Chapter 6
A rough hand woke Taryn from a deep sleep. She blinked as she slowly straightened up. Looking around the inside of the car, she groaned. “We’re still here,” she muttered, her voice thick, her tongue swollen and fuzzy.
“We are,” Alex replied, as he turned on the engine, “but not for long.”
She blinked, her mind finally kicking into gear, and asked, “Are they leaving?”
“They are,” Alex confirmed, giving her a smile. “So, wake up, sunshine.”
She groaned. “How the hell does anybody do stakeouts over long periods of time?”
“Well, usually we have people come relieve us,” he shared cheerfully. “However, in this case, that’s not happening. And, now that we have action, it’s really not happening.”
“Damn,” she muttered, scrubbing her face. “Okay, so presumably somebody’s tracking this?”
“Tracking?”
“I guess I’m hoping there’s a satellite or something useful done in these situations.”
Alex laughed. “ We are doing the tracking because we definitely have movement, and movement is always good.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that because movement in one way was good, but, in another way, it meant the three kids’ lives were in danger again, and Taryn wouldn’t go for that.
“You don’t have to look quite so despondent,” Alex noted. “For all we know, Jeff’s heading back out to get groceries.”
She tried to contemplate whether that was even feasible or reasonable, but, of course, it was. He hadn’t picked up very much last time. “Are the kids with him?” she asked.
“I don’t know. So far, Jeff’s never been separated from the kids.”
“Yeah, wouldn’t that be something if this was the one time.”
“And then what would you want to do?” he asked her curiously, as he headed out onto the main road, casually driving quite a distance behind Jeff’s truck.
“A part of me still wants to swoop in there and scoop them up.”
“Remember the law and the problems we’ll have if you did that.”
“The law’s a pain in the ass and too slow to react,” she stated succinctly. “Particularly when you know that somebody’s in trouble, and you can’t help them because you’re still looking for a way to get around the law.”
“We’re not looking for a way to get around it. We’re looking for way to implement the law in a way that protects those kids for the long haul.”
She moaned. “Just feels like an excuse to me.” Alex didn’t say anything but kept driving. “God, what I wouldn’t do for a hot shower, a freshly brewed cup of coffee, and a chance to brush my teeth.” She knew she sounded like a brat, and she didn’t mean it that way. However, anything to help liven her up and to get her brain kicked in would help.
“Open the window and get some fresh air circulating,” Alex suggested. “When we get to the store, if that’s where Jeff is going, you can always go use the washroom and grab a coffee.”
“Yeah, I would like that,” she muttered gratefully. Sure enough, Jeff’s truck pulled into the little convenience store attached to a gas station. Alex pulled up and around on the side close to the washroom, where he could still see Jeff’s truck, yet it wasn’t obvious they were staying too close.
Taryn hopped out immediately, headed inside, and grabbed the key to the washroom. As she stepped out, a little girl stood there, staring at her. Taryn smiled. “Hi,” she said. “Who are you?”
“Cassie,” the little girl whispered.
Taryn crouched in front of the child.
Meanwhile, Jeff, Cassie’s uncle, grabbed Cassie from behind. “Get back in the truck if you can’t behave,” he yelled, beyond furious and almost bursting at the seams. “You’re only allowed in the store if you’ll be good.”
Taryn’s heart jerked at the little girl’s treatment. “I’m sorry,” Taryn told Jeff. “It’s not her fault. I’m the one who spoke to her.”
The uncle stared at Taryn in disgust. “You’ve got no business talking to my niece at all,” he said in a thunderous tone. “What are you, some creep?”
Shocked at the violence in his tone and even at his wording, Taryn could only gasp, as the little girl gave her a sad smile and allowed herself to be pulled into the store. It drove Taryn nuts to think that this asshole would get away with this. She almost charged into the store, but just then Alex stepped up and told her to use the washroom, his voice calming and steadfast.
“I’ll go in and pick up a few groceries,” he told Taryn. “Take care of what you need to in case we have to run.”
It took her a moment to shift gears, and then she nodded and went into the bathroom, where she quickly washed her hands and face, used the facilities, and cleaned up as much as she could, rinsing her mouth several times until it didn’t feel quite so fuzzy.
As she stepped out, she walked into the store to see the uncle at the cash register. He just glared at her, but she walked past him toward Alex, who even now poured coffee and added several muffins to the shopping basket he carried. Taryn grabbed some beef jerky and a few other items and added them to Alex’s pile. He didn’t say anything, just waited until she was done, and then he walked up to the cashier.
As Taryn approached the cashier, the uncle and the little girl walked out of the store. Taryn looked over at the cashier, who had a frown on his face.
“Those poor kids,” the guy complained in a sad undertone. “Their mom doted on them. Then she passed away, and their lives have turned all to hell. That man is one nasty piece of work.”
Taryn frowned at him and asked, “Has he hurt the kids?”
“I don’t know,” the clerk muttered, with a shake of his head. “None of us knows what he does and doesn’t do. It’s just that the kids are these pale statues now, cardboard cutouts anytime they come into the store. I don’t think he knows how to cook. He keeps buying the cheap processed canned or boxed stuff, not even real fresh food. We’re a convenience store,” he declared, as he sighed. “We’re a temporary stop, until you make your way to a real store and buy actual food—fresh meat and fruits and vegetables. That guy never buys anything fresh here. I don’t know what he’s up to.”
As he turned his attention to ringing up their sale, Taryn pivoted to look outside. She saw Jeff standing outside his truck, making a phone call, while the little girl sat inside the vehicle. Taryn motioned with her head, and Alex just nodded. He handed her money and stepped outside. She paid for the groceries, still keeping up the conversation with the clerk. “That poor little girl, she must be so lonely. Is it just the one child, or did I hear you say kids before?”
At that, the clerk frowned, then looked outside. “Twins, two little boys also. Not sure where they are at the moment. Probably sleeping in the truck.… I don’t know. It’s always sad when you see a scenario go from so happy to what seems like trouble,” he declared in disgust. “The guy’s a complete asshole and never has anything good to say. He’s never got a smile on his face and seems surly all time, if not downright mean.”
“I feel sorry for the little girl and her brothers then,” Taryn replied. “That can’t be easy.”
“Hell no,” he agreed. “With an uncle like that, nothing is easy about it. That guy’s a straight-up dick.” He laughed. “And yet he’s been around here a long time, and a lot of people know of him, yet nobody really knows him at all—if you get what I mean.”
“I do understand what you mean,” she agreed, nodding her head. “There always seems to be a few people in each town who are like that.”
“Yeah, and I just wonder what we’re supposed to do.… If I ever saw any sign of abuse or something like that, I would not hesitate to contact the sheriff. However, when it’s her own uncle, and I have nothing to really hang my hat on, what can I do?” the clerk asked, with a shrug. “I keep hoping he gets his shit together in order to look after those kids or hands them over to foster care or something, so at least they would get three meals a day.”
“That isn’t any way to live, and it seems the little girl is afraid of him too,” Taryn shared. “Did you see how she looked at him?”
“No, because she doesn’t look at him. I swear,… every time I’ve seen her, and this only occurred to me recently, but she doesn’t look at him. It’s like, if she doesn’t look at him, she can ignore that he exists, which won’t work for her long-term,” he noted, with a sigh. “I tell you, it breaks my heart every time I see them, and yet I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it.”
Taryn sighed. “I feel just like that too.” The clerk was obviously pissed off and frustrated, not really knowing what his options were, and Taryn thought that was probably more common than it ought to be. What are people supposed to do when they feel something is wrong but can’t point to anything that would hold water with the authorities because the person in question was a parent or somebody related who had rights to the child, who appeared to be caring for them? Yet instead no caring was involved, and Uncle Jeff was probably more interested in abusing the child than anything. Hopefully Jeff wasn’t abusing the children himself, which was a small blessing when he was still heinous enough to sell them outright.
Taryn waved goodbye to the clerk and carried the bag and her coffee out to her car.
As soon as she got there, Alex whispered, “Stay close. I’ll go into the washroom.” He nipped into the bathroom, while she stood here with the coffee on the roof of the car, trying to listen in on Jeff’s telephone conversation, but once again she couldn’t hear because traffic was nearby. She could only pick up bits and pieces. It was more frustrating than anything. When Alex came out and soon joined her, she glared at him. “How the hell are you supposed to hear anything?” she muttered.
He nodded. “I know. It’s frustrating,” he whispered, putting a finger to his lips. Then he motioned for her to get inside the car.
Once they were both in the semi-privacy of the car, with all its windows tightly closed, Taryn spoke up. “Too bad we didn’t have a bug we could put in his truck.” When he turned and raised an eyebrow at her, she shrugged. “Next time he goes shopping, we could hide it then. Maybe afterward we could hear something.”
He smiled and nodded. “Not a bad idea, though it’s illegal, mind you.”
She snorted at that. “That’s why I’m not a cop,” she declared. “I’m all for using whatever it takes to get us some answers.”
He smiled at her. “That’s because you’re on the side of the victims, but you’re not necessarily on the side of the law.”
“How can there be a difference?” she cried out softly. “The law is supposed to be there to protect the victim.”
“The law is there,” Alex confirmed, “to ensure justice happens. That does not always mean what you think it should. Sometimes these guys just walk because we can’t get the case to hold together.”
“We?” she asked.
“No, I don’t mean me ,” he clarified, with a headshake. “I wouldn’t be a cop either. I don’t think I could be.… However, I’ve seen so many injustices where cases were thrown out because someone took a shortcut and compromised the evidence, couldn’t collect it properly, or the prosecutors did a sloppy job of putting together the case itself. In those instances, it’s just more frustration for the good cops who went through all the work of tracking down things and making an arrest, only to have the perps go free because something about the case didn’t hold water. In those instances, there’s absolutely no justice at the end of the day, and criminals just get to walk.”
She sighed and asked, “Now what?”
“Now, I guess we find a way to stay out of sight and make it look as if we’re not involved. Then we’ll get back out there and see where Jeff may be headed. While we couldn’t hear what he was saying this time either, he sounded pretty upset. Did you check to see if there was any response to your replies to the ad?”
She shook her head. “No, I haven’t yet, but that’s a good idea.” She quickly pulled out her phone, opened up her email, including the one that she had created just for the offer to buy the kids, then gasped. “There’s an answer.” She quickly opened it up and read it. “He says the price has gone up due to unexpected interest.” She stared at her phone, feeling a burning anger deep inside. “What a complete asshole.”
“What, for selling the kids or for raising the price?” Alex asked, with a chuckle. “He realized more interest is out there, so he’ll milk it for all it’s worth. How much have you offered?”
“The going price from the ad,” she replied, “which in this case was twenty grand.”
*
Alex whistled. “But you already told me that you don’t have twenty grand.”
“I can get it if I have to,” she muttered. “I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to, but I couldn’t care less if that’s what’s required.”
“I hear you there, and I’m not arguing that point at all,” he stated. “I was expecting Jeff to say that was the price for each child.”
She looked at him slowly. “I guess that’ll probably be next, won’t it?”
“Well, think about it. He’s got something other people want. The thing is, if you respond now, he’ll know that you’re really interested, which to him means you would pay even more. And, if he already has somebody else on the line, they’ll pay more as well because this is something they want.”
“Jesus, the world is a sick place,” she muttered.
“It is, and so are the people who buy these kids.”
“But, at this point, we don’t know why they’re buying them or what they want them for.”
“No, but I’ve never found it to be anything good,” Alex replied. “Sure, a lot of people can’t get legal adoptions because maybe they have criminal records, health issues, or whatever. If they’re desperate enough, they will pay and continue to pay, but that’s not necessarily what Jeff’s ad is even about,” he explained gravely.
Only then did Taryn comprehend the full extent of it. “Right, it doesn’t seem to be a black-market adoption. It feels as if we would be lucky if it was only about that.”
When he looked over at her, she caught the sadness in his smile as he spoke. “That means you’re finally understanding just how bad this is.”
“Oh, I’ve always understood how bad it is,” she declared hotly. “I’m the one who offered to buy the kids, remember?”
“You may have to make good on that, you know?”
“That’s fine,” she snapped. “These kids are Bruce’s family, and I could never allow this to happen, not if there’s anything I can do to stop it.”
“You probably won’t have to do anything to stop it at this point. From what Levi and Terk tell me, it seems enough agencies are involved at this point to have all that covered,” he shared. “Earlier Terkel told me that he’d found out that this website Jeff used has been on the watch list for quite a while. So all its transmissions are monitored. There is a good chance that whoever Jeff is talking to could be an undercover cop, not his dream buyer.”
She stared at Alex in joy. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “They have to make up their own online personas, their own fake IDs on these websites. Then, when something like this happens, they’re already in position to set up a sting operation,” he told her, watching her expression. “I can’t guarantee that’s the case this time, and you can bet nobody will tell us either. We’re definitely not considered among those in the need-to-know area of the investigation.”
She shook her head at that. “And that’s just bullshit. You know that, right?”
“I do know that,” he agreed cheerfully, “but I’ve also been on the other side, not wanting people like us privy to the details of an upcoming op about to go active—simply because the more people who are in on it, the more things can go wrong.” She slumped back against the passenger seat. He motioned at the coffee in the cupholders and said, “Drink your coffee. Eat some food. We’re all over this.”
She stared at him and grumbled, “Can’t tell it from my end.”
He shrugged. “I’ve given Riff a heads-up that we’re here and what’s going on. He’ll see if Jeff returns home again. Meanwhile, we’ll go in a different direction. If Jeff comes home and settles back in again, we’ll turn around and find a new hiding spot.”