just across the river where the mines are operating in all of these places. They’d be far enough away from Louan that it’s unlikely anyone would know him.” He glanced at her. “If he decides on security work, the smaller towns are screaming out for workers of all trades. He’d walk right into a job, but it will be difficult to find him if he’s changed his name.”

Agreeing with his suggestions, Beth stared at the map. “I figure that’s a given. Look here. These are places we’ve visited: Serenity, Rainbow, and Spring Grove. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to come here.”

“But does he know we’re still alive?” Styles stood and refilled his coffee cup. He returned to his desk. “He’d have been on the road when we were attacked. We have no idea what the communications are like between him, the doctor, and the organization.”

Turning her head, Beth shrugged. “Likely they do. I’d imagine they’d have burner phones. If they arranged for Shoebridge to abduct Shiloh along the way, it proves they’re in constant communication.” She frowned at the screen. “I’m coming around to believing Shoebridge and the doctor are a team.”

“If so, do you figure the doctor would set up a practice in the same town this time?” Styles leaned back in his chair and rested his boots on his desk.

The possibility had entered Beth’s mind. “Hmm, I was concerned about how he’d do that… move around the state or go interstate using a new name, but he’d only need to go through the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact to be licensed between states, but that’s the legal way to obtain a license. They’d need to hack the database and insert new credentials under the assumed name. I’ve been attempting to unravel their activity on the dark web, and if you’re questioning if they could create phony IDs and credentials to fool anyone checking them, yes, they can. This is a sophisticated organization. They’re using cyber techniques to insert people into a life that didn’t exist five minutes ago. I’m assuming they are using AI technology to do it so fast.”

“So they can also cover their tracks in a few seconds?” Styles dropped his boots to the floor and straightened. “How are we going to find them?”

Beth smiled at him. “Anything they can do I can do better.”

Having a fortune in Bitcoin and offshore bank accounts, Beth didn’t need to rely on the income from the FBI. As the Tarot Killer, she had amassed a fortune by taking down all types of schemes and the men running them. The life insurance on her mother and the sale of the family home meant by the time she turned twenty-one, she had more than enough to start a new life. Having a fortune behind her also meant she purchased the best computer hardware and software available. Through other means, she had obtained as-yet-unreleased AI software and could use it to track down criminals.

“You do know that when they discover we’re alive and well, they’ll likely send more goons?” Styles rubbed his chin. “You can’t track their communications, can you? It would be nice to know when they’re coming.”

Shaking her head, Beth looked at him. “If I could, I’d pinpoint where they are right now and we could haul them in.” She met his gaze. “Maybe we should do what we discussed before? I could leave a few crumbs for them to follow and set up a trap?”

“They didn’t need a few crumbs last time, did they? The moment we pulled the files on missing kids they were on us. They have a watchdog online or something in place that triggers when anyone gets close.” Styles’ eyes flashed with anger. “I figure we head out first thing and do a recon of the towns on our list. Poke around some and see what we can find. Maybe stay over and see if anyone crawls out of the woodwork to murder us in our sleep.” He gave her a long look. “I figure we need to find this little girl before she’s moved into the system and lost forever. We need to stop these men from doing any more damage to people’s lives.”

Seeing a flash of controlled rage move across Styles’ features, Beth needed to probe deeper into his emotions. What was he really thinking? She leaned forward in her chair. “Can I trust you to bring in Shoebridge alive? We need to find out what happened to all his victims.”

“I’m aware, but I have a score to settle with Shoebridge.” He dropped his gaze and lifted it back to hers. “My daddy wasn’t a serial killer, so I have no excuse to feel this way, but for what he did to my sister and those other kids, I want to tear him apart with my bare hands.”

TWENTY-FIVE

Unaccustomed to the tangled feelings rushing through him, Styles stood and walked to the window. He took a few deep breaths staring into the coming evening but not really seeing anything. During his time in the military police, he was a leader and a role model. The director had sent Beth to his office for him to be a good influence over her. Sure, he took the law into his own hands some of the time, but rather than having men doing jail time for a stupid mistake, they were working and going back to their families. He earned their respect most of the time, but voicing his innermost feelings to Beth had been a mistake. He needed to regroup and move forward. His sister was safe and he had a handsome nephew. He should be happy—but he wasn’t.

“Do you want to hear something funny?” Beth walked to his side and inclined her head to look at him. “Last week when I was in TJ’s, Wez came to chat with me. TJ was doing something or other. Well, Wez figured we don’t act or speak like FBI agents.”

Styles kept his eyes fixed on the mountains in the distance. A line of clouds had gathered on the horizon, and he wondered if winter was really over. Although the trees were showing the first burst of spring, the temperature still plummeted every night. “We don’t dress like city FBI agents. It wouldn’t be practical in this weather or terrain.” The idea of speaking like one of the FBI agents on TV made him smile. They’d never been permitted to use technical jargon when speaking to the public. “How exactly are FBI agents meant to speak? We’re trained to communicate effectively and professionally when dealing with the public. We’re human like everyone else and can tell corny jokes to each other here in the office, but I figure we act with due respect to people in the street.”

---