Chapter 24 #2
“Not yet, but—” he nodded towards Hayes. “Agent Monroe might be onto something.”
Franklin turned to him with eager hopefulness.
“Well—maybe,” Hayes responded and gave them a jerky nod. He nodded towards the couch in silent invitation for them to take a seat.
“Okay, here’s my insane theory,” Hayes prefaced. He took a second to organise his thoughts before jumping in with both feet. “Adeline discovered proof that Mario purchased the wellness center where Franklin worked.”
“He did?” Franklin asked, clearly shocked. He turned to Matthew, who nodded in agreement. “Who’s Adeline?”
“Think Bond girl—but make her tech savvy, and about 60 years old,” Beckett interjected.
Matthew nodded again.
Franklin did not look enlightened.
Hayes resumed his story. “We figured he’d bought it for his own cosmetic surgery needs—but it seemed like a lot of money to spend just for easy access to a surgical suite, even for him.
Here’s the thing—I don’t know much about cosmetic surgery, but I know one of the growing trends in rejuvenation treatments is to receive stem cell treatments.
Now, I didn’t read the center’s whole fucking brochure, but from what I read, it’s equipped for all sorts of things.
Botox injections, plastic surgery—would it be that much of a leap to assume they could be equipped to perform stem cells injections as well? ” Hayes asked Franklin.
“Well—it isn’t really my area, but yeah, I suppose. I’d have to read up on it, but the center isn’t exactly short of funds or resources. It’s very possible they’ve already put something in place.”
“Okay—hear me out. Matthew, when you had your family meeting, your uncle mentioned something to your sister about this new procedure he’d undergone.
She was talking about Botox, and he told her Botox was old news.
I remember reading about stem cell treatments in a medical journal at my doctor’s office recently, and that was the tag line.
See the idea behind those treatments is generally that they take your own stem cells and reinject them.
But new studies are suggesting that using younger stem cells would help to slow aging.
Now, if I’m an eccentric millionaire who’s afraid of aging and growing increasingly desperate to find a solution—I’m going to look into stem cells.
Specifically, I’m going to look into acquiring the stem cells of young, healthy people. ”
“Really?” Matthew asked skeptically.
“Why not? The pursuit of anti-aging methods is as old as time, and you said yourself that Mario had become desperate enough to look into the occult. Think about it. The obsession with virginity and youth goes back thousands of years. Some nobles were said to sacrifice young women and bathe in their blood so they could retain their youth. Witches were said to steal the souls of children to make themselves look young again. They’re myths, sure—but all the stories come from somewhere,” he said, parroting Matthew’s words.
“So—you’re suggesting the 21st century equivalent to vampires is—stem cell injections?” Beckett asked, wondering if he was keeping up as well as he thought he was.
“Correct.”
“Right, but—any procedure that involves removing body tissues, organs, or fluids from one person to treat another is highly restricted. Stem cell transplants using your own cells is one thing, but removing them from younger people to inject into other people would be unethical. The medical boards would have a field day with that one,” Franklin stated with a grimace.
“Exactly! Which is where the human trafficking comes in. We were operating on the assumption that your uncle’s deal with the Serbians was to make money.
Import their victims in one place and then re-sell them somewhere else.
But what if it’s not about money at all.
What if he imports them to use them. Like—cows you’d milk! ”
“Which would explain why he purchased the center,” Matthew said as he reached the same conclusion.
“He’d need somewhere to do the procedures, and renting a medical suite would be too risky.
But if he owns the building, he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and keep everything under wraps. ”
“But he’s not shipping people with the drugs,” Matthew said, and it was the first time he’d openly acknowledged what his family was involved in. Apparently, the family had gone too far this time, and he could no longer sit back and allow this to go on.
Hayes proceeded to explain this from Mario’s point of view.
“Of course not. See if I’m Mario, then—I’m not new to the game, and I know that the DEA and the FBI are all up in my business.
They leave my family alone because they like the way we handle our drug trade, but if they get wind of how I’m adding people as a new line item to my trafficking business, then things are going to go south fast. Besides, my nephew and niece are onto me, and I don’t trust them. ”
“So you need another way in,” Beckett quickly surmised because now he too could see how Mario was operating. Like a perfectly drawn map, the lines were now connecting.
“Exactly. So, I do the unexpected. I give a legitimate business contract to the guy I know can get me the live cargo I want, and I conceal them from the authorities via priceless artifacts I can list on the shipping manifests,” Hayes explained.
“Hold up—” Matthew said, raising a hand to get Hayes’ attention. “Priceless artifacts? Are you suggesting—”
Hayes nodded and said, “Think about it. According to Jovan, they get regular shipments of broken doors, windows and hardware, along with coffins. They come in together, yet, the coffins are then loaded into armoured trucks and driven off separately. Except now we know that they end up at the factory and the armoured trucks are left unlocked . Why? Since the coffins are transported on the same cargo ship as the building supplies, why separate them on way to the same factory only to later abandon routine security measures and leave the precious cargo unattended?”
“Because the blond girl got out while they transported her,” Beckett answered with a heavy sigh.
“Blond girl?” Franklin asked, confused.
Beckett ignored him and Hayes continued his explanation.
“Mario transports the victims in an armoured vehicle, so they won’t get a repeat of what happened in New York, and then drives the coffins to the factory, and to the wellness center as well.
The coffins are the perfect way to keep the victims hidden from view if the vehicles are ever stopped and inspected by law enforcement or government officials. ”
“Hold up—you’re saying—you think the Serbian Mafia is shipping people to Mario Rosario by putting them inside of coffins?” Franklin asked, looking stunned. To be fair, he’d missed out on quite a few of the previous episodes in this series.
“Yes,” Hayes said, with a nod. “When his victims get out of the truck, he brings them to the wellness center—collects their stem cells, and when that’s done, he puts them back in the coffins and sends them to the factory.
I think that’s what you heard at the meeting—” he added, pointing to Beckett.
“You thought Mario’s assistant was talking about the loading docks in the parking garage, but I think the truck was supposed to be heading to the docks on the St. Lawrence, but road construction interfered with the plan.
There were too many street closures and they had to wait until the end of the workday before they could get there. That’s why his assistant was pissed.”
“Why the factory?” Matthew asked, still hazy on some of the details. “Since we own the wellness center, and condos, why add the factory to the mix?”
“Because where better to hide live cargo than a condemned basement that won’t appear on any city plans and the building is owned by a legitimate business that won’t raise any suspicion if the feds come sniffing around?
” Hayes took a deep breath at the end, looking around the room, trying to read the others’ expressions.
Beckett was the first to break the silence.
“That is the craziest shit I’ve ever heard,” Beckett said, raising his hands over his head in defeat. “And I’ve heard some crazy fucking shit!”
“Tell me I’m wrong,” Hayes said, because truly, there was a part of him that was hoping to find solid evidence which would contradict his insane theory.
“Nope!” Beckett said. “I think you’re 100% right, but it’s still the craziest thing I’ve ever heard!”
That more or less summed up how Hayes had been feeling ever since he’d put the pieces together.
“It’s—” Matthew broke off, trying to come up with the right words.
“Think about it—if the important part is the content of the coffins and not the coffins themselves, then it makes sense to leave the truck unlocked in the middle of the parking lot. There’s nothing there to find that looked even remotely illegal.
Besides, he’s not worried about people getting in.
Rather, he’s worried about someone getting out,” Hayes speculated.
Matthew nodded, “Yes—” he sighed. “It’s insane enough—and all too likely. Now, how do we prove it?”
“We follow the trail,” Hayes replied calmly, because he’d figured this out as well.
“It won’t take much—we could lift DNA from the coffins, track the armoured truck—I’m pretty sure most of his security measures are based on his belief that no one will be able to connect the dots more than anything else.
We could try to rope the feds into this by explaining what we know—what we’ve seen, and what we think, and let them take it from there. ”
“You think the feds will buy it?” Matthew asked doubtfully.
Hayes shrugged, then cast a look in Franklin’s direction. He’d been rather quiet so far.