Page 110 of He Sees You
Ages fourteen, fifteen, thirteen.
The next page is photographs of Sterling with girls.
Young girls.
At the estate's pool house—I recognize the tile pattern.
In what looks like a motel room, the Pineview Motor Lodge based on the bedspread pattern.
In the back of a police van, the girl unconscious or drugged.
He's not just facilitating; he'sparticipating.
In one photo, he's holding a girl who can't be older than fourteen.
She's definitely unconscious.
His wedding ring is visible on his hand, the same one he still wears.
Celeste would have been ten when that photo was taken.
The same age as the youngest girl in the photos.
I feel sick, thinking of her growing up with this man.
Thinking of her as a child in that house while her father was doing this to other people's children.
Did she ever wonder why he came home so late?
Why he sometimes smelled like unfamiliar perfume?
Why he had unexplained scratches?
There's more.
A list of names, dates, prices.
The trafficking ledger goes back thirty years.
Some names I recognize and wish I didn't—Judge Hamilton who presided over family court and decided custody cases.
Dr. Wallis, the pediatrician who did "health checks" on all the local kids.
Father McKenzie from St. Mary's who ran the youth programs.
Coach Williams from the high school.
They're all here, all complicit, all customers.
The whole town is infected, rotted from the inside by this network. Every institution meant to protect children was actually feeding them to predators.
Then I find the folder that changes everything.
"Michael and Sarah Reeves - Acquisition"
My biological parents.
The document is a purchase order.
