Bess
It was a tense night but in the morning, I had a part to play. I got a pre-dawn phone call to wake up and get over to the group home.
The call was from an unlisted number and the voice was unfamiliar.
Shortly after that, Mrs. Williams awoke to the blare of horn that faded quickly. No one could say they saw the vehicle that honked to wake her.
She ran out just as I drove up.
In the yard of the halfway house, carefully covered with blankets were six, mostly unconscious, girls. Waifs really. She’d called 911 and then me. In fact, I got there before the police and medical teams.
No one saw how they got there and the girl themselves were all in various states of drugged out fog.
It was chaos to sort out but we got them all in ambulances.
Detective Murray and I took statements, did our best, but they didn’t know how they’d gotten to the group home.
Figuring out who was who, where they should go, how to help them would take weeks. Many of the girls were already broken before they were kidnapped. It was scary to think we might yet fail them even after getting them out of trafficking.
But at least, we’d done that. Gotten that far.
Detective Murray suspected I knew more and cornered me at the hospital after we’d gleaned as much as we could from the girls.
“You don’t know where the other Russians are?”
“I can give you a location on Georgie. He’s in your jail. That’s it. I wish I could give you the rest. We’ve got the girls. That’s what I’m holding on to.”
“What about Kirstin Jones and the newer name, what was it?”
“DeAndre Parrish,” I replied.
“Are they in this group?”
“DeAndrew Parrish is. Cassidy was working with her. She will be very happy about that.”
“What about your Kirstin Jones?”
“Your leads are as good as mine on that.” Kirstin was still missing. She was still out there. Maybe she always would be.
“I could haul Sawyer in,” Murray was testing me. He believed I knew more.
“For what?”
“Bess I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I’m working to find catch these girls that fell through the net. Do you want to help me or chase after middle-aged biker who runs several successful businesses in Grand City?”
“I want to help you.”
“So make sure the case against Norm is solid and pray I don’t get fired.”
“You know I’ll go to bat for you if I have a chance.”
“I know. Thanks, Murray. Let’s help these girls.”
I literally did not get home for 24-hours after the girls appeared on Mrs. Williams’s doorstep. Sawyer texted me that he was okay.
And Chris texted me that he picked up Henry.
Sawyer had done it. With an assist from me. I didn’t need to know the details. I saw in the paper the next day there was a fire that destroyed some crappy motel.
Sawyer quite literally knew where the bodies we buried and I wasn’t about to ask.
He’d gotten the job done, evil men had been stopped, and innocent children saved.
I trusted Sawyer with my life and so could dozens of other people.
He wore leather and a cut but he was a hero in my eyes.