The other day when Special Agent in Charge Trey showed me my workspace, it was dark and quiet, and when I walk in now, there’s some life. Agents Skinner and Turner are at their desks, while Agent Granger stacks boxes in the corner.
I observe them for a moment before saying, “Good morning.”
The three of them stop and look before greeting me. It will take us a couple of days to figure each other out, but I’m confident we’ll work together nicely.
“Mary will be in shortly,” Jess Turner says.
“Mary?”
“She’s our analyst,” Hank Granger states. “One of the best. She specifically asked for this assignment.”
“Why would anyone ask for this?” I say aloud.
“Because someone took her sister, and she’s made it her mission to find her,” Jess says.
“When was this?” I don’t know why I ask or even need to know, but Mary could be a liability if she’s only here to find her sister.
Pamela Skinner clears her throat. “It’s been a few years now. Her sister disappeared from Fort Carson.”
Another military disappearance?
Pamela’s words give me pause. Part of me wants to believe there’s a connection even without seeing the case. The logical part of me says it’s a coincidence, but I’m not even sure I think that. It seems odd. However, half a million people go missing every year, and I don’t necessarily believe in coincidences.
“Well, it’ll be good to have someone passionate on the job.”
“She’s honestly the best,” Jess says.
I nod then head up the stairs to my office. On my desk sits a box, and along the wall, there are three more. These, coupled with the ones already in the pit, make my stomach turn. I’m afraid to lift the lids to see the horror of what lies in the cardboard, but I have no choice. It’s my job to look at the good, the bad, and the repulsive.
Instead of looking inside the boxes, I take the one from my desk and carry it to the pit. “Agent Granger, there are three more in my office, if you don’t mind grabbing them.”
“Why do you have them in your office?” Pam asks.
“I don’t know, but I think we’re about to find out.”
Hank and Jess grab the remaining boxes and stack them with the others. I count ten of them, and my heart drops. I wish I could say there are only ten cases we need to solve or go through to find the sex ring, but the likelihood is that those boxes hold multiple victims' files.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
“I thought the same thing when I first saw them,” Granger says.
“This isn’t all of them either,” Jess says as he hangs up the phone. “We have more coming up.”
“Double fuck,” I say a bit louder this time.
“How do you want to do this?” Pamela asks.
I look around the room and imagine how I want the whiteboards to look. “The center should be our timeline or the family tree, as we’re going to call it. Then, we’ll put up pictures of the missing women and children on the other boards. I want their name, the date, and where they disappeared from next to each photo. The boards will fill up fast, so let’s keep the files in alphabetical order. We’re going to need to reference them a lot, unfortunately. The key to uncovering who is running this sex ring lies somewhere in these boxes. We have to find out the who and why so we can bring it down.”
“And unravel the next one,” Pamela points out. Sadly, we all know where there’s one, there’s another.
Right before lunch, my cell phone rings. I’m happy to see Ryley's name on my caller ID. “Congratulations,” she says before I can say hello. Deep down, I know she’s talking about my promotion, but for a brief second, I think she’s talking about my pregnancy. I don’t think Nate would tell Evan, not without consulting me first. Or would he?
“Thank you,” I say without skipping a beat. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Well, I’m sort of near the building, and I didn’t know if you had time for lunch?”
I glance around the room and see how much progress we’ve made and nod, even though Ryley can’t see me. “Yeah, I can take a break. Do you want to meet here?”
“No, I’d rather not,” she says, which is understandable. “There’s a cantina down the road. Let’s meet there.”
“I’ll see you in a few.” I hang up and tell my team that I’m heading out to lunch and that they should do the same. This may be the only lunch break we get for the foreseeable future, so we might as well take it.
When I arrive at the restaurant, Ryley is waiting for me just inside the vestibule. We hug and then follow the hostess to our table. As soon as we sit down, our waitress brings us chips and salsa and asks if we’d like margaritas. We decline and order water.