Chapter 3 #2
“He felt bad because he was staying here for free, and when I took him out back, he got really excited.” Atlas led her out the back door into his partially transformed yard. “Look at this.” The beds had been raked, and Bazel was using the shovel to recut the edges and remove the grass.
“Holy hell. He’s done all this already? This place was a wreck.”
“It was not. I just haven’t had all that much time,” Atlas protested. “I’d have gotten to it… eventually.”
Chris rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Maybe in the next century.” She waited until Bazel set down his tools before motioning him over. “Are you doing well?”
He nodded. “Atlas is very nice to me. So I help him.” He motioned around. “It a mess, but I fix it.” He seemed proud of what he’d done so far. “But I worry about others who were with me.”
“The police want to speak with you about what happened to you,” Chris said with a nod, and Bazel glanced at Atlas, that worried and scared look filling his eyes. “We want to catch the person who put you and the women in the truck. They hurt people, and we want to stop them.”
“But they bring me here,” Bazel said, as though it were a logical conclusion. “America.” He smiled. “I want to be free and have good life. They bring me here,” he repeated as though that explained it all. “Are others okay?”
Chris nodded. “They are fine.” The truth probably wasn’t as clear-cut as Chris said. “I will be seeing them in a little while.” She bit her lower lip.
“What aren’t you telling us?” Atlas asked.
“We’re having communication issues. I placed the women in this location because they had someone who spoke Russian, but there’s a lot of tension between them.
The women won’t speak with the interpreter for some reason, and because they’re frightened.
I’m trying to find someone else through Penn State.
They said they should be able to find someone. ”
“Find them things that are familiar,” Bazel said softly. “Give them books in Georgian if have. It help. I make you food that they know.” Bazel hurried back toward the kitchen. “You bring to them.” He started going through the cupboards.
Atlas excused himself and gently got Bazel to stop. “We can go to the store to get what you want. Okay?” He was pretty sure he didn’t have whatever Bazel needed. “And we can cook for your friends.”
“She will take?”
Atlas nodded. “Yes, she will take it to them.” He spoke for Chris because he knew that she would do just about anything for the people in her care. Atlas grabbed his phone as it began to ring, wondering when his house had become Grand Central Station.
“Hey, Wyatt,” he said. “I take it you want to speak to my guest.”
“I would. I’m on my way over.”
He suppressed a sigh. “Sure. You might as well get this over with. Chris is here from Social Services, so you can be prepared for her to do her mama bear impression.” That was her to a tee.
She saw the good in people; it was her gift.
Cops tended to have that drilled out of them. Suspicion was the name of the game.
“Got it.” He hung up, and Atlas told Bazel what was going on. He went back to the living room, and Atlas answered the door while Chris and Bazel talked.
He let Wyatt inside, along with a man in a suit. “This is Special Agent Wilkins from the FBI office in Harrisburg.”
“We’ve been monitoring human trafficking through this area, and when I heard of your discovery, I requested to be included in the interview. I had asked that he be brought to our office, but I was overruled.”
“And I would have advised him to refuse to come anyway,” Atlas said, crossing his arms over his chest as they talked quietly.
“This is a man who has been through hell, and the entire time, he tried to protect the women with him. He doesn’t need or deserve to be scared out of his wits by sticking him in an interrogation room. ”
Wilkins slowly shook his head. “You locals have no idea about the threats to this country.” God, he was one of those.
“Oh, we know plenty, enough to tell you this isn’t the place. Do I need to get him a lawyer?” Atlas asked. This asshole was trying to accuse a victim, and Atlas wasn’t going to have it.
“Wilkins, dial it down. This isn’t your case and you need to play nice,” Wyatt told him. “I’ll lead the conversation.” He met Wilkins with a steely gaze. “Remember, this is someone who has been trafficked.”
“It’s more likely someone hid him in the group to try to get him in the country. How better to play on sympathy if they’re caught. He seems to protect the women, and you all fall for it.”
Atlas stepped forward, nose to nose with this idiot.
“What sort of law enforcement agent are you? We follow evidence, not baseless theories. I bet you’re the incompetent one on the team.
The guy everyone passes around to get rid of.
” The slight flinch told him he was right, and he smiled.
“So back off.” He stayed where he was, letting Wyatt into the living room.
“We’ll stay here, and you can bet your chief is going to get a phone call, maybe two.
And you might be looking for another new team pretty soon.
” Now that he had the guy’s number, he knew exactly how to deal with him.
Wyatt sat down across from Chris and Bazel, with Evie sitting at Bazel’s feet. He asked basic questions and then asked about his journey, where he’d been, and who he might have seen. But he got no more information than Atlas had.
“He knows more, I know it.” Wilkins stepped into the room, but Atlas stopped him from going farther.
“Of course he does. But he doesn’t trust any of us yet,” Atlas said softly.
“These men promised to bring him to America, and they did that. I know they’re protecting people we want to catch, but they see some of them differently and don’t want to hurt them.
So it will take a little time.” Atlas led the way in.
Bazel immediately looked at both of them and switched to Georgian, speaking quickly, in essence cutting them off.
Wyatt stood. “I think he has information, but I don’t know if it’s what we hope it is. I think we need to give him time.” Bazel watched him closely as Atlas stood between them and Bazel.
“I’d suspect you’ll get a lot more information from the driver. You have him in custody, and he speaks English. He also wasn’t stuck in the back of a truck for days.” Atlas rolled his eyes.
“We’ve interrogated him, and we will again. We were hoping Bazel might have seen something or someone.” Wyatt added, “But you’re right. These are people who were taken advantage of, and if Evie here hadn’t found them, god knows where they’d be right now.”
“Give them a chance to recover from their ordeal. Bazel might have more information yet.” And then again, he might not have any useful information. Atlas escorted the others to the door and let Wyatt and the federal agent out. God, he hoped the FBI sent someone better the next time.
“I’d say that was about as pleasant as a trip to the dentist.”
“The one make you mad,” Bazel said. “Why?”
Chris leaned forward, and knowing her, she was studying him. “He wasn’t doing his job very well,” Atlas answered.
She sat back a second before standing. “I’ll let you get to the stores today. Call me if you want me to take anything over to the women.” She tilted her head toward the door, and Atlas saw her out. “Don’t think you can pull the wool over my eyes. ‘Not doing his job very well.’” She snickered.
“He wasn’t.”
“Probably, but you had your ‘protect and serve’ shields set to max. You like him, and you want to help him.” She grinned, and Atlas growled.
“I do not. I….”
“Can’t stop watching him.” She patted his cheek.
He rolled his eyes and pulled open the door.
“Get out of here and get your eyes checked. You’re starting to see things.
” He waited as she went to her car. Then he closed the door and peered into the living room at Bazel.
He was just doing his best, and that was all.
Sometimes Chris could be a real pain in the butt, especially when he thought she was right.